The Argosy — page 245: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

230 Fenny Morris's Voyage. general neglect, was sitting one day on deck, her foot ona rest. Mr. Dacey was reading to her. She and he seemed to be very good friends ; but there was really nothing in the conduct of either that their enemies could make a mountain of. On this morning, however, he so far for- got his good manners as to call her “my dear,” and Mrs. Webb overheard it. Up rose that lady with a sniff and a groan; cast a look of horror upon them, and sailed away from their contaminating presence. Jenny’s face was all aglow. She rose in excitement, and would have called back Mrs. Webb. ‘Oh, Frank, pray tell her! I cannot endure that she should—oh, what shall I do?” “Do!” exclaimed Mr. Dacey, coolly, “why, do nothing. Let people mind their own business, if they can.” That was impossible in Mrs. Webb’s case, for she immediately called a meeting of her coadjutors, and represented the case. Poor Jenny! what glances met her at table! Madame Freep’s was the worst: she seemed bent upon humiliating the distressed girl. And what might have come of it, or what Mr. Dacey might have done, cannot be known ; for there broke out a violent storm that startled all other troubles away. It was a terrible storm, a frightful, tie gale: and it seemed to evince every disposition to stay and see the party round Cape Horn. Oh! how the wild wind howled through the bare rigging, and the black sea swelled to meet the leaden sky. _ No sun appeared for days —nothing to brighten the wide ocean but the foam that capped the waves. The cold and the ice were terrible. It seemed to bea fight for life. Only those who have rounded the Horn can know what it is. Private feuds lost their force in these dreary, short, cold days ; nothing seemed of importance except exact latitude and longitude, and the sup- posed distance from the Cape. At last there came a day when the desolate peaks of Staten Tent rose like a group of ghastly giants from an ocean-grave before them, and then a good wind was announced: It seemed fierce and cold enough to them all, but it blew them round into the Pacific bravely. With a storm or two that sprang upon them like the angry remonstrance of that mighty ocean, they came up nobly with the beneficent trade- winds to aid them, and things began to go on smoothly again. So smoothly that the persecution of Jenny recommenced, and was setting- in pretty vigorously when it received another check in this wise. They had been Sailing for three long months, and more, and had never seen another ship ; so when one was sighted, it caused quite a commotion. The Zigh/ning was short of certain of her provisions, and it was hoped this ship might help them to some. She proved to be an American craft, the Z/za Jones, also bound Gomilecbooks.co - = a