The Gavelyte, October 1910

Mnrjori, r •turn •d tlwn uncl l>oll · 111d Mr. ('11 t1111 h •t•,ok th •m ,•Iv H lo th tairn. ''l know n good Joki• you an piny," t>xl'lnim('(I Dolly urJd •nly . ·'You know mt>." Hnid n.· ton. ' 'You know th' 11uper11liti n. thnl if you go lo rm old WPII t 12 ,,'r.lock on hallowe· •n night and stand with your back to it nnd look in a mirror you will $~C the foe of our future husband if it is n girl or hh1 wif· if a man. Marjorie is going to the old well in thl:! pasture tonight. Now don't you t JJ," xplain d Dolly. "You'r all right Dolly," said axton, "M for thew II." A half hour before twelve Mr. Hutchins I ft the house and went to th well . After carefully punching around in the w 11 with a pole to make sur(• th •re wa no water in it, climbed in and slid down to the bottom. In a few minutes he heard a noise above and saw a flgur in the moonlight. It stood still a moment and then jumped in beside him. Mr. Hutchins jumped up and caught Caxton and Caxton yelled and clutched Hutchins. Mr. Hutchins recognized his voice, "Caxton, what are you doing here?" "What is that to you, you don't own this well do you," returned 'axton. "I did not say I owned it. Still I think I own as much of it as you do. What brought you here? ' said Hutchins. "Oh. I saw you come out here and I just followed to see what you were go- ing to do. Thot maybe you were going to commit suicide." explained axton stopping to pat himself on the back. "If I had I shouldn't have asked you to save me. It isn't any of your business why I came' here, but if you must know, I came here to smoke." Oh, what a nice smoking den. Pretty pictures on th wall" said Caxton sarcastically. Just then voices \Yere heard above, ''Say fellers, how far are you going to carry this old gate, all the way to Indiana?'· "Ah! you're lazy. Still I think we've carried it far enough. Let's chuck it down on top of this old well." They heard the sound of a heavy object falling and they saw grated bars between them and the moonlight. "Let's dump all these gates on here." The sound of many heavy objects as these were dropped. ·'Now let's run that wagon down on top" said some one. "Keep still," said Hutchins, "it would be awful if they caught us here." They heard the rumble and then the era h as the wagon landed on top the gates. "Well we're shut in now for sure,'.' said Hutchins. "We're behind the bars at any rate," replied Caxton. "I'm going to try to get out," said Hutchins. "Oh don't go so soon. Wait until you finish your cigar. What's the use of having a smoking room. Be sure and shut the gate after you. The cattle might get in," said Caxton as Hutchins climbed to the top. He tried to push the gates a, ide but they would not budge. He lid back to the bottom. ·'Back