I do not necessarily think that the Tucks had to carry Winnie off. They could have left her in the woods by the spring and simply run away. They chose to grab Winnie and haul her away with them.
First she was kneeling on the ground, insisting on a drink from the spring, and the next thing she knew, she was seized and swung through the air, open-mouthed, and found herself straddling the bouncing back of the fat old horse, with Miles and Jesse trotting along on either side, while Mae ran puffing ahead, dragging on the bridle.
I believe that the Tucks chose that line of action because they panicked.
"This is awful!" said Jesse. "Can't you do something, Ma? The poor little tad."
"We ought to've had some better plan than this," said Miles.
"That's the truth," said Mae helplessly. . . "But I never expected it'd be a child!"
The reason that the Tuck family panicked was because they were unprepared for their discoverer to be a child. They knew that sooner or later the spring would be found, but it never occurred to them that the person who found it would be anything other than an adult.
Carrying Winnie off was, first, possible. They could physically do it. They could not have done that to an adult male. Second, Winnie (as a child) wasn't likely capable of putting up much of a fight. Lastly, Winnie wasn't likely to go with the Tucks by her own choice. I'm sure that her overprotective family drilled "stranger danger" into her head. Carrying Winnie off was likely the fastest and easiest solution at that particular moment, though perhaps not a smart decision.
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