Rollo on the Atlantic Part 10

Presently he said to himself, "How much better I do feel. I believe I will go and get some dinner."

So he rose from the sofa, and began to stagger along toward the door of the saloon. He found, however, that after all he felt somewhat giddy and light headed; and he concluded, therefore, that, instead of going to dinner, he would go up on deck and see how the wind was. He accordingly turned to the staircase which led up to the main deck, and steadying himself by the hand rail as he ascended the steps, he went up.

At the head of the stairs was a pa.s.sage way, and at the end of the pa.s.sage way there was a s.p.a.ce upon the deck, which was half enclosed; it being shut in by an awning on the windy side, and open on the other.

This place was often resorted to by pa.s.sengers who were sick, and who wished for more fresh air than they could have below. There was a row of settees on one side of this s.p.a.ce, and, at the time that Rollo came up there, there was a lady lying on one of these settees, apparently in a very forlorn condition. She looked very pale, and her eyes were shut.

She was lying upon a mattress, which had been put upon the settee for her, and was covered up with blankets and shawls.

A gentleman, who seemed to be her husband, was standing before her, attempting to persuade her to get up. He did this, however, as Rollo thought, in rather a rough and heartless manner.

"O, get up! get up!" said he. "You never will be well if you lie here.

Come, go with me and get some dinner."

The lady said, in a mournful tone, that she could not get up, and that she had no appet.i.te for dinner.

"Well," said her husband, "_I_ am going."

"I wish you could tell me something about Hilbert," said the lady. "I feel very anxious about him. I am afraid that he will get into some trouble. He is so careless."

"O, no," said her husband. "Don't disturb yourself about him. He's safe enough somewhere, I dare say."

So saying, the gentleman went away.

Rollo immediately conceived the idea of performing for this lady the kind service which Maria had so successfully performed for him. So, without speaking to her at all, he went immediately down into the cabin again, and thence followed the long pa.s.sages which led to the dining saloon, until he came to the door of it. He looked in, and saw that the people were all seated at the table, eating their dinners. He went to one of the waiters, and asked him if he would bring him a bowl of chicken broth, to carry to a lady who was sick.

The waiter said that he would do so, and immediately went to get the broth. When he came back with it, he said to Rollo,--

"You had better let me take it to the lady."

"No," said Rollo, "I can take it myself. I know exactly where she is."

So Rollo took the bowl, and began to carry it along. He did this without much difficulty, for it was not by any means full. Bowls of broth intended to be carried about ship at sea are never entirely full.

When, finally, he came to the place where the lady was lying on the settee, he stood there a moment holding the bowl in his hand, without speaking, as he thought the lady was asleep; for her eyes were shut. In a moment, however, she opened her eyes. Rollo then said to her,--

"Would not you like a bowl of broth, lady? I have brought some for you."

The lady gazed at Rollo a moment with a sort of bewildered look, and then, raising herself up upon the settee, she took the broth, and began to eat it with the spoon. At first, she seemed to take it cautiously and with doubt; but presently, finding that she liked it, she took spoonful after spoonful with evident pleasure. Rollo was extremely delighted at the success of his experiment. The lady said nothing to him all the time, though she looked up at him repeatedly with a very earnest gaze while she was taking the broth. At length she finished it, and then gave Rollo back the bowl, saying, as she did it,--

"Did my husband send you with that bowl of broth to me?"

"No," said Rollo, "I brought it myself."

"And what put it into your head to do that?" added the lady.

"Why, Maria brought some to me when I was sick," replied Rollo, "and it did me good; and so I thought it would do you good."

The lady looked at him a moment more with an earnest gaze, and then lay down again, and shut her eyes.

Presently she opened them a moment, and said,--

"Do you know my son Hilbert?"

"I have seen a boy about the ship," said Rollo, "not quite so big as I am. Is that he?"

"With a blue jacket?" said the lady.

"Yes," said Rollo, "and a bow and arrows."

"That's he," said the lady. "If you will go and find out where he is, and ask him to come to me, you will do me a great deal of good."

Rollo had seen this boy several times in different places about the ship; but as he seemed to be rather rude and boisterous in his manners, and very forward and free withal in his intercourse with the pa.s.sengers who chanced to speak to him from time to time, Rollo had not felt much disposed to form an acquaintance with him. The boy had a bow and arrows, with which he had often amused himself in shooting about the decks. He did this with so little consideration, that at last, one of the officers of the ship told him that he must not shoot any more in those parts of the ship where the ladies were, but that he must go forward, among the sailors, if he wished to practise archery. So the boy went forward, and from that time he spent most of his time on the forward deck among the sailors, and in the midst of the ropes and the rigging.

Rollo now went in pursuit of him, and after looking for him in many places, both before and aft, he finally went down into the dining saloon, and there he found Hilbert seated at the table, eating dinner, with his father. His bows and arrows were on the seat by his side.

Rollo went up to the place where Hilbert was sitting, and in a timid and cautious manner informed him that his mother wished to see him.

"My mother!" repeated Hilbert, looking up surprised.

"Yes," replied Rollo; "she asked me to tell you. But I suppose that she can wait until you have finished your dinner."

"O, no," said Hilbert, "I can't go at all. Go tell her I can't come."

Rollo was greatly astonished at receiving such a message as this from a boy to his mother.

"Hilbert," said his father, in a very stern and threatening manner, "go to your mother directly."

"No," said Hilbert, in a sort of begging and whining tone. "No. If I do, she'll make me stay there all the afternoon."

"No matter for that," said his father; "go directly."

Hilbert did not move, but went on eating his dinner.

"At least," said his father, "you must go immediately when you have done your dinner."

Hilbert muttered something in reply, but Rollo did not hear what it was.

In fact, he did not wish to hear any more of such a dialogue as this between a child and his father. So he went away. He was not at all inclined to go back to the lady and inform her what Hilbert had said; but he thought that he ought at least to go and tell her that he had found Hilbert, as he had been taught that it was always his duty to go back with a report when sent on a message. So he went back to the lady, and told her that he had found Hilbert, and that he was at dinner with his father.

"And what did he say about coming to me?" asked the lady.

"His father told him that he must come as soon as he had finished his dinner," replied Rollo.

"Very well," said the lady, "that will do."

So saying, she turned her head away and shut her eyes again, and so Rollo withdrew.

It would be a very nice and delicate point to determine whether Rollo's answer in this case was or was not as full as strict honesty required.

He certainly did not state any thing that was not true; nor did he, in what he said, convey any false impression. He, however, withheld a very important part of what the lady must have desired to know. It is undoubtedly sometimes right for us to conceal or withhold the truth.

Sometimes, indeed, it is our imperious duty to do so. Rollo's motive for doing as he did in this case was to avoid giving a sick mother pain, by reporting to her the undutiful conduct of her son. Whether it would or would not have been better for him to have communicated the whole truth, is a point which must be left for the readers of this book to discuss and settle among themselves.