"There's a sthrong grating before him at the far end," said Johnny, his head in at the mouth of the hole, his voice sounding as if he were talking into a jug, "the two of them's fighting in it; they'll be choked surely!"
"Then don't stand gabbling there, you little fool, but get in and pull the hound out!" exclaimed Mrs. Knox, who was balancing herself on a stone in the stream.
"I'd be in dread, ma'am," whined Johnny.
"Balderdash!" said the implacable Mrs. Knox. "In with you!"
I understand that Philippa assisted Johnny into the culvert, and presume that it was in so doing that she acquired the two Robinson Crusoe bare footprints which decorated her jacket when I next met her.
"Have you got hold of him yet, Johnny?" cried Mrs. Knox up the culvert.
"I have, ma'am, by the tail," responded Johnny's voice, sepulchral in the depths.
"Can you stir him, Johnny?"
"I cannot, ma'am, and the wather is rising in it."
"Well, please God, they'll not open the mill dam!" remarked Mrs. Knox philosophically to Philippa, as she caught hold of Johnny's dirty ankles. "Hold on to the tail, Johnny!"