"Come, boys," said Mrs. Ross,
as her little sons rose from the dinner table; "it is
school time. Get your hats and go. Now, be sure you do not
play by the road, but go directly to school."
Edgar and Henry put on their hats, as
their mother bade them, and set off. But they had not gone
far, when they seemed to forget their mother's charge, and
began to loiter by the way, trying to find something with
which to amuse themselves.
At length the two boys came to a cellar,
over which a new house was about to be erected; but there were
no workmen there that day. Edgar and Henry thought they would
just go up to the cellar and look down, to see how deep it
was; and when they had done that, they began to walk and then
to run around on the stones that were set for the underpinning
of the building. One of the stones, being a little loose, gave
way while their feet were upon it, and down both boys tumbled
into the cellar, and were so much injured as to be helpless
and senseless. Their mother, supposing that the boys had
obeyed orders and gone to school, thought nothing about them
until tea time, when, as they did not appear, she became
alarmed, and set out in search of them.
She went first to the school-house, but
she found it locked up. She then went to the teacher's house,
who informed her that Edgar and Henry had not been to school
that afternoon. Mrs. Ross then went off into a pasture field,
and called her boys by name, as loud as she could, but she
received no answer. She now hurried home as fast as she could,
hoping that they had returned in her absence. As she was
passing the new cellar, she thought she heard a child crying;
and when she listened a moment, she thought that the voice
sounded like little Henry's. So she ran up close to the
cellar, but could see nothing distinctly, as it was now
getting dark. She then called, "Henry! Henry!" The
boy replied, that he had fallen into the cellar, and could not
get out. His mother helped him out, and then asked him where
his brother was. The child was so bewildered that he could
recollect nothing distinctly, but said he believed Edgar had
gone to school.
When Henry was carried home, it was
found that his head was dreadfully bruised; and, as quick as
possible, the Doctor was sent for. Some of the neighbors took
lanterns, and went immediately to the place where Henry was
found, in the hope of hearing something of Edgar. One man
jumped down into the cellar, and there found Edgar, with his
arm and leg both fastened under the big stone that had fallen
down from the top. At first they thought him dead; but after a
little time he revived, though it was some hours before he
could tell anything about the accident. Both limbs, upon which
the stone had fallen, were badly crushed, and it was a long
time before he got entirely well.
Sometimes, when he would be groaning,
his mother would say, with tears in her eyes, "Poor
Edgar, how I pity you!" "Mother," Edgar would
say, "I deserve it all. If I had gone straight to school,
instead of playing truant, I would never have suffered this
pain. I will never disobey you any more."
