Scarcely thinking it could be the children, he paused and listened.
Again he heard a vague sound, which seemed as if it might be his own name called in despairing tones.
Guided more by instinct than reason, he went and looked over the well-curb, and was greeted with two jubilant voices, which called up to him:
"Oh, Carter, Carter, pull us up! We"re down the well, and we"re nearly dead!"
"Oh, my! oh, my!" groaned Carter. "Are ye drowned?"
CHAPTER XX
AN EVENTFUL DAY
"Not a bit," chirped Midget, who was determined to be plucky to the last; "we just came down here to get cooled off, and somehow we can"t get up."
"Well, if ye aren"t a team of Terrors!" exclaimed the exasperated Carter. "I"ve a good mind to let ye stay down there and GET cooled off!"
Carter was really frightened, but Marjorie"s voice was so rea.s.suring that his mood turned to anger at the children"s foolishness. As he looked into the situation, however, and saw the girls clasping each other as they hung half-way down the well, his alarm returned.
"How CAN I get ye up, ye bad babies! Whichever one I pull up, the other one must go down and drown!"
The reaction was beginning to tell upon Molly, and her bravery was oozing out at her fingerends.
"Let me down," she wailed, brokenly; "it was all my fault. Save Marjorie and let me go!"
"No, indeed," cried Marjorie, gripping Molly closer; "I"m the heaviest.
Let me go down and pull Molly up, Carter."
"Quit your nonsense, Miss Midget, and let me think a minute. For the life of me I don"t know how to get ye out of this sc.r.a.pe, but I must manage it somehow."
"It"s easy enough, Carter," cried Marjorie, whose gayety had returned now that a rescue seemed probable. "You pull me up first and let Molly go down, but not as far as the water,--and when I get nearly up, there"s a stick through the chain that will stop me. Then I"ll get out, and you can pull Molly up after."
But Molly"s nerve was almost gone. "Don"t leave me," she cried, clutching frantically at Midge. "Don"t send me down alone, I"m so frightened!"
"But, Molly dear, it"s the only way! I"d just as leave let you go up first, but I"m so heavy I"d drop ker-splash! and you"d go flying up!"
But Molly wouldn"t agree to go down, and she began to cry hysterically.
So Carter settled the question.
"It"s no use, Miss Midget," he called down, in a stern voice, "to try to send Miss Molly down. She"s in no state to take care of herself, and you are. Now be a brave little lady and obey my word and I"ll save you both; but if you don"t mind me exactly, ye"ll be drowned for sure!"
Marjorie was pretty well scared at Molly"s collapse, and she agreed to do whatever Carter commanded.
"All right, then," said Carter. "Do you two let go of each other and each hang tightly to her own chain, and push your buckets apart as far as you can, but don"t hit the sides of the well."
Somewhat inspirited at the thought of rescue, Molly took a firm hold of her chain and pushed herself loose from Marjorie. Marjorie had faith in Carter"s promises, but she felt a sinking at her heart as she began to descend the dark well and came nearer and nearer to the black water.
With great care, Carter drew up the bucketful of Molly, and when Midge"s bucket was still at a safe distance above the water, he stayed the chain with a stick, and pulled Molly the rest of the way up merely by his own strong muscles.
He safely landed the bucket on the curb, and picking the exhausted child out, laid her on the gra.s.s, without a word.
He then went back to the well and spoke very decidedly to Marjorie.
"Miss Midget," he said, "now I"ll pull ye up, but ye must do your share of helpin". When ye reach the other bucket, shove it aside, that it doesn"t hit ye. Stand straight and hold tight, now!"
Marjorie did as she was told, and, slowly but steadily, Carter pulled her up. At last she, too, was once again out in the sunlight, and she and Molly sat on the gra.s.s and looked at each other, uncertain whether to laugh or cry.
"It was a narrow escape," said Carter, shaking his head at them, "and what puts such wicked mischief into your heads, I don"t know. But it"s not for me to be reprovin" ye. March into the house now, and tell your Grandma about it, and see what she says."
"I"ll go in," said Marjorie, "but if you"d rather, Molly, you can go home. I"ll tell Grandma about it, myself."
"No," said Molly, "it was my fault. I coaxed you into it, and I"m going to tell your grandma about it."
"I was just as much to blame as you, for I didn"t have to go down the well just because you coaxed me. But I"ll be glad if you will come with me, for, of course, we can explain it better together."
Hand in hand the two culprits walked into the room where Mrs. Sherwood sat sewing.
They were a sorry-looking pair, indeed! Their pretty gingham frocks were limp and stringy with dampness, and soiled and stained from contact with the buckets and the moss-grown sides of the well.
Marjorie had been unable to get her shoes on over her damp, torn stockings, and as Molly"s head had been drenched with water, she presented a forlorn appearance.
Grandma Sherwood looked at them with an expression, not so much of surprise, as amused exasperation.
"I"m glad you weren"t killed," she said, "but you look as if you had come very near it. What have you been up to now?"
"We haven"t been up at all, Grandma," said Marjorie, cheerfully, "we"ve been down--in the well."
"In the well!" exclaimed Mrs. Sherwood, her face blank with surprise.
"Marjorie, what can I do with you? I shall have to send you home before your vacation is over, unless you stop getting into mischief! Did you fall down?"
"It was my fault, Mrs. Sherwood," said Molly; "truly, I didn"t mean mischief, but it was such a hot day and I thought it would be cool down the well--"
"And it was," interrupted Marjorie; "and we had a pretty good time,--only I was too heavy and I went down whizz--zip! And Molly came flying up, and if we hadn"t caught each other, I s"pect we"d both have been drowned!"
Grandma Sherwood began to realize that there had been not only mischief but real danger in this latest escapade.
"Molly," she said, "you may go home, and tell your mother about it, and I will talk it over with Marjorie. I think you were equally to blame, for, though Molly proposed the plan, Marjorie ought not to have consented."
So Molly went home and Mrs. Sherwood had a long and serious talk with her little granddaughter. She did not scold,--Grandma Sherwood never scolded,--but she explained to Marjorie that, unless she curbed her impulsive inclinations to do reckless things, she would certainly make serious trouble for herself and her friends.
"It doesn"t matter at all," she said, "who proposes the mischief. You do just as wrong in consenting to take part, as if you invented the plan yourself."
"But, Grandma, truly I didn"t see any harm in going down the well to get cooled off. The buckets are big and the chains are very strong, and I thought we would just go down slowly and swing around awhile and pull ourselves up again."
"Oh, Midget, will you never learn commonsense? I know you"re only twelve, but it seems as if you ought to know better than to do such absurd things."