Now this chapter goes from the bottom of that mountain to the top of a pineapple soda in Bennett’s. That’s in Bridgeboro where I live.

The first house we came to along the road we got the farmer up and told him about the fire on the east side of Eagle’s Nest, and how we got away from it. He asked us if it was very bad.

“Jiminetty!” I said, “I don’t know how bad it is, but I hope the eagles up there have their nests insured.”

Harry asked him if he had a telephone and he said, “No.”

“We probably couldn’t get a number if you did,” Harry said; “the telephone company reminds me of Rip Van Winkle; they seem to have gone to sleep at the switch-board for twenty years. Have you got a flivver?”

We kind of knew he had, because they raise flivvers on all the farms up that way. But he was a regular farmer—he had a Packard, 1776 model. And, believe me, we packed that Packard, and in ten minutes we were rolling over the road that runs around the mountain, headed for Haverstraw.

Harry kept talking to the girls; it was awful funny to hear him. Those other two fellows didn’t have a chance at all. Gee, I was glad of it, because what right did that fellow have to say I was just a kid? That girl that helped us, said we were just wonderful. Cracky, I wouldn’t say that we’re so smart, but when there’s a fire we don’t stand wringing our hands as if they were a fire bell.

When we came into Haverstraw, we found the streets full of people, everybody watching the fire on the mountain. We could see the east side of Eagle’s Nest and the fire, just as plain as if it were all on a movie screen. It seemed kind of funny, because while we were up there we never thought about how it would look from the village. The fire was right up on the top of the mountain now, with little patches in other places, and we could see a great big burned space. I guess that was the very part we had passed through on our way up.

I could see now, even better than before, the danger we had been in. I guess everybody in the village thought we were dead, because when we looked away up there it just seemed as if nobody could have escaped out of all that.

“We went out the stage entrance,” Harry said, as the auto rolled up along the main street; “sneaked through the back yard, hey?”

“Oh, I think you’re just marvelous!” one of the girls said.

Harry said to her, “Let it be a lesson to you never to throw a lighted cigar away in the woods.”

“Oh, the idea!” she said; “I think you’re just horrid. I wouldn’t touch a horrid cigar!”

“Well, don’t throw a good one away, either,” Harry said; “the good ones are just as bad.”

“Aren’t you perfectly terrible!” the other girl said.

But she didn’t think he was terrible.

Anyway, I knew from what he had said that the dark figure we had seen on our way up was probably to blame for the whole business. Cracky, I’ve got nothing to say against cigars, because my father smokes them, but anyway, a cigar isn’t worth as much as a mountain, I should hope. And you bet it was a lesson to us never to throw matches in the woods and always to trample our camp-fires out before we turn in. But, jiminies, I guess all scouts know that.

When we stopped at Judge Edwards’ house, a big crowd of people pressed all around us wanting to know how we escaped. They said that men had tried three times to get up the mountain, but were driven back by the flames; they thought we were all dead.

Mrs. Edwards came running out calling, “You’re not dead! You’re not dead! Oh, you’re not dead!”

Gee, anybody could see that.

She just threw her arms around her daughter and around the other girl and around those two fellows. Oh boy, I thought I was in for it, too! I don’t mind leopards and what-is-its, but nix on hugging and kissing. Then Judge Edwards and Westy came out and, oh, I can’t tell you everything that happened, because everybody was talking all at once. Harry said it was a regular west front, all over again.

Mrs. Edwards made us all go into the house and have cake and hot coffee, and just to show you how things happen, what kind of cake do you suppose it was? I bet you can’t guess. Yum, yum—m—m, it was cocoanut frosted cake.

And you can bet I thought about my sister Marjorie while I was eating it. I had three helpings and home in Bridgeboro I would only have had two, so that shows you that it’s worth while doing a good turn.

After that we didn’t have any more adventures. Good night, we had had enough of them, that’s what I said. We bunked in Judge Edwards’ house and the overflow bunked in the barn, and the next morning we hit the trail for home.

Believe me, we stuck to that trail as if it were a tight rope. Harry said if any one of us looked right or left, he’d put blinders on us. That night we camped near Nyack and early in the morning we said good-bye to the Hudson and struck in southwest till we came to our own little river—that’s the Bridgeboro River. At about four o’clock that afternoon we went tramping over the River Road bridge and hit into Main Street. Right on the corner was Bradly’s grocery wagon, and oh boy, it looked good to me, because it proved we were back home. “Bradly’s Cash Grocery,” Dorry said; “those are the three sweetest words in the world.”

“Wrong the first time,” I said; “the three sweetest words in the world are Bennett’s Fresh Confectionery.”

“Me for Bennett’s!” Charlie Seabury shouted.

“Same here!” Dorry piped up.

“Bennett’s or die!” screamed Ralph Warner.

“Lend me a dime, will you?” Tom Warner shouted at his brother.

“Lend me two dimes, somebody!” Bad Manners began howling.

Good night, it was some circus!

Harry said, “Come ahead, I’ll take you all to Bennett’s and treat you, and I hope I’ll never get mixed up with this crew again. I’ve had enough.”

“Hurrah for Harry Donnelle!” everybody yelled.

Cracky, everybody was staring at us and laughing as we went down Main Street. We should worry.

In Bennett’s we all lined up and Harry told Mr. Bennett to please put arsenic or carbolic acid or some other nice flavoring in our sodas; something to keep us quiet.

I ordered a pineapple soda and yum, yum-m-m, didn’t that first spoonful of ice cream taste good.