Though not as absolutely reckless as Molly, Midget was daring enough, and, placing the empty bucket on the very edge of the curb, she put her feet in, and, standing on her toes with her heels against the side of the bucket, she wound her arms about the chain as Molly had done, and twisted about until the bucket fell off the edge.
Had the girls been more nearly of equal weight, their plan would have worked better; but as Marjorie was so much heavier than Molly, the laws of gravitation claimed her, and she went swiftly down.
The instant that she started, Molly realized this, and her quick wits told her that, unless stopped, Marjorie"s bucket would dive deep into the water.
It was a critical situation, and had it not been for Molly"s presence of mind a tragedy might have resulted. As it was, she bravely grasped at Marjorie as she pa.s.sed her; and with a sudden b.u.mp, as the two buckets. .h.i.t together and then fell apart, Molly clutched at Marjorie, and the buckets paused side by side, while the girls shivered and shook, partly with fear and partly with fun.
"What are we going to do?" said Molly. "If I let go of you, you"ll go smash into the water, and I"ll fly up to the top!"
"Keep hold of me, then," replied Midget, who had a wonderful power of adapting herself to a situation.
And so the two girls, each with one hand grasping a bucket chain and their other hands tightly clasped, stood face to face half-way down the old well.
"I don"t think this is such an awfully nice place," said Marjorie, looking round at the slimy green walls which shone wet in the semi-darkness.
"Well, it"s cool," retorted Molly, who was shivering in her wet clothing.
"Of course it"s cool, but my feet ache, standing on my toes so long. I wonder if I couldn"t sit down on the side of the bucket."
"Don"t try!" exclaimed Molly, in alarm. "You"ll keel over and upset us both into the water!"
"You said the water wasn"t deep; perhaps it"s only up to our knees; that wouldn"t hurt us."
"Yes, and perhaps it"s over our heads! I don"t know how deep it is, I"m sure; but I must say it looks deep."
The girls peered downward and saw only a black, shining surface, with a shadowy reflection of themselves.
"Well, I"ve had enough of it," said Marjorie; "now, how are we going to get back again?"
"I don"t know," said Molly, slowly, as if the idea had just occurred to her; "honest, Marjorie, I DON"T know."
Marjorie looked dismayed, and, indeed, so did Molly herself.
"You see," Molly went on, feeling as if she were responsible for the situation, "I forgot you"re so much heavier than I am. You know the two buckets balance each other."
"Not when one is full and one is empty."
"No; but THEN there is somebody at the top to pull them up. If Carter or anybody was up there, he could pull one of us up."
"Yes, and let the other one go down in the water!"
"No; when one of us was nearly up, he could put the stick in the chain, like you did."
"Well, Carter isn"t up there; I wish he was. We might scream for him, but, of course, he couldn"t hear us from way down here."
"Let"s try, anyway."
Both the girls screamed with all their might, separately and together, but they soon realized that their m.u.f.fled voices scarcely reached the top of the well, let alone sounding across the fields to Carter.
"This is mischief, for sure," said Marjorie; "and Grandma won"t like it a bit. I promised her faithfully I would try to keep out of mischief."
The little girl"s face was very troubled, for she had truly meant to be good and not indulge in naughty pranks.
"You didn"t mean it for mischief," said Molly, consolingly; "I"m sure _I_ didn"t."
"Of course I didn"t; but somehow I never seem to know what IS mischief until I get into it. But, oh, Molly, I can"t stand on my toes any longer. If my feet were a little shorter, or the bucket a little wider, I could stand down flat."
"I don"t seem to mind tiptoeing," said Molly; "can"t you take off your shoes? Then, perhaps, you could stand flat."
"Perhaps I could," said Marjorie, doubtfully, "but I know I"ll upset doing it."
But with Molly"s help, and both holding carefully by the chains, Marjorie managed to get her shoes off, and tied them to the handle of the bucket by their strings.
"Well, that"s a comfort," she exclaimed, as she stood firmly on the soles of her stockinged feet.
But as the minutes pa.s.sed away, the girls rapidly became aware of the discomforts of their position. Their hands became bruised with the chains, their bodies grew stiff and cramped, and the damp, cold atmosphere seemed almost to stop the blood in their veins.
The two little white faces looked at each other in the glimmering twilight of the well, and all the fun faded out of the escapade, and despair gradually crept over them.
Two big tears rolled down Marjorie"s cheeks as she said:
"I"m not going to cry, Molly, because there"s no use of it; but, oh, Molly, what ARE we going to do?"
"I don"t know, Mops. There isn"t a thing to do but to stay here until Carter or somebody happens to come to draw water. You won"t faint or anything, will you?"
"I don"t know," said Marjorie, almost smiling at Molly"s alarmed expression; "I don"t believe I will, because I don"t know how to faint.
If I knew how I s"pose I would, for I don"t think I can stay like this much longer."
Marjorie"s head began to sway back and forth, and Molly, thoroughly frightened, seized her by the shoulder and shook her vigorously.
"Marjorie Maynard!" she exclaimed. "If you faint and tumble out of this bucket, I"ll never speak to you again as long as I live!"
Her excited tones roused Marjorie from the faintness that was beginning to steal over her.
"I don"t want to fall into the water," she said, shuddering.
"Well, then, brace up and behave yourself! Stand up straight in your bucket and hang on to the chains. Don"t look down; that was what made you feel faint. We"re here and we must make the best of it. We can"t get out until somebody comes, so let"s be plucky and do the best we can."
"Pooh! Molly Moss! I guess I can be as brave as you can! I"m not going to faint, or tumble into the water, or do anything silly! Now that I don"t have to stand on tiptoe, I could stand here all day,--and Carter"s bound to come for water for the cows."
Then what did those two ridiculous girls do but bravely try to outdo each other in their exhibition of pluck!
Neither complained again of weariness or cramped muscles, and finally Marjorie proposed that they tell each other stories to make the time pa.s.s, pleasantly. The stories were not very interesting affairs, for both speaker and listener were really suffering from pain and chill.
At last Molly said: "Suppose we scream some more. If Carter should be pa.s.sing by, you know, he might hear us."
Marjorie was quite willing to adopt this plan, and after that they screamed at intervals on the chance of being heard.
Two mortal hours the girls hung in the well before help came, and then Carter, pa.s.sing near the well, heard what seemed to him like a faint and m.u.f.fled cry.