Christopher and Columbus by Elizabeth von Arnim Read Free Book Online Page B

whom already they had had
two encounters, for it happened that this was one of the cabins she
attended to--and said that if anybody wanted breakfast they had
better be quick or it would be over.
    "Breakfast!" cried the top berth opposite in a
heart-rending tone; and instantly was sick.
    The stewardess withdrew her head and banged the door to, and the
twins, in their uneasy berths, carefully keeping their eyes shut so
as not to witness the behaviour of the sides and ceiling of the
cabin, feebly marvelled at the stewardess for suggesting being
quick to persons who were being constantly stood on their heads.
And breakfast,--they shuddered and thought of other things; of
fresh, sweet air, and of the scent of pinks and apricots warm with
the sun.
    At ten o'clock the stewardess came in again, this time right
in, and with determination in every gesture.
    "Come, come," she said, addressing the twins, and
through them talking at the heaving and groaning occupants of the
other side, "you mustn't give way like this. What you want
is to be out of bed. You must get up and go on deck. And how's
the cabin to get done if you stay in it all the time?"
    Anna-Felicitas, the one particularly addressed, because she was
more on the right level for conversation than Anna-Rose, who could
only see the stewardess's apron, turned her head away and
murmured that she didn't care.
    "Come, come," said the stewardess. "Besides,
there's life-boat drill at mid-day, and you've got to be
present."
    Anna-Felicitas, her eyes shut, again murmured that she
didn't care.
    "Come, come," said the stewardess. "Orders are
orders. Every soul on the ship, sick or not, has got to be present
at life-boat drill."
    "Oh, I'm not a soul," murmured Anna-Felicitas, who
felt at that moment how particularly she was a body, while the
opposite berths redoubled their groans.
    "Come, come--" said the stewardess.
    Then the
St. Luke
whistled five times, and the stewardess turned
pale. For a brief space, before they understood what had happened,
the twins supposed she was going to be sick. But it wasn't that
that was the matter with her, for after a moment's staring at
nothing with horror on her face she pounced on them and pulled them
bodily out of their berths, regardless by which end, and threw them
on the floor anyhow. Then she plunged about and produced
life-jackets; then she rushed down the passage flinging open the
doors of the other cabins; then she whirled back again and tried to
tie the twins into their life-jackets, but with hands that shook so
that the strings immediately came undone again; and all the time
she was calling out "Quick--quick--quick--" There was a
great tramping of feet on deck and cries and shouting.
    The curtains of the opposite berths yawned asunder and out came
the Germans, astonishingly cured of their sea-sickness, and
struggled vigorously into their life-jackets and then into fur
coats, and had the fur coats instantly pulled off again by a very
energetic steward who ran in and said fur coats in the water were
death-traps,--a steward so much bent on saving people that he began
to pull off the other things the German ladies had on as well,
saying while he pulled, disregarding their protests, that in the
water Mother Nature was the best. "Mother Nature--Mother
Nature," said the steward, pulling; and he was only stopped
just in the nick of time by the stewardess rushing in again and
seeing what was happening to the helpless Germans.
    Anna-Rose, even at that moment explanatory, pointed out to
Anna-Felicitas, who had already grasped the fact, that no doubt
there was a submarine somewhere about. The German ladies, seizing
their valuables from beneath their pillows, in spite of the steward
assuring them they wouldn't want them in the water, demanded to
be taken up and somehow signalled to the submarine, which would
never dare do anything to a ship containing its own flesh and
blood--and an American ship, too--there must be some awful
mistake--but anyhow they must be