. When the furnace had
been put into the house a few years before, the cold-air box had to go
in as best it could. It happened to be more convenient to build it down
the back of an unused closet which already had an opening for a window
at the level of the ground. So the back of the closet had been partioned
off for it, and it was continued under the cemented floor to the
furnace. Luke had lately been doing something to it, so both the cover
that shuts off the cold air was out, and also the wire-netting, that
went over the window.

Cricket seeing the window from the outside, took it for granted that it
opened into the coal-bin, and, in her heedless fashion, backed hastily
through, as she was looking for a good place to hide in, meaning to
swing down by her hands, and drop on her feet. She _did_ drop, what to
her surprise seemed about to the middle of the earth, and it really was
some distance. The cellar, as I said, was unusually deep, and Cricket
was only four feet high. Every one knows how surprising it is to come
down even a foot or two lower than we expect, and the swift, long drop,
when she thought she must be already near the cellar bottom, not only
startled, but slightly stunned her for a few moments. When she opened
her eyes after the black, dizzy whirl that lasted for several minutes,
she could not imagine what sort of a place she was in. The light above
her showed her a square, well-like tunnel, set up on end, and about two
feet square, with the window ledge five feet higher than her head. At
first she tried to climb up the wall by bracing herself on opposite
sides of it, but her muscles were not quite equal to this. It was not
until it slowly dawned on her that she could not possibly get out by her
own efforts, that she began to call. Of course her voice was carried by
the furnace pipes all over the house, making it impossible to locate the
sound.

"There's a big hole down by my feet," Cricket called out, when she heard
them debating as to the best way to get her out. "Can't I crawl through
that and come out somewhere?"

"You'd come out in the furnace, Miss," said Luke, "and you'd get stuck
in the bend. I'll haul you up from the outside."

They all went outside, while Luke tried to reach down to her, but their
hands could not make connections.

"Let a ladder down," said Eunice, but there was not room for both a
ladder and Cricket, even if one could have been put down.

"Let a rope down, and tie it arou