"Is it a real bucket?" he could not refrain from asking.
"Yes."
"Like a water bucket?"
"Yes, only bigger."
"I sh'd think the miners would fall out."
"Oh, it's big enough so they can't tumble if they mind the rules; but you've got to keep your head down inside, or you'll be killed by the big beans—" she meant beams—"which are built in to hold the dirt from caving in and filling up the mine. Come and see for yourself."
"Well, p'r'aps I will." With a great show of indifference, the boy uncoiled his legs, slid to the ground beside Irene, and hurried with her after the others, now a considerable distance in advance; but the little group had reached their goal and were gingerly peering into the black depths of the abandoned shaft when Billiard and Irene joined them.
"Ugh!" shuddered Mercedes, drawing back with a shiver from the yawning mouth of the hole. "It smells like lizards. I'll bet the bottom of the shaft is full of them."
"It didn't use to be," remarked Susie, dropping a pebble over the brink and listening to the hollow echoes it awoke as it bounded from timber to timber.
"Were you ever down there?" asked Toady in surprise.