Yr Ynys Unyg | Page 5

did you? then she must be very bad. I don't wish her to groan much, but I don't mind if she is sick always from ten until two. You know mother promised we should do no lessons after two. Here is Jenny. Why, Jenny, what is the matter with you?"
Jenny.--"Indeed, Miss, I don't know; but just as I was fastening Miss Sybil's dress, I felt so queer, and I was so ashamed, I was obliged to sit down before all the young ladies."
All the little girls at once exclaimed, "Ah, Jenny, Jenny, you know you are sea-sick." "No, indeed, young ladies," exclaimed Jenny, vehemently, "I am sure it is no such thing; but Master Felix would have some cold beef with Worcester sauce for his breakfast, and that gave me a turn, it has such a strong smell." But ere Jenny had well got the words out of her mouth, nature asserted her rights, and after an undeniable fit, she reeled off to bed, and was a victim for three days. Hargrave, my maid, being of a stolid, determined, sort of stoical character, announced her intention of not giving way; and though a victim, or rather martyr, she never suffered a sign to appear, or neglected one thing that she was asked to do, or showed the smallest feeling on the occasion beyond a general sense of dissatisfaction at all things connected with the sea. But of all our sufferers none equalled my poor cousin. Not a word was to be got out of her, but short pithy anathemas against everybody that came near her, everybody that spoke to her, every lurch the ship made, every noise overhead; an expression of pity caused an explosion of wrath, a hope that she was better a wish that she was dead, and an offer of assistance a command to be gone out of her sight. Neither of the boys suffered in the least. And now the increased motion of the vessel, the noise overhead, and various other signs told us that the lovely smooth ocean, on whose bosom we had trusted ourselves, for some cause unknown to us was considerably disturbed, internally or externally. It was impossible for any land-lubbers to stand; it was equally impossible to eat in the form prescribed by the rules of polite society, food being snatched at a venture, and not always arriving at the mouth for which it was originally intended. One or two were pitched out of their cots, and a murmuring of fear that this should be a tempest, and that we were going to be wrecked, caused a message to be sent to Captain MacNab to know whereabouts we were, for no one liked to be first to acknowledge fear or expose our ignorance to the Captain, who had good-humouredly rallied some on what they would do and say in case of bad weather. Therefore the question of whereabouts are we seemed a very safe one, likely to obtain the real news we wanted without exposing our fears to the captain. In answer, we received a message to say we were near the Bay of Biscay and as there was a very pretty sea, we should do well to come up and look at it. "Come up and look at it?" that showed at once that no shipwreck was in contemplation. But how to get up? that was the question. The message, however, was dispatched round to the different berths, with the additional one, "that the mother was going immediately," that being my title amongst the young ones, and the little mother being the title of my cousin.
On deck we were received by the captain, who welcomed us with much pleasure, an undisguised twinkle in his eyes betraying a little inkling into the purport of our message. To our amazement, he and the sailors seemed quite at their ease, walking as steadily as if the vessel was a rock, and as immoveable as the pyramids. But what a sea! I looked up and saw high grey mountains on all sides, and ere I could decide whether they were moveable or my sight deceptive, they had disappeared, and, from a height that seemed awful, we looked down upon a troubled, rolling, restless mass of waters, each wave seeming to buffet its neighbour with an angry determination to put it down. In the midst of all this chaos, one monster wave rose superior to all the rest, and rolling forward with giant strength and resistless impetuosity, threatened instant destruction to the vessel. A cry, a terrific roll, a shudder through the vessel, and again we were in the valley of waters; and during the comparative lull the captain roared in my ear, "Is it not a pretty sea, Madam?"
We can now laugh at our fears,