Once upon a time there was a girl named Birdie. She lived in Florida. She was 10 years old. One day she was playing with some neighbor children, Essie and Zephy, and her little brother, Bunny. They had made little doll houses in the woods and ran off to go play there. Just then, Birdie’s dad came and asked her to paint the house white. So she went to go paint. Pa left to go work with her older brother. She painted for a bit, then she smelled smoke. She went to go see what it was. She saw that it was a grass fire right near her house! Her ma told her to get wet sacks and so she went and did as her mother told her. One of her sisters went to go get a bucket of water. When she came back, her mother told her to go ask their neighbors, the Slaters, for help. The Slater boys said they would be over soon, but they did not mean it. They did not want to help. Their Pa had started the fire! She went back home. Pa and her brother came back and helped put out the fire. Birdie remembered that the little children were playing in the woods. She told her Pa, and they both ran to the woods. They found the children, crying and very scared, but they got them out safely. They cleaned up the children and sent them back home. Birdie was glad that the children and their house were safe.