Story of Chester Lawrence: Being the Completed Account of One who Played an Important Part in "Piney Ridge Cottage" — John Shaqi
Story of Chester Lawrence: Being the Completed Account of One who Played an Important Part in "Piney Ridge Cottage"Anderson, Nephi
General
Story of Chester Lawrence: Being the Completed Account of One who Played an Important Part in "Piney Ridge Cottage"
Anderson, Nephi
Christian fiction; Latter Day Saints -- Fiction
The older man let him talk without interruption. There was something
uncommon in the life of this young man, but it would not do to show
undue haste in wishing to know it. It was easily to be seen that Chester
was helped in this opportunity to talk to a friend that could understand
and be trusted. They sat late that night. The sea roared about them in
the darkness. There was a fascination about this thing of seeming
life--the ship--forcing itself against wind and wave into the darkness,
and bearing safely with it in light and comfort a thousand precious
souls.
Chester slept fairly well, and was awake next morning at daylight.
Though the ship was pitching and rocking, he felt no indications of
sea-sickness. He gazed out of the port-hole at the racing waves. Some of
them rose to his window, and he looked into a bank of green water. He
got up and dressed. It was good to think he would not be sick. Very few
were stirring. A number who were, like himself, immune, were briskly
pacing the deck. Chester joined them and looked about. This surely must
be a storm, thought he. He had often wished to witness one, from a safe
position, of course, and here was one. As far as he could see in every
direction, the ocean was one mass of rolling, seething water. At a
distance it looked like a boiling pot, but nearer the waves rose higher,
the ship's prow cutting them like a knife.
"Quite a storm," said Chester to a man washing the deck.
"Storm? Oh, no, sir; just a bit of a blow."
No one seemed to have any concern regarding the safety of the ship, so
Chester concluded that there was no danger, that this was no storm at
all, which conclusion was right, as he had later to acknowledge. The sun
came up through a wild sea into a wild sky, casting patches of shifting
light on the waters to the east. Chester kept a lookout for his friends,
the elders. When the breakfast gong sounded, Elder Malby appeared.
"Where are the others?" asked Chester.
"They'll not get up today; perhaps not tomorrow. I see you are all
right. You're lucky. Come, let us go to breakfast."
Most of the seats were vacant at the table that morning. A few smilingly
looked around, secure in their superior strength. Others were bravely
trying to do the right thing by sitting down to a morning meal; but a
number of these failed, some leaving quietly and deliberately, others
rushing away in unceremonial haste. Chester was quite alone on his side
of the table. If there had been a trifle of "sinking emptiness" in him
before, the meal braced him up wonderfully. In this he thought he had
discovered a sure cure for sea-sickness. One day later he imparted this
information to a lady voyager, who received it with the exclamation,
"Oh, horrors!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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