A BOY IN A WELL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XV, Issue 4722, 17 July 1890, Page 4

A BOY IN A WELL.

PLUCKY EFFORTS TO ESCAPE DEATH. A lively 14-year-old lad named Jones, la the country Cairo o£ Preston, Cjanrc ieat, has bad ao experiaoce, tho mecnory of which win abide with him. Ii the rear of his homo is a very deep well, the curbing of which is of s*c'.!ocb ef big drain tiles smoothly dovetailed to* gather. In leaning over :fco wall to re* covi r hi* jaekkoife, which had fallen oo the edge of the well, ho lost hia balance, and plaosed h»ad brat down the dark cylinder. It is 45 feet to tha water and 15 feet farther to tbo bottom. The boy caught the well rope, hat went to the bottom in an iostant. Taen he cime to the surface, and being i»o export swimmer easily k?p> bimse'f afloat. He called for help, bat evidently his voice barely soared to the sutfacj of the earth. He swam around the aides of the perpecdlcolar prison a fo* times, and the desperate nature of Lit condition was ap* parent, Bat he W3S plucky. If he kept on swimming loo?, he reasoned, be would soon be exhausted and sink. So he managed to Sx his head and shoulders against ooe side of the well aod his feet against tbe opposite ooe, aod in thv, position rested several minneeir. He then g»ud upward. The tail shaft narowed like a tunnel above kim. aod a>, tbe top was cipped by a round segment of blue sky, which seemed immensely far away. The boy decided to make ao effort to climb to the top of tbe well. The well tiling is vary wide, bot tho boy was barefooted and his muscular toes aod Sogers stack to tbe smooth carb like tho feelers of a leech. Be began to crawl upward. Ho went slowly and without a slip until he was within a foot or two of the top of the abaft, and then saddeoly his clutch slipped and a second time he shot down the well, going to the bottom. Ho came to tbe surface of tbe water quickly, and after a moment's rest again began bis toilsome upward climb, and again, when within a foot of tbo top, he lest his hold and plonged again to tbo bottom. A third time he essayed the feat, aod tbat time whs successful. He polled himself cat of tbe shaft, stepped over the well curb, and fell breathless aod exhausted on tbe groaod. The flsab had been stripped from bis Sogers by the cutting strain of the drain tiles and his linger nails were worn to tbe quick.