frightened; but she always came up again,
all right, no matter how far over she dipped, and so in time they got
used to it. I proved to Mrs. Chipperton that it would be impossible for
the vessel to upset, as the great weight of ballast, freight, machinery,
etc., in the lower part of her would always bring her deck up again,
even if she rolled entirely over on her side, which, sometimes, she
seemed as if she was going to do, but she always changed her mind just
as we thought the thing was going to happen. The first mate told me that
the reason we rolled so was because we had been obliged to take in all
sail, and that the mainsail had steadied the vessel very much before the
wind got so high. This was all very well, but I didn't care much to know
why the thing was. There are some people who think a thing's all right,
if they can only tell you the reason for it.

Before dark, we had to go below, for the captain said he didn't want any
of us to roll overboard, and, besides, the spray from the high waves
made the deck very wet and unpleasant. None of us liked it below. There
was no place to sit but in the long saloon, where the dining-tables
were, and after supper we all sat there and read. Mr. Chipperton had a
lot of novels, and we each took one. But it wasn't much fun. I couldn't
get interested in my story,--at least, not in the beginning of it. I
think that people who want to use up time when they are travelling ought
to take what Rectus called a "begun" novel along with them. He had got
on pretty well in his book while he was in Nassau, and so just took it
up now and went right along.

The lamps swung so far backward and forward above the table that we
thought they would certainly spill the oil over us in one of their wild
pitches; the settees by the table slid under us as the ship rolled, so
that there was no comfort, and any one who tried to walk from one place
to another had to hang on to whatever he could get hold of, or be
tumbled up against the tables or the wall. Some folks got sea-sick and
went to bed, but we tried to stick it out as long as we could.

The storm grew worse and worse. Sometimes a big wave would strike the
side of the steamer, just behind us, with a tremendous shock. The ladies
were always sure she had "struck something" when this happened; but when
they found it was only water that she had struck, they were better
satisfied. At last, things grew to be so bad that we thought we should
have to go