Just before luncheon that day Stubby and Button had had a very exciting experience. They had been coming home from Mr. Jones’ farm when they heard a child crying. They looked everywhere, but still they could not see any child, and when they tried to follow the sound, it first led them in one direction and then in another.
Presently Stubby said, “It seems to me the cry comes from the stone quarry. Let’s go and look.”
So the two ran up the steep side of the quarry and looked down into the deep pit half-filled with water. At first they saw nothing. Then they thought they distinguished something white floating on the water close to the opposite side of the pit.
“Look, Button! You have sharper eyes than I. What do you make out that white thing to be over there?”
“Heavens! It is a child’s face. Did you ever see anything so white in all your life?”
At that moment the child saw Stubby and Button, and began to cry anew.
“Do you hear, Button? From the sound of that cry the child is almost exhausted from calling for help and from fright at being in the water.”
MR. WATSON’S HIRED MAN SOON HAD A ROPE AROUND BILLY’S NECK.
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“I should think it would be. What are we to do to get it out? It is a little boy. I know by his coat, for he raised his arms to signal to us.”