The hold

Jemmy like to be on deck. "Why can't we stay up here all the time?" he asked.

"Sometimes it rains. We need a roof over us," said Amanda."We have to live in the hold."

The hold was the long room below the deck. They lived there with more than a hundred and fifty others. When they all lay down to sleep, they were crowded together like salt fish in a barrel.

Sometimes Amanda lay awake at night. She saw Men, women, and children lying all about her. In the candlelight their faces looked odd and pale. she them snore and moan and talk in their sleep.

In the middle of the hold was a heap of chests and boxes. Sometimes it moved a little, as if it might tumble down.

Some men and women on the voyage were ladies and gentlemen. They lived in rooms beyond a curtain at one end of the hold. Amanda had never seen these rooms. It was said that they had canvas walls and real beds.

Jemmy hated the hold."The hole," he called it. When he went into it, he held his nose.

"It's just for a few weeks" said Amanda

"Yes," said Dr. Crider."The voyage will be all too short,"

Dr. Crider loved the sea. Almost every night he was gone for an hour or two. Often his hair and clothes were wet when her came down into the hold."I like to stand by the rail and let the waves break in my face." he always said.

He loved the ship. He was even happy with the food -hard biscuits, cabbages , and salt beef, pork, or salt fish.

"When I was a boy," he said,"I wanted to run away and be a sailor. I wish I had!" He cared for the sick. Sometimes he was busy day and night.

"Don't you feel tired?" Amanda would ask.

"Never," he would answer.

After a week, they sailed into calm waters. The days were warm.

"Now we don't have to stay in the hole," said Jemmy."Do you know what the other ships' Names are?"

"There's the Blessing," Dr. Crider said,"That one is the Catch_ I can see the Lion and the Virginia..."

Once he showed them three men on the deck of the sea adventure."There they are," he said," the captain, the governor, and the admiral.

The one with the pink face is Christopher Newport. He is the captain. The thin man is Thomas Gates. He will be Governor of Virginia when we land there. The man with the red beard is the admiral_ Sir George Somers."

Later that day Amanda was at the rail with Jemmy and Meg when Sir George Somers came by.

"Good-day, Admiral, "said Jemmy.

The man looked surprised. Then he laughed."Good-day, young sailor," he said, and he went on up to his cabin.

"Jemmy!" said Amanda."How did you dare speak to him?"

"He didn't mind, "said Jemmy.

"But he is the admiral!"

Still she felt rather proud of Jemmy. Such a boy would grow up to be a daring man, she thought, and a daring man might have great adventuress