The child immediately came towards him with the little wagon.
"There!" said Rollo; "I was pretty sure that she could understand
English."
The child did not understand English, however, after all. And yet she
understood what Rollo said; for it so happens, by a remarkable
coincidence, that the German words for "come here," though spelled
differently, sound almost precisely like the English words. Besides, the
child knew from Rollo's gesture that he wished her to come to him.
Rollo attempted to talk with the child, but he could make no progress.
The child could not understand any thing that he said. Presently a very
pleasant-looking woman who was sitting on a trunk near by, and who
proved to be the child's mother, shook her head smilingly at Rollo, and
said, with a very foreign accent, pointing at the same time to the
child, "Not understands English."
Mr. George then held a little conversation with this woman in German.
She told him that she was the mother of the child, and that the old
woman who was reading near was its grandmother. She had a husband, she
said, and two other children. Her husband was on the shore. He had gone
into the city to make some purchases for the voyage, and her two other
children had gone with him to see what was to be seen.
Mr. George and Rollo, after this, walked about the deck of the ship for
some time, looking at the various family groups that were scattered here
and there, and holding conversations with many of the people. The
persons whom they talked with all looked up with an expression of great
animation and pleasure in their countenances when they learned that
their visitors were Americans, and seemed much gratified to see them. I
suppose they considered them very favorable specimens of the people of
the country which they were going to make their future home.
I am sure that they needed all the kind words and encouraging looks that
Mr. George and Rollo bestowed upon them; for it is a very serious and
solemn business for a family to bid a final farewell to their native
land, and in many instances to the whole circle of their acquaintances
and friends, in order to cross the stormy ocean and seek a home in what
is to them an entirely new world.
[Illustration: PLEASANT WEATHER.]
Even the voyage itself is greatly to be dreaded by them, on account of
the inevitable discomforts and dangers of it. While the ship is lying in
the docks, waiting for the appointed day of sailing to arrive, they can
pass their time very pleasantly, sitting upon the decks, reading,
writing, or sewing; but as soon as the voyage has fairly commenced, all
these enjoyments are at once at an end; for even if the wind is fair,
and the water is tolerably smooth, they are at first nearly all sick,
and are confined to their berths below; so that, even when there are
hundreds of people on board, the deck of the ship looks very solitary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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