THE FIRE THAT WAS

 Muffs tried to remember something about the Public Notice. It was something important that she should have remembered before. Tommy had told her. He had told her in the middle of the night when she was too sleepy to listen. Now, after she had mixed things up and frightened everybody, she remembered all about it. She had told Mrs. Tyler that Tommy went to see a fire when it wasn’t a fire at all but only his lantern shining in her face. He had really gone to the Post Office to fix up the Public Notice before people came for their mail. He hadn’t hurried right back the way he said he would and, with things appearing and disappearing the way they did, something terrible might have happened to him.

 

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear!” thought Muffs. “What a perfectly¹ awful mess! What am I going to do?”

 

She looked at the side of Mrs. Tyler’s face and wished that she would smile. Maybe she’d dare tell her then. She looked at Mary, walking along on the other side of her mother, and knew she couldn’t tell her either. Mary would argue and Mrs. Tyler would never believe that she had forgotten. It would be like her story about the rabbit. She guessed nobody ever would believe what she said any more. After that queer² expedition to the ends of the earth she and Mary and Tommy (if they found40 him) would be like three children in a fairy tale. Only it was easier for Mary because she wasn’t afraid to argue with grown-ups.

 

New York and her own mother seemed very far away to Muffs as she hurried along the road, trying to match her small steps to Mary’s and Mrs. Tyler’s. She felt the way she had done when she broke the vase and when Mr. and Mrs. Lippett scolded her for having Bunny Bright Eyes in her hat. Little girls were supposed to know so much when they were away from home. And it was hard to tell dreams from real things, especially when the real things were stranger than the dreams.

 

“We might—we might just look for Tommy in the Post Office,” Muffs suggested timidly³ as they turned onto the big road.

 

“Why the Post Office?” Mrs. Tyler asked.

 

“Maybe—there wasn’t a fire. Maybe he really went to the Post Office to fix up the Public Notice.”

 

“But you said he went to see a fire.”

 

“I thought he did—and then I remembered he didn’t.”

 

“You mean you made up what you told me about the fire?” demanded Mrs. Tyler.

 

Muffs nodded. She didn’t think it would do any good to keep on saying she thought it was true at first.

 

Mrs. Tyler’s-lips went into a straight line. “What is this Public Notice?” she asked. “It must have been dreadfully important that Tommy should get up in the middle of the night and go to fix it.”

 

“It was dreadf’ly important,” Muffs declared. “He had to get there before people came for their mail. You see, we put up the notice and forgot to write our names on it.”

 

“Did we?” exclaimed Mary. “That’s so,” she remembered.41 “We did. Then that must be where Tommy went. He was running just as if he had forgotten something dreadfully important.”

 

The Public Notice was all fixed⁴ up when they looked for it in the Post Office. It had the three names on it:

 

 

M. MUFFET    T. TYLER    M. TYLER.

There was also a P. S. about Bunny Bright Eyes:

 

 

IF ENNYONE LOST A RABBiT

WE FOUND HiM IN THE GIDEZ HAT.

But there was no sign of Tommy.

 

Farther up the road were shops and stores and the grange hall. Tommy might be playing there. Or possibly in the school yard or along the road that went up Lookoff Mountain. The air was misty⁵ and smelled queer but Muffs wouldn’t let herself think of fires any more. Tommy was lost and it was partly her fault that Mary looked so serious and Mrs. Tyler so worried.

 

Then they came in sight of the tailor shop, or what had been the tailor shop. The queer, crooked⁶ smokestack wasn’t there any more and the roof had a gaping⁷ hole right through the shingles⁸. Just about all the children in the valley were crowded around and among them was Tommy.

 

“I saw you!” he cried, and came running toward them. “Where were you going?”

 

“Looking for you,” his mother answered. “Tommy! Tommy! What happened to you?”

 

“I was watching the fire.”

 

“The fire! What fire?”

 

42 “The tailor shop fire. I turned in the alarm,” said the little boy proudly.

 

Muffs was speechless except for one excited squeal⁹. Things were growing queerer¹⁰ and queerer. Here she had told a story that she thought was true and just when she remembered that it was only a story, up bobs Tommy saying that he has been to see a fire after all.

 

Mrs. Tyler drew him closer to her. “You brave boy!” she said. “Tell me how you knew.”

 

“That’s easy,” he answered. “I smelled something burning. You know how it smells when you forget the iron and leave it on the board too long. Well, it smelled like that only worse and pretty soon I saw some smoke coming out of the roof of the tailor shop. I waked up the grocer and the man in the gas station and we stayed to help fight the fire. I guess you’d want to help fight a fire if you had turned in the alarm your very own self and everybody thought you were a hero.”

 

“I guess I would,” his mother agreed and patted his shoulder.

 

It was all a little confusing and she was anxious to hear more about the Public Notice so Tommy told her about the glasses and how they had found them in the woods and put them on the Guide’s twig¹¹ nose. He took them out of his pocket to show her and she agreed that someone might need them badly.

 

“Everything would have been all right,” she said, “if Muffs hadn’t said you went to see a fire.”

 

“Well, he did, didn’t he?” Mary asked.

 

“Yes, but Muffs didn’t know it. She had us all worried with her story of lights and cars and fires. I didn’t know what to make of it.”

 

43 “I’m sorry, Mom,” said Tommy. “I guess I scared her with my lantern shining in her eyes. She went back to sleep while I was talking and prob’ly dreamed part of it. Don’t you s’pose we could go back and just let Muffs and Mary see where the fire was? It’s all been burned black inside and it’s wet from the pails of water and shines like anybody’s new shoes.”

 

Mrs. Tyler laughed. “I guess we could. I’ll tell your father and Donald that you’re safe. I had them out hunting for you. Then I’ll stop in at the Lippett’s. There was something I wanted to talk over with them——”

 

“Oh, Mom! Couldn’t we play around where the fire was while you talk?”

 

Muffs was afraid to coax¹². She couldn’t believe it was true until she saw Mrs. Tyler walking on down the road. She had left them to play alone.

 

 Tommy told her about the

glasses and how they had found them in the woods and put them

on the Guide’s twig nose.

 

1 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

2 queer   

adj.奇怪的，异常的，不舒服的，眩晕的

参考例句：

• I heard some queer footsteps.我听到某种可疑的脚步声。
• She has been queer lately.她最近身体不舒服。

3 timidly   

adv.胆小地，羞怯地

参考例句：

• She knocked timidly on the study door and entered. 她小心翼翼地敲了敲书房门然后进去了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The child glanced at his angry father timidly. 孩子怯生生地瞟了一眼怒气冲冲的父亲。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

5 misty   

adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的

参考例句：

• He crossed over to the window to see if it was still misty.他走到窗户那儿，看看是不是还有雾霭。
• The misty scene had a dreamy quality about it.雾景给人以梦幻般的感觉。

6 crooked   

adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He crooked a finger to tell us to go over to him.他弯了弯手指，示意我们到他那儿去。
• You have to drive slowly on these crooked country roads.在这些弯弯曲曲的乡间小路上你得慢慢开车。

7 gaping   

adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大

参考例句：

• Ahead of them was a gaping abyss. 他们前面是一个巨大的深渊。
• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 shingles   

n.带状疱疹；（布满海边的）小圆石( shingle的名词复数 )；屋顶板；木瓦（板）；墙面板

参考例句：

• Shingles are often dipped in creosote. 屋顶板常浸涂木焦油。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The roofs had shingles missing. 一些屋顶板不见了。 来自辞典例句

9 squeal   

v.发出长而尖的声音；n.长而尖的声音

参考例句：

• The children gave a squeal of fright.孩子们发出惊吓的尖叫声。
• There was a squeal of brakes as the car suddenly stopped.小汽车突然停下来时，车闸发出尖叫声。

10 queerer   

adj.可疑的( queer的比较级 )；（身子）不舒服的；古怪的；娘儿们似的

参考例句：

• But topology is no queerer than the physical world as we now interpret it. 但是拓扑学并不比我们目前所能理解的物质世界更奇特。 来自互联网

11 twig   

n.小树枝，嫩枝；v.理解

参考例句：

• He heard the sharp crack of a twig.他听到树枝清脆的断裂声。
• The sharp sound of a twig snapping scared the badger away.细枝突然折断的刺耳声把獾惊跑了。

12 coax   

v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取

参考例句：

• I had to coax the information out of him.我得用好话套出他掌握的情况。
• He tried to coax the secret from me.他试图哄骗我说出秘方。