GOOD NEWS
Down in the dark depths of the old well, Ted Martin heard what his
sister called in such frightened tones.
“What’s the matter?” he asked.
A moment later he learned on his own account. For the bucket rope
having slipped off the windlass, from which it had rotted away, tumbled
down the well. It caught for a moment on a projecting stone, and then
went down into the depths. It fell partly on top of Ted’s head as he
stepped off the edge of the bucket on to the pile of dried sticks and
leaves which had blown and tumbled into the well during the years it
had not been in use.
“Oh, Teddy!” cried Janet. “The rope came loose and it fell down!”
“I know it did,” Ted answered. For the rope was coiled about him.
“Then how are you going to get up?” Janet wanted to know. “How are you
going to get up out of the well when I can’t wind up the rope?”
To this Ted made answer:
“I don’t know, Jan. I guess I’m in a sort of pickle. But wait a minute.
Don’t run away and leave me!”
Janet had no such idea. She wouldn’t desert Ted in trouble.
While the little fellow is down in the old, dry well, trying to think
of a way to get out, and while Janet is also puzzling her head over
the same matter, I will take just a moment to let my new readers know
something about the Curlytops.
I have told you the reason for their nickname. They had been christened
in this order: Theodore Baradale Martin, who was called Ted or Teddy,
except when he had done something wrong, and then he heard his full
name spoken. Next came Janet Louise Martin, which was shortened into
Janet or Jan. She was just a year younger than Ted. Last of all was
William Anthony Martin. He was “Trouble,” you know.
Mr. Richard Martin, the father of Trouble and the Curlytops, was the
owner of a large, general store in Cresco, in one of our eastern
states. In the first book of this series, called “The Curlytops at
Cherry Farm,” I related how the children went to visit Grandpa Martin
on his wonderful farm, and I told you what happened after they reached
there. During other vacation seasons the children traveled to Star
Island, they were snowed in, visited Uncle Frank’s ranch, and camped on
Silver Lake with Uncle Ben. The children had some queer pets, as you
may learn by reading another book, and they had many playmates with
whom they had jolly times. After a trip to the woods, the children
found something in the sand, as told in the book just before this,
called “The Curlytops at Sunset Beach.”
After the summer at the shore the Martin family returned to Cresco.
Through the long winter Janet and Ted played in the snow. Then came
spring. Now it was summer again and the long vacation had arrived.
“And it means a lot of work, too,” sighed Mrs. Martin, on the last day
of school. “I’m sure I don’t know what the children will do with so
much time on their hands!”
But this did not worry Ted, Janet or Trouble. They knew they could
have fun, and one of the ways hit on by Ted and his sister was to play
“diamond mine,” as we find them doing at the old well when this story
opens.
“Do you think you can get out, Ted?” his sister called anxiously down
into the depths of the dark well.
“I don’t know,” was Ted’s answer. “But don’t go away. I’m going to try
to climb up, Jan.”
“How you going to climb up?” the little girl wanted to know.
“Well, there’s a lot of stones sticking out on the sides. They’re like
steps, and maybe I can get up on them.”
Ted tried; but though a man or an older boy might have managed to hoist
himself out of the well in this way, it was beyond the strength of the
Curlytop lad. He got up a little way but slipped back to the soft bed
of dried leaves at the bottom of the well.
“Did you hurt yourself?” asked Jan anxiously, as she heard her brother
grunt as he slipped back.
“No, I didn’t hurt myself,” he answered. “But I jiggled myself a
little.”
Ted’s use of the word “jiggled” reminded Jan that she had left Trouble
“jiggling” the sieve at the pile of sand. She wondered if her little
brother was all right, but she did not want to leave Ted in order to
make sure.
However, she did not need to do this for just as Ted called up to her
that he was going to try to toss up the rope, so she could fasten it to
the windlass, Janet saw her little brother coming along a path that she
and Ted had trampled through the weeds.
“Oh, now I is found you!” remarked Trouble, with a smile on his cute,
dirty little face. “I is found you! Here is Jan, Mother!” he called
more loudly. “I is found her!”
“Is mother looking for us?” asked Janet.
“Yes, Jan,” answered the voice of Mrs. Martin herself. “I told you and
Teddy to amuse William, and I find him all alone sifting sand. Not
but what he was having fun, but I thought you would stay with him. I
asked him where you went and he pointed off this way. Why, what are you
doing at the old well?” went on the mother who, having followed Trouble
along the weed-grown path, now saw Janet standing near the curbing and
windlass. “What are you doing there?” she repeated.
“Teddy--now--Teddy--he’s down there!” gasped Jan, pointing.
“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!”
Now that her mother was on the scene, Janet felt sure that Teddy would
soon be out of the well. As she hastened back toward the house, she saw
Patrick working in the garden.
“Please take a long ladder to the old well so Teddy can get out,
Patrick,” she begged. “Hurry!”
“What’s that, Jan?” asked the man of all work.
When the little girl had explained, Patrick ran off toward the barn,
chuckling to himself and saying:
“They call the little one ‘Trouble,’ but I’m not sure but what it would
be a good name for the other two. Sure, they’re into twice as much
mischief as William! It’s a good thing the well is dry!”
Patrick was on his way to the well, carrying a long ladder, which, he
told Janet, would surely reach the bottom, and the little girl was
following him when she saw her father coming around the house by a side
path.
It was not usual for Mr. Martin to come home from his store in the
middle of the afternoon. When he did, something extraordinary nearly
always happened, and this time Janet thought he had heard about Teddy.
So she said:
“He’s all right now, Daddy! We’ll soon have him out!”
“Who’s all right? Who’s going to be out soon?” asked Mr. Martin, much
puzzled. “And what are you going to do with that ladder, Patrick?”
“Sure an’ I’m going to get Teddy out of the old well.”
“Out of the old well?” cried Mr. Martin. “Do you mean to tell me Ted
has fallen down there?”
“He didn’t perzackly _fall_ in,” said Janet. “I let him down by the
rope, but the rope slipped off and he’s down there. He couldn’t climb
out, so mother told Patrick to bring the ladder.”
“Oh, well, if your mother’s there I guess matters will soon be all
right,” said Mr. Martin, breathing more easily. “Why did you children
go to that well? We must fill it up at once, Patrick.”
“Yes, sir. I was going to do it this afternoon. But they got ahead of
me, the Curlytops did.”
Mr. Martin hurried on with Patrick, helping him carry the ladder, while
Janet followed. Mrs. Martin and Trouble were still standing at the well
curbing, and when Mrs. Martin saw her husband she, too, thought he had
come home because of what had happened to Ted.
Then, as she knew he could not have heard of it at the store, she said
to Mr. Martin:
“Is anything wrong? Why did you come home at this time of day?”
“Everything is all right,” replied Mr. Martin, with a smile. “I came
home to tell you some good news. But first we must get Teddy out of the
well.”
Mr. Martin leaned over and looked down into the depths. Ted saw his
father and called to him:
“I’m all right!”
“I’m glad of it,” was the answer. “We’re going to lower the ladder down
to you so you can climb up. Stand to one side so it won’t hit you.”
And as her father and Patrick lowered the ladder into the well, Janet
wondered what good news it was that had brought Mr. Martin home in the
middle of the afternoon.