The boys got up very early. They wanted to get all their chores done real early so they could spend the rest of the day with their friends at the swimming pool. Bobby was inside cleaning while Billy was weeding the vegetable garden and watering the lawn.  

Just then Alex the Eagle streaked a crossed the sky over head, he hollered to Billy “Fire” and kept on flying over the Woodland warning everyone that there was a fire.

Billy ran inside and told Bobby, “We have to get to The Professor’s house right now,”

“What’s wrong?” Bobby asked, seeing that Billy was very up-set.  

“There’s a fire on the mountain,” Billy replied,

“That’s not good,” Bobby responded.

Everyone in the Woodland knew how dangerous a fire could be.  They had to put it out as fast as they could, or many homes in the Woodland would be destroyed.

Bobby and Billy raced to The Professors house.  When they got there many of their Woodland friends were already there talking to the Professor.  The Professor explained to everyone that the fire was high up on the mountain and burning its way down towards the Woodland and the Hollow, and they had to stop it before it was so big that they couldn’t stop it.  

Brownie asked The Professor if they knew how the fire got started.  The Professor explained that Alex had said he thinks some careless campers left a camp fire un-attended and that it spread to the bushes in their camp, but regardless of how it got started they must put it out.  

“What’s the Plan Professor?” Marvin asked, “Just tell us what to do and we’ll get started.”

The Professor told them the first thing we have to do is build a “fire break.”

“What’s a fire break?” Billy asked.  

The Professor explained that a fire break was a wide path,  like a road, cut through the forest and cleared of everything that could burn in front of the fire so when the fire reached it, it would have no where to go and burn itself out.  

“Show us where to put the fire break,” Raymond replied, “and we’ll get started clearing the trees.”

The Professor showed Randy and Raymond where he wanted to build the fire break, and they went off to start cutting down the trees.  Randy and Raymond were the two fastest wood cutting beavers in the whole Woodland.  If anyone could get all those trees cut down it was them.  Brownie and Marvin went with them to clear the trees after they were cut down. 

“What else do we have to do?” Billy asked.

“Billy,” The Professor responded, “I want you to go with Bobby and Digger up to lazy Creek and dig a trench from the creek to the fire break.”  Bobby, Billy and Digger took off running up the hill toward Lazy Creek.  

The Professor turned to Alex the Eagle and asked him to fly over the Woodland and warn anyone that doesn’t know about the fire and to airlift out any of their small Woodland friends that can’t out run the fire.

“On my way Professor,” Alex replied as he flapped his big powerful wings and roared straight up like a helicopter.

The Professor turned to Amanda and smiled, “I know you want to be there with your friends,” he said, “but I have a more important job for you.

“What do you want me to do Professor?” she asked.

The Professor explained that fighting a fire is very dangerous and that some of her Woodland friends may get hurt trying to save the Woodland, and he would like her to be there to take care of them.

Amanda smiled; she realized that The Professor gave her one of the most important jobs in fighting the fire.  She told him she would set up a rest area by the swimming pool were it was cool and away from the fire.  

“Thank you,” The Professor said smiling as he walked off to see how the fire break was coming along.

When The Professor arrived at the fire break he was amazed at how fast Randy, Raymond, Brownie and Marvin had finished the job.  

“What next Professor?” Brownie asked.

“I need You, Marvin and Randy and Raymond to go up to Lazy Creek where Bobby, Billy and Digger are digging a trench to the fire break, and build a dam across Lazy Creek so the water runs down to the fire break flooding it.

“Let’s go,” said Raymond, “Randy and I will have that dam built in minutes.”

Soon the water was running down the trench that was cut from Lazy Creek and starting to flood the fire break with water.  Alex just finished making sure that everyone was out of the danger zone and landed by the group of his friends talking to The Professor.  

”What’s next?” Alex asked.

“Now we wait,” The Professor replied.  

As they stood there waiting they could see the red and yellow flames of the fire through the trees getting closer and closer.  They all backed up as they could feel the heat of the fire getting hotter and hotter.  Soon the fire was at the fire break and for awhile everyone thought they stopped it. 

Billy pointed to the tops of the trees, “The fire is jumping over the fire break,” he cried out.

Sure enough the wind was blowing the flames over to the other side of the fire break.  

“What do we do now?” Marvin asked.

“We have to get water on the fire,” Bobby answered. Turning to Alex he asked him how much could he lift?

“What ever you need Bobby I’ll lift,” Alex answered.

“Good,” Bobby, replied as he turned to Billy. 

He tells Billy to get all the plastic garbage bags he can find.  In minutes Billy was back with dozens of bags

“Now what?” Billy asked.

“Start filling them with water,” Bobby replied. 

As everyone filled the bags with water Alex would grab them, and with his powerful wings he would lift the bags high above the flames and drop them on the fire.  Each bag put out some of the fire but it still wasn’t enough to put it all out.

“We need to get more water on that fire,” Brownie called out, “if we don’t stop it here it will burn all the way down to the Hollow where Amanda is.”

“How can we get more water on it?” Marvin asked.

“We don’t have much time,” The Professor said, “We have to think of something fast.”

As everyone was exchanging ideas a small voice was coming from Brownies shirt pocket; it was Chester the Chipmunk, he was shouting as loud as he could,

“Quiet,” Billy told everyone, someone’s calling.

 As everyone quieted down they could hear Chester screaming at the top of his little lungs “Get the elephants…get the elephants,”

The Professor smiled, “From small people sometimes come great ideas.”

“That’s right,” Billy responded, “their trunks are like fire hoses.”

Alex took off to the circus to tell Edward, Edmond and Elisabeth that they need their help.  In no time the elephants were at the fire using their trunks as fire hoses.  They would draw up water then spray it high in the tree tops putting out the flames.  Soon between Edward, Edmond and Elisabeth and Alex’s airlifting of the water bombs the fire was soon out. As they sat down to rest they heard a truck pull up. They turned to see Mr. Hogg’s getting out of his truck.

“Dad, what are you doing here?” Billy asked.

“I just got home, and your mother told me about the fire and I came to help,” he replied.

”Its O.K. dad,” Bobby told him,” with the help of everyone we put it out.”  

“Well if you don’t need me to help put out the fire, maybe I can cool all of you off,” Mr. Hogg’s replied.

“What do you mean?” Billy asked.

Mr. Hogg’s explained to everyone that Mrs.  Hogg’s had made them gallons and gallons of ice cold lemonade and dozens of chocolate chip cookies so they could rest and refresh themselves after having spent most of the day fighting the fire.

Amanda turned to Professor Fir and asked him what they are going to do about all the burnt trees and bushes.  

“Well,” The Professor replied, “First we have to refresh ourselves with this cold lemonade and cookies.”

The Professor went on to explain that they should all go home and clean-up, and get a good nights sleep because tomorrow the really hard work begins.

“What do we have to do tomorrow?” Amanda asked.

“Tomorrow we have to replace all the burnt trees,” The Professor explained.

He told everyone how important the trees were, and that the trees held the soil in place when it rained and cooled the air and replaces the oxygen.

Mr. Hogg’s told The Professor that he had hundreds of strong young saplings growing in a field that they could have for the replanting.

“Saplings” Billy asked, “What are saplings, why aren’t we planting trees.”

Everyone started to laugh;

Billy looked around to see everyone laughing.  “What’s so funny?” he asked.

Smiling Bobby told Billy that saplings were baby trees.  

“Oh,” Billy replied, “I knew that,” and everyone started laughing again.

Billy was a good sport and laughed along with everyone else.  The sun was starting to set as everyone started home.  The Professor told them to all meet back by the pool the next morning that it was going to be along day of work replacing all the trees.  Bobby and Billy walked Amanda home and said good night then walked up the trail to their cabin.  They both took showers to get the soot and smell of smoke off of them and hung their clothes outside so they wouldn’t smell up the house.

As Billy set the table Bobby started cooking dinner.  They both still were full of cookies and lemonade so Bobby just made a pasta salad, with some fresh tomatoes, peppers and onions.   After dinner they cleaned up the kitchen and went into the living room to watch Television for awhile.  It wasn’t long before they both fell asleep exhausted from spending the day fighting the fire.  An hour or so passed when Billy woke up and shook Bobby to wake him up.

“Get up Bobby” he said.

“What’s the matter?” Bobby asked, “is it morning already,”

“No!” Billy replied, “We fell asleep in the chairs again, and if we keep doing that we won’t need the bedroom, and we can rent it out.”  

Both the boys laughed and went off to their bedrooms and quickly fell back to sleep.