Finally General Dunlap shouted to General Sunny Boy and the battle was about to start when something happened that put all thoughts of a snowball fight out of the heads of soldiers and generals alike.

The battlefield, that is the back lot, you know, was directly back of Miss May’s school.  A large porch ran across the rear of the building and the back yard joined the vacant lot.  Just as Sunny Boy waved his hand to signal Oliver that he was ready, Maria came out on the porch of the school.

“Fire!” she shouted.  “Fire!  The school is on fire!”

If Miss May or Miss Davis had been in the building, it never would have happened.  Miss May would have telephoned the fire department quietly at the first sign of smoke and Miss Davis would have picked up the brass fire extinguisher that stood in the hall and at least have tried to put the fire out.  But Miss May and Miss Davis had gone down town, believing that the children were safe and happy, playing in the snow, and Maria was alone in the house.  When she saw smoke creeping out around the door of Miss Davis’ schoolroom, Maria lost her head entirely.

“Fire!” she screamed, rushing out on the porch and beckoning to the children.  “The school’s on fire!”

But when they came rushing toward her, pellmell, she seemed to remember what she ought to do.

[Illustration:  They came rushing toward her, pellmell.]

“You can’t come in,” she told them, as they gathered at the bottom of the porch steps.  “You can’t come in, because you’ll get burned!  The school is on fire.”

She opened the door behind her and, sure enough, out poured smoke.

“My coat!” wailed Jessie Smiley.  “My lovely new coat.  Santa Claus brought it to me for Christmas and it has real beaver fur on the collar!  Oh, oh, I don’t want my coat burned up!  And my rubbers are brand new, too.”

“I’ll get them for you,” promised Sunny Boy.  “Don’t cry, Jessie.  I know where they are in the cloakroom.”

“Will you get my rubbers, too?” asked Jessie, smiling through her tears.

“Yes, I’ll get everything,” said Sunny Boy.

“You can’t go in there, it’s on fire!” screamed Maria, when he ran up the steps.  “Sunny Boy, I tell you the school is burning up!  Come back here!”

But Sunny Boy opened the door and ran in past her.  He knew that Jessie Smiley was very proud of her new winter coat with its pretty beaver collar.

The house was full of smoke, and it made Sunny Boy choke and gasp, but he shut his eyes and felt his way to Miss Davis’ room.  The smoke was worse in here than in the hall, and his eyes smarted and burned as he crept slowly to the cloakroom.  In there there was not so much smoke, and he had no trouble at all in pulling Jessie’s coat down from the hook where it hung, and he found her rubbers on the floor.  He stuffed one in each pocket.  Then he started back.