t, without, to
transform the previously trim ship, that had sailed from Plymouth so
gallantly, into the veritable semblance of a battered hulk, no further
damage had been done below: so that, in the cuddy, all was comparative
comfort--in contrast to the scene on deck.

Mr Zachariah Lathrope, who made light of his injuries, albeit his left
arm was in a sling--confessing, too, that his side "felt kinder painful,
as if some coon had given him a sockdolager in the ribs, or a grizzly
bar put his hug on"--was seated at the replaced table, pitching into a
sort of heavy lunch, to make amends for his missed breakfast, while the
steward was cutting up a plentiful supply of ham for him on his plate,
so that he could use his solitary hand with a fork and so feed himself.
Mrs Major Negus was busily engaged in her cabin, and with the
assistance of Mary Llewellyn, the stewardess, was rearranging all her
numerous goods and chattels that had been so ruthlessly banged about in
the night; and Master Maurice, whom the turmoil had not disturbed in the
least, was still sleeping in the top bunk as composedly as he had
continued doing all through the period of his mother's struggles on the
floor and narrow escape from suffocation, unawakened either by the noise
or her loud calls for help--the worthy lady as soon as she came to
herself having earnestly cautioned Kate and the stewardess not to arouse
her darling boy, for "he would be so frightened, you know, if he saw me
like this!"

Kate herself, recovered from her faint, but yet feeling weak and languid
from the effects of all she had gone through, was mechanically assisting
Florry to dress, wondering the while, in a dull apathetic way, whether
she would ever again have to tender the same offices to her little
sister, for she was prepared for the worst and believed that the ship
was in imminent danger--although she hoped still, with the ardent nature
of youth, that they might be delivered, trusting to the loving mercy and
watchful care of that God to whom she had prayed during the night, even
before her earthly father's counsel, and before whose footstool she had
already that morning bent the knee more than once.

As for Mr Meldrum--who had remained below from the consciousness that
he could not be of any service in the immediate present on deck and from
an unwillingness to having the appearance even of shoving himself
forward and interfering with the management of the ship after what
Capta