Yr Ynys Unyg | Page 4

and only now did fearful doubts, and vain regrets, and sad forebodings oppress my heart, and take possession of my mind. With striking vividness I recalled how, mainly to please myself and amuse my mind, I had projected and finally carried out this expedition; how I had covered my own private wishes and thoughts under the plea of the good it would do my little boy, the benefit it was to all young people to enlarge their minds by travelling and experience, the novelty of the adventure, and the sort of certain uncertainty which was to attend our steps and ways during the next eight months, thus giving the charm of novelty and singularity to the whole scheme. I know not how long I should have dwelt on these circumstances, had not the children come to wish me their wonted good night. Schillie declared I had moped enough, the girls were eager that together we should take our last view of England, for the breeze that carried us now so fast through the water bid fair to take us soon out of sight of land. The young soon lose the painful feelings of parting; besides, they were so delighted at being really off, they had been so fearful lest anything should occur to prevent one or all going, so as to destroy the unity, if I may so call it, of the party, that unmitigated pleasure alone pervaded them. This buoyancy of their feelings had as yet prevented any symptoms of illness, and I don't think there was a pale face amongst the party, save the little invalid and Smart, the gamekeeper. He sat silent and amazed between his two dogs, and, could we have analyzed his feelings, I have no doubt we should have been privy to most curious and contradictory ideas. Qualms were coming over him of various kinds, equally foreign to his nature. Probably, for the first time, he was experiencing fear and sickness at the same moment, and quite unable to understand the symptoms of either. The boys had not yet found out what made their dear Smart so dull and unlike himself, when they were so joyous and delighted. We all rose up, and went together to watch the fading land. Various exclamations proved how much our thoughts dwelt on that beloved shore, and long after my short sight had deemed it passed from view did my dear girls exclaim, "they yet saw it; there were still lights." But Captain MacNab wanted his deck to himself, so with cheerful good nights, the moon being up, we descended to take our first meal on board, and use those narrow couches at which we were so much amused, and which the children had been longing to try from the moment they came on board. Such a noisy tea never was, interrupted now and then by a lurching of the vessel, which was such a new thing to us that all started, some in fear, some in fun, and some, I must own, with other feelings not very agreeable. The oddity of having nothing steady on our swinging table, the laughing at the pale looks that flitted across the faces of others, the grave determination with which little Winny declared "that now she was really a sailor, she would only eat ship biscuit," caused intense merriment. But ere tea was over one or two of our party disappeared, and when twelve o'clock arrived Captain MacNab had La Luna all to himself and his men, for the feminine crew were deep in slumber, caused by the, to them, unusual motion of the sea, and the unwonted excitement of the day.
CHAPTER II.
May 4.--The next morning there were many defaulters, myself amongst the number. In lieu of the laughter and joy of the preceding evening, there were groans, and moans, and beseechings for tea or a drink of water. Sybil, Gatty, and Serena all rose valiantly; Gatty scornfully repudiating the possibility of being ill. But it was in vain, "the loftiest spirit was lowliest laid." The little girls rather courted the notion. Being ill in bed of course precluded the idea of lessons, with which a certain portion of every day had been threatened, and as they lay in bed thus they discoursed:--
Zo?.--"I really do not think it will be pleasant if we are to be like this all the time."
Lilly.--"Oh, Zo?, I am so snug, I have got a nice book to read, and there will be no playing on the piano to-day."
Winny.--"Oh! I am very sorry for that. If I did not feel so funny, I should like to go and play very much. But I am glad we are to have no French. Jenny says Madame is very ill indeed, and I think I heard her groan once."
Zo?.--"Groan,