Young Family

Samantha shot to her feet. "Prudence? Where are you?"

"Samantha?" she heard someone call out. To her surprise it was Wendell, not Prudence.

"Wendell? Did you find Prudence?"

"Yes."

"Where are you?"

"Over here."

"Samantha, be careful," Prudence said. "There's a hole. I think it's one of Mr. Pryde's hunting traps."

As Prudence spoke, Samantha followed the sound of her voice. She caught herself a step away from the gaping maw of the pit. Samantha got down on her knees so she could look down. The pit was dark, but she could see two shapes down there, one larger and one smaller, each highlighted by copper hair.

"Prudence! Thank God."

"Samantha! You found us."

"I'm so sorry, Prudence. I didn't mean those awful things I said. It was stupid. You're my best friend in the whole world."

"You're my best friend too. I'm sorry I was mean to you like the others. I just felt…hurt, I suppose. I didn't want to lose you."

Wendell cleared his throat. "Can you two talk about this above ground?"

"Right," Samantha said. She looked around for something to use as a rope. She didn't see any vines or anything else that might reach that far. Then she felt the stick in her hand she'd used to ward off the beast.

Samantha leaned over the pit so she could reach down as much as possible with the stick. "Can you grab that?"

She kept dangling the stick while she heard Wendell and Prudence grunting down there. Finally Prudence said, "It's too short!"

"Wait!" Wendell said. "If I climb on your shoulders again, then we can reach it."

Samantha could see the copper heads shifting around as they tried Wendell's plan. This was accompanied by more grunting and groaning, mostly on Prudence's part. "Ow! That's my face!" she shouted.

"Sorry," Wendell said.

"Are you almost ready?" Samantha said. Her right arm had started to burn with pain.

"Here we go," Wendell said. "Keep a hold of me. Then Samantha can pull us out."

Samantha felt the stick become heavy from Wendell's weight. She could see his face more clearly now that he was closer to the top. His face was smeared with dirt, but otherwise he seemed fine. "Here goes," Samantha said, mostly to herself.

She used both hands to pull as hard as she could. Try as she might, she couldn't get the stick to budge more than an inch. "It's too heavy!"

"It's my fault," Prudence said. "I'm too fat."

"Prudence-" Even as Samantha was going to protest, she felt some of the weight lift. The stick was still heavy, but with some straining she could pull it back up. About six inches from the top, Wendell scrambled up to the surface. He collapsed to the ground, where he lay panting and coughing from the effort. Samantha asked, "Are you all right?"