“What’s the matter?” asked Beckie from where she stood outside the hollow log.
“I’m stuck! I can’t get out!” cried Neddie, and his voice sounded as if it were down cellar.
“Wait! I’ll get a long stick and poke you out, just like you poke out a bean that gets stuck in your putty-blower,” said Beckie. So she got a long stick, and poked it in through the hollow log. All at once the stick came up against something soft.
“What’s that?” asked Beckie, surprised like.
“Stop! Ouch! It’s me!” yelled Neddie. “Stop it! You’re tickling my back.”
“But I want to get you out,” said Beckie, poking in the stick again.
“You can’t do it that way,” said her brother. “I guess you’ll have to crawl in after me and pull me out.”
“All right,” said Beckie kindly, “I will.” So she climbed through the log from the same end where her brother had gone in. “I’m coming,” called Beckie. Then she grunted, all of a sudden.
“What’s the matter?” asked Neddie, anxious-like.
“I’m stuck, too,” answered Beckie. “Either I am too fat, or this log is too small. I can’t move either way, and I can’t help you.”