Dotty Dimple at Play | Page 6

a lady's chair made by two admiring little girls.
"There was one thing I didn't tell," said Emily, who felt obliged to pour
her whole history into her new friend's ears; "I was sick last spring, and
had a fever. If it had been scarlet fever I should have died; but it was
imitation of scarlet fever, and I got well."
"I'm glad you got well," said Dotty, rather tired of Emily's troubles;
"but don't you want to play with the other girls? I do."
"Yes; let us play Rollo on the Ocean," cried Octavia, who was Emily's
bosom friend, and was seldom away from her long at a time, but had
just now been devoting herself to Katie. "Here is the ship. All aboard!"

CHAPTER III
.

PLAYING SHIP.
Now this ship was an old wagon-body, and had never been in water
deeper than a mud puddle. A dozen little girls climbed in with great
bustle and confusion, pretending they were walking a plank and
climbing up some steps. After they were fairly on board they waved
their handkerchiefs for a good by to their friends on shore. Then
Octavia fired peas out of a little popgun twice, and this was meant as a
long farewell to the land. Now they were fairly out on the ocean, and
began to rock back and forth, as if tossed by a heavy sea.
"See how the waves rise!" said Emily, and threw up her hands with an
undulating motion. "I can see them," she cried, an intent look coming
into her closed eyes; "they are green, with white bubbles like soap suds.
And the sun shines on them so! O, 'tis as beautiful as flowers!"
"Booful as flowers!" echoed Flyaway, who was one of the passengers;
while Dotty wondered how Octavia knew the difference between green
and white. She did not know; and what sort of a picture she painted in
her mind of the mysterious sea I am sure I cannot tell.
"Now," said Miriam Lake, the prettiest of the children, "it is time to
strike the bells."
So she struck a tea-bell with a stick eight times.
"That is eight bells," explained she to Dotty, "and it means four o'clock.
But, Jennie Holiday, where is the kitten? Why, we are not half ready."
The children never thought they could play "ship" without a kitten, a
gray and white one which they put into a cage just as Jennie Holiday
did, when she and Rollo travelled by themselves from New York to
Liverpool. When the kitten had been brought, they had got as far as
Long Island Sound, and they said the kitten was sent by a ship of war
which had to be "spoken."
"This is a funny way to play," said Miriam. "Here we are at Halifax,
and nobody has heaved the log yet."
"No," said Octavia; "so we can't tell how many knots an hour we are
going."
"_I'm_ going a great many knocks," cried Katie, whose exertions in
rocking from side to side had thrown her overboard once.
"We never'll get to Liverpool in this world," said Emily, "unless Miss
Percival comes and steers the ship."
It happened at that very moment that Miss Percival came into the yard

with aunt Maria.
"If you will excuse me, Mrs. Clifford," said she, laughing, "I will take
command of this ship."
"No apologies are necessary," replied Mrs. Clifford. "I should be very
glad to watch your proceedings. Is it possible, Miss Percival, that you
are capable of guiding a vessel across the Atlantic?"
"I have often tried it," said Miss Percival, going on board; "but we
sometimes have a shipwreck."
"Emily," said she, "you may heave the log." So Emily rose, and taking
a large spool of crochet-cotton which Miss Percival gave her, held it
above her head, turning it slowly, till a tatting shuttle, which was
fastened at the end of the thread, fell to the ground. This was supposed
to be the "log;" and Octavia, with one or two other girls, pretended to
tug with much force in order to draw it in, for the ship was going so
fast that the friction against the cord was very great. Knots had been
made in the cotton, over which Emily ran her quick fingers.
"Ten knots an hour," said she.
"Very good speed," returned the captain. "I do not think we shall be
able to take an observation to-day, as it is rather cloudy."
Sailors "take observations" at noon, if the sun is out, by means of a
sextant, with which they measure the distance from the sun to the
southern horizon. In this way the captain can tell the exact latitude of
the ship; but Miss Percival made believe there was a storm coming up;
so it