4 What Katy Did Next - Bedtime Tales Stephanie Poppins

Hello.

Welcome to Sleep Stories with Steph.

A romantic bedtime podcast guaranteed to help you drift off into a calm relaxing sleep.

Come with me as we go back in time to visit Katie Carr.

She is all grown up now but she still has the same trials and tribulations she had as a child.

But before we begin let's take the time to focus on where we are now.

Take a deep breath in through your nose.

Take a deep breath in through your nose.

That's it.

Then let it out on a long sigh.

It is time to relax and really let go.

Feel yourself sink into the support beneath you.

And let the pressures of the day seep away.

Happy listening.

What Katie Did Next by Susan Coolidge Read and abridged by Stephanie Poppins Chapter Four On the Spartacus The Ulster and the Felt Hat soon came off again for a headwind lay waiting in the offing and the Spartacus began to pinch and toss in a manner which made her unreasoned passengers glad to betake themselves to their births.

Mrs.

Ash and Amy were amongst the earliest victims of seasickness and Katie,

After helping them to settle in their state rooms,

Found herself too dizzy and ill to sit up a moment longer and thankfully resorted to her own.

As the night came on the wind grew stronger and the motion worse.

The Spartacus had the reputation of being a dreadful roller and seemed bound to justify it on this particular voyage.

Down,

Down,

Down the great hole would slide till Katie would hold her breath with fear lest it might never right itself again.

Then slowly the turn would be made and up it would go till the cant on the other side was equally alarming.

On the whole Katie preferred to have her own side of the ship,

The downward one,

For it was less difficult to keep herself in the berth from which she was in continual danger of being thrown.

The night seemed endless for she was too frightened to sleep except in broken snatches and when day dawned and she looked through the little round pane of glass in the porthole only grey sky and grey waltering waves and flying spray and rain met her view.

Oh dear,

Why do people ever go to sea unless they must?

She thought feebly.

She wanted to get up and see how Mrs.

Ash had lived through the night but the attempt to move made her so miserably ill she was glad to sink again on her pillows.

The stewardess locked in with offers of tea and toast the very idea of which was dreadful and pronounced the other lady horridly ill worse than you are miss and the little girl taking on dreadful in the upper berth.

Of this fact Katie soon had audible proof for as her dizzy senses rallied a little she could hear Amy in the opposite stateroom crying and sobbing pitifully.

She seemed to be angry as well as sick for she was scolding her poor mother in the most vehement fashion.

I hate being at sea Katie heard her say.

I won't stay in this nasty old ship mama.

Do you hear me?

I won't stay in this ship.

It wasn't a bit kind of you to bring me to such a horrid place.

I want to go back mama.

Tell the captain to make me go back to the land.

Mama why don't you speak?

I'm so sick and unhappy.

Don't you wish you were dead?

I do.

And then came another storm of sobs but never a sound from Mrs.

Ash who Katie suspected was too ill to speak.

She felt very sorry for poor little Amy raging there in her high berth like some imprisoned creature but she was powerless to help her.

She could only resign herself to her own discomforts and try to believe that somehow this state of mind and state of things must end.

As the day wore on the gale increased and the vessel pitched dreadfully.

Twice Katie was thrown out of her berth on the floor then the stewardess came and fixed a sort of movable side to it which held her in but it made her feel like a child fastened into a railed crib.

One thing happened in the course of the second night.

At least it seemed wrong afterwards.

At the time Katie was so uncomfortable to enjoy it.

Amidst the rush of the wind,

The creaking of the ship's timbers and the shrill buzz of the screw she heard a sound of queer little footsteps in the entry outside her open door.

Nearer and nearer they came and opening her eyes she saw a procession of boots and shoes of all sizes and shapes which had evidently been left on the floors of the doors of various staterooms and which in obedience to the lurchings of the vessel had collected in the cabin.

They now seemed to be acting in concert with one another and really looked so alive as they bumped and trotted side by side and two by two in at the door and close to her bedside.

There they remained for several moments executing what looked like a dance then the leading shoe turned on its heel as if giving a signal to them and then slowly they disappeared one by one.

It was like one of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales,

Katie wrote to Clover afterwards.

She heard them going down the cabin but how it ended or whether the owners of the boots and the shoes ever got their own particular pairs again she never knew.

Towards morning the gale abated and the sea became smoother.

She fell asleep and when she woke the sun was struggling through the clouds and Katie felt better.

The stewardess opened the porthole to freshen the air and helped her to wash her face and smooth her tangled hair.

Then she produced a basin of gruel and a triangular bit of toast and Katie found her appetite was come again and she could eat.

And here's a letter ma'am which has come for you by post this morning,

Said the nice old stewardess producing an envelope from her pocket.

By post cried Katie in amazement how can that be?

Then catching sight of Rose's handwriting on the envelope she understood and smiled at her own simplicity.

The stewardess beamed at her as she opened it yes and by post she said and then she withdrew and left Katie to enjoy the surprise.

The letter was not long but very like its writer.

Rose drew a picture of what Katie would probably be doing at the time it reached her.

So near the truth Katie felt if Rose must have the spirit of prophecy especially as she kindly illustrated the situation with a series of pen and ink drawings.

Katie was depicted as prone in her birth refusing with horror to go to dinner and looking longingly back towards the quarter where the United States was supposed to be.

This made Katie laugh and she was so stimulated by the letter she managed to struggle into her dressing gown and slippers and across the entry to Mrs.

Ash's stateroom.

Amy had fallen asleep at last and mustn't be wakened up so the interview was conducted in whispers.

Mrs.

Ash had by no means got to the tea and toast stage yet and was feeling miserable enough.

I've had the most dreadful time with Amy she said all day yesterday when she wasn't sick she was raging at me and I too ill to say a word in reply.

I don't think I should be dressed she replied.

I think I should just lie here until we get to Liverpool.

Then Mrs.

Barrett interjected oh no indeed ma'am you won't.

I never let my ladies lie in their berths a moment longer than there's need of I always get them up on deck as soon as possible to get the air.

It's the best medicine you can have ma'am the best freshest air indeed it is.

Stewardesses are all powerful on board ship and Mrs.

Barrett was so persuasive that it was not possible to resist.

She got Katie into her dress and wraps and seated her on deck in a chair and she dived down the companionway again and in the course of an hour appeared escorting a big burly steward who carried a poor little pale Amy in his arms.

Amy gave a scream of joy at the sight of Katie and cuddled down in her lap.

I thought I was never going to see you again she said with a little squeeze.

Oh Miss Katie it's been so horrid I never thought that going to Europe meant such dreadful things as this.

This is only the beginning said Katie we shall get across the sea in a few days then we'll find out what going to Europe really means.

I didn't mean to be naughty said Amy but you would have cried too and so would Johnny if you'd been cooped up in a dreadful old berth at the top of the wall that you couldn't get out of.

And nobody to get you water when you wanted some and my ma wouldn't answer when I called her.

A good many passengers had come up to the deck by this time and Robert the deck steward was going about tray in hand taking orders for lunch.

Amy and Katie both felt suddenly ravenous and when Mrs Ash a while later was helped up the stairs she was amazed to find them eating cold beef and roast potatoes with the finest appetites in the world.

Amy had a glamorous appetite for stories as well as cold beef and to appease this craving Katie started a sort of ocean cereal called the history of Violet and Emma which she meant to make last until they got to Liverpool.

As time went on Katie began to feel as if she knew a great deal about her fellow travellers.

There was the young girl going out to join her parents under the care of a severe governess who everybody on board rather pitied.

There was another girl on her way to study art who was travelling quite alone and seemed to have nobody to meet her or go to except a fellow student of her own age.

There was a bad little boy whose parents were powerless to oppose him and who carried terror to the hearts of all beholders.

And the other widow not quite so pretty or so much a bell who had a good deal to say in a voice discreetly low about what a pity it was dear mrs so-and-so should do this or that and doesn't it strike you as very unfortunate she should not consider the other thing.

A great sea-going steamer is a little world in itself and gives one a glimpse of all sorts and conditions of people and characters.

On the whole there was no one on the Spartacus who Katie liked so well as sedate little Gretchen except the dear old captain with whom she was a prime favourite.

He gave mrs Ash and herself the seats next to him at table,

Looked after their comfort in every possible way and each night at dinner sent Katie one of the apple dumplings made specially for him by the cook.

Meanwhile every morning brought a fresh surprise from the dear painstaking Rose who'd evidently worked hard and thought harder in contriving pleasures for Katie's first voyage at sea.

Mrs Barrett was enlisted in the plot and enjoyed the joke as much as anyone as she presented herself each day with a new invariable formula.

A letter for you mum or a letter for you formula.

A letter for you mum or a bundle miss come by the parcels delivery.

On the fourth morning it was a photograph of baby Rose.

The fifth brought a wonderful epistle full of startling pieces of news and so it went on.

Each arrival Katie thought must be the final one but Rose's forethought had gone so far even to provide an extra parcel in case the voyage was a day longer than usual and miss Katie's mail continued to come until the very last morning.

Katie never forgot the thrill that went through her when after so many days at sea her eyes first caught sight of the dim line of the Irish coast and it was late afternoon when they entered the Mersey and dusk had fallen before the captain got out his glass to look for the white fluttering speck in his own window which meant so much to him.

At last he shut the glass with satisfied air.

It's all right he said to Katie who stood near.

Lucy never forgets bless her.

Well there's another voyage over and done with thank god and my Mary is where she was.

It's a load taken from my mind.

The moon had risen and was shining softly on the river as the crowded tender landed the passengers from the Spartacus at the Liverpool docks.

We shall meet again in London or in Paris said one to another and cards and addresses were exchanged.

Then after a brief delay at the custom house they separated each to its own particular destination and as a general thing none of them and as a general thing none of them ever saw any one of the others again.

It is often thus with those who have been fellow passengers at sea.

How lovely it will be to sleep in a bed that doesn't tip or roll from side to side said Mrs.

Ash.

Yes and it's wide enough and long enough and soft enough to be comfortable replied Katie.

I feel as if I could sleep for a fortnight to make up for the bad nights at sea.

Then she closed her eyes with a pleasant thought in her mind.

It really is England and now we really are here.