“Here comes a farmer. Let us run down and bark just as he is opposite the quarry. I’ll bark and you meow and we will run in front of his horse and make such a fuss he will know there must be something the matter in the quarry pit and perhaps he will stop and go to see. Let’s hope so, at any rate.”
The minute they disappeared, the child began to cry more pitifully than ever, for of course he thought they had run away and left him to his fate.
Nearer and nearer came the old rattling wagon, the driver whistling as hard as ever he could.
“You see,” said Stubby, “his wagon is making such a rumble he would never have heard the child crying.”
“He is almost here. Now let us start,” said Button.
Down the steep side of the quarry they plunged pell-mell, and jumped out before the horses so suddenly they leaped to one side of the road and stopped short. It was done so quickly it nearly threw the man off the seat.
“Say, Stub and Button, what did you do that fool thing for?”
You see the man knew the two very well, for he was Mr. Watson’s hired man.
“You nearly scared the life out of the horses and came near upsetting me in the bargain. Well, well, will you look at those fool animals chasing each other up the steep side of the quarry? Here they come down again! And they stand and look at me as if they were trying to tell me something. Heigho, if they aren’t going up again and looking down into the pit and barking and meowing like mad. Hark! Did I hear a child cry?” He put his hand to his ear and turned his head in that direction. Sure enough, the cry was repeated. “Jehoshaphat, I bet a child has fallen into the quarry and that is what those smart animals are trying to let me know about.”
