Lor' sake! Look at Arthur Miles there, the way 'e's leanin' overboard! The child'll drown' isself, nex' news!" She rose up and ran to prevent the disaster.

"'Pears to me there's a deal o' motherin' to be done aboard this boat.

Trouble aft, an' trouble forrard--" She was hurrying aft when Mr.Mortimer intercepted her amidships.
He held a book in one hand, and two slips of paper in the other.
"Child," he asked, "could you learn a part ?--a very small part ?" "'Course I could," answered Tilda promptly; "but I ain't goin' to play it, an' don't yer make any mistake.

'Ere, let me get to Arthur Miles before 'e tumbles overboard." She darted aft and dragged the boy back by his collar.
"What d'yer mean by it, givin' folks a shock like that ?" she demanded.
"I was looking at the pictures," he explained, and showed her.
The _Success to Commerce_ bore on her stern panels two gaily painted landscapes, the one of Warwick Castle, the other of ruined Kenilworth.
Tilda leaned over the side and saw them mirrored in the still water.
"And then," the boy pursued, "down below the pictures I saw a great ship lying in the seaweed with guns and drowned men on the deck and the fishes swimming over them.

Deep in the ship a bell was tolling--" "Nonsense!" Tilda interrupted, and catching up a pole, thrust it down overside.