He who has suffered knows the pain,
That other sufferers bear;
And from the torn and bleeding heart,
Flows balm for every care.
The first day at sea was fair and uneventful, but on the second day a curious episode occurred upon the deck.
An under-officer, young and with a frank, boyish face, came quietly, hat in hand, to where Mrs. Sinclair, Sir Frederic and Stella were sitting, and in a respectful manner requested permission to address the ladies in behalf of a poor woman and her child who had shipped in the steerage.
The woman, he said, was refined in her appearance, and was very seriously ill while her sufferings were necessarily aggravated by her incommodious surroundings.
With a modest blush he went on to say that ever since he discovered her wretched condition he had been scanning the faces of the passengers in search of a kindly heart and had finally decided upon their party as the one most liable to assist him in his humane undertaking.
She was being cared for, in a measure, by a kind hearted Mongolian, but his sympathies were won, not so much by the woman as by the baby, who seemed almost entirely neglected.