Harriet. "The wind is freshening, and it's blowing
straight into the little cove here. The 'Red Rover' will be straining at
its leashes like an angry dog before morning, unless the wind veers,
which I hardly think will be the case."
"Hooray for Captain Burrell!" cried Crazy Jane.
The sky was overcast and the wind, as Harriet had said, was freshening
rapidly. She went to the lower deck to test the anchor rope. The anchor
was holding firmly. The wind was now blowing so strongly that the girls
found little comfort in sitting on the upper deck. All hands went below.
With the front cabin door closed the cabin was a comfortable and cosy
place in which to sit. But the cabin floor was acquiring an unpleasant
habit of rising and falling. Tommy's face, ordinarily pale, had grown
ghastly, but she pluckily kept her discomfort to herself. As a matter of
fact the little girl was suffering from a mild attack of seasickness.
"I--I gueth I'll go to bed," she stammered. "Will thomebody pleathe take
off my thhoeth? If I bend down I'll thurely fall over on my nothe."
There was a shout at this. Both Harriet and Jane knelt on the floor to
remove the shoes that Tommy feared to unbutton. They assisted her into
her cot, after which they arranged their own, each girl preparing for
bed behind a curtain that had been strung across the cabin, thus making
part of the kitchen a dressing room. In the daytime the curtain was
drawn back.
Harriet was the last to retire. She sat up for an hour after the others
had retired, rather anxiously watching the weather and the anchor rope,
together with the behavior of the "Red Rover." The latter was riding the
swells finely and with much less motion than might have been looked for
in the fairly heavy sea that was running into the cove. At last, well
satisfied that the boat would ride out the moderate blow, Harriet
entered the cabin and extinguishing the lamp prepared for bed, leaving
only the solitary anchor light outside to dispel the gloom.
As the night went on, the seas grew with it. Great swells were sweeping
into the cove, and the "Red Rover" was at times rolling heavily. Once in
the night Harriet got up and staggered out through the rear door, whence
she made her way to the upper deck. From there, with the spray dashing
over her, she gazed off over the water. The moon had come up, and she
could see fairly well; some light being furnished by it, though heavy
clouds intervened. White-capped waves d
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