'Go 'way doon to yon dyke,' I heard one say, probably
meaning the bulwark. I often had my heart in my mouth, watching them
climb into the shrouds or on the rails, while the ship went swinging
through the waves; and I admired and envied the courage of their
mothers, who sat by in the sun and looked on with composure at these
perilous feats. 'He'll maybe be a sailor,' I heard one remark;
'now's the time to learn.' I had been on the point of running
forward to interfere, but stood back at that, reproved. Very few in
the more delicate classes have the nerve to look upon the peril of
one dear to them; but the life of poorer folk, where necessity is so
much more immediate and imperious, braces even a mother to this
extreme of endurance. And perhaps, after all, it is better that the
lad should break his neck than that you should break his spirit.
And since I am here on the chapter of the children, I must mention
one little fellow, whose family belonged to Steerage No. 4 and 5, and
who, wherever he went, was like a strain of music round the ship. He
was an ugly, merry, unbreeched child of three, his lint-white hair in
a tangle, his face smeared with suet and treacle; but he ran to and
fro with so natural a step, and fell and picked himself up again with
such grace and good-humour, that he might fairly be called beautiful
when he was in motion.
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