BUNNY IS LOCKED IN
Nothing causes more excitement on board a ship than the cry of “man
overboard!” Of course, Sue did not say a man was overboard. She
called out about some one named “Elizabeth.” As the little girl clung
to her father she sobbed aloud and repeated over and over again:
“Elizabeth will be drowned! Elizabeth will be drowned!”
Mr. Brown did not know what to make of it. He knew that he and his
two children were the only people standing near the deckhouse where
they could watch the big waves. He knew there had been no little girl
named Elizabeth near them. Yet Sue had cried out that Elizabeth had
gone overboard.
“Did you see some little girl washed over the rail by the wave?”
asked Mr. Brown. He thought perhaps some of the other passengers
might have had a little girl named Elizabeth—though, if so, why he
had not seen her playing with Sue he could not imagine—and that she
had been standing near the rail and had been washed away.
Whether Sue did not hear her father’s question because of the roar
of the storm or whether she was crying too hard to answer, does not
much matter, for a moment later some sailors who were on deck and who
heard the little girl’s sobbing cry shouted:
“Man overboard! Lower a boat! Man overboard!”
Of course there was not a man overboard. Sue had spoken of
“Elizabeth.” But on a ship, no matter who falls into the water,
whether a man, a woman, or a child, the cry of alarm is always the
same: “Man overboard!”
Sailors know and understand that warning better than any other.
But before a boat could be lowered or even some of the cork
life-rings tossed over the rail, another big wave came up and
washed across the decks. On the crest of this wave something white
fluttered.
[Illustration: “OH, HERE’S ELIZABETH! SHE CAME BACK TO ME!”
_Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue on the Rolling Ocean. Page 119_
]
“That looks like a little girl’s skirts!” thought Mr. Brown.
Then the wave broke some distance away from where he and the children
were standing, and the fluttering white object came washing up along
the deck and straight for Sue.
“Oh, here’s Elizabeth! She came back to me!” cried the little girl.
“Elizabeth went overboard, but she isn’t drowned!”
Then she made a grab for and picked up—her big doll!
The sailors who had been getting ready to lower the boat and toss out
life-rings looked in wonder at Sue clasping the wet and soaking doll.
But Sue was happy—she did not care.
“Well, shiver my timbers!” cried one of the men as he shook the
salty spray from his face. “I thought she meant a little girl was
overboard!”
“So did I,” said another.
“Sue,” said her father a bit sternly, “whom did you mean when you
said Elizabeth went overboard?”
“Why, Elizabeth! My doll, of course!” answered Sue. “Here she is.
Elizabeth is my best doll. I brought her up to look at the storm and
a wave washed her away.”
“And another wave washed her back again!” cried Bunny.
“That’s it,” agreed Sue.
Strange as it may seem, that is just what had happened. Of course it
was only the crest, or top part, of the wave that had come aboard,
snatched Sue’s doll out of her hands and carried it away. If the
whole, big wave had come aboard there might have been no Bunny Brown
and his sister Sue left.
“You shouldn’t have cried out that way about just a doll,” said Sue’s
father, as he led the children back to the sheltered cabin. “The men
thought you meant a real child.”
“Well, Elizabeth is real,” declared Sue. “She’s a real doll and she’s
my child.” And nothing Mr. or Mrs. Brown could say would make Sue
believe she had done anything wrong.
Later Mr. Brown told the sailors how sorry he was that his little
girl had caused them such a fright, making them think a real child
had gone over the rail.
“Oh, we don’t mind that,” laughed one of the men. “We’re only too
glad to know it was only a doll and that the little girl has it back
again.”
Though Sue had her doll, the salt water had spoiled some of the
clothes. But Elizabeth’s little mistress did not mind, for she said
they were going to the West Indies where it would be so warm that
Elizabeth would need few clothes.
The storm raged all the remainder of that day and far into the night.
But when morning dawned the wind went down and the rain ceased,
though the waves were still high and would be for another day or so.
Big storms at sea do not pass as quickly as they do on shore, for the
ocean keeps up its restless, heaving motion.
The _Beacon_ came out of the hurricane with little damage as far
as could be seen. Though later Captain Ward blamed the storm for
something very strange and serious that happened. That is, it was
serious for a time.
With the ceasing of the storm, Bunny and Sue were allowed to go out
on deck the next day. They both enjoyed this, for it was no fun to be
“cooped up,” as Bunny called it, in one of the cabins. The staterooms
where the Brown family slept were too small to sit in except for a
few minutes, so when they wanted to talk or when the children wanted
to play games they did so in one of the larger cabins, or saloons, as
they are called.
Every hour it seemed to be getting warmer, now that the _Beacon_ was
getting well into the south. The wind that blew across her decks was
as balmy as the hot breezes of summer, though this was only early
spring, or had been when Bunny and Sue left Bellemere.
“It’s always summer in the south, isn’t it, Daddy?” asked Sue of her
father when she and her brother were talking about the warm weather.
“Well, yes, it is if you go far enough south,” he said. “They don’t
have winter in the far south, but they have what is called the rainy
season, and that at times is worse than our winter, though it is
never cold. But it is very wet—raining every day for months, some
times more than once a day.”
“You’d have to carry an umbrella all the while, wouldn’t you?”
inquired Bunny.
“Yes. And rubber boots, too,” his father answered.
“And maybe a rubber coat,” said Sue.
“Well, a rubber coat would be too warm,” said her father. “But I
don’t believe we shall have much rain, as this isn’t the season for
it down here.”
That afternoon Bunny tried to get Sue to come up on deck and play
another game of toss with the rope rings. But Sue said:
“I’m going to make a new dress for Elizabeth.”
“Oh, all right,” sighed Bunny.
He wished Sue would play with him, but as she would not he wandered
into the dining saloon. One of the stewards was setting the tables,
getting ready for the evening meal, though the time for eating was
some hours off.
Bunny looked at the white tablecloths, the sparkling silver and
glasses. Seeing the tables being made ready, made the little boy
think that he was hungry.
If Bunny had been at home he would have gone to the kitchen to ask
Julia for some crackers or a piece of cake, and he did not see any
reason why he should not ask this steward for something. So Bunny did
it, very delicately, by saying:
“Do you ever have any crackers?”
“You mean, do I ever eat any biscuits?” asked the steward, with a
smile.
“No, I mean crackers! And I mean do you ever give hungry boys some?”
went on Bunny.
“Oh, I see what you mean!” laughed the man. “We call them biscuits in
England where I came from. But over here, in the States, I believe
they call them crackers. So you want a biscuit, my little man?”
“I’d like some crackers, yes, thank you,” said Bunny.
“Well, the pantry steward, Mr. Jobson, is getting out some sweet
cakes and biscuits for dinner this evening. He is in number two
storeroom, down that passage,” and the man pointed. “If you go there
and ask him, I’m quite sure he’ll give you a cake of some sort.”
“Thank you,” replied Bunny. “I’ll go ask him.”
The steward who was setting the tables pointed out the way Bunny was
to go—first to the end of the passage, then down a flight of steps,
and then he would find himself in the storeroom corridor. He was to
walk along that until he saw an open door. This would be storeroom
number two and Mr. Jobson would be in there.
Thanking his new friend again, Bunny set off. He went first to tell
Sue he would get her a cookie. Then he found his way to the storeroom
corridor and proceeded along a somewhat darkened passage until he saw
light streaming out from an open door.
Bunny reached this open door and looked in. He could see on the
shelves many cans of food and packages of crackers and cakes. But he
saw nothing of Mr. Jobson.
“I guess he’s inside, farther back,” thought Bunny. “I’ll go in and
ask him for a cookie. I’ll get one for Sue, too.”
Stepping within the room, in which a single electric light was
burning, Bunny called:
“Hello, Mr. Jobson! Will you please give me some cookies?”
There was no answer, and, thinking he had not made himself heard,
Bunny stepped farther into the room and toward the back. Again he
called.
Presently he heard a sliding noise and he turned in time to see the
door by which he had entered closing. It ran along a brass rail and
snapped shut with a click.
“I guess it locked itself!” exclaimed Bunny. “I’m locked in! But I
guess Mr. Jobson can get me out! Hello, Mr. Jobson!” he called. “The
door slammed shut and locked itself. Will you please open it and give
me a cookie?”
No one answered Bunny Brown.