Page:De Amicis - Heart, translation Hapgood, 1922.djvu/368

334 replying with a good night to his little friend, when an unexpected dash of water dealt him a violent blow, and flung him against a seat.

“Dear me, you are bleeding!” cried the girl, running to him. The passengers who were making their escape below, paid no heed to them. The child knelt down beside Mario, who had been stunned by the blow, wiped the blood from his brow, and pulling the red kerchief from her hair, she bound it about his head, then pressed his head to her breast in order to knot the ends, and thus received a spot of blood on her yellow dress just above the girdle. Mario shook himself and rose:

“Are you better?” asked the girl.

“I no longer feel it,” he replied.

“Sleep well,” said Giulietta.

“Good night,” responded Mario. And they descended two sets of steps to their dormitories.

The sailor's prediction proved correct. Before they could get to sleep, a frightful tempest had broken loose. It was a sudden onslaught of furious billows, which in the course of a few minutes split one mast, and carried away three boats that were suspended to the falls, and four cows on the bow, like leaves. On board the steamer there arose a confusion, a terror, an uproar, a tempest of shrieks, wails, and prayers, sufficient to make the hair stand on end. The storm continued in fury all night. At daybreak it was still increasing. The formidable waves dashing the craft transversely, broke over the deck, and smashed, split, hurled everything into the sea. The platform which