through the crowd to the red curtain that cut off the far end
of the saloon; and from there down to the cabin below — people
were everywhere. At last she spied a nook where she could be
completely hidden. It was in the far-back end of the boat,
just under the stairs by which she had come down. Nobody was
sitting on the three or four large mahogany steps that ran
round that end of the cabin, and sloped up to the little cabin
window: and creeping beneath the stairs, and seating herself
on the lowest of these steps, the poor child found that she
was quite screened, and out of sight of every human creature.
It was time, indeed; her heart had been almost bursting with
passion and pain, and now the pent-up tempest broke forth with
a fury that racked her little frame from head to foot; and the
more because she strove to stifle every sound of it as much as
possible. It was the very bitterness of sorrow, without any
softening thought to allay it, and sharpened and made more
bitter by mortification and a passionate sense of unkindness
and wrong. And through it all, how constantly in her heart the
poor child was reaching forth longing arms towards her far-off
mother, and calling in secret on her beloved name. "Oh, Mamma!
Mamma!" was repeated numberless times, with the unspeakable
bitterness of knowing that she would have been a sure refuge
and protection from all this trouble, but was now where she
could neither reach nor hear her. Alas! how soon and how sadly
missed!

Ellen's distress was not soon quieted, or, if quieted for a
moment, it was only to break out afresh. And then she was glad
to sit still and rest herself.