"I move that Bert and Cole be a committee to go over to Jamesville,
and see if they can buy the engine," sang out Vincent. "That'll start
things going."

"Why, we haven't got our fire department yet," objected Charlie
Rupert.

"What's the good of a department if you haven't got an engine?"
replied Tom Donnell. "I'm in favor of that motion."

"So am I!" cried a number of the boys.

"We haven't regularly organized," said Bert, who was rather pleased at
the enthusiasm of his chums, "but I'll be willing to go over to
Jamesville and see what we can do. Cole can look at the pumps, and see
if they will work well."

"Yes, they can't fool me on pumps," declared the owner of the improved
forcing apparatus on the family cistern.

Thus it was decided, though there was enough more talk about it to
fill several books the size of this one. Bert and Cole promised to go
over to Jamesville the next day, and report back to their chums, in
Cole's barn, the following night. Jamesville was a village about five
miles from Lakeville, but more progressive in every way than its
neighbor.

Bert and Cole made the trip the next day. They inquired at the
Jamesville post-office as to whom they might approach in the matter of