“Teddy in the well!” exclaimed Mrs. Martin. “Is he——”
“There isn’t any water in it,” Janet hastened to add, and then Mrs. Martin herself remembered that her husband had told her that same fact. So she asked more calmly:
“How did Teddy get down in the well?” She hurried forward, keeping a tight hold of Trouble’s hand, so he wouldn’t slip into the black depths.
“We were playing diamond mine,” Janet began to explain, when Ted, at the bottom of the well, heard his mother’s voice and cried:
“I’m all right! I can get up if you can fasten the rope to the windlass, or lower a ladder to me!”
“Oh, Teddy! Why did you ever go down there?” cried Mrs. Martin, as she leaned over the curbing and looked down. “You shouldn’t have done such a thing!”
“I didn’t mean to get stuck down here, Mother!” the boy answered. He could look up and see his mother quite plainly, for she was in the sunlight. But she could hardly see him at the bottom of the well.
“The rope slipped off,” explained Janet.
“If we had a cowboy here he could lasso Teddy up,” said Trouble, with a laugh.
“Yes, but we haven’t any cowboy,” said Mrs. Martin. “Jan, you run and tell Patrick to come here. Tell him to bring a ladder. I hope we have one long enough. Hurry, Jan!”