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قراءة كتاب Yr Ynys Unyg The Lonely Island

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Yr Ynys Unyg
The Lonely Island

Yr Ynys Unyg The Lonely Island

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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it, or it would go over us."

Gatty (laughing).—"Serena, do come here, Sybil is talking such splendid stuff, and, moreover, she is frightened out of her wits, and I do believe wishes herself at home."

Serena.—"Oh dear! I am so ill; going on deck has quite upset me, and I am worse than I was."

Gatty.—"Now, whatever you do, don't go and be so foolish, Serena. I shall have no pleasure at all if Sybil is frightened and you are ill. Get up, and eat a lot of roast beef with heaps of mustard and you will be quite well."

A little small voice called to Gatty, and also asked for beef and mustard. "I am sure, quite sure, Gatty," said the little speaker, Winny, "it will do me a great deal of good." "Ah," said Lilly, "I wish I was out of this place. Do, mother, ask the captain to stop and put me down somewhere." This little idea caused infinite amusement. Time, however, went on, and cured us all. We had lovely weather, and began to keep regular hours, and have allotted times of the day for different things. All attending, whatever might be our occupations, to the captain's summons; for when anything new was to be seen, any wonders of the ocean, any curious bird resting its weary wings on the only haven in sight—our little vessel, any furling of sails, or any change, so did the good-natured captain send for us, and we joyfully obeyed the summons, listening to all his wondrous tales, watching the rolling of the porpoises, and the wondrous colours of the sea. As we approached a hotter climate, everything became, in our eyes, objects of new and strange interest. In this manner we reached Gibraltar, and landed for the first time, having been thirteen days at sea.


CHAPTER III.

May 16.Gibraltar.—I, for one, was very glad to land, for somehow on board ship one never seemed to be able to finish one's toilette with the degree of niceness necessary, a lurch of the ship very often caused an utter derangement, a rolling sea made it a matter of great difficulty even to wash one's face, and as for tidying the hair that had been given up, and those who did not wear caps enclosed their rough curls in nets. We therefore migrated to the principal hotel, leaving the two boys, at their own request, on board, under the care of Jenny and Smart. The three elder girls were to wait on each other, and each take a little girl in their charge, while Hargrave waited on the three elderly ladies. We were objects of great curiosity, and many people supposed our party to consist of a school. They were more surprised at hearing that La Luna belonged to the school. The visitors on board of her became innumerable, causing the good-natured captain a world of trouble. Every day he came and reported himself, as he called it, to his commanding officer, meaning myself and brought an account of the boys, or one with him; and it was most curious to see this great rough captain take each little girl up in his arms and kiss her quite gently, always expressing a hope to each that they were not getting too fond of the land, but would soon return to their ocean home, as he was quite dull without them. Whatever misgivings he might have had on starting, they had all given way to an interest and affection for us all, that made it quite a pleasure to us to communicate with him.

We took advantage of our first landing to write letters home, which, having been preserved with sorrowful care, have now become agreeable memorials of our adventures, and may be interesting, as their own letters will best explain the individual character of each of those who were now on their way towards adventures strange as unexpected. The letters of the elder portion of our party contained but a description of Gibraltar, which is well known to most people. Sybil's letter was as follows:—

"Gibraltar, May 16, 18—

"My dearest Mamma and Sisters,

"Here we are safe on dry land again, and who would have believed a fortnight ago that we should have been so glad to get out of our dear La Luna. But we don't make half such good sailors as we expected; and how Em would have laughed could she have seen all the queer looks and sad faces which possessed the merry party she had so lately seen. But here we are really on dry land, and at Gibraltar, at the summit of all our present hopes, and charmed enough to make us forget all the horrors of the sea, and even think we could undergo them twenty times for such a sight. We came into the harbour last night, and landed as soon as we could collect our wits, and mother collect us; Madame has been at Gibraltar before, and so ought to have had the use of hers, but knowing her propensity to lose her way, we made Hargrave look after her, while we three elder girls each took a little child. Both the mothers looked after our things. The boys and Jenny were left behind. So we landed just before gun fire, passing through the long rows of houses, which looked so strange to our wondering eyes, piled one above the other, and as we were passed and stared at by numbers of odd queer-looking people, we quite fancied ourselves in a dream, or realizing the Arabian Nights. At last we halted at our hotel. Our sailors deposited our boxes, and seemed to wish us good night with sorrow. We had a famous tea, if I may so call such an odd mixture of eatables, and went to bed, hardly believing we could be in Gibraltar. This morning we were awoke by some little voices round our beds—'Oh, auntie, dear auntie, do get up; this is such a lovely place, and so odd. There are such rocks, and oh, auntie, such queer people. I saw a man in a turban, and there is a black man in the house, and——' 'Hush, little nieces, how are aunties to get up, if you chatter so? rather help us to dress, that we may see the wonderful things too.' We found our two mothers in the pretty drawing room. Three large windows looked out upon the busy town and blue sea below. The little mother was out in the balcony, in a perfect ecstasy of delight. A call to breakfast was obeyed, though we could hardly eat, the chicks jumping up every minute to look at something new and strange going on below, and the aunties quite wishing that they might commit such a breach of decorum. We were startled out of all propriety at last by a well-known voice sounding under the windows, and a remonstrance which drew us all there. Looking down, we beheld Felix seated on the top of a most extraordinary vehicle, the driver of which he had superseded, and was trying to persuade the lumbering old horse to get on. Smart was behind vainly endeavouring to persuade his young master to come down. A glance at the drawing-room windows effected what Smart's entreaties had failed to do, and the young pickle was soon at high breakfast, and had demolished a pretty considerable quantity ere his steady elder brother appeared.

"We have just returned from our first expedition so charmed, even our excited imaginations came not up to the beautiful reality. The town is a very curious one. A long street composes the principal part. Almost all the houses are painted black, with flat roofs. The shops open to the street. But the rock itself! My dearest sisters, you cannot imagine anything so exquisite as the tiers upon tiers, the masses of granite or marble rising one above another until one's eyes ached in counting them. I think if our party are always as wild as the fresh air, the beautiful scenery, and the new sensations caused to day, our mother will repent her responsibility. Even the quiet Zoë was roused, and her exclamations were as rapturous as Winny's. Felix's feats of climbing were frightful; we

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