OVERBOARD
Mrs. Brown quickly arose and put on a dressing gown and slippers and
helped Sue out of her berth.
“What are you going to do, Mother?” asked Sue sleepily.
“We must get ready for whatever is going to happen,” was the answer.
Though Mrs. Brown did not tell her little girl so, she thought that
something had happened to the ship and that perhaps the passengers
and crew might have to get into the lifeboats and row away.
Then Mrs. Brown heard her husband and Bunny moving about in their
stateroom across the corridor, and she heard Bunny ask:
“What’s the matter, Daddy?”
“I guess we bumped into a whale,” said Mr. Brown, not because he
really believed this but in order not to frighten his little boy.
And it proved to be the best answer that could have been made, for
Bunny laughed and said:
“Ho! ho! I guess if our ship hit a whale it would make his head ache,
wouldn’t it?”
“I think it would,” replied Mr. Brown.
By this time he, also, had on a dressing gown and slippers and had
opened his stateroom door. At the same time Mrs. Brown opened hers.
“What happened?” she asked.
“We struck something,” said Mr. Brown. “But it doesn’t seem to be
anything serious. Things are quieting down.”
This was true. The _Beacon_ had come to a stop on the rolling ocean,
and though she rolled a bit herself she seemed to be in no danger.
The noise of the shouting and talking also died away.
One of the stewards came through the corridor and spoke to several of
the passengers who had their heads thrust out of their partly opened
stateroom doors.
“There is no danger—no danger at all,” the steward said. “You may all
go back to bed.”
“What happened?” asked Mr. Brown.
“Captain Ward thinks we struck a derelict,” was the answer. “Whatever
it was, we hit it a glancing blow. The ship has suffered no damage
and we are going on again directly. Probably it was only a small
derelict we hit.”
This satisfied the passengers and they closed their doors. But Bunny
Brown wanted to know something, so he asked his father:
“Is a derelict a whale, Daddy?”
“No. It’s a wrecked ship floating about in the water, sunk so low
that you can hardly see it,” was the answer. “It drifts about, and,
not being seen, derelicts are often struck by other ships.”
“Does it hurt the derelict?” asked Bunny, while his mother and sister
listened to the talk.
“No, you can’t hurt a derelict,” was Mr. Brown’s reply. “But
sometimes a derelict, especially if it’s a big sunken ship, will
damage the other vessel. But I guess we’re all right.”
And so it proved. When morning came there was no sign of the
floating wreck, if such it was that the _Beacon_ had bumped into. Nor
was the steamer harmed. She proceeded on her course after a short
stop following the midnight alarm.
Up to this time the days had been bright and sunny for Bunny Brown
and his sister Sue. But on the morning after the bump in the night
the sun was hidden behind masses of dark clouds. When Bunny saw
Captain Ward gazing around the horizon, where sky and water seem to
meet, and when the little boy heard the commander tell his officers
to see that everything was made “snug and tight,” Bunny went to his
father.
“Are we going to have a storm?” he asked.
“Perhaps,” said Mr. Brown. “But that’s nothing. We must have storms
once in a while. We can’t have the sun always.”
“No, I guess not,” agreed Bunny.
“Will it be a snowstorm?” Sue wanted to know.
“I should say not!” laughed her father. “Can’t you feel how much
warmer the weather is getting?”
“Yes, it is warmer,” said Sue. That very day she had asked her mother
to let her wear a thinner dress, which Mrs. Brown had agreed to.
“It’s quite warm,” Sue said.
“That shows we are going farther and farther south each day,” said
Mr. Brown. “And they never have snow or ice down in the West Indies.”
“Then we’ll have a rainstorm,” said Bunny.
“Yes, if we have any kind of a storm, it will be rain,” his father
said.
“And wind?” asked Sue.
“Oh, yes, there is likely to be wind,” admitted Mr. Brown. “But the
_Beacon_ is a stout ship. She will come through the storm all right.”
In spite of this, as Bunny and Sue saw the clouds grow blacker and
blacker and as they noticed the sailors going about the decks, making
fast anything that was loose enough to blow away, the children became
a little alarmed.
To quiet them, Mr. Brown took them down to see the big engines at
work. Bunny liked machinery, and he was interested. When Mr. Brown
pointed out how strong the machinery was and how it pushed the ship
along through the water, the children concluded that a storm at sea
need not alarm them.
But toward noon the wind began to blow and the ship began to pitch
and toss in the big waves. Then Bunny and his sister did not like it
so much. Nor did Mrs. Brown.
“Oh, this won’t amount to anything,” said Mr. Brown.
But the storm was worse than Mr. Brown would admit, even to himself,
and the _Beacon_ continued to roll and toss in the heavy “seas,” as
sailors call the big waves.
Once, when Bunny and Sue were down in their staterooms with Mrs.
Brown, changing their clothes, for the salty spray had wet them, the
ship gave such a sudden lurch that Sue cried:
“Oh, we’re going to tip over!”
And even Mrs. Brown feared this for a moment.
Bunny heard what his sister said and cried:
“If we turn over we’ll stand on our heads!”
“I don’t like standing on my head,” answered Sue. “And I don’t want
the ship to turn over.”
“Neither do I! My gracious, I should say not!” exclaimed Mrs. Brown.
“Please don’t even talk about such a terrible happening, my dears!”
Then Bunny saw how serious his mother was.
Really, for a time it seemed as if something might happen to the
_Beacon_. She was in the very midst of a sudden, tropical hurricane
which splashed the waves big and high and made the ship lean far over
to one side.
But Captain Ward and his men were skillful sailors, and they managed
the vessel so that she turned back again, and was on what is called
an even keel, riding so that her decks were straight instead of
slanting.
Still the wind blew hard and the seas ran high, though there was
not as much danger as at first. After a while Bunny and Sue grew so
accustomed to the storm and the rolling and pitching and tossing of
the ship that they began to think it was rather fun.
“Could we go up on deck and look at the big waves?” begged Bunny.
“Oh, no, indeed!” answered his mother.
“Oh, just a little look!” pleaded the boy.
“I might take him and Sue up to the head of the companionway and let
them look out for a minute,” said Mr. Brown. “It really is a sight
worth seeing.”
“Well, if you think it will be all right, go ahead,” said his wife.
“But be careful.”
“We will,” promised Bunny.
“And don’t let the waves wash me overboard,” begged Sue.
“I’ll hold you tight,” said her father.
On the advice of one of the stewards, they went up to a sheltered
spot where they could get a view of the deck and the big waves but
where they would be sheltered from the worst of the gale. Standing
there in the lee of a deckhouse, Bunny and Sue looked out on the
tumbling and foam-flecked waves.
“I wouldn’t like to fall in them,” said Bunny.
“Nor I,” added Sue.
Just then the wind began to blow more fiercely than before. The ship
trembled under the blast and a big wave washed up on the deck, some
of the spray splashing on the children.
Then, all of a sudden, Sue set up a cry:
“She’s gone! She fell overboard! Oh, Elizabeth was washed overboard
by the wave!”