“OH, HERE’S ELIZABETH! SHE CAME BACK TO ME!”Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on the Rolling Ocean.Page119
“OH, HERE’S ELIZABETH! SHE CAME BACK TO ME!”Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on the Rolling Ocean.Page119
“OH, HERE’S ELIZABETH! SHE CAME BACK TO ME!”Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on the Rolling Ocean.Page119
“OH, HERE’S ELIZABETH! SHE CAME BACK TO ME!”
Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on the Rolling Ocean.Page119
“That looks like a little girl’s skirts!” thought Mr. Brown.
Then the wave broke some distance away from where he and the children were standing, and the fluttering white object came washing up along the deck and straight for Sue.
“Oh, here’s Elizabeth! She came back to me!” cried the little girl. “Elizabeth went overboard, but she isn’t drowned!”
Then she made a grab for and picked up—her big doll!
The sailors who had been getting ready to lower the boat and toss out life-rings looked in wonder at Sue clasping the wet and soaking doll. But Sue was happy—she did not care.
“Well, shiver my timbers!” cried one of the men as he shook the salty spray from his face. “I thought she meant a little girl was overboard!”
“So did I,” said another.
“Sue,” said her father a bit sternly, “whom did you mean when you said Elizabeth went overboard?”
“Why, Elizabeth! My doll, of course!” answered Sue. “Here she is. Elizabeth is my best doll. I brought her up to look at the storm and a wave washed her away.”
“And another wave washed her back again!” cried Bunny.
“That’s it,” agreed Sue.
Strange as it may seem, that is just what had happened. Of course it was only the crest, or top part, of the wave that had come aboard, snatched Sue’s doll out of her hands and carried it away. If the whole, big wave had come aboard there might have been no Bunny Brown and his sister Sue left.
“You shouldn’t have cried out that way about just a doll,” said Sue’s father, as he led the children back to the sheltered cabin. “The men thought you meant a real child.”
“Well, Elizabeth is real,” declared Sue. “She’s a real doll and she’s my child.” And nothing Mr. or Mrs. Brown could say would make Sue believe she had done anything wrong.
Later Mr. Brown told the sailors how sorry he was that his little girl had caused themsuch a fright, making them think a real child had gone over the rail.
“Oh, we don’t mind that,” laughed one of the men. “We’re only too glad to know it was only a doll and that the little girl has it back again.”
Though Sue had her doll, the salt water had spoiled some of the clothes. But Elizabeth’s little mistress did not mind, for she said they were going to the West Indies where it would be so warm that Elizabeth would need few clothes.
The storm raged all the remainder of that day and far into the night. But when morning dawned the wind went down and the rain ceased, though the waves were still high and would be for another day or so. Big storms at sea do not pass as quickly as they do on shore, for the ocean keeps up its restless, heaving motion.
TheBeaconcame out of the hurricane with little damage as far as could be seen. Though later Captain Ward blamed the storm for something very strange and serious that happened. That is, it was serious for a time.
With the ceasing of the storm, Bunny and Sue were allowed to go out on deck the next day. They both enjoyed this, for it was no fun to be “cooped up,” as Bunny called it, in one of the cabins. The staterooms where the Brown family slept were too small to sit in except for a few minutes, so when they wanted to talk or when the children wanted to play games they did so in one of the larger cabins, or saloons, as they are called.
Every hour it seemed to be getting warmer, now that theBeaconwas getting well into the south. The wind that blew across her decks was as balmy as the hot breezes of summer, though this was only early spring, or had been when Bunny and Sue left Bellemere.
“It’s always summer in the south, isn’t it, Daddy?” asked Sue of her father when she and her brother were talking about the warm weather.
“Well, yes, it is if you go far enough south,” he said. “They don’t have winter in the far south, but they have what is called the rainy season, and that at times is worse thanour winter, though it is never cold. But it is very wet—raining every day for months, some times more than once a day.”
“You’d have to carry an umbrella all the while, wouldn’t you?” inquired Bunny.
“Yes. And rubber boots, too,” his father answered.
“And maybe a rubber coat,” said Sue.
“Well, a rubber coat would be too warm,” said her father. “But I don’t believe we shall have much rain, as this isn’t the season for it down here.”
That afternoon Bunny tried to get Sue to come up on deck and play another game of toss with the rope rings. But Sue said:
“I’m going to make a new dress for Elizabeth.”
“Oh, all right,” sighed Bunny.
He wished Sue would play with him, but as she would not he wandered into the dining saloon. One of the stewards was setting the tables, getting ready for the evening meal, though the time for eating was some hours off.
Bunny looked at the white tablecloths, thesparkling silver and glasses. Seeing the tables being made ready, made the little boy think that he was hungry.
If Bunny had been at home he would have gone to the kitchen to ask Julia for some crackers or a piece of cake, and he did not see any reason why he should not ask this steward for something. So Bunny did it, very delicately, by saying:
“Do you ever have any crackers?”
“You mean, do I ever eat any biscuits?” asked the steward, with a smile.
“No, I mean crackers! And I mean do you ever give hungry boys some?” went on Bunny.
“Oh, I see what you mean!” laughed the man. “We call them biscuits in England where I came from. But over here, in the States, I believe they call them crackers. So you want a biscuit, my little man?”
“I’d like some crackers, yes, thank you,” said Bunny.
“Well, the pantry steward, Mr. Jobson, is getting out some sweet cakes and biscuits for dinner this evening. He is in number two storeroom, down that passage,” and the manpointed. “If you go there and ask him, I’m quite sure he’ll give you a cake of some sort.”
“Thank you,” replied Bunny. “I’ll go ask him.”
The steward who was setting the tables pointed out the way Bunny was to go—first to the end of the passage, then down a flight of steps, and then he would find himself in the storeroom corridor. He was to walk along that until he saw an open door. This would be storeroom number two and Mr. Jobson would be in there.
Thanking his new friend again, Bunny set off. He went first to tell Sue he would get her a cookie. Then he found his way to the storeroom corridor and proceeded along a somewhat darkened passage until he saw light streaming out from an open door.
Bunny reached this open door and looked in. He could see on the shelves many cans of food and packages of crackers and cakes. But he saw nothing of Mr. Jobson.
“I guess he’s inside, farther back,” thought Bunny. “I’ll go in and ask him for a cookie. I’ll get one for Sue, too.”
Stepping within the room, in which a single electric light was burning, Bunny called:
“Hello, Mr. Jobson! Will you please give me some cookies?”
There was no answer, and, thinking he had not made himself heard, Bunny stepped farther into the room and toward the back. Again he called.
Presently he heard a sliding noise and he turned in time to see the door by which he had entered closing. It ran along a brass rail and snapped shut with a click.
“I guess it locked itself!” exclaimed Bunny. “I’m locked in! But I guess Mr. Jobson can get me out! Hello, Mr. Jobson!” he called. “The door slammed shut and locked itself. Will you please open it and give me a cookie?”
No one answered Bunny Brown.