"
"Shut up," said Mitchell, hurrying Aunt Mary up the companion-way and
shoving her into one chair and her feet into another; "there, Miss
Watkins, you're all right now, aren't you?"
"What's the matter?" said Jack, coming from somewhere aloft or astern.
"Heaven bless me, what ails you, Aunt Mary?"
"I don't wonder I'm pale," said Aunt Mary faintly, "oh--oh--"
"We must put our heads together," said Burnett, taking a drink from a
flask that he took out of his pocket; "I must soon put my head on
something, and your aunt looks to me to feel the same way. Mitchell, why
did you let me forget that vow I made last time to never come again?"
"Your vows to never do things again are about as stable as your present
hold on an upright position," said Clover, laying a steadying hand upon
his friend's waveringness. "Sit down, little boy, sit down."
Burnett sat down, Mitchell smiled, Jack laughed, and Aunt Mary groaned.
The boat was rising and falling rapidly now, and as she ran further and
further out into the ever freshening wind she kept on rising and falling
yet more rapidly. The more motion there was the more Aunt Mary seemed to
sift down in her two chairs.
"We'd better put back," said Jack; "this won't do, you know. How do you
feel now, Aunt Mary?" he added, leaning over her.
Aunt Mary opened her eyes and looked at him but made no reply.
"Ask me how I feel, if you dare," said Burnett, from where his chair was
drawn up not far away.
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