Addison explained his plan to the rest of us. He sent Thomas and me to
lead several of our horses up through the woods to the pond. We ran all
the way; and we took the whippletrees off the double wagons, and brought
all the spare rope halters. Within an hour we were back there with four
of the strongest horses.
Meanwhile the others had been busy; even Ben had been persuaded to drop
his drilling and to help the other boys cut the great lever--a straight
spruce tree forty or forty-five feet tall. The girls, too, had worked;
they had even helped us drag the two spruce logs for the lever to slide
on. In fact, every one had worked with might and main in a kind of
breathless anxiety, for Rufus's very life seemed to be hanging on the
success of our exertions.
A few feet to the left of the fallen rock was another boulder that
served admirably for a fulcrum, and before long we had the big lever in
place with the end of the short arm bearing against the fallen slab.
When we had attached the horses to the farther end, Addison gave the
word to start. As the horses gathered themselves for the pull we watched
anxiously. The great log lever, which was more than a foot in diameter,
bent visibly as they lunged forward.
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