Transatlantic voyages -- Fiction; Venice (Italy) -- Fiction; Voyages and travels -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
When he put it on again, it relapsed into that likeness of a half-shut
accordion from which Lydia had rescued it; but she only saw the face
under it.
As the boat reached the wharf an express wagon drove down, and Lydia saw
the sarcastic parley which she could not hear between the captain and
the driver about the belated baggage which the latter put off. Then she
saw the captain help her grandfather to the seat between himself and the
driver, and the wagon rattled swiftly out of sight. One of the sailors
lifted Lydia's baggage over the side of the wharf to the other in the
boat, and they pulled off to the ship with it.
III.
Lydia went back to the cabin, and presently the boy who had taken charge
of her lighter luggage came dragging her trunk and bag down the gangway
stairs. Neither was very large, and even a boy of fourteen who was small
for his age might easily manage them.
“You can stow away what's in 'em in the drawers,” said the boy. “I
suppose you didn't notice the drawers,” he added, at her look of
inquiry. He went into her room, and pushing aside the valance of
the lower berth showed four deep drawers below the bed; the charming
snugness of the arrangement brought a light of housewifely joy to the
girl's face.
“Why, it's as good as a bureau. They will hold everything.”
“Yes,” exulted the boy; “they're for two persons' things. The captain's
daughters, they both had this room. Pretty good sized too; a good deal
the captain's build. You won't find a better stateroom than this on a
steamer. I've been on 'em.” The boy climbed up on the edge of the upper
drawer, and pulled open the window at the top of the wall. “Give you
a little air, I guess. If you want I should, the captain said I was to
bear a hand helping you to stow away what was in your trunks.”
“No,” said Lydia, quickly. “I'd just as soon do it alone.”
“All right,” said the boy. “If I was you, I'd do it now. I don't know
just when the captain means to sail; but after we get outside, it might
be rough, and it's better to have everything pretty snug by that time.
I'll haul away the trunks when you've got 'em empty. If I shouldn't
happen to be here, you can just call me at the top of the gangway, and
I'll come. My name's Thomas,” he said. He regarded Lydia inquiringly a
moment before he added: “If you'd just as lives, I rather you'd call
me Thomas, and not _steward_. They said you'd call me steward,” he
explained, in a blushing, deprecating confidence; “and as long as I've
not got my growth, it kind of makes them laugh, you know,--especially
the second officer.”
“I will call you Thomas,” said Lydia.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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