Phus. Yaas, mis’! (Applies ear to keyhole of door, L.)
Curtain.
ACT III.
Forward deck of the Creole Bride. Wheel-house at R. gangway and railing at L., table and two camp chairs at C., chairs C. Mary at the wheel, with the chart and compass beside her.
Mary. I wonder if I am all right here! The course is not very clearly marked out. Willie is still so sick that he can’t tell me any more about steering, and Patsy don’t seem to know anything but his engine, or how to go when it is plain sailing. (Studies the chart.) Let me see! We must stop at three more stations before we reach the mouth of the Washita,—Munroe, Columbia, and Harrisonburg; and then we go down the Red and Yellow to Baton Rouge. Oh! yes, I see. We steer right here by Dead Man’s Bluff, and then by Run-away Swamp. How lucky I studied that book on navigation! It helps me so much to understand these marks on the chart. If Patsy would only behave well, I should be all right; but he don’t like the idea of being “bossed,” as he calls it, “by a woman.”
(Enter Patsy, R.)
Mary. Patsy, have you thrown out the line lately?
Patsy. Yes, mum.
Mary. Where are we?
Patsy. Be-gorries! I dunno, mum.