Evening star., 1933-04-01

EAdAAlt SklIl1l, QUdTSe WOIIldll S
voice was calling from behind cabin
you hear? Stop!"
A number of men, most of them in
tourist costume, stood about smoking.
In one corner couple sat hand in
hand on a small wicker basket. They
sat very close to each other, without
speaking--a pale, simple man and
blooming. simple woman.
Thomas first opened the partly ajar
door from which the shrill, hoarse
woman's voice had called for Franzi.
1t was one Of the cheapest cabins on
the Columbia, containing six berths,
without portfolios opening upon the
sea. The electric light was burning in
the ceiling, and over the door a venti-
lator was humming
Thomas entered, and would have
given a good deal to go straight out
again. The cabin was almost entirely
filled with six open berths-three up
per and three lower. The ventilator
over the door was unpleasantly noisy,
but it was inadequate in effecting a
satisfactory exchange between the
sticky atmosphere of the crowded cabin
and the fresher air of the corridor.
Had Thomas seen this cabin In the
morning before the passengers invaded
it, he would have regarded it as
pleasant room, clean and simply fur
nished, with linoleum floor covering
and running water from q built-in
wash-basin, like hospital room. The
six berths would have been up, con-
cealed behind polished ashwood cover
ings. There would have been no open
trunks, no trodden-down shoes, no old
clothes upon the chairs-no people.
On the third berth lay half-grown
boy on his stomach reading. On the
berth opposite the door a woman was
sitting telling fortunes with cards. Paula
Fabian was her name and she was going
to America to visit her husband.
Thomas asked few friendly ques-
tions. How long since she had seen her
husband and the like? After several
grurnbling replies she suddenly burst
out:
"I am not i'll and I don't need any
doctor. If you really must have some
thing to do, there is Mrs. Weber over
there" She pointed to the next bed
A little old woman was lying there in
clean. white nightgown; on the pillow
lay her wrinkled fallen-in face, with its
pointed, yellow nose. Her cleaning
scalp shone beneath her sparse, snow
white hair She was sailing to visit her
son. Twenty-Five years before he had
emigrated to America, married there,
children had been born to him and had
grown up. Year after year he had
promised that he would visit his mother,
but year after year had passed with
out 1t having been possible for him to
manage it. Now his mother had taken
all her savings, sailed all by herself, just
to see her son before she died.
For haven't much time left to wait
for him - che eaid Sho darlorod 10
felt quite well and had gone to bed
simply because she had nothing else
to do.
At the time there was only a single
child in the cabin-a little girl squat
ting amidst all sorts of foodStuffs, which
had been unpacked on the third BERTH
The woman with the shrill, hoarse voice,
scolded her, but Immediately afterward
made her apologies to Sister Martha.
If you have to make trip like this
with four children, even an angel might
lose patience!"
Emma Lensch was travelling from
PoSen to Oklahoma. Six years ago her
husband had gone across, for no other
reason but a restless temperament. They
had not been too badly of; she had a
stationery shop which she had inher-
tied from her father and her husband
ran school for motor driving. But
since he had come back from the war
he had grown discontented. As a re-
suit, his wife's habit of quarreling and
nagging had grown worse and worse.
Yet she was fond of him and nearly
went mad the day he went off and left
her.
For years she had no word from him.
Then one day letter came. He was
doing well, had farm in the West,
fields, meadows and all sorts of live
stock. He was keen to have his wife
and children back. So Emma Lensch
had sold her stationery shop and her
little house, in which she and her chill
dren had been born.
The children were all healthy; the
doctor could see for himself. This one
mere was Marie; FranI was playing out
side in the corridor. Her oldest daugh-
ter, Mill, was out on deck. There was
loud speaker there and wherever there
was music and lots of people, there
Mill would be, too.
If only she doesn't catch her deathI
She couldn't even wait till I'd un-
packed"
Mrs. Lensch had boy, too-George.
she called his name. The boy in the
upper berth, who had had his fingers
IN his ears, thrust his pale, triangular.
race with its large, horn-rimmed spec
tacles over the edge of the berth.
i think his glasses are too weak"
said Thomas. There are red rims
round his eyes, a sign that they are
overstrained.'
He reads day and night" said his
mother. I've never seen ANYTHING like
1t IN all my life. Please, Doctor, tell him
not to read so much. He won't pay any
attention to me-"
Thomas said few genuinely kind
WORDS 10 the boy. Meanwhile Sister
marina had taken his book. Mechan-
icaily she looked at the title page.
raised her eyebrows and smiiingly
handed the open book to Thomas.
1t was Aristotle,s "Nicomachean Ethics
in an old, cheap edition. The faded vol
ume had changed hands at least three
times. for three different names had
been written on the fiy-leaf and crossed
out again. How had little George ac-
CURED this book? Had he sold his
breakfast bun to get the money for this
cheap volume? All of a sudden Thomas
mad the impression that this stuffy. air.
less, hghtless cabin had a window after
all, portfolio, through which even if
you couldn't exactly look out upon the
world, you could at least see fragment
Of sky.
Cabins for men, cabins for women. A
lew family cabins for large families
The general state of health was excel
lent, for this particular steamship line
was very stringent in its Observance of
the health regulations of the Board of