r-up-and-down-thing!"

Aunt Jo knew right away what Margy meant.

"She must be stuck in the dumbwaiter--that we pull up and down between
the kitchen and the laundry," she said. "Are you there, Margy?" she
asked as she opened a door in the side wall of the kitchen.

And then, up the shaft, came the voice of the little girl:

"Yes, I'm in here and I can't go down and I can't get up. Oh, dear!"

"Now don't cry! Mother is here," said Mrs. Bunker. "And so is Aunt Jo.
We'll get you up in a minute. Don't be afraid."

Aunt Jo ran downstairs and looked up the dumbwaiter shaft. She could see
the box-like waiter stuck halfway up, but of course she could not see
Margy. A dumbwaiter is like a little elevator, except that, as a rule,
no one rides in it. It is used to pull things up and down between two
rooms, when a person does not want to use the stairs.

"I see what's the matter," said Aunt Jo, as she looked up the shaft once
more. "Margy's foot stuck out over the edge of the box, in which she
climbed to have a ride, and the waiter can't slide up and down. Her foot
wedges it fast."

"Can we get it loose?" asked Mother Bunker.

"Oh, yes, easily, I think. Get me my long-handled parasol, Parker. I'll
reach that up the shaft and push Margy's foot loose. Then the
dumbwaiter, with her in it, will slide down."

And that is just what happened. With the end of the parasol, not pushing
so hard as to hurt, Aunt Jo shoved loose Margy's foot. Then the
dumbwaiter, which was a sort of open box, slid down on the rope that ran
over a pulley-wheel, and Margy was lifted out. She had been crying and
was frightened, but she felt all right when her mother took her in her
arms and kissed her.

"How did you come to do it?" asked Mrs. Bunker.

"I came down to the laundry to dry my rubber doll after I'd washed her,"
said Margy, "and I put her by the fire. One day I saw Parker give a lot
of bars of soap a ride on the go-up-and-down-thing."

"Yes, I do use the dumbwaiter for that," said the cook.

"Then I thought I could get a ride if the soap got a ride," went on
Margy. "So, when Parker was out by the garage I went up in the kitchen,
and I stood on a chair, I did, and I crawled into the go-up-and-down-thing,
and it went down with me. But it didn't go all the way down. It stuck and
I couldn't have a nice ride."

"I should say not!" cried Mrs. Bunker. "And you mustn't do such a thing
again. You might have been hurt when you got your foot caugh