"Rona, where are you?" shrieked the distracted governess.
"Here," spluttered the voice of the Cuckoo; "inside the tree. The beastly old thing's rotten, and I've tumbled to the very bottom of the trunk!"
"Are you hurt?"
"No, nothing to speak of."
"Here's a pretty go!" murmured the girls, who all came running at the sound of shouts. "How's she going to get out again?"
"Can't you climb up?" urged Miss Moseley.
"No, I can't stir an inch; I'm wedged in somehow."
What was to be done? The affair waxed serious. Miss Moseley, with a really heroic effort, and much help from the girls, managed to scale the tree and look down into the hollow trunk. She could just see Rona's scared face peeping up at her many feet below.
"Can you put up your hand and let me pull you?"
"No; I tell you I'm wedged as tight as a sardine."