"Billy, come hold the chair down, please," called Cricket. So, with Billy to brace his huge foot on the round of the chair, and to hold down the back with his hands, Cricket and Hilda, with another vigorous pull, managed to undouble Zaidee.
Marm Plunkett had been sitting in a state of great excitement, while the rescue was going on, and leaned back with a sigh of relief when the little girl was finally straightened out. Zaidee took it very philosophically.
"Stop crying, Helen," she said, "you are such a cry-baby. This is a very funny chair, Marm Plunkett. How do people sit down on it? Do you like it that way? I "xpect I"m so little that I can"t keep on the outside of it. I guess I don"t want to sit down any more, any way."
Marm Plunkett cackled a thin, high laugh.
"Ef children don"t beat the Dutch! Wisht I hed some a-runnin" in an" out to kinder chirk me up a bit when Cindy"s away."
"I want a drink, please," announced Zaidee.
"Bless yer leetle heart! You shall hev a drink right outen the northeast corner of our well, where it"s coldest. Take the dipper, Billy, an" give the leetle dears a good cold drink all around."
"I want one, too," said Cricket, and all the children trooped after Billy.
The well had the old-fashioned well-sweep.
It was always a mysterious delight to the children to see the water drawn from one of these, as the great end went slowly up and the bucket dipped, and then came down again with a stately, dignified sweep.
Cricket darted forward.
"I"ve always wanted to ride up on that end," she said, to herself, "and now I"m going to."
Quick as a flash she had jumped astride the end, grasping the pole with both hands. George W. instantly sprang lightly up in front of her, just out of her reach, poising himself with "Martha" arching over his back.
The twins and Hilda, hanging over the edge and looking down on the mossy stones, did not notice her.
"Get it out of the northeast corner, she said," ordered Zaidee. "Which is the northeast corner, Billy? Is it where the water comes in? Billy, there aren"t any corners. It"s all round."
Billy was tugging at the slender pole that held the bucket.
"Goes down hard enough. Seems to want ilin" or suthin". Land o" Jiminy!"
He chanced to turn his head and saw Cricket calmly ascending as the pole went higher and higher. It was a wonder he did not lose his hold.
"Don"t let go, Billy," Cricket screamed. "If you do, I"ll go _kerflump_."
Billy grasped the pole tighter.
"You"ll--you"ll fall," he stammered.
"Course I will if you let go. Go on! Let the bucket down. I"m having a fine ride. Do you like it, George Washington?"
George Washington walked a step or two further down the beam. He was not at all sure he _did_ like it. As there did not seem to be room enough for him to turn around and run back to Cricket, as he very much wanted to do, he stood still, mewing uncertainly. Billy, in agony of soul, but obedient as ever, lowered the pole carefully, casting reproachful glances over his shoulder. Hilda and the twins stood in fascinated silence, looking at Cricket getting such a beautiful high ride. As for George Washington, as the pole slanted more and more, making his head lower and his rear higher, he made a few despairing steps forward. Lower went the bucket, and George W."s Martha lost her proud arch, and George stuck his claws deep into the wood.
"Oh-ee!" squealed Cricket, suddenly beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable herself. The ground looked very far below her, and she began to feel as if she were pitching headforemost. She held on with her hands, as tightly as George Washington did with his claws. Then the bucket hit the water, splash. Dipping it made the big pole dance a little.
"Oh-ee," squealed Cricket, again, clinging tighter. "Hurry up, Billy, bring me down."
"Miau-au," wailed George Washington, suddenly, giving a mighty spring of desperation. Alas! he missed his calculation, if he had time to make any, and disappeared from the eyes of the children into the dark depths of the well. Cricket, forgetting her own precarious position, involuntarily gave a little grasp after him, thus losing her own hold, lost her balance, and over she went,--and if she had fallen that fifteen feet to the hard ground below, it might have brought to a sudden end her summer at Marbury.
As it fortunately happened, however, she caught at the pole as she went over, grasped it, and hung suspended by her strong little hands.
Frightened Billy had been holding the smaller pole all this time, in a vise-like grip.
"Let me down!" screamed Cricket. "Carefully, Billy!" and Billy, stiff with terror, nevertheless had the sense to obey. He raised the small pole steadily, lest the other, with Cricket"s added weight, should come down too fast. In a moment more she was near enough to the ground to drop lightly down.
A tremendous splashing and mewing had been going on in the well, but the children had been too much absorbed in Cricket to notice it.
""Tisn"t as much fun as I thought it would be," was all she said, as she darted forward to look down the well after her pet. "Let the bucket down again, Billy, and see if he"ll cling to it. Oh, you poor, poor George Washington. Billy, do hurry up! Why, he"ll _drown_."
But Billy had given out. He was so thoroughly frightened when he discovered Cricket on her lofty perch, that, now that she was safely down, he was shaking like a leaf. Cricket pushed him unceremoniously away, as she peered down.
George Washington looked like a good-sized muskrat, as they saw him clinging to the wet, mossy stones, meowing pitifully. He was either too frightened or too cold to make any effort to climb up. Perhaps he could not have done so anyway. Cricket lowered the bucket again herself, till it struck the water. The splash seemed to frighten George Washington only the more, for his cries were redoubled.
"What a _stupid_ cat!" cried Hilda. "Why doesn"t he take hold and come up?"
"He"s frightened to death down there in the cold. He"s _never_ stupid, are you, George W.? I"m _so_ afraid he"ll die of getting wet and cold before we can save him!" cried Cricket, anxiously, flopping the bucket about. "Do take hold of it, George! dear George, do!"
But Cricket"s most coaxing tones availed nothing. George only meowed and meowed in accents that grew more pitiful every minute.
"Do run and tell Marm Plunkett that the kitten"s in the well, Hilda,"
said Cricket, at last. "Perhaps she"ll know something to do. Look out, children! don"t lean over so far, else the first thing you know you"ll be down there, too. Oh, George Washington, please take hold!"
Hilda ran off, and came back a moment later with rather a scared face.
"I told her, Cricket, and what do you think she said? That we must be sure not to let it die there, "cause it would poison the water! She seemed dreadfully frightened about it, and tried to get up, but of course she couldn"t, and then she said--she said--she"d _pray_ for us."
Hilda"s voice sank to an awed whisper. Cricket looked blank.
Billy caught up the word eagerly.
"Yes, yes, children, that"s right o" Marm Plunkett. It"s allers good to pray," and down went simple old Billy on his knees. "You keep on a-danglin" that ere bucket, and I"ll pray fur ye, young uns. That"ll fetch him." He clasped his hands and shut his earnest eyes.
The children stood in awed silence. Billy, swaying back and forth in his eagerness, began in a high-keyed voice, sounding unlike his ordinary tones:
""How dothe the little busy bee Improve each shining hour; And gather honey all the day From every fragrant flower"--Amen."
Poor old Billy! this sc.r.a.p of a rhyme, learned in his far-away boyhood, was the one bit that had stuck in his clouded mind all these years, and had served this pious soul for a prayer ever since. Every night, kneeling reverently by his bedside, he had said it, and every morning when he arose; only then he added the pet.i.tion, "G.o.d bless Mrs. Maxwell, and make Billy good."
Cricket and Hilda, too much amazed to speak, but too much impressed with Billy"s earnestness to laugh, stood stock-still as they were; Hilda in the act of stretching out her hands to draw Zaidee back from the well-curb,--where she hung, in imminent danger of following George W.,--and Cricket, still grasping the pole, and looking back over her shoulder, and Helen staring with her great eyes.
As Billy ceased, there was an oppressive moment of silence. He remained on his knees, swaying his gaunt frame slightly, with his eyes still closed. Suddenly Cricket felt the bucket lurch as it lay on the surface of the water below. She looked quickly over the well-curb.
"Oh, Hilda! Billy, hurrah! he"s climbed upon the bucket at last! He"s way up on it. Now, we"ll have him!" and with Hilda to help, she began cautiously to raise the bucket.
Billy slowly got up from the ground, and dusted off his trouser knees.
"It"s allers wuth while a-prayin" for things," he remarked.
In a few minutes the bucket was on a level with the well-curb, and while Hilda held the pole, Cricket drew out her dripping, shivering pet.
Such a rubbing as he got in Marm Plunkett"s little kitchen! He was very much exhausted with his cold bath, and I"m afraid that a very few minutes longer in the icy water would have ended one of George Washington"s nine lives.