“Shall I, Daddy?” Sue appealed to her father.
“Of course not!” he answered, with a laugh. “Though, of course, when we get out where the waves are big the ship will not be as calm and steady as she is now at her dock.”
However, neither Bunny nor Sue thought long about this, for there was so much else to take up their attention. They watched and saw the big hawsers, or ropes that moored the ship to the pier, cast off. Then the Beacon trembled and shook again as her big engines began to work, and, slowly at first, but growing faster and faster as she gathered speed, the vessel glided away from the wharf.
“Hurray! Now we’re going!” cried Bunny Brown.
“Now we’re going!” echoed his sister Sue.
Steaming down the Delaware River, with Philadelphia on one side and the New Jersey city of Camden on the other side, is not very exciting. True, there was plenty to look at, from the big buildings of Philadelphia on one hand to the many river boats on the other. So Bunny and Sue kept their eyes busy.
Mr. Brown found some members of the fish company, with whom he talked. Mrs. Brown met some of these men’s wives. One of the ladies had been in the West Indies before, and she told Mrs. Brown of the sights to be seen there.
Bunny and Sue, left to themselves, wandered here and there about the deck. Bunny grew a little impatient, for the ship, moving down the river, was as steady as a ferryboat and did not roll as he thought it ought.
In and out among other craft on the river the Beacon threaded her course, now and then blowing her big whistle to warn other boats which way she was going to steer.
“Do you like it here, Sue?” asked Bunny.