Marjorie looked dismayed, and, indeed, so did Molly herself.

“You see,” Molly went on, feeling as if she were responsible for the situation, “I forgot you’re so much heavier than I am.  You know the two buckets balance each other.”

“Not when one is full and one is empty.”

“No; but then there is somebody at the top to pull them up.  If Carter or anybody was up there, he could pull one of us up.”

“Yes, and let the other one go down in the water!”

“No; when one of us was nearly up, he could put the stick in the chain, like you did.”

“Well, Carter isn’t up there; I wish he was.  We might scream for him, but, of course, he couldn’t hear us from way down here.”

“Let’s try, anyway.”

Both the girls screamed with all their might, separately and together, but they soon realized that their muffled voices scarcely reached the top of the well, let alone sounding across the fields to Carter.

“This is mischief, for sure,” said Marjorie; “and Grandma won’t like it a bit.  I promised her faithfully I would try to keep out of mischief.”  The little girl’s face was very troubled, for she had truly meant to be good and not indulge in naughty pranks.

“You didn’t mean it for mischief,” said Molly, consolingly; “I’m sure I didn’t.”

“Of course I didn’t; but somehow I never seem to know what is mischief until I get into it.  But, oh, Molly, I can’t stand on my toes any longer.  If my feet were a little shorter, or the bucket a little wider, I could stand down flat.”

“I don’t seem to mind tiptoeing,” said Molly; “can’t you take off your shoes?  Then, perhaps, you could stand flat.”

“Perhaps I could,” said Marjorie, doubtfully, “but I know I’ll upset doing it.”

But with Molly’s help, and both holding carefully by the chains, Marjorie managed to get her shoes off, and tied them to the handle of the bucket by their strings.

“Well, that’s a comfort,” she exclaimed, as she stood firmly on the soles of her stockinged feet.

But as the minutes passed away, the girls rapidly became aware of the discomforts of their position.  Their hands became bruised with the chains, their bodies grew stiff and cramped, and the damp, cold atmosphere seemed almost to stop the blood in their veins.

The two little white faces looked at each other in the glimmering twilight of the well, and all the fun faded out of the escapade, and despair gradually crept over them.

Two big tears rolled down Marjorie’s cheeks as she said: 

“I’m not going to cry, Molly, because there’s no use of it; but, oh, Molly, what are we going to do?”

“I don’t know, Mops.  There isn’t a thing to do but to stay here until Carter or somebody happens to come to draw water.  You won’t faint or anything, will you?”

“I don’t know,” said Marjorie, almost smiling at Molly’s alarmed expression; “I don’t believe I will, because I don’t know how to faint.  If I knew how I s’pose I would, for I don’t think I can stay like this much longer.”