Once upon a time in a busy, bustling town, there was a little mouse with an extraordinary dream. Her name was Flame, and despite her tiny size, she wanted to be a firefighter. She would often sit and watch the big fire trucks rush by, their sirens wailing, and her little heart would beat faster with excitement. Yet, deep down, Flame felt a cloud of worry drift over her.
“Will they take me seriously?” she sighed to herself. “I’m just a little mouse.” Still, her dreams flickered like the light of a candle, and she refused to let her doubts extinguish them.
Flame made a tiny firefighter’s helmet out of an acorn top and fashioned a hose from a spider’s silk. Whenever her friends in the field and creek came together, she would hold her own little training drills, pretending to put out fires they imagined and screaming as if there was a real blaze.
One sunny afternoon, when the birds were singing and all was well in the world, a dark cloud curled up in the sky. The animals in the thickets and woods even noticed it, and they all rushed out to see. Flames were bursting from the top of Farmer Brown’s barn, and thick smoke was rolling across the yard. The farmer’s daughter was watching the fire in despair and crying for some way to stop it.
“Everybody stand still and listen to me!” shouted a strong voice. It was old Bristle the rabbit. “Come to a meeting under the willow tree. We must do something quick or all of Farmer Brown’s house will be burned to the ground. Hurry! It’s a matter of seconds!”
A meeting was called right away, and even the farmer’s wife and daughter came to hear what could be done.
“It is of no use to cry. Everybody get a rush and soak it in the creek. We will soon sweep this fire out,” said a quick-thinking rat.
“A fine plan that!” squeaked a pig. “You don’t know that a rush won’t put a fire out! It takes a brush to sweep a house clean.”
But some animals went to the creek, and some to the barn, and others tried to stop the flames with a blanket that was just burned to a crisp, but all this while the fire kept spreading farther and farther, and all the animals were becoming useless at putting it out.
Then Flame spoke, who until now had stood quietly thinking: “Let everybody scatter and bring me a grain of corn.” But nobody missed a soft grain of corn.
“Whose ever corn this is,” shouted Flame in a little squeaky voice, “tie it to the end of the rush, and soak it in the creek. Come on! Do you want Farmer Brown’s barn to burn to the ground to-night, and not do anything about it?”
There was a great deal of talking about it, but pretty soon every animal began to tie some corn to the end of their little rush, soak the business end in the creek, and then run for the blaze. They worked fast and lively, soaked their rushes, and while some soaped while others picked flame after flame.
As soon as the rushes burnt out they threw the burnt part away and soaked it again. This way they worked with great enthusiasm. It was so very dark, long before everybody knew it, Farmer Brown’s maize has been all cut, and the barn cleared out. Everybody was hungry and in good humor when they heard Farmer Brown’s door thrown wide, and his daughter’s voice calling, “Oh Mommy! How could we do without our little mouse firefighter Flame?”