"the poor little thing!"

I noticed her right away - "not a baby anymore" girl child in a harness on her back - facing her mom's back with legs spread out dangling back and forth. And that's what they did. The mom was walking quite fast - enough to make the legs dangle back and forth.
We were sitting close to the gift store on the ferry in an outdoor eating area. The Mom went into the store, but even then she slowed only a little. In fact this pace was why I started watching her. Somewhat frantic about it. Another reason was the age of the child. This was not a Mom trying to get a baby to sleep. There was something else going on. The little girl seemed happy enough.
We moved around a bit and I lost track of her.
The weather turned cold and we wandered indoors. A main area with lots of empty seats. Football on TV.
Suddenly she was there again. Up and down the aisle right next to us. Same pace but the little girl looked unsettled and weary.
I started working on my crossword puzzle. A family of Mom, Dad, and 2 little boys were having a wonderful game with puppets and this took my complete attention for a spell. They had window seats and suddenly I saw her again walking quickly on the outside deck. A wicked cold wind. The little girl was crying hard and moving her head back and forth. The Mom ignored this, kept pounding back and forth. The same piece of deck, up and down, up and down. No sweater on either of them.
When she appeared inside I realized why it was the same piece of deck. A young man sat at a table with a lap top open. She stopped there and started rummaging in a bag lying on the seat beside him. Everything came together in that instant. They were a couple and there was something amiss between them. She was pounding that same piece of deck because he was sitting there and couldn't miss her. By this time the little girl's face was red from the cold and the crying. My heart went out to her. Something distant between man and child made me wonder whether this little girl was his little girl. Saying nothing, her mom took something out of the bag and disappeared. 10 minutes later we were heading down to our car. I never saw them again.