Page:Cornelia Meigs--The island of Appledore.djvu/93



Billy it seemed as though he fell asleep very quietly and comfortably, as he clung to  the cat-boat with the water breaking over him,  and that he awoke, aching and miserable, to  the wish that he had been left where he was. As more of his wits returned to him, however, he realized that it was a little pleasanter to  be warm and dry and lying in a berth in a  brightly-lighted room than left to drown in  the disagreeably cold Atlantic.

Some one was lifting him up to pour a hot stinging drink down his throat; he gulped and  choked and did not enjoy it. He tried to look around to see who was treating him with such  unkindness but found it too great an effort. Some one else was leaning over him. He realized after listening to the talk for a moment that this was the ship’s captain. He remembered quickly Captain Saulsby’s last in- 75