The Garden Party, and Other StoriesMansfield, Katherine
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The Garden Party, and Other Stories
Mansfield, Katherine
New Zealand -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Short stories, New Zealand
The hard square of brown soap would not lather, and the water in the
bottle was like a kind of blue jelly. How hard it was, too, to turn
down those stiff sheets; you simply had to tear your way in. If
everything had been different, Fenella might have got the giggles....
At last she was inside, and while she lay there panting, there sounded
from above a long, soft whispering, as though some one was gently,
gently rustling among tissue paper to find something. It was grandma
saying her prayers....
A long time passed. Then the stewardess came in; she trod softly and
leaned her hand on grandma’s bunk.
“We’re just entering the Straits,” she said.
“Oh!”
“It’s a fine night, but we’re rather empty. We may pitch a little.”
And indeed at that moment the Picton Boat rose and rose and hung in the
air just long enough to give a shiver before she swung down again, and
there was the sound of heavy water slapping against her sides. Fenella
remembered she had left the swan-necked umbrella standing up on the
little couch. If it fell over, would it break? But grandma remembered
too, at the same time.
“I wonder if you’d mind, stewardess, laying down my umbrella,” she
whispered.
“Not at all, Mrs. Crane.” And the stewardess, coming back to grandma,
breathed, “Your little granddaughter’s in such a beautiful sleep.”
“God be praised for that!” said grandma.
“Poor little motherless mite!” said the stewardess. And grandma was
still telling the stewardess all about what happened when Fenella fell
asleep.
But she hadn’t been asleep long enough to dream before she woke up
again to see something waving in the air above her head. What was it?
What could it be? It was a small grey foot. Now another joined it. They
seemed to be feeling about for something; there came a sigh.
“I’m awake, grandma,” said Fenella.
“Oh, dear, am I near the ladder?” asked grandma. “I thought it was this
end.”
“No, grandma, it’s the other. I’ll put your foot on it. Are we there?”
asked Fenella.
“In the harbour,” said grandma. “We must get up, child. You’d better
have a biscuit to steady yourself before you move.”
But Fenella had hopped out of her bunk. The lamp was still burning, but
night was over, and it was cold. Peering through that round eye she
could see far off some rocks. Now they were scattered over with foam;
now a gull flipped by; and now there came a long piece of real land.
“It’s land, grandma,” said Fenella, wonderingly, as though they had
been at sea for weeks together. She hugged herself; she stood on one
leg and rubbed it with the toes of the other foot; she was trembling.
Oh, it had all been so sad lately. Was it going to change? But all her
grandma said was, “Make haste, child. I should leave your nice banana
for the stewardess as you haven’t eaten it.” And Fenella put on her
black clothes again and a button sprang off one of her gloves and
rolled to where she couldn’t reach it. They went up on deck.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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