off the table.

Well, you should have seen that house burn! Oh, it was a dreadful sight.
All the other ducks and the geese and the chickens gathered around. The
rooster crowed the alarm. Box number twenty-one it was, but of course
there were no engines to come and put out the fire.

"Oh, we must save the house!" shouted Papa Wibblewobble.

"Everybody bring water from the pond and throw it on the fire!" cried Aunt
Lettie, and she ran down and filled her two horns, which she carried on
her head. The horns were hollow and had the tops sawed off, so she could
fill them quickly and pour out the water just as easily. She splashed some
water on the fire, but it didn't do much good. Then Lulu and Alice and
Jimmie, they filled their bills with water and threw it on the blaze, but
that didn't do much good.

No, sad to tell, all the water the ducks and the geese and Aunt Lettie
could carry, to say nothing of the rooster who couldn't bring much,
because he stopped to crow every now and then--all this water didn't do a
bit of good, and the house was burning faster and faster.

Then, what do you think happened? Why, all at once there came running up
old Nero, the big, shaggy, yellow dog, who was so old and kind that he
would never hurt any one. Yes, he ran right up and called out:

"Make way, if you please. I will put out that fire!"

So he ran down into the pond as fast as he could run and soaked himself in
the water. Then he ran up close to the fire and shook himself hard, and