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180 where were you?" she asked. "And did you been to see the fire?"

"Well, I rather guess he did!" exclaimed the man, who was the captain of the boat. "He was the whole fire himself!"

"The whole fire?" cried Mr. Bobbsey. "Do you mean to say that my little boy started a fire?"

"Oh, nothing as bad as that!" said the captain, and he smiled down on Freddie who smiled up at him in return. "No, all your little boy did was to ring the fire alarm bell and then call out Tire!' But of course that was enough to start things going, and we had quite a good deal of excitement for a time. But it's all right now, and I think he won't do it again."

"Just what did he do?" asked Mrs. Bobbsey, as Freddie came over to stand beside his mother. He looked rather ashamed.

"Well, on the deck, back of the wheel-house, which is the little place where I or my men stand to steer the boat, there is a fire alarm bell. It's there for any one to ring who finds the boat on fire, and when the bell is rung all