His eyes hurt so badly that, brave little boy as he was, he began to cry.

“I can’t breathe!” he sobbed.  “I wish I had a drink of water.”

“George!” suddenly shouted a big voice in his ear.  “Say, George, here he is!  I’ve found him!”

Somebody grabbed Sunny Boy up in strong, rough arms and he was carried swiftly through the halls and out to the porch again.  The children shouted when they saw him.

“Don’t you know any better than to go into a house that is on fire?” said a big, rough voice that seemed to belong to the big arms.

Sunny Boy opened his eyes.  It was the tall policeman!  And before he could speak, with a clang and a whistle and a toot and a great deal of noise and excitement, up came the fire engines to put the fire out.

The tall policeman dipped a clean white handkerchief in water and bathed Sunny Boy’s eyes while another policeman kept the children off the porch.  The other policeman was the “George” to whom Sunny Boy’s policeman friend had shouted.  They had heard Maria screaming and had run through the alley to see what the matter was.  And then George had sent in the alarm of fire while the tall policeman had come to look for Sunny Boy.

“What possessed you to go in there, anyway?” asked the tall policeman, paying no attention to the firemen running past him into the house.  “What made you do it?”

“I had to get Jessie’s coat,” explained Sunny Boy.  “And her rubbers.”

CHAPTER XIV

THE EXPLORERS SET OUT

And that was what Sunny Boy said to every one who asked him why he had gone into the burning school.

“I had to get Jessie’s coat and rubbers,” he repeated, when the “George” policeman asked him.

And the big firemen, who soon crowded around him, and Miss May and Miss Davis, who came hurrying home, breathless, for they had seen the crowd around the school the moment they stepped off the trolley car at the corner, were given the same reason.

“Well, next time, you remember that no coat and no rubbers are worth going after when a place is on fire,” said one of the firemen, fanning himself with his helmet, for fighting a fire is warm work, you know.  “There is just one thing to risk your life for at a fire,” he went on to explain to Sunny Boy and to the other children who crowded around to hear.  “Just one thing, and that’s another life.  Think you youngsters can remember that?”

Sunny Boy was sure he could, and the firemen began to roll up their chemical hose.  They had not even unwound the big hose for, you see, Miss May’s school had not been on fire.

“Not on fire!” cried Maria, when the tall policeman told her this.  “Why, I saw the smoke, and Sunny Boy was almost choked with it.  Of course it was on fire!”

“No fire, Miss,” said one of the firemen, grinning.  “Snow’s been accumulating on the edge of the chimney for some time, I take it, and this afternoon a chunk fell in and choked the flue.  Of course the smoke poured out into the house.  And the little fellow thought he was going straight into a blaze.  He’s a spunky little chap, and it was a good chance to tell him, and the other kids, what not to do at a fire.  Next time it might be a serious matter.”