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Page 73
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 passed her; and with a sudden
bump, as the two buckets hit 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 muffled 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.
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