and policemen. Toys that were scattered about were hastily piled
in open boxes. Then the boxes were dragged out on the sidewalk. Quite a
crowd gathered in the street, for more engines, firemen and policemen
were arriving all the while.

"Oh, this is dreadful!" thought the China Cat, as a whiff of smoke blew
in her face. "I shall be all blackened and ruined!"

Clang! Clang! rang the bells on the real fire engine. Toot! Toot! blew
the whistles.

"Here is a toy cat! Put her in that box!" called one fireman to another,
who was dragging out a wooden box into which he had tossed the Talking
Doll, a Jumping Jack and a dozen Green Pigs. "Take them out; and then we
must begin to use the water! The fire is getting too hot!"

The China Cat could feel the heat, and she noticed that the red color on
the cheeks of a Painted Doll was all running down, making her look very
streaked.

"Oh, what a bump!" thought the China Cat, as she felt herself tossed
into the packing box. She landed in between the Talking Doll and a
Jumping Jack.

"Out on the sidewalk with that box!" cried the fireman, and he and some
others began dragging out the one in which was the China Cat.

There had been a great deal of noise and excitement in the store, but
there was five times as much noise out on the sidewalk. Just as the box
containing the China Cat was dragged toward the door, a shower of water
sprinkled down.

"Oh, dear me!" thought the China Cat. "I can't bear to be wet, and now
it is raining! But I hope it will wash from me some of the black smoke."

However, it was not rain that the China Cat felt, but water from the
hose of a real engine. The firemen were beginning to squirt water on the
blaze, to save as much as they could of Mr. Mugg's store and of his
toys, and some of the water from the hose sprayed on the China Cat.

By this time it was getting to be morning, and crowds of men and boys,
with a few women, on their way to early work, stopped to look at the
fire. Smoke was pouring out of Mr. Mugg's basement, and some one had
hurried to the toy-shopkeeper's house to awaken him and his daughters
and tell them what was happening.

"Oh, look at the toys!" cried a group of boys, as they came running up
the street to see where the fire was. "Oh, look at 'em!"

"Keep back now! Let those toys alone!" warned a policeman who was on
guard.

Most of the boys stepped back off the sidewalk, but when the policeman's
back was turned a little black b