His sleep, however, was very much broken and disturbed, and he was at last suddenly awakened by a violent lurch of the ship, which rolled him over hard against the outer edge of his berth, and then back against the inner edge of it again. There was a sort of cord, with large knobs upon it, at different distances, which was hung like a bell cord from the back side of the berth. Rollo had observed this cord before, but he did not know what it was for. He now, however, discovered what it was for, as, by grasping these knobs in his hands, he found that the cord was an excellent thing for him to hold on by in a heavy sea. By means of this support, he found that he could moor himself, as it were, quite well, and keep himself steady when a heavy swell came.
He was not long, however, at rest, for he found that his endeavors to go to sleep were disturbed by a little door that kept swinging to and fro, in his state room, as the ship rolled. This was the door of a little cupboard under the wash stand. When the door swung open, it would strike against a board which formed the front side of the couch that has already been described. Then, when the ship rolled the other way, it would come to, and strike again upon its frame and sill. Rollo endured this noise as long as he could, and then he resolved to get up and shut the door. So he put his feet out of his berth upon the floor,-which he could easily do, as the berth that he was in was the lower one,-and sat there watching for a moment when the ship should be tolerably still. When the right moment came, he ran across to the little door, shut it, and crowded it hard into its place; then darted back to his berth again, getting there just in time to save a tremendous lurch of the ship, which would have perhaps pitched him across the state room, if it had caught him when he was in the middle of the floor.
Rollo did not have time to fasten the little door with its lock; and this seemed in fact unnecessary, for it shut so hard and tight into its place that he was quite confident that the friction would hold it, and that it would not come open again. To his great surprise, therefore, a few minutes afterwards, he heard a thumping sound, and, on turning over to see what the cause of it was, he found that the little door was loose again, and was swinging backward and forward as before. The fact was, that, although the door had shut in tight at the moment when Rollo had closed it, the space into which it had been fitted had been opened wider by the springing of the timbers and framework of the ship at the next roll, and thus set the door free again. So Rollo had to get up once more; and this time he locked the door when he had shut it, and so made it secure.
Still, however, he could not sleep. As soon as he began in the least degree to lose consciousness, so as to relax his hold upon the knobs of his cord, some heavy lurch of the sea would come, and roll him violently from side to side, and thus wake him up again. He tried to brace himself up with pillows, but he had not pillows enough. He climbed up to the upper berth, and brought down the bolster and pillow that belonged there; and thus he packed and wedged himself in. But the incessant rolling and pitching of the ship kept every thing in such a state of motion that the pillows soon worked loose again.
After making several ineffectual attempts to secure for himself a quiet and fixed position in his berth, Rollo finally concluded to shift his quarters to the other side of the state room, and try the couch. The couch had a sort of side board, which passed along the front side of it, and which was higher somewhat than the one forming the front of the berth. This board was made movable, so that it could be shifted from the front to the back side, and vice versa, at pleasure. By putting this side board back, the place became a sort of sofa or couch, and it was usually in this state during the day; but by bringing it forward, which was done at night, it became a berth, and one somewhat larger and more comfortable than the permanent berths on the other side.
So Rollo began to make preparations for a removal. He threw the bolster and pillows across first, and then, getting out of the berth, and holding firmly to the edge of it, he waited for a moment's pause in the motion of the ship; and then, when he thought that the right time had come, he ran across. It happened, however, that he made a miscalculation as to the time; for the ship was then just beginning to careen violently in the direction in which he was going, and thus he was pitched head foremost over into the couch, where he floundered about several minutes among the pillows and bolsters before he could recover the command of himself.
At last he lay down, and attempted to compose himself to sleep; but he soon experienced a new trouble. It happened that there were some cloaks and coats hanging up upon a brass hook above him, and, as the ship rolled from side to side, the lower ends of them were continually swinging to and fro, directly over Rollo's face. He tried for a time to get out of the way of them, by moving his head one way and the other; but they seemed to follow him wherever he went, and so he was obliged at last to climb up and take them all off the hook, and throw them away into a corner. Then he lay down again, thinking that he should now be able to rest in peace.
At length, when he became finally settled, and began to think at last that perhaps he should be able to go to sleep, he thought that he heard something rolling about in Jennie's state room, and also, at intervals, a mewing sound. He listened. The door between the two state rooms was always put open a little way every night, and secured so by the chambermaid, so that either of the children might call to the other if any thing were wanted. It was thus that Rollo heard the sound that came from Jennie's room. After listening a moment, he heard Jennie's voice calling to him.
"Rollo," said she, "are you awake?"
"Yes," said Rollo.
"Then I wish you would come and help my kitten. Here she is, shut up in her cage, and rolling in it all about the room."
It was even so. Jennie had put Tiger into the cage at night when she went to bed, as she was accustomed to do, and then had set the cage in the corner of the state room. The violent motion of the ship had upset the cage, and it was now rolling about from one side of the state room to the other-the poor kitten mewing piteously all the time, and wondering what could be the cause of the astonishing gyrations that she was undergoing. Maria was asleep all the time, and heard nothing of it all.
Rollo said he would get up and help the kitten. So he disengaged himself from the wedgings of pillows and bolsters in which he had been packed, and, clinging all the time to something for support, he made his way into Jennie's state room. There was a dim light shining there, which came through a pane of glass on one side of the state room, near the door. This light was not sufficient to enable Rollo to see any thing very distinctly. He however at length succeeded, by holding to the side of Jennie's berth with one hand, while he groped about the floor with the other, in finding the cage and securing it.
"I've got it," said Rollo, holding it up to the light. "It is the cage, and Tiger is in it. Poor thing! she looks frightened half to death. Would you let her out?"
"O, no," said Jennie. "She'll only be rolled about the rooms herself."
"Why, she could hold on with her claws, I should think," said Rollo.
"No," said Jennie, "keep her in the cage, and put the cage in some safe place where it can't get away."
So Rollo put the kitten into the cage, and then put the cage itself in a narrow space between the foot of the couch and the end of the state room, where he wedged it in safely with a carpet bag. Having done this, he was just about returning to his place, when he was dreadfully alarmed at the sound of a terrible concussion upon the side of the ship, succeeded by a noise as of something breaking open in his state room, and a rush of water which seemed to come pouring in there like a torrent, and falling on the floor. Rollo's first thought was that the ship had sprung a leak, and that she was filling with water, and would sink immediately. Jennie, too, was exceedingly alarmed; while Maria, who had been sound asleep all this time, started up suddenly in great terror, calling out,-