The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary Part 29

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. "I couldn't kill you just now, but I will some day I promise you."

He was very white and had a look about his mouth that showed that he meant what he said.

Some bells rang somewhere.

"That's dinner," exclaimed Clover.

Aunt Mary gave a piercing cry.

"Oh, take me somewhere else," she said, throwing her hands up to her face; "somewhere where there'll never be nothin' to eat again. I-I can't bear to hear about eatin'."

"I'm going to take her down into one of the cabins," said Jack hastily, "she belongs in bed."

"No, turn back the carpet and lay me in the bath-tub," almost sobbed the poor victim. "I don't feel like I could get flat enough anywhere else."

"She has the proper spirit," said Burnett faintly, "only I don't feel as if I could get flat enough anywhere at all. What in the name of the Great Pyramid ever possessed me to come?"

Mitch.e.l.l rose quickly to his feet.

"You put your aunt to bed, Jack," he said, "and I'll put my yacht to backing. This expedition is expeditiously heading on to what might be termed a failure. I can see that, even if we're only in a Sound."

"When do you suppose we'll get back?" the nephew asked anxiously.

"About four o'clock, if we don't lose time by having to tack."

"I didn't quite catch all that," said Aunt Mary, "but I knew suthin' was loose all along. I felt it inside of me right off at first. And ever since, too."

Jack gathered her up in his arms and bore her tenderly away to the beautiful main cabin.

"I wanted to live to change my will," she said sadly, as he laid her down, "but somehow I don't seem to care for nothin' no more."

He kissed her hand.

"They say being seasick is awfully _good_ for people, Aunt Mary," he yelled contritely.

Aunt Mary opened her eyes.

"John Watkins, Jr., Denham," she said, "if you say 'food' to me again _ever_, I'll never leave you a penny-so there!"

Jack went away and left her.

"Come on to dinner, Burnett," Clover called hilariously, "there's liver with little bits of bacon-your favorite dish."

Burnett snarled the weakest kind of a snarl.

"I thought I'd suffered enough for one year last month," he murmured in a voice too low to be heard, and then he knew himself to be alone on deck.

Down in the little dining-saloon the dishes were hopping merrily back and forth and an agreeable odor of agreeable viands filled the air. Clover and Jack sat down opposite their host and they all three ate and drank with a zest that knew no breaking waves nor sad effects.

"Here's to our aunt," said Clover gayly, as the first course went around; "of course, we all love her for Jack's sake, but at the same time I offer two to odds that it is a pleasure to converse in under tones occasionally.

Who takes?"

"Aunt Mary being laid upon her bed," said Mitch.e.l.l, "we will next proceed to lay the motion of our honorable friend upon the table. We regret Aunt Mary's ill-health while we drink to her good-quotation marks under the latter word. Aunt Mary!-and may she arise and prosper all the way down into the launch again."

"I'm troubled about her, really," said Jack soberly; "we ought to have brought someone to look out for her."

"The maid," cried Mitch.e.l.l, "the dainty, adorable maid! Here's to Janice and-" his speech was brought to a sudden end by his two guests nearly disappearing under the table.

Jack started up.

"Ginger! Did you feel that?" he asked.

"That's nothing," said Mitch.e.l.l, calmly replacing the water-carafe which in the excitement of the moment he had clasped to his bosom; "it's the waves which are rising to the occasion-that's all." But Jack had hurried out.

He found poor Aunt Mary writhing in an agony of misery. "Oh-oh-" she cried, "I want to be still-I'm too much tipped-and all the wrong way! I want to lay smooth-and I stand on my head-all the-"

"We're going back," said Jack, striving to soothe her; "lie still, Aunt Mary, and we'll soon get there. Do you want some camphor to smell?"

"I don't feel up to smellin'," wailed Aunt Mary, "I don't feel up to anythin'. Go 'way. Right off."

Jack went on deck. He found Burnett stretched pale and green upon the chairs their lady guest had vacated.

"If you speak to me again," he said, in halting accents, "I'll never speak to you again. Get out."

Jack went back to his place at dinner.

"How are they?" asked Clover.

"I don't know," he said quietly, "but there's a big storm coming up. The sky's all dark blue and it looks bad."

"I don't care," said Mitch.e.l.l, sawing into the game with vigor; "if we go down we go down with Aunt Mary and if I were Uncle Mary I wouldn't feel happier and safer as to all concerned. The s.h.i.+p that bore Caesar and his fortune had nothing at all to bear compared to this which bears Jack and his. Here's to Jack and his fortune, and may we all survive the dark blue sky."

"I tell you it's serious," said Jack. As he spoke another ominous heaving set the bottles tipping and nearly sent Clover backwards.

"And I'm serious," exclaimed Mitch.e.l.l. "I'm always serious only I never can get any girl to believe it. Here's to me, and may I grow more and more serious each-"

A tremendous wave bore the yacht upright and then let her fall on her forelegs again. Clover went over backwards and the dish of peas to which he had just been helping himself followed after.

"You didn't say 'excuse me' when you left the table," said Mitch.e.l.l, whom the law of gravitation had suddenly raised to a pinnacle from which he viewed his friends with mirthful scorn; "and if you've hurt yourself it must be a judgment on you for leaving the table without saying 'excuse me.' Here's to Clover, who has a judgment and a dish of peas served on him at the same time for leaving the table without saying 'excuse me.'"

The sailing-master appeared at the door, his cap in his hand.

"I beg your pardon, sir," he said respectfully, "but I fear it's impossible to put back. We can't turn without getting into the trough of the sea."

"All right, go ahead then," said Mitch.e.l.l; "go where we must go, and do what you've got to do. My motto is veni, vidi, vici, which freely translated means I can sleep asea when I can't sleep ash.o.r.e."

"But Aunt Mary?" cried Jack blankly.