Wildfire! Read Online Free PDF Page A

the woods.”
    â€œGreat,” Elliot said. “Even I know that much.”
    Ben realized it wasn’t much of a lead. But it was something.
    They struggled on. They didn’t know what else to do. Ben was afraid that if they struck out to
the right or the left, they might stray farther from the road.
    The unending quiet, the choking smoke, the loneliness, ate at his confidence. Elliot seemed a heavy burden now. Even the puppy seemed heavy. Ben coughed and tried to take in a full breath. The air was painfully thick with smoke.
    He remembered the moment at the picnic when he had agreed to set off the rockets. It seemed a long time ago. He could hardly believe he had been so stupid, and for what? To do something exciting? To impress Elliot? And now here they were, just trying to survive.
    Ben thought if only he could live that moment over again, he would be content to be his own ordinary self, a backwoods boy in Bending Creek, eating Goomby’s honey cake and listening to “The Stars and Stripes Forever.”
    Hope ebbed from him. Dragging Elliot, he took a few more steps, then a few more.
    He thought he heard something, a faint familiar wave of sounds.

    He stood still, listening, wondering if he had imagined it.
    He took a few more steps, a little to the right this time. Again the soft familiar clamor came through the trees, louder.
    â€œWhat’s that?” Elliot asked.
    Suddenly Ben knew. He could scarcely get the words out. “It’s the bells!”
    With a rush of joy, he recognized each one. There was Mr. Hendrick’s brass bell, and Miss Alice’s I’ve-got-news bell, and more that belonged to the Olsens and other neighbors. And loudest of all, Goomby’s come-home bell, clanging over and over, the best noise Ben had ever heard in his life.
    â€œThis way!” Pulling Elliot, Ben veered toward the wonderful discordant sounds.
    â€œI hear them!” Elliot exclaimed.
    Both boys laughed, jubilant, exhausted.
    They kept following the bells.
    Finally they saw the lighted porch of Ben’s bungalow through the trees. It was like a glorious ending to a nightmare.

    Ben looked up the road. There was no glow in the sky now, no flames. Only smoke, the lingering ghost of a dead fire.
    They were safe.
    The porch was packed with neighbors, along with Grandpa and Grandma, and Goomby in the middle of them, shaking her big noisy bell for all she was worth.
    Both boys whooped with relief. “Here we are!” Ben yelled. “Here we are!”
    With their pale smudged faces and torn dirty clothes, the boys stumbled up onto the porch.
    â€œWe got him,” Ben said proudly, showing the dog.
    â€œOh, good,” Goomby said. The rest of Ben’s family and the neighbors huddled around them.
    Grandma explained that Lucy Johnson and the other kids had told the boys’ families they were in the woods, so Grandpa and Mr. Lorton and some other men had searched for them until the firefighters came and ordered everyone out of the forest.

    â€œWe knew we had to find you somehow. The bells seemed like the best way,” Goomby said.
    Grandpa told Elliot, “We promised your folks we’d call them if you came here, and they promised the same. They’ve been waiting at home.” He added to Ben, “We heard about the rockets.” His eyes flashed with anger. “You could have burned down the whole forest.”
    â€œAnd destroyed all of our homes,” Mr. Hendrick put in.
    â€œBesides, you worried us nearly to death,” Grandma scolded.
    â€œIt was that darned dog!” Elliot protested. “If he hadn’t taken off like that—”
    Miss Alice frowned at him. “I told you to buy a collar and leash.”
    Grandpa told Elliot, “I’ll call your folks.” He went inside. Everybody followed him, crowding into the bungalow.
    Ben stood apart from the others, hugging the puppy against his chest. He knew he would have to give