Digs and Finds what he did not Expect. 83

 

the lever and the wheel-and-axle are the same in
kind, or that the screw, the inclined plane, and the
wedge are the same power in different shapes; but
he did understand that while a single pulley gives
you no advantage except by enabling you to apply
your strength in the most effective manner, a second
pulley takes half the weight off you. Hence, with
the difficulty in which he now found himself, came
at once the thought of a block with a pulley in it,
which he had seen lying about in the carpenter's
shop. He remembered also that there was a great
iron staple or eye in the vault just over the well;
and if he could only get hold of a second pulley,
the thing was as good as done—the well as good as
cleared out to whatever depth he could reach below
the water.

A\s soon as school was over, he ran to Mr Spel-
man, and found to his delight that he could lend
him not only that pulley but another as well. Each
ran in a block which had an iron hook attached to it,
With the aid of a ladder he put the hook of one of
the blocks through the staple, and then fastened the
end of his rope to the block. Next he got another
bit of rope, and having pulled off his shoes and
stockings, and got down into the well, tied it round
the largest stone within reach, loosely enough to
allow the hook of the second pulley to lay hold of
it. Then, as a sailor would say, he rove the end of
the long rope through this block, and getting up on