"Break, break, break And mis-behave, O sea, And I wish that my tongue could utter The hatred I feel for thee!
"Oh, well for the fisherman"s child On the sandy beach at his play; Oh, well for all sensible folk Who are safe at home to-day!
"But this horrible ship keeps on, And is never a moment still, And I yearn for the touch of the nice dry land, Where I needn"t feel so ill!
"Break! break! break!
There is no good left in me; For the dinner I ate on the sh.o.r.e so late Has vanished into the sea!"
Laughter is very restorative after the forlornity of sea-sickness; and Katy was so stimulated by her letter that she managed to struggle into her dressing-gown and slippers and across the entry to Mrs. Ashe"s stateroom. Amy had fallen asleep at last and must not be waked up, so their interview was conducted in whispers. Mrs. Ashe had by no means got to the tea-and-toast stage yet, and was feeling miserable enough.
"I have had the most dreadful time with Amy," she said. "All day yesterday, when she wasn"t sick she was raging at me from the upper berth, and I too ill to say a word in reply. I never knew her so naughty! And it seemed very neglectful not to come to see after you, poor dear child! but really I couldn"t raise my head."
"Neither could I, and I felt just as guilty not to be taking care of you," said Katy. "Well, the worst is over with all of us, I hope. The vessel doesn"t pitch half so much now, and the stewardess says we shall feel a great deal better as soon as we get on deck. She is coming presently to help me up; and when Amy wakes, won"t you let her be dressed, and I will take care of her while Mrs. Barrett attends to you."
"I don"t think I can be dressed," sighed poor Mrs. Ashe. "I feel as if I should just lie here till we get to Liverpool."
"Oh no, h"indeed, mum,--no, you won"t," put in Mrs. Barrett, who at that moment appeared, gruel-cup in hand. "I don"t never let my ladies lie in their berths a moment longer than there is need of. I h"always gets them on deck as soon as possible to get the h"air. It"s the best medicine you can "ave, ma"am, the fresh h"air; h"indeed it h"is."
Stewardesses are all-powerful on board ship, and Mrs. Barrett was so persuasive as well as positive that it was not possible to resist her.
She got Katy into her dress and wraps, and seated her on deck in a chair with a great rug wrapped about her feet, with very little effort on Katy"s part. Then she dived down the companion-way again, and in the course of an hour appeared escorting a big burly steward, who carried poor little pale Amy in his arms as easily as though she had been a kitten. Amy gave a scream of joy at the sight of Katy, and cuddled down in her lap under the warm rug with a sigh of relief and satisfaction.
"I thought I was never going to see you again," she said, with a little squeeze. "Oh, Miss Katy, it has been so horrid! I never thought that going to Europe meant such dreadful things as this!"
"This is only the beginning; we shall get across the sea in a few days, and then we shall find out what going to Europe really means. But what made you behave so, Amy, and cry and scold poor mamma when she was sick?
I could hear you all the way across the entry."
"Could you? Then why didn"t you come to me?"
"I wanted to; but I was sick too, so sick that I couldn"t move. But why were you so naughty?--you didn"t tell me."
"I didn"t mean to be naughty, but I couldn"t help crying. You would have cried too, and so would Johnnie, if you had been cooped up in a dreadful old berth at the top of the wall that you couldn"t get out of, and hadn"t had anything to eat, and n.o.body to bring you any water when you wanted some. And mamma wouldn"t answer when I called to her."
"She couldn"t answer; she was too ill," explained Katy. "Well, my pet, it _was_ pretty hard for you. I hope we sha"n"t have any more such days.
The sea is a great deal smoother now."
"Mabel looks quite pale; she was sick, too," said Amy, regarding the doll in her arms with an anxious air. "I hope the fresh h"air will do her good."
"Is she going to have any fresh hair?" asked Katy, wilfully misunderstanding.
"That was what that woman called it,--the fat one who made me come up here. But I"m glad she did, for I feel heaps better already; only I keep thinking of poor little Maria Matilda shut up in the trunk in that dark place, and wondering if she"s sick. There"s n.o.body to explain to her down there."
"They say that you don"t feel the motion half so much in the bottom of the ship," said Katy. "Perhaps she hasn"t noticed it at all. Dear me, how good something smells! I wish they would bring us something to eat."
A good many pa.s.sengers had come up by this time; and Robert, the deck steward, was going about, tray in hand, taking orders for lunch. Amy and Katy both felt suddenly ravenous; and when Mrs. Ashe awhile later was helped up the stairs, she was amazed to find them eating cold beef and roasted potatoes, with the finest appet.i.tes in the world. "They had served out their apprenticeships," the kindly old captain told them, "and were made free of the nautical guild from that time on." So it proved; for after these two bad days none of the party were sick again during the voyage.
Amy had a clamorous appet.i.te for stories as well as for cold beef; and to appease this craving, Katy started a sort of ocean serial, called "The History of Violet and Emma," which she meant to make last till they got to Liverpool, but which in reality lasted much longer. It might with equal propriety have been called "The Adventures of two little Girls who didn"t have any Adventures," for nothing in particular happened to either Violet or Emma during the whole course of their long-drawn-out history. Amy, however, found them perfectly enchanting, and was never weary of hearing how they went to school and came home again, how they got into sc.r.a.pes and got out of them, how they made good resolutions and broke them, about their Christmas presents and birthday treats, and what they said and how they felt. The first instalment of this un-exciting romance was given that first afternoon on deck; and after that, Amy claimed a new chapter daily, and it was a chief ingredient of her pleasure during the voyage.
On the third morning Katy woke and dressed so early, that she gained the deck before the sailors had finished their scrubbing and holystoning.
She took refuge within the companion-way, and sat down on the top step of the ladder, to wait till the deck was dry enough to venture upon it.
There the Captain found her and drew near for a talk.
Captain Bryce was exactly the kind of sea-captain that is found in story-books, but not always in real life. He was stout and grizzled and brown and kind. He had a bluff weather-beaten face, lit up with a pair of shrewd blue eyes which twinkled when he was pleased; and his manner, though it was full of the habit of command, was quiet and pleasant. He was a Martinet on board his ship. Not a sailor under him would have dared dispute his orders for a moment; but he was very popular with them, notwithstanding; they liked him as much as they feared him, for they knew him to be their best friend if it came to sickness or trouble with any of them.
Katy and he grew quite intimate during their long morning talk. The Captain liked girls. He had one of his own, about Katy"s age, and was fond of talking about her. Lucy was his mainstay at home, he told Katy.
Her mother had been "weakly" now this long time back, and Bess and Nanny were but children yet, so Lucy had to take command and keep things ship-shape when he was away.
"She"ll be on the lookout when the steamer comes in," said the Captain.
"There"s a signal we"ve arranged which means "All"s well," and when we get up the river a little way I always look to see if it"s flying. It"s a bit of a towel hung from a particular window; and when I see it I say to myself, "Thank G.o.d! another voyage safely done and no harm come of it." It"s a sad kind of work for a man to go off for a twenty-four days"
cruise leaving a sick wife on sh.o.r.e behind him. If it wasn"t that I have Lucy to look after things, I should have thrown up my command long ago."
"Indeed, I am glad you have Lucy; she must be a great comfort to you,"
said Katy, sympathetically; for the Captain"s hearty voice trembled a little as he spoke. She made him tell her the color of Lucy"s hair and eyes, and exactly how tall she was, and what she had studied, and what sort of books she liked. She seemed such a very nice girl, and Katy thought she should like to know her.
The deck had dried fast in the fresh sea-wind, and the Captain had just arranged Katy in her chair, and was wrapping the rug about her feet in a fatherly way, when Mrs. Barrett, all smiles, appeared from below.
"Oh, "ere you h"are, Miss. I couldn"t think what "ad come to you so early; and you"re looking ever so well again, I"m pleased to see; and "ere"s a bundle just arrived, Miss, by the Parcels Delivery."
"What!" cried simple Katy. Then she laughed at her own foolishness, and took the "bundle," which was directed in Rose"s unmistakable hand.
It contained a pretty little green-bound copy of Emerson"s Poems, with Katy"s name and "To be read at sea," written on the flyleaf. Somehow the little gift seemed to bridge the long misty distance which stretched between the vessel"s stern and Boston Bay, and to bring home and friends a great deal nearer. With a half-happy, half-tearful pleasure Katy recognized the fact that distance counts for little if people love one another, and that hearts have a telegraph of their own whose messages are as sure and swift as any of those sent over the material lines which link continent to continent and sh.o.r.e with sh.o.r.e.
Later in the morning, Katy, going down to her stateroom for something, came across a pallid, exhausted-looking lady, who lay stretched on one of the long sofas in the cabin, with a baby in her arms and a little girl sitting at her feet, quite still, with a pair of small hands folded in her lap. The little girl did not seem to be more than four years old.
She had two pig-tails of thick flaxen hair hanging over her shoulders, and at Katy"s approach raised a pair of solemn blue eyes, which had so much appeal in them, though she said nothing, that Katy stopped at once.
"Can I do anything for you?" she asked. "I am afraid you have been very ill."
At the sound of her voice the lady on the sofa opened her eyes. She tried to speak, but to Katy"s dismay began to cry instead; and when the words came they were strangled with sobs.
"You are so kin-d to ask," she said. "If you would give my little girl something to eat! She has had nothing since yesterday, and I have been so ill; and no-n.o.body has c-ome near us!"
"Oh!" cried Katy, with horror, "nothing to eat since yesterday! How did it happen?"
"Everybody has been sick on our side the ship," explained the poor lady, "and I suppose the stewardess thought, as I had a maid with me, that I needed her less than the others. But my maid has been sick, too; and oh, so selfish! She wouldn"t even take the baby into the berth with her; and I have had all I could do to manage with him, when I couldn"t lift up my head. Little Gretchen has had to go without anything; and she has been so good and patient!"
Katy lost no time, but ran for Mrs. Barrett, whose indignation knew no bounds when she heard how the helpless party had been neglected.
"It"s a new person that stewardess h"is, ma"am," she explained, "and most h"inefficient! I told the Captain when she come aboard that I didn"t "ave much opinion of her, and now he"ll see how it h"is. I"m h"ashamed that such a thing should "appen on the "Spartacus," ma"am,--I h"am, h"indeed. H"it never would "ave ben so h"under h"Eliza, ma"am,--she"s the one that went h"off and got herself married the trip before last, when this person came to take her place."
All the time that she talked Mrs. Barrett was busy in making Mrs.
Ware--for that, it seemed, was the sick lady"s name--more comfortable; and Katy was feeding Gretchen out of a big bowl full of bread and milk which one of the stewards had brought. The little uncomplaining thing was evidently half starved, but with the mouthfuls the pink began to steal back into her cheeks and lips, and the dark circles lessened under the blue eyes. By the time the bottom of the bowl was reached she could smile, but still she said not a word except a whispered _Danke schon_.
Her mother explained that she had been born in Germany, and always till now had been cared for by a German nurse, so that she knew that language better than English.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Katy was feeding Gretchen out of a big bowl full of bread and milk.]
Gretchen was a great amus.e.m.e.nt to Katy and Amy during the rest of the voyage. They kept her on deck with them a great deal, and she was perfectly content with them and very good, though always solemn and quiet. Pleasant people turned up among the pa.s.sengers, as always happens on an ocean steamship, and others not so pleasant, perhaps, who were rather curious and interesting to watch.
Katy grew to feel as if she knew a great deal about her fellow travellers as time went on. There was the young girl going out to join her parents under the care of a severe governess, whom everybody on board rather pitied. There was the other girl on her way to study art, who was travelling quite alone, and seemed to have n.o.body to meet her or to go to except a fellow student of her own age, already in Paris, but who seemed quite unconscious of her lonely position and competent to grapple with anything or anybody. There was the queer old gentleman who had "crossed" eleven times before, and had advice and experience to spare for any one who would listen to them; and the other gentleman, not so old but even more queer, who had "frozen his stomach," eight years before, by indulging, on a hot summer"s day, in sixteen successive ice-creams, alternated with ten gla.s.ses of equally cold soda-water, and who related this exciting experience in turn to everybody on board.
There was the bad little boy, whose parents were powerless to oppose him, and who carried terror to the hearts of all beholders whenever he appeared; and the pretty widow who filled the role of reigning belle; and the other widow, not quite so pretty or so much a belle, who had a good deal to say, in a voice made discreetly low, about what a pity it was that dear Mrs. So-and-so should do this or that, and "Doesn"t it strike you as very unfortunate that she should not consider" the other thing? A great sea-going steamer is a little world in itself, and gives one a glimpse of all sorts and conditions of people and characters.