Part 32 (2/2)

”All right, sonny--thank you, thank you! Good-bye, lads; come again, and maybe some day I'll give you the war cup!” called the soldier.

”That would be a relic!” exclaimed Harry. ”And I guess father will give him Bill for nothing, for we always do what we can for old soldiers.”

”I never saw cider made before,” remarked Bert, ”and I think it's fun.

I had a good time to-day.”

”Glad you did,” said John, ”for vacation is slipping now and you want to enjoy it while it lasts.”

That evening at dinner the new cider was sampled, and everybody p.r.o.nounced it very fine.

CHAPTER XXI

WHAT THE WELL CONTAINED

The next day everybody was out early.

”The men are going to clean the well,” Harry told the others, ”and it's lots of fun to see all the stuff they bring up.”

”Can we go?” Freddie asked.

”Nan will have to take charge of you and Flossie,” said Mrs. Bobbsey, ”for wells are very dangerous, you know.”

This was arranged, and the little ones promised to do exactly as Nan told them.

The well to be cleaned was the big one at the corner of the road and the lane. From the well a number of families got their supply of water, and it being on the road many pa.s.sersby also enjoyed from it a good cold drink.

”There they come,” called Bert, as two men dressed like divers came up the road.

They wore complete rubber suits, hip-boots, rubber coats, and rubber caps. Then they had some queer-looking machines, a windla.s.s, a force pump, grappling irons, and other tools.

The boys gathered around the men--all interested, of course, in the work.

”Now keep back,” ordered Nan to the little ones. ”You can see just as well from this big stone, and you will not be in any danger here.”

So Freddie and Flossie mounted the rock while the large boys got in closer to the well.

First the men removed the well shelter--the wooden house that covered the well. Then they put over the big hole a platform open in the center. Over this they set up the windla.s.s, and then one of the men got in a big bucket.

”Oh, he'll get drownded!” cried Freddie.

”No, he won't,” said Flossie. ”He's a diver like's in my picture book.”

”Is he, Nan?” asked the other little one.

”Yes, he is one kind of a diver,” the sister explained, ”only he doesn't have to wear that funny hat with air pipes in it like ocean divers wear.”

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