“No, I am a midshipman,” I replied, modestly.
“Is a midshipman higher than a captain?” she inquired, innocently.
“Sometimes; when he’s mast-headed,” I answered. This seemed to satisfy her; and I, not wishing to be lowered in her estimation, was anxious to change the subject. I therefore said, “It seems very odd that though I’ve been on board so many hours, and seem to be so well acquainted with you, I do not know where you have come from, or how you got into this terrible plight.”
“Oh, I will tell you all about it, then,” she replied. “You must know that papa has been a great merchant in the Brazils, where we have lived almost since I can remember. Dear mamma died there; and if it had not been for my sake, I believe papa would have died too. You cannot tell how fond he is of me, for I have no brothers or sisters, and there was no one else in that country for him to love. At last the doctor told him he must come to England, so he took a passage in this ship, which is called the Poictiers. There were some other passengers, and I had an old black nurse to take care of me. At first we had fine weather, and things seemed to go pretty well; but, sad to say, the captain was a very tipsy man, and we, I believe, lost our way, and the wind blew against us and kept us back a long time.”
“Oh, I see! the master got out of his reckoning, and met with a succession of foul winds,” I remarked.
“I don’t know, but I know we were very uncomfortable, and had very little to eat, and what we had was very bad,” she continued. “It was very horrid, was it not? A fever also, which one of the passengers had brought from Rio, spread among the people on board. Several of the other passengers and many of the crew died of it, and among others, my poor nurse Josefa. God was very kind, and saved dear papa and me. I do not think the captain caught it; but he was always very tipsy, and now was worse than ever. One night he fell into the sea and was drowned.”
“Drinking brought on delirium tremens, and in his madness he jumped overboard probably,” I remarked. “No wonder his ship was in so bad a condition; but go on.”
“Both the mates died, and we were left without any officers. Fortunately the crew were very steady, and behaved well; and at last the fever went away, and those who were sick recovered. The carpenter was the only person on board who had any idea how we should steer, so the rest made him act as captain.”
“It was a mercy, under such circumstances, that you found your way into the Chops of the Channel.”
“Where is that?” asked Miss Alice, naïvely.