a place of refuge, a well is not at
all calculated for a prolonged residence--so thought Jack. After he had
been there some fifteen minutes, his teeth chattered, and his limbs
trembled; he felt a numbness all over, and he thought it high time to
call for assistance, which at first he would not, as he was afraid he
should be pulled up to encounter the indignation of the farmer and his
family. Jack was arranging his jaws for a halloo, when he felt the
chain pulled up, and he slowly emerged from the water. At first he
heard complaints of the weight of the bucket, at which Jack was not
surprised, then he heard a tittering and laughing between two parties,
and soon afterwards he mounted up gaily. At last his head appeared
above the low wall, and he was about to extend his arms so as to secure
a position on it, when those who were working at the windlass beheld
him. It was a heavy farming-man and a maid-servant.

"Thank you," said Jack.

One never should be too quick in returning thanks; the girl screamed and
let go the winch; the man, frightened, did not hold it fast: it slipped
from his grasp, whirled round, struck him under the chin and threw him
over it headlong, and before the "Thank you" was fairly out of Jack's
lips, down he went again like lightning to the bottom. Fortunately for
Jack, he had not yet let go the chain, or he might have struck the sides
and have been killed; as it was, he was merely soused a second time, and
in a minute or two regained his former position.

"This is mighty pleasant," thought Jack, as he clapped his wet hat once
more on his head: "at all events, they can't now plead ignoranc; they
must know that I'm here."

In the meantime the girl ran into the kitchen, threw herself down on a
stool, from which she reeled off in a fit upon sundry heaps of dough
waiting to be baked in the oven, which were laid to rise on the floor
before the fire.

"Mercy on me, what is the matter with Susan?" exclaimed the farmer's
wife. "Here--where's Mary--where's John?--Deary me, if the bread won't
all be turned to pancakes."

John soon followed, holding his under-jaw in his hand, looking very
dismal and very frightened, for two reasons; one, because he thought
that his jaw was broken, and the other, because he thought he had seen
the devil.

"Mercy on us, what is the matter?" exclaimed the farmer's wife again.
"Mary, Mary, Mary!" screamed she, beginning to be frightened herself,
for with all her effor