Page:Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 2.djvu/20

2 be as merry as grigs, and get as buxom as dairy-maids in a month," said the sprightly Amanda.

"You promised to go, and if you back out we are lost, for we must have a duenna. You can lie round in Europe just as well as here, and I have no doubt it will do you a world of good," added Matilda.

"I shall keep my word, but you will bury me in the Atlantic, so make up your minds to it. Do you suppose that I, a poor, used-up, old invalid, who can't look at a sail-boat without a qualm, can survive thirty days of standing on my head, and thirty nights of sail-splitting, as we go slamming and lurching across two or three awful oceans?" demanded Lavinia, with the energy of despair.

Before any one could reply, Amanda's little Mercury appeared with a note.

"The 'Wasp' will not take passengers, and no other fruit ship sails this spring," read Amanda.

"Oh dear!" sighed Matilda.

"Saved!" cried Lavinia.

"Be calm: we shall go, sooner or later, if I buy a ship and sail her myself;" with which indomitable remark Amanda went forth to grapple with and conquer untoward circumstances.