`Neither could I, and I felt just as guilty not to be taking care of you,' said Katy. `Well, the worst is over with all of us, I hope. The vessel doesn't pitch half so much now, and the stewardess says we shall feel a great deal better as soon as we get on deck. She is coming presently to help me up, and when Amy wakes, won't you let her be dressed, and I will take care of her while Mrs Barrett attends to you.'

`I don't think I can be dressed,' sighed poor Mrs Ashe. `I feel as if I should just lie here till we get to Liverpool.'

`Oh, no, h'indeed, mum - no, you won't,' put in Mrs Barrett, who at that moment appeared, gruel cup in hand. `I don't never let my ladies lie in their berths a moment longer than there is need of. I h'always get them on deck as soon as possible to get the h'air. It's the best medicine you can 'ave, ma'am, the fres h'air, h'indeed it h'is.'

Stewardesses are all powerful on board ship, and Mrs Barrett was so persuasive and positive that it was not possible to resist her. She got Katy into her dress and wraps, and seated her on deck in a chair with a great rug wrapped about her feet, with very little effort on Katy's part. Then she dived down the companion way again, and in the course of an hour appeared escorting a big, burly steward, who carried poor little pale Amy in his arms as easily as though she had been a kitten. Amy gave a scream of joy at the sight of Katy, and cuddled down in her lap under the warm rug with a sigh of relief and satisfaction.

`I thought I was never going to see you again,' she said, with a little squeeze. `Oh, Miss Katy, it has been so horrid! I never thought that going to Europe meant such dreadful things as this!'

`This is only the beginning; we shall get across the sea in a few days, and then we shall find out what going to Europe really means. But what made you believe so, Amy, and cry and scold poor mamma when she was sick? I could hear you all the way across the entry.'

`Could you? Then why didn't you come to me?'

`I wanted to, but I was sick too, so sick that I couldn't move. But why were you so naughty? - you didn't tell me.

`I didn't mean to be naughty, but I couldn't help crying. You would have cried too, and so would Johnnie, if you had been cooped up in a dreadful old berth at the top of the wall that you couldn't get out of, and hadn't had anything to eat, and nobody to bring you any water when you wanted some. And mamma wouldn't answer when I called to her.

`She couldn't answer; she was too ill,' explained Katy. `Well, my pet, it was pretty hard for you. I hope we shan't have any more such days. The sea is a great deal smoother now.'

`Mabel looks quite pale; she was sick too,' said Amy, regarding the doll in her arms with an anxious air. `I hope the fresh h'air will do her good.'

`Is she going to have any fresh hair?' asked Katy, wilfully misunderstanding.

`That was what that woman called it - the fat one who made me come up here. But I'm glad she did, for I feel heaps better already; only I keep thinking of poor little Maria Matilda shut up in the trunk in that dark place, and wondering if she's sick. There's nobody to explain to her down there.'

`They say that you don't feel the motion half so much in the bottom of the ship,' said Katy. `Perhaps she hasn't noticed it at all. Dear me, how good something smells! I wish they would bring us something to eat.'

A good many passengers had come up by this time, and Robert, the deck steward, was going about, tray in hand, taking orders for lunch. Amy and Katy both felt suddenly ravenous, and when Mrs Ashe, a while later, was helped up the stairs, she was amazed to find them eating cold beef and roasted potatoes,