Rollo on the Atlantic Part 5

"Ah! I am very glad to see that. It is just the thing for Tiger."

Then she turned round and said to the waiter,--

"Can I take a piece of this meat to give to my kitten?"

"Your kitten?" said the waiter. "Have you got a kitten on board?"

"Yes," said Jane.

"Where is she?" asked the waiter.

"I left her in the cabin," said Jane, "by the end of a sofa. She is in her cage."

The waiter smiled to hear this statement. Jane had been, in fact, a little afraid to ask for meat for her kitten, supposing it possible that the waiter might think that she ought not to have brought a kitten on board. But the truth was, the waiter was very glad to hear of it. He was glad for two reasons. In the first place, the monotony and dulness of sea life are so great, that those who live in ships are usually glad to have any thing occur that is extraordinary or novel. Then, besides, he knew that it was customary with pa.s.sengers, when they gave the waiters any unusual trouble, to compensate them for it fully when they reached the end of the voyage; and he presumed, therefore, that if he had a kitten to take care of, as well as the children themselves, their father, whom he had no doubt was on board would remember it in his fee.

So, when Jane told him where the kitten was, he said he would go and bring her out into the dining saloon, and give her some of the meat there, as soon as the pa.s.sengers had finished their luncheon, so that he could be spared from the table.

Accordingly, when the proper time arrived, the waiter went aft, to the cabin, and very soon returned, bringing the cage with him.

He seemed quite pleased with his charge; and several of the pa.s.sengers, who met him as they were going out of the saloon, stopped a moment to see what he had got in the cage, and Jane was much gratified at hearing one of them say,--

"What a pretty kitten! Whose is it, waiter?"

The waiter put the cage down upon a side table, and then carried a plate of meat to the place, and put it in the cage. Jane and Rollo went to see. While the kitten was eating her meat, the waiter said that he would go and get some milk for her. He accordingly went away again; but he soon returned, bringing a little milk with him in a saucer. The kitten, having by this time finished eating her meat, set herself eagerly at the work of lapping up the milk, which she did with an air of great satisfaction.

"There!" said the waiter, "bring her out here whenever she is hungry, and I will always have something for her. When you come at meal times, you will see me at the table. If you come at any other time, and you don't see me, ask for Alfred. My name is Alfred."

Jane and Rollo both said to Alfred that they were very much obliged to him, and then, observing that nearly all the pa.s.sengers had left the dining saloon and had returned to the cabin, they determined to go too.

So they went back through the same pa.s.sage way by which they had come.

There were two princ.i.p.al cabins in the ship, the ladies' cabin and the gentlemen's cabin. The ladies' cabin was nearest to the dining saloon, the gentlemen's cabin being beyond. A number of ladies and gentlemen turned into the ladies' cabin, and so Rollo and Jane followed them. They found themselves, when they had entered, in quite a considerable apartment, with sofas and mirrors all around the sides of it, and a great deal of rich carving in the panels and ceiling. Several splendid lamps, too, were suspended in different places, so hung that they could move freely in every direction, when the ship was rolling from side to side in rough seas. Rollo and Jane took their seats upon one of the sofas.

"Well, Rollo," said Jane, "I don't know what we are going to do next."

"Nor I," said Rollo; "but we can sit here a little while, and perhaps somebody will come and speak to us. It must be right for us to sit here, for other ladies and gentlemen are sitting in this cabin."

Jane looked about the cabin on the different sofas to see if there were any persons there that she had ever seen before. But there were none.

Among the persons in the cabin, there were two who particularly attracted Jane's attention. They were young ladies of, perhaps, eighteen or twenty years of age, but they were remarkably different from each other in appearance. One was very beautiful indeed. Her hair was elegantly arranged in curls upon her neck, and she was dressed quite fashionably. Her countenance, too, beamed with an expression of animation and happiness.

The other young lady, who sat upon the other end of the same sofa, was very plain in her appearance, and was plainly dressed. Her countenance, too, had a sober and thoughtful expression which was almost stern, and made Jane feel quite disposed to be afraid of her. The beautiful girl she liked very much.

While the children were sitting thus upon the sofa, waiting to see what was next going to happen to them, several persons pa.s.sed along that way, taking a greater or less degree of notice of them as they pa.s.sed. Some merely stared at them, as if wondering how they came there, and what they were doing. One lady looked kindly at them, but did not speak.

Another lady, apparently about forty years of age, walked by them with a haughty air, talking all the time with a gentleman who was with her.

Jane heard her say to the gentleman, as soon as she had pa.s.sed them,--

"What a quant.i.ty of children we have on board this ship! I hate children on board ship, they are so noisy and troublesome."

Jane did not say any thing in reply to this, but she thought that she and Rollo, at least, did not deserve such censures, for they had certainly not been noisy or troublesome.

Presently Jane saw the beautiful girl, who has been already spoken of, rise and come toward them. She was very glad to see this, for now, thought she, we have a friend coming. The young lady came walking along carelessly toward them, and when she came near she looked at them a moment, and then said, in a pert and forward manner,--

"What are you sitting here for, children, so long, all alone? Where is your father?"

"My father is in Liverpool, I suppose," said Rollo.

"Well, your mother, then," said the young lady, "or whoever has the care of you?"

"My mother is in Liverpool, too," said Rollo "and there is n.o.body who has the care of us on board this ship."

"Why, you are not going to cross the Atlantic all by yourselves, are you?" said the young lady, in a tone of great astonishment.

"Yes," said Rollo, "unless we find somebody to be kind enough to help us."

"La! how queer!" said the young lady. "I am sure I'm glad enough that I am not in your places."

So saying, the beautiful young lady walked on.

All the beauty, however, which she had before possessed in Jane's eyes was entirely dissipated by this heartless behavior. Both Jane and Rollo, for all the rest of the voyage, thought her one of the ugliest girls they had ever seen.

It was some minutes after this before any other person approached the children. Jane observed, however, that the other young lady--the one who had appeared to her so plain--looked frequently toward her and Rollo, with an expression of interest and kindness upon her countenance. At length she rose from her seat, and came across the cabin, and sat down by Jane's side.

"May I come and sit by you?" said she to Jane. "You seem to be all alone."

"Yes," said Jane; "we don't know any body in this ship."

"Not any body?" said the young lady. "Then you may know me. My name is Maria. But your father and mother are on board the ship, are they not?"

"No," said Rollo. "There is not any body on board this ship that belongs to us."

Maria seemed very much astonished at hearing this, and she asked the children how it happened that they were sent across the Atlantic alone.

Upon which Rollo, in a very clear and lucid manner, explained all the circ.u.mstances of the case to her. He told her about his father being sick in England, and about his having sent for him and Jane to go to England and meet him there. He also explained what Mr. George's plan had been for providing them with a protector on the voyage, and how it had been defeated by the accident of the loss of the trunk. He also told her how narrowly they had escaped having the trunk itself left behind. He ended by saying that there were several of his father's friends on board, only he did not know of any way by which he could find out who they were.

"Never mind that," said Maria. "I will take care of you. You need not be at all afraid; you will get along very well. Have you got any state room?"

"No," said Rollo.

"Well, I will go and find the chambermaid, and she will get you one.

Then we will have your trunk sent to it, and you will feel quite at home there."

So Maria went away, and presently returned with one of the chambermaids.

When the chambermaid learned that there were two children on board without any one to take care of them, she was very much interested in their case. Rollo heard her say to Maria, as they came up together toward the sofa where the children were sitting,--

"O, yes, I will find them a state room, if they have not got one already. Children," she added, when she came near, "are you sure you have not got any state room?"

"Yes," said Rollo. "I did not know where the captain's office was."

"O, you don't go to the captain's office," said the chambermaid. "They pay for the pa.s.sage and get the tickets in Wall Street."