THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES

 
 TRINITY BELLS 
 
 A Tale of Old New York
 
 Trinity Bells ! Trinity Belw i 
 How sweet your music sinks and swells, 
 Above the old, the young, the glad, 
 Above the rich, the poor, the sad : 
 What is the tale your music tells, 
 
 Trinity Bells ? 
 
 The tale we tell so strong and clear, 
 Is just the tale you long to hear. 
 The Heart's Desire " our music times, 
 "The Heart's Desire" is in our chimes, 
 The Heart's Desire" the secret spells 
 Of Trinity Bells.
 
 Catharine and Paul sang together out of the 
 same book "
 
 TRINITY BELLS 
 
 A Tale of Old New York 
 By 
 
 AMELIA E. BARR 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 SHEILA VEDDER, 
 
 THE MAID OF MAIDEN LANE. 
 
 THE BOW OF ORANGE RIBBON, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 
 C. M. RELYEA 
 
 .*. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 GROSSET & DUNLAP 
 
 PUBLISHERS
 
 Copyright, 1899 
 BY J. F. TAYLOR AND COMPANY
 
 ie. 
 
 Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. A LAST DAT AT SCHOOL 3 
 
 II. "So THE NEW DAYS COME, AND THE YEARS 
 
 ROLL BY'* 31 
 
 III. THE STRANGER IN THE HOUSE 73 
 
 IV. PAUL HAS HOPES n? 
 
 V. THE SECRET OF THE SEA 153 
 
 VI. RAISING THE RANSOM 193 
 
 VII. ALL is WELL, KATRYNTJE ! 237
 
 A Last Day at School
 
 TRINITY BELLS 
 9 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 A LAST DAY AT SCHOOL 
 
 HER dear school companions called her 
 " Delight," but her name was Catha 
 rine Van Clyffe. 
 
 She was the daughter of Captain Jansen Van 
 Clyffe who, during the Revolutionary War, had 
 been famous for harassing British commerce 
 in his swift, well-armed ship, The Retribu 
 tion. But Catharine was born when the war 
 was over, and the United States navy had, for 
 a time, ceased to exist. Then Captain Van 
 Clyffe had begun to sail his own ship, The 
 Golden Victory, on his own commercial ven 
 tures. To the east and the west he sailed, 
 to the other side of the world, and all round 
 the world, home again. No port was too far 
 
 3
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 away, no sea too strange and dangerous ; and 
 every voyage was like a page out of a wonder 
 ful book of adventure and romance. 
 
 When Catharine was a little girl, her father 
 had often taken her on his knee and told her 
 strange stories of his ship and his sailor-men ; 
 and as she grew older she went with him, hand 
 in hand, down to the wharf on the East River 
 front, to visit The Golden Victory. The ship 
 was almost a living creature to Catharine. She 
 knew how it had chased its enemies, and run 
 away from its enemies, and fought its enemies ; 
 and its white deck and its dusky cabin were 
 places where marvellous deeds had been done. 
 In that cabin she had eaten mysterious dainties, 
 and been waited on by sailors who had not 
 only a fierce but a far-off, strange look, such 
 as men bring from unknown lands, and life- 
 and-death fights with winds' and waves, and 
 mortal enemies more dangerous than either. 
 And so this father, whom she saw only at long 
 intervals, was to Catharine a great hero ; and 
 
 4
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 she had for him a romantic and passionate 
 affection. 
 
 This affection in no way lessened the love 
 which she bore to her mother; on the con 
 trary, it was a great bond between mother and 
 daughter, for when they were together "father" 
 was the first and the last topic of their con 
 versation, the one subject that was never un 
 welcome and never tiresome. It was not, 
 however, the only bond, for Madame Van 
 Clyffe was a wise and lovable woman, a very 
 genius of happiness and helpfulness. Indeed, 
 there had been far more real companionship 
 between Madame and her daughter than was 
 at all common in that day, when parents were 
 accustomed to exact, and to receive, a great 
 deal of formal respect from their children. 
 Fortunately, Catharine found it natural and 
 easy to respect and to love her mother. No 
 one could doubt this who had seen her every 
 night open her Bible and kiss the strand of her 
 mother's bright hair which kept the place of 
 
 5
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 her devotions. It was the "good-night" kiss 
 of a girl whose heart lay close to her mother's 
 heart, and who had no sweeter wish than to 
 obey her and make her life truly happy. 
 
 The only other living member of Catharine's 
 home was her brother Paul ; and when she 
 spoke of Paul it was always with a beautiful 
 enthusiasm. She delighted in telling of the 
 honors he had won at Trinity School, and of 
 her mother's great wish that he should go 
 to Columbia College, and afterward to Mr. 
 Hamilton's office that he might learn to be 
 come a great lawyer. " But no," Catharine 
 would add, with a bright impetuosity ; " Paul 
 will not be a lawyer. Paul will go to sea. If 
 you only saw him walk about a ship you would 
 instantly understand that. And, to be sure, if 
 I was a boy I also would be a sailor. My 
 father says c we all have the salt drop in us.' 
 Even my Uncle Jacob Van Clyffe, who is a 
 tanner, dreams of the sea, and reads of the sea, 
 and talks of the sea, and never is so happy and 
 
 6
 
 Catharine Van Clyffe
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 good-natured as when he has some newly-home 
 captain at his fireside. Yes ; it is truly so. 
 Poor Uncle Jacob ! He longs for the wide 
 ocean, and he has only some tanning-pits in 
 the ' Swamp.' My uncle is not always an 
 agreeable man, but I am very sorry for him." 
 
 This was the bright, lovely Catharine Van 
 Clyffe who, just one hundred years ago the i8th 
 of last September, was a pupil in the school of 
 the Moravian Sisters at Bethlehem. That day 
 was a spinning-day, and the girls, in their 
 snow-white caps and ruffled Vandykes, were 
 seated in the great panelled room at their wheels. 
 Their small fingers twisted the yielding flax, 
 while the pattering treadles worked by little 
 feet glittering with the buckles then used as 
 shoe-latchets kept time to their cheerful 
 songs and merry chatter, and to the droning 
 hum-m-m-m of their wheels. Never had 
 Catharine been so enthusiastic, so eager, and 
 so full of joy. Her voice set all who listened 
 to it vibrating. It was the voice of a girl un- 
 
 7
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 touched by sorrow, singing for pure gladness 
 in the happy morning of her life. No thought 
 of change was in her mind. She expected to 
 remain at Bethlehem for another year. But 
 change hardly ever comes by appointment. 
 We are not even thinking of it, when suddenly 
 round some corner of life it meets us with a 
 smile or a sigh. 
 
 It was in this way Catharine's school life 
 came to a close. She was thinking only of the 
 number of cuts she would be able to spin, 
 when Sister Anna Ungar gave her a letter. 
 " It is from my dear mother," she cried joy 
 fully ; and in a moment she had broken the 
 seal and was reading the following lines : 
 
 MY DEAR DAUGHTER: I have now to communi 
 cate to you my wish that you return home with Mr. 
 King, who will call for you on the morning of the 
 1 9th. I have a great longing for your presence; 
 and though I am sure we are both sensible of the 
 obligations we owe your good teachers, I feel that 
 the time has come when I can no longer deprive 
 myself of the comfort of your society. You have 
 
 8
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 already acquired more learning than is the common 
 rule, and I have no doubt can further improve your 
 self in your own home. Your brother Paul is ex 
 tremely desirous to see you, and, hoping to experience 
 this pleasure myself in a few days, I am, my dear 
 little Katryntje, 1 
 
 Your affectionate mother, 
 
 SARAH VAN CLYFFE. 
 
 For a few moments this letter left Catharine 
 speechless ; then a warm glow of anticipation 
 superseded the shock of so sudden a removal 
 from all that had been her life for nearly five 
 years. She was sorry, and yet she was very 
 much pleased ; for youth is always sure that 
 change must mean something pleasant. In a 
 moment Catharine had concluded that her father 
 was expected, and then in another moment 
 her mind was busy with some confused plans 
 for carrying on her studies at home ; for it 
 was impossible for her at once to think of days 
 coming and going without lessons to learn. 
 
 Yet the first words that broke upon this short 
 
 1 Pronounced Ka-trynt-je. 
 9
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 trance of excited feeling were the words in 
 which Sister Ungar formally released Catharine 
 Van Clyffe from all her school duties. There 
 was almost a sob in the sister's voice ; and the 
 girls looked at Catharine with a startled regret, 
 and yet with something of that wondering re 
 spect with which we are apt to regard a per 
 son on whom a great change or a great destiny 
 has unexpectedly fallen. 
 
 The feeling in the large room at Bethlehem 
 school was very much like this. When Catha 
 rine received her letter she was leading the 
 favorite spinning chant and chorus : 
 
 Catharine : She iceks wool and flax ; 
 
 She works willingly with her hands. 
 
 Chorus : Turn the busy wheel, 
 Little sisters, turn; 
 When the sun shines bright, 
 When the candles burn. 
 
 Catharine : Her candle goes not out by night ; 
 She lays her hands to the spindle ; 
 And her hands hold the distaff. 
 10
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 Cbortts : Turn the busy wheel, 
 Little sisters, turn ; 
 When the sun shines bright, 
 When the candles burn. 
 
 Catharine : She makes herself coverings of tapestry ; 
 She spins fine linen and sells it. 
 
 Chorus : Turn the busy wheel, 
 Little sisters, turn ; 
 When the sun shines bright, 
 When the candles burn. 
 
 The singers and spinners were in the middle 
 of the last stanza when Catharine exclaimed, " It 
 is from my dear mother ! " and though the lines 
 were sung to the close, there was then an unbid 
 den and simultaneous silence. Catharine did 
 not begin the next verse, and all eyes were 
 turned upon her and upon the sad face of the 
 sister watching her. The wheels ceased to 
 hum, and in the strange silence Sister Ungar's 
 words fell with a startling effect : 
 
 "Your dear companion, Catharine Van 
 Clyffe, is required at her home in New York. 
 She will leave us in the morning, and not 
 
 IX
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 return to us again. She is absolved from all 
 her school duties at once, and may select three 
 of her companions to assist in her preparations 
 and cheer her with their presence. Miss Polly 
 Ledoux will now lead your song." 
 
 But though Miss Polly's voice was both 
 sweet and strong, the joyous gladness of the 
 music was no longer there. The wheels went 
 more slowly. The girls were more inclined to 
 talk than to sing, and when the chant was 
 finished it was not repeated ; neither was any 
 other commenced. Little intervals of silence, 
 short sentences of wonder and regret, were 
 current; and though something of the usual 
 happy abandon of a spinning-day gradually 
 returned to the circle, it lacked the vivacity 
 and sprightly pleasure which ordinarily dis 
 tinguished the exercise. It was as if the soft 
 pedal had been put down on each girl's heart. 
 Nothing that day was quite the same. They 
 had suffered a loss. For the very last time 
 Catharine had led their singing ; and the pathos 
 
 12
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 which clings to those three words, "the last 
 time," made them pensive and thoughtful. 
 
 But Catharine had distractions which pre 
 vented thought while the first shock of the 
 change prevailed. Her trunk was to be 
 packed one of those long shallow boxes, 
 covered with calfskin and rows of brass nail- 
 heads, which our great-grandmothers admired ; 
 her books and exercises to be collected ; little 
 mementos of affection from her companions to 
 be received and put in place ; and there was a 
 private interview with her teachers to go 
 through, from which she came away with eyes 
 full of tears and a solemnly happy aspect. 
 
 When these affairs had been completed, she 
 was sensible only of a great pleasure. The 
 idea of freedom is natural, and she was devot 
 edly attached to her family. Therefore, with 
 out being ungrateful for the past, she was 
 dreaming, with all the gladness of a loving 
 heart, of the richer future the return of her 
 father, the society of her mother and brother, 
 
 13
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 the release from all those beneficent rules and 
 restrictions to which she had hitherto rendered 
 a willing obedience, but whose authority she 
 suddenly felt herself to have outgrown. It was 
 this new sense of self-dependence which made 
 her fearlessly ask that her three friends might 
 have with her that night a little feast of the 
 chocolate and cake and fruit in which they all 
 delighted. Her request was readily granted, 
 and Catharine dispensed her hospitality with 
 that familiar affection which is permissible, and 
 even enchanting, in school-girls who yet believe 
 in all their enthusiasms. 
 
 One of the three friends was Lucia Dalmaine, 
 a West Indian girl, whom Catharine had first 
 comforted and then loved ; another was Mary 
 Beaton, from Boston ; and the third was Elsie 
 Evertsen, from New York. These girls had 
 shared with Catharine for three years their 
 little joys and sorrows, their likes and dislikes. 
 They had helped one another in many ways, 
 and they knew all the members of their dif-
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 ferent families by name, and were interested 
 in their fortunes. In fact, the four were bound 
 together by those numberless small ties which 
 imitate in school life the intimacy and affection 
 of the home life. 
 
 Catharine, however, had been the leading 
 spirit among them, and they were at once 
 sorry to lose her company and proud and 
 interested in her promotion. Nor were their 
 rather exaggerated expressions of affection at 
 all insincere. They really believed in their 
 undying allegiance to their school and their 
 undying love for their companion. And 
 Catharine was quite as profuse in her declara 
 tions. She was sure no charms of that gay 
 society which she expected some time to enter 
 could ever make her forget her school friends, 
 or the innocent, peaceful years she had spent 
 in her beloved school. " Indeed," she said, 
 with excusable enthusiasm, " I think Bethlehem 
 will be my last memory on this earth." 
 
 " I would not say as much as that, dear 
 15
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 Delight," answered Mary Beaton. " We may 
 live many years, and during those long years 
 have many other beautiful memories." 
 
 " To be sure ! That is exactly true," added 
 Elsie. " There are our homes, and our good 
 fathers and mothers ; and at this very time I 
 know places where I am happier than here 
 at my grandmother Van Wyck's, for instance ; 
 and on the ice, when I fly like a bird." 
 
 " For all that," interrupted Lucia, " I have 
 heard that our last memory will always go 
 back to our first." 
 
 " Well, then," said Catharine, " let us tell of 
 our first memory. That is something sure. 
 What is the very first event in your life that 
 you remember, Lucia ? " 
 
 " It was not a pleasant event, Delight. It 
 makes me shiver yet whenever I think of it. 
 I was on my father's plantation, some distance 
 from Kingston. I was not four years old. It 
 was a bright, very bright, moonlight night ; and 
 I recollect pushing open a door, and seeing in 
 16
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 the band of moonshine a great serpent stretched 
 out from one side of the room to the other. 
 It moved quickly, and some one my nurse, I 
 suppose caught me in her arms, and ran 
 along the veranda, screaming. I can smell 
 now the peculiar scent of the flowers on the 
 vines which she brushed in her frantic flight ; 
 I can hear now the shouts and confusion of 
 the slaves hunting and killing the creature ; 
 and I can feel now the kisses with which my 
 mother covered my face. That is the very 
 first event of which I have any clear remem 
 brance ; and I would not forget it because of 
 my precious mother's kisses." 
 
 " My first memory," said Mary Beaton, 
 "is of a snowy day. Everything was white, 
 and still, and cold ; and I stood, a little mite 
 of a girl, upon a chair by the window, watching 
 the falling flakes. Then I saw a man come 
 to the house, and he carried a box in his 
 hands. I heard mother laugh, and she lifted 
 me from the chair and, put me on a table. 
 2 17
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 Then she opened the box, and I sat very still 
 and watched her. It contained a large doll. 
 
 O ' 
 
 and the doll was for me ; it came from my 
 grandmother. I think it must have been 
 my birthday. I shall never forget the moment 
 when I took that doll in my arms ; I can feel 
 yet how hard I tried not to go to sleep and 
 leave her alone. I suppose I must have been 
 four years old ; I do not remember my age, 
 but the rest is as clear as if it had happened 
 yesterday." 
 
 " Now, Elsie," said Catharine, " it is your 
 turn. What wonder is the very first in your 
 memory ? " 
 
 " Indeed, then, my dear Delight, it is the 
 ice the beautiful ice, and the great pond, 
 and the girls and the boys upon it ! Some 
 one I think it was my brother George 
 pushed me in a little sled, and then, Delight, 
 I tell you truly, I fi^st knew that I was alive. 
 I shouted, I clapped my hands ; I felt so 
 happy, so happy as never was ! And then I 
 
 iS
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 felt nothing at all till I woke up before the 
 fire, and my mother was rubbing me with 
 something, and crying, c My child ! My 
 child ! ' and scolding George for taking me on 
 the ice ; and I began to scream, and kick, and 
 beg to go on the ice once more. And my 
 mother took from me my red hood, and my 
 father he laughed and held me in his arms. 
 Many times I have been on the ice since, but 
 no time was like that time. I am glad to have 
 it for my first memory. And now, dear 
 Delight, tell us what you remember first of 
 all," continued Elsie, as she nestled closer to 
 her friend, " for I am sure it will be something 
 beautiful." 
 
 " Indeed, you are exactly right, Elsie. I 
 have a beautiful f first memory ' a moving 
 picture of flags, and of men dressed splendidly 
 in many colors ; and above them, between 
 heaven and earth, the most wonderful music 
 you can imagine the chiming of Trinity 
 Bells ! I had never consciously heard them
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 before ; for I was very young when my father 
 went to the Madagascar coast, and my mother 
 took me and my brother Paul to her father's 
 house in Philadelphia. There we stayed nearly 
 two years ; and then father wrote from 
 London, and we came back to New York to 
 meet him. And the next morning was the 
 Fourth of July a hot, sunshiny day ; and 
 I was dressed in white, and stood by my 
 mother's side at the open window ; and there 
 was music in the street, and the noise of can 
 non, and such a joyful feeling, just like a holi 
 day everywhere. And very soon a great crowd 
 passed the house, and there was a grand-look 
 ing man on a white horse in front of it ; and I 
 know now that it was President Washington ; 
 and that the stately band who walked behind 
 him, all dressed in black robes, were the bishop 
 and clergy of New York ; and that the men 
 who followed in coats trimmed with gold were 
 generals, and soldiers, and companies of many 
 kinds. Young as I was, I clapped my hands 
 
 20
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 at the New York grenadiers, In their blue-and- 
 red coats, and their cocked hats with white 
 feathers. And my mother made me notice the 
 German grenadiers, in their towering caps of 
 bearskin, and the Scotch infantry, in full High 
 land dress, with the bagpipes playing. Of 
 course I did not understand all this then, but 
 my mother often afterward talked to me about 
 it ; for it was a Fourth of July during Wash 
 ington's administration, and she wished me to 
 remember it." 
 
 " I was in New York at that time," said 
 Elsie ; " but I do not remember, because I 
 was too young. However, I have seen my 
 father's uniform, for he was a New York gren 
 adier. It is kept safe in the great Nuremberg 
 chest in my father's room ; and he says he 
 wishes to be buried in it." 
 
 " And that is your first memory, Delight ? " 
 said Lucia. " How charming ! It will be 
 something pleasant to talk about when you 
 are an old woman."
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " I am sure it is my first clear memory, 
 Lucia. I have many wavering pictures in my 
 mind of things happening in my grandfather's 
 house ; but they are all so similar, and so like 
 what happened in our own house, that I can 
 not separate them. But that Fourth of July 
 is set clearly against the blue sky and the 
 sunny day. I remember, without a doubt, 
 the splendid procession, and the flags waving 
 above it, and, quite distinct from the shouting 
 and the music on the street, the joyful pealing 
 of Trinity Bells. When all had passed and 
 gone, they made the gladdest and most tri 
 umphant music. I hear it in my heart this 
 moment. Yes, indeed ! I will without regret 
 let all the stirring sights and sounds of that 
 wonderful day slip, and say truly, my first 
 memory is Trinity Bells." 
 
 "And I think," said Lucia, "that the bells 
 were a happy sign of a happy life for our dear 
 Delight. We have a very good chime of bells 
 in Kingston church," she continued; "but 
 
 22
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 when my education is finished I am going with 
 my father to England. My mother was an 
 Englishwoman, and she has told me that Eng 
 land is called the c Ringing Island,' and that 
 it is not possible to get very far away from the 
 sound of bells in the whole country. Perhaps, 
 also, I am going to Paris." 
 
 " I would not go to Paris, not if I might 
 have the whole city for going ! " cried Elsie. 
 
 " They will cut off your head, Lucia ! They 
 have already cut off the heads of their king 
 and queen, and of all the respectable people in 
 France, and now they arc trying to quarrel 
 with the Americans. It is the truth. I know 
 it, because my brother George said so in the 
 letter I got from him only one month ago. 
 If you go to Paris you will not save your head 
 on your shoulders, I think." 
 
 " There is not much danger now in Paris, " 
 answered Mary Beaton. " A young man, 
 called Napoleon Bonaparte, is making the 
 French behave themselves. My father tells
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 me that he has overthrown the Directory and 
 will likely make himself king. He has intelli 
 gence, and he is a great soldier ; and he f abom 
 inates massacres.' He said this himself." 
 
 "That may be the truth," said Elsie; 
 " nevertheless, I shall be very content to stay 
 in New York." 
 
 " All your life ? " asked Catharine. 
 
 " Yes, all my life long. To be sure, there 
 is finer skating in Holland ; but then the 
 ivomen do not dress so handsomely, or so be 
 comingly as in New York. And in New 
 York there are so many amusements. They 
 are too fond of work in Holland also. I 
 know that, because my father and my mother 
 are always telling us about the industry of the 
 Dutch. Now, I do not want to be very 
 industrious ; it is no great fault I think, to 
 enjoy oneself a little." 
 
 " But you cannot spend your life in amus 
 ing yourself, Elsie," said Mary. 
 
 "That is a great pity. But, of course, I
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 shall have to grow up, and become a woman, 
 and get married, and keep house, and become 
 old, as other people do. However, for all 
 that, Elsie will find some time to enjoy her 
 self." 
 
 " I wish to be a great teacher," said Mary 
 Beaton. " I intend to have a famous school. 
 I have many plans about it, even now. We 
 ought, I think, to do something good with 
 our lives." 
 
 " I have plans also," said Lucia. " You 
 know that my dear mother left me many 
 slaves. I intend to make them all FREE." 
 
 " Oh Lucia, what a blessed work !" cried the 
 girls, almost with one voice. 
 
 " I think so." Sister Beroth often talks to 
 me about it. She says that I shall find true 
 happiness in living in the love that flows out 
 from me, rather than in the love that flows in 
 to me. And since I have been here, and have 
 had to obey so many little rules, and always do 
 what others think right and best, I have under- 
 
 2 5
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 stood how hard it must be never to have your 
 own way all your life long." 
 
 " But," said Catharine, " school is different. 
 I once complained to Sister Kleist of this very 
 thing ; and she showed me that it was a great 
 benefit, as well as a great discipline. For 
 instance, the bell rings, and tasks must be be 
 gun ; and we have not to make up our minds, 
 they are made up for us. So then we lose 
 no time, we learn obedience also, and conquer, 
 through habit, that uncertainty which spoils 
 the character of any work it enters into." 
 
 " That may be all very proper, and exceed 
 ingly true," answered Elsie. "All the same, 
 to be rung out of bed and into bed, to be 
 rung to lessons, and rung to meals, and rung 
 to play is a little tiresome I think. And in 
 a few minutes we shall be rung to prayers, 
 and then our last evening together will be 
 over. There, already, is that tiresome bell : 
 I told you so. Oh my dear Delight, what 
 shall we do without you ? I am afraid I shall
 
 A Last Day at School 
 
 be very naughty, and have many incorrect 
 lessons.'* 
 
 Then Catharine kissed her, and they went 
 to the schoolroom together. " You see," 
 said Elsie, looking tearfully back at Lucia and 
 Mary, " I have the most right to walk with 
 Delight to-night; we are almost sisters, for we 
 both live in New York." 
 
 This was the close of one leaf of Catharine's 
 book of life. In the morning Mr. King 
 came for her while it was yet very early, and 
 no one but Sister Klcist saw her departure. 
 But all day the Bethlehem pupils thought of 
 her, and talked of her. They praised her 
 beauty, her grace, her cleverness, her sweet 
 temper, her generosity ; but Elsie touched the 
 real source of her great popularity when she 
 said, " Our dear Delight was always doing 
 somebody a kindness." 
 
 It happened that the good principal, Brother 
 Jacob Van Vleck, heard this remark ; and he 
 made to the girls a little sermon from Elsie's 
 
 91
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 text ; and asked them to remember, " if they 
 did only one kind deed or said only one kind 
 word every day, they would, each of them, 
 make three hundred and sixty people happy 
 every year. And in forty years, my children," 
 he continued, " you will have done fourteen 
 thousand six hundred kind deeds, or said four 
 teen thousand six hundred kind words. That 
 is the result for others ; but how much greater 
 the gain to yourselves ; since it is * far more ' 
 blessed to give than to receive. And as for 
 the dear companion who has just left us, we 
 must think of her in her new life, as still 
 happy, and kind, and useful, for 
 
 *' ' God is good, and gives new gladness, 
 When the old He takes away.' " 
 
 28
 
 II 
 
 " So the New Days come, and the 
 Years roll by"
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 tc SO THI NEW DAYS COME, AND THE YEARS 
 ROLL BY" 
 
 HOME, sweet Home! Never had home 
 been so sweet to Catharine as when 
 she stood again on its threshold, with her 
 mother's arms around her. The journey had 
 been impeded and delayed by a severe storm ; 
 and it was nine o'clock in the night when Mr. 
 King left her at the door of the Van Clyffe 
 house on Broadway. But the late hour, ac 
 counted for, no longer troubled either mother 
 or daughter. There was so much to feel, so 
 much to say, so many questions to ask, and to 
 answer. 
 
 The night was a little frosty, and a few oak 
 
 logs burned brightly on the hearth, while 
 
 Catharine, healthily hungry, feasted on the 
 
 fried chicken, and peach pie, and new milk, 
 
 3*
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 spread for her refreshment before it. They 
 were in ' mother's parlour/ a little room set 
 apart for Madame Van Clyffe's use, between 
 the house-place and the fine front rooms re 
 served for festive occasions. It contained only 
 a wide sofa, a round table, two or three chairs, 
 and the great carved kas, or cabinet, in which 
 Madame kept her best china, her foreign pre 
 serves, and the silver in general use. After 
 the bare simplicity of the schoolrooms it 
 seemed a very palace of comfort ; and Catha 
 rine was not too old, or too affected, to be 
 charmed anew with its air of homely beauty, 
 or to eat with real enjoyment the delicacies 
 prepared for her. 
 
 " But where is Paul ? " she asked, as soon as 
 her first excitement was over. 
 
 " He will be here very soon, my dear little 
 Katryntje ! I have already told you how kind 
 the master of Trinity school has been to Paul ; 
 and he is yet studying with him for two hours 
 every other night." 
 
 32
 
 Never had home been so sweet to Catharine as when 
 she stood again on its threshold "
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 " I thought then that Paul had passed ah 
 the Trinity classes ? " 
 
 "That is so. But now he is learning I 
 know not what something with a very hard 
 name ; something that is all curves, and lines, 
 and figures." 
 
 " Then it will be, I suppose, some kind of 
 arithmetic. How do boys learn, and even 
 like, such things ? As for me, mother, I have 
 always hated even c twice two is four.' ' 
 
 Madame's face had a momentary shadow ; 
 she did not smile, or answer Catharine ; and 
 the girl, looking quickly up, was aware of some 
 change which she could not define. It troubled 
 her ; she thought instantly of her father, and 
 asked " When is my father coming ? " 
 " I know not, dear one." 
 " Mother ! I thought surely, when you sent 
 for me, that my father was very near to his 
 home." 
 
 " I try to believe that he is ; for he has 
 been so long, so long away ! To-night we 
 3 33
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 will not speak of this subject ; in the morning 
 there will be much to say. Tell me now of 
 your school, and of what you have learned this 
 year." 
 
 This was a topic on which Catharine could 
 easily be eloquent ; and she was in the midst 
 of a conversation about Elsie Evertsen, when 
 Paul flung the door open with a cry of " Wel 
 come ! Welcome, little Tryntje ! " 
 
 " Oh, Paul ! It is good to see you again ! " 
 she answered. "And how tall you have 
 grown ! You are almost a man, Paul." 
 
 " Indeed I think so," answered the youth, 
 stretching himself to his utmost height, and 
 quite looking down on his pretty sister. 
 
 " But even so, Paul, sit down, and help me 
 to eat my chicken and my peach pie." 
 
 " I am very willing, for I am very hungry. 
 Trigonometry is not easy work." 
 
 " I should think it was very hard work. 
 The name is as bad as a day's journey. Why 
 do you learn such a thing ? " 
 34
 
 " So the New Days Come " 
 
 " I like to learn it. I think, also, I shall 
 find it very useful some day." 
 
 Then the mother turned the conversation 
 back to Bethlehem, until Catharine said she 
 was so sleepy there was nothing but bed to 
 be thought of. And oh, how delightful was 
 the white, drowsy room which she was to call 
 her own for the future ! Madame had spent 
 many happy hours in preparing for her little 
 girl : the tent bedstead with its white dimity 
 curtains, and the pretty dressing-table, cov 
 ered with snowy drapery of the same material, 
 the rush chairs, the pretty blue rugs on 
 the waxed and polished floor, the silver 
 candlestick, the exquisite linen with its faint 
 scent of lavender, the large Dresden vase 
 full of asters, and The Imitation lying open 
 at the " Four things which bring much peace " 
 all these tokens of thoughtful love and care 
 filled Catharine's heart with inexpressible 
 pleasure. She crept into her white, sweet 
 nest, with a happy, grateful prayer on her lips, 
 35
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 and immediately fell into a deep and restful 
 sleep. 
 
 A long sleep of nearly ten hours ; and then, 
 in a moment, she was wide awake. And with 
 this first alert consciousness, there came as 
 if her angel had planned it so the sound 
 of the Bells. She smiled, and lay still 
 listening : 
 
 r J- 
 
 32: 
 
 c? 
 
 Wei - come home, Ka - trynt - je ! Wei -come hornet 
 
 That was exactly what they said to her ; and 
 then they struck eight o'clock. 
 
 She was as happy as if she had been blessed 
 by a holy friend. She put her small, bare 
 feet out of bed quickly ; and dressed herself 
 in a smiling hurry. What would they say at 
 Bethlehem if they knew she had slept until 
 eight o'clock ? And then she pictured to 
 herself the busy schoolroom, and felt her in 
 dolence all the more delightful for the imagin 
 ation. And oh, how good it was to see her 
 36
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 mother's face, and to hear her loving "good' 
 morning " as soon as she left her room ! 
 Truly she had been used to kindly stranger 
 faces, and to very gentle words ; but who 
 can look into a girl's face as a mother can ? 
 And who but a mother could put a heaven of 
 love into just two words " Dearest Tryntje ! " 
 
 " I am so late, mother ; I deserve no 
 breakfast." 
 
 " But it is waiting for you ; " and she called 
 Bosnay, a favorite negro slave to bring in 
 the chocolate and eggs and hot cakes. 
 Madame was kneading the fine wheat bread, 
 and Bosnay served the girl with an affection 
 ate familiarity, talking to her the while en 
 tirely in the Dutch. Madame, also, gave all 
 her orders in the same language ; but Cathar 
 ine now found it a little difficult always to 
 understand the voluble negress. 
 
 When Madame had put her loaves under 
 a white towel to rise, Catharine had finished 
 her breakfast ; and her mother looked at her 
 
 37
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 with a tender irresolution, as if she was trying 
 to decide some question that seriously affected 
 her. And, in fact, this was the exact case. 
 When Bosnay had cleared the table and left 
 the room, a sudden silence a silence full of 
 feeling and meaning fell between Madame 
 and her little daughter. Catharine tried fo 
 break it, by telling her mother how sweetly 
 she had slept, and how delightfully she had 
 been awakened from her sleep. " The Bells 
 called me, mother," she said. " They rung 
 out f Welcome home, Katryntje! Welcome home/' 
 as distinctly as possible. They did indeed." 
 
 " Dear one, I doubt it not. And yet I am 
 so sorry they had to welcome you but I saw 
 not how to prevent it." And her face was so 
 sad, as she spoke these words, that Catharine at 
 once understood there was trouble in her heart. 
 
 " My mother," she answered, " to be with 
 you, that is my great happiness. Is there, then, 
 something you wish to tell me ? Some reason 
 why I could not stay longer at school ? "
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 Madame sat down, and drew a chair for 
 Catharine close to her side. " Sit close to me, 
 Tryntje," she said ; " sit very close, my dear 
 one. There is a great reason. It is this I 
 have no more money." 
 
 " Oh mother ! mother ! " 
 
 " Your father is now two years gone away ; 
 and I have heard not one word from him these 
 ten months. Always, when he was not com 
 ing home, he sent word to Claes Brevoort how 
 to give me money, but Claes has heard nothing 
 at all from him since he left. I am without 
 money, Tryntje, and what to do I know not. 
 Every morning I think before night your 
 dear father will come. I listen for his step 
 till my cars ache ; and if there is a quick knock 
 at the door I run to open it. I am so sure it 
 is he. But no ! Every night I pray the good 
 God to have pity on us. I sleep not, until I 
 am tired out with thinking and watching. 
 Tryntje ! Tryntje ! I could bear it no longer 
 without you ! '* 
 
 39
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " Oh, my mother ! So glad am I that you 
 have brought me home. Do not be so dis 
 tressed. There is more than one way to make 
 money. We have friends also. And we can 
 work. What says my brother Paul ? " 
 
 " Paul has such a hoping heart. He says 
 always ' To-morrow ! To-morrow, mother ! ' 
 But no ! Even Paul has now begun to fear. 
 A month since, he went to his Uncle Jacob 
 and said c Let me work with you.' My poor 
 Paul ! " Here she ceased speaking, and Cath 
 arine saw with an unspeakable pity, the large 
 tears drop from her mother's eyes. She was 
 shocked. She spoke almost in a whisper : 
 
 " Then Paul has gone to the tanning pits ? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 There was a bitter pause. The position 
 seemed impossible J^o Catharine. For the 
 question of money had never entered her mind. 
 She had some knowledge of other sorrows 
 of sickness, separation, unfriendliness, even 
 death ; but the want of money, that was an 
 
 40
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 .dea strange and almost incredible. However 
 she was a girl of quick instincts and ready sym 
 pathies, and she accepted without dispute the 
 fact of their poverty. 
 
 " Have you told my grandmother Van 
 Clyffe ? " she asked. 
 
 f< No one have I told but Paul and your 
 self." 
 
 " May I tell grandmother ? " 
 
 " To that question, Tryntje, I know not 
 what to answer. She loves me not. And she 
 is angry at your father because nothing but a 
 ship, and the world-wide seas, will please 
 him." 
 
 " As if a Zealander could help loving the 
 world-wide seas ! " cried Catharine indignantly. 
 " The sea, to my father, is everything that the 
 fatherland is to a landsman. However, let me 
 go and see grandmother. It is my duty to 
 do so; and if I get the right moment, I will 
 speak ; and if I do not get the right moment, 
 I will not speak." 
 
 41
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " Go, then ; and whatever you think it best 
 to say, that I give you permission to say." 
 
 In a short time Catharine was ready for her 
 visit. She put on her brown camblet frock, 
 with its tippet of the same material, and a 
 straw gypsy hat, tied under her chin with a 
 wide brown sarsnet ribbon. Her fair hair 
 lay in shining curls upon her shoulders, at 
 her throat was a small gold brooch, and in 
 her hand she had a posy of yellow asters 
 a blooming little maid, all brown and gold, 
 with a face serious, but not sad, and eyes 
 that shone with love, and loving purpose. 
 
 Her grandmother, Madame Judith Van 
 Clyffe, lived in an old house in William 
 Street. She had gone there when she mar 
 ried Roclf Van Clyffe, and in spite of the 
 British occupancy of New York, and of the 
 fact that her husband and three sons were 
 with the Continental army or navy, there she 
 had remained. Not without prudent man 
 agement, however. She had permitted a noted 
 
 42
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 royalist during the war to occupy its first 
 floor with his shop, on condition that she 
 had the use of the upper floor. Into this 
 upper floor she removed all her treasures ; 
 and then she suffered its windows to become 
 covered with dust and spiders' webs, and to 
 take on generally the appearance of being 
 merely the storage place of the shop below 
 them. 
 
 Ostensibly she removed to her son Jacob's 
 fine house on the Bowery ; and there she 
 busied herself in making such delicious butter, 
 and in growing such fine vegetables and fruits, 
 for the Governor's and the officers' families, 
 that they naturally protected her in a position 
 so necessary for their own comfort. So 
 Madame held her tongue, and worked hard, 
 and made a great deal of money ; and when 
 ever she put away a British guinea, she said, 
 with a little laugh of satisfaction, " It is a spoil 
 ing of the enemy ; and when my men come 
 home again, of the gold they will be glad." 
 43
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 But Roelf Van Clyffe never came home 
 again ; he died on the battle-field ; and his 
 eldest son died in hospital ; and as Jansen 
 was at sea with his ship, only Jacob came 
 home when the war was over. Then Jacob 
 took possession of his home, and Madame 
 went back to her house on William Street; 
 and there she was living when Catharine 
 went to see her. The same store was still 
 in the lower part of the house only the 
 royalist now paid a large rent for the premises 
 and Catharine went into it to ask if 
 Madame Van Clyffe was within. The place 
 had a pleasant smell of teas and spices, and 
 she lingered a moment, after she had been 
 answered. So it happened that her eyes 
 rested on the figure of an Indian god seated 
 on a shelf, among bundles of cinnamon bark, 
 and bowls of nutmegs, and jars of preserved 
 ginger. And the shelf was like a page out of 
 a romance. She instantly began to wonder 
 what brave sailor man had brought the image 
 44
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 over thousands of miles of tossing seas ; and 
 the incident made her father very close to her 
 memory. As she went up the bare, rickety 
 stairs leading to her grandmother's rooms, 
 she thought only of him ; and her heart was 
 suddenly troubled with fears for his safety 
 fears which she had never before felt. 
 
 The stairway ended in a narrow passage ; 
 and there were two closed doors in it. She 
 tapped lightly on one of them, and in a 
 moment or two it was opened wide ; and her 
 grandmother stood looking at her. 
 
 " Well, then, who are you ? " she asked. 
 
 " Grandmother " 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " Grandmother, I am Catharine." 
 
 "You!" 
 
 " It is so." 
 
 " Come in, then." 
 
 She led the way into the front room, and 
 then, turning to Catharine, asked, " But why 
 are you here ? " 
 
 45
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " I have left school ; and I wished to see 
 you." 
 
 " So ? Well, then, here am I ; " and she 
 stood squarely before the girl, with her hands 
 resting on her hips, and her eyes fixed on the 
 fair, flushing face lifted to hers. 
 
 She was a tall woman with a broad, strong 
 countenance, and thick light hair, tightly drawn 
 backward under a white linen cap, without any 
 border. She wore a dress perfectly Dutch in 
 its character : a tight-fitting bodice, and a short 
 quilted petticoat of the same cloth ; home-knit 
 stockings of grey worsted, clocked with scarlet; 
 and low cut shoes, fastened with silver latchets. 
 But Catharine saw none of these things ; the 
 old woman's personality dominated all such 
 accidentals as petticoats or stockings ; she did 
 not even notice the string of large gold beads 
 round her neck. It was the masterful look in 
 her grey eyes and the sense of power in her 
 strong mouth and erect figure which affected 
 Catharine. That this power came from con- 
 4 6
 
 So the New Days Come" 
 
 centration of will, and from that oneness of 
 mind that has never a doubt or a second 
 thought behind it, was a fact which Catharine 
 neither recognized nor reasoned about. But 
 she did understand at once that this grand 
 mother, of whom she knew so little, was a woman 
 to be respected, perhaps even loved. So she 
 smiled as she looked in the old, shrewd coun 
 tenance, and said softly : 
 
 " I see that you are very like my dear 
 father." 
 
 " Not so ! Not so ! " was the quick, curt 
 reply ; and then came the question " Why have 
 you left school ? " 
 
 " My mother needed me." 
 
 " And pray, then, at this strange school, 
 what have you learned ? " 
 
 " I have learned to play on the pianoforte 
 and the guitar. I can draw and paint very 
 well, and I have been taught to speak the 
 French tongue." 
 
 ** En waf omtrent de Hollandsche taal ? " 
 47
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " Grootmoeder, ik heb mijn moedertaal met 
 vergeten. 1 Also I have been well grounded in 
 all useful branches of learning, and there is 
 nothing that can be done with a needle, that I 
 cannot perform tambour embroidery and 
 filigree work I understand well. I can sprig 
 gauze, and embroider ribbons, and also make 
 the most beautiful artificial flowers." 
 
 " Rest a little. A girl so clever is a girl out 
 of a book. Who, then, is to do the spinning, 
 and baking, and cleaning, and cooking, the 
 making of clothes and the mending of them ? 
 God be thanked ! to such fine schools all the 
 girls do not go." 
 
 " Grandmother, I can spin thirty-four cuts 
 of flax in one day, and the other things I shall 
 learn in time from my dear mother." 
 
 " To speak truth for I like the truth 
 I see not what use there is in this music 
 and French. A different thing is the fine 
 
 1 " And what about the Dutch language ? " 
 Grandmother, I have not forgotten my mother tongue." 
 
 48
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 needlework, but I like not pianofortes. Your 
 cousins Gertrude and Alida last week were 
 cross and unhappy because they also want 
 a pianoforte. Why do they want such a 
 thing ? I never had a pianoforte, and yet I 
 am very contented." 
 
 "If you could hear my dear teachers sing 
 their sweet songs to its music, then you also 
 would want a pianoforte, my grandmother." 
 
 "I would not. Of that I am sure. Your 
 cousins have a negro man, who, when they 
 want to dance, plays the riddle very well. And 
 they have music in the church. I am not 
 opposed to music in the church, but music in 
 the house, when there is no dancing and no 
 company, that, in my opinion, is not moral 
 or respectable it is not the Dutch style. 
 Listen ! The good God gave you not life to 
 waste it." 
 
 " I do not intend to waste my life, grand 
 mother. I intend to work, and to use my 
 life for something good." 
 4 49
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " To work ! " and she lifted Catharine's 
 small white hands, and then let them fall with 
 a shrug of her broad shoulders. " Work ! 
 What can those hands do ? Look here ! " 
 and she held out her own hands ; large, cap 
 able, full-veined, and graven all over with the 
 unmistakable signs of daily labor. 
 
 " You shall see that my hands can work, 
 grandmother." 
 
 " So ? " she spoke with a tone of incredul 
 ity, and Catharine rose and went to look at a 
 magnificent piece of Middelburg tapestry 
 hanging against the wall. 
 
 " How beautiful is this work ! " she cried 
 in an enthusiasm. " Such a border is beyond 
 all praise. Oh, how much I would like to 
 copy it ! " 
 
 But Madame Judith Van Clyffe made no 
 answer to Catharine's eager desire. She 
 watched her a few moments and then said, 
 te If to work you want, then go not from one 
 thing to another, like a key that will not fit 
 50
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 any lock. What you will do, choose, and 
 then stand firmly by that choice. And in a 
 hurry be not. With time every one gets 
 into their right place. Now, then, I wish you 
 to go away. This afternoon I have many 
 things to do, and listen to me ! say not to 
 your cousins that you have been here ; for 
 then they also would come, and it is not my 
 desire to be disturbed in my own house." 
 
 She spoke coldly and with determination, 
 and Catharine felt that she was no longer 
 wanted. No opportunity to speak of her 
 father's absence had been given her, and 
 her abrupt dismissal made it impossible. Her 
 affections and her pride were both wounded, 
 and she thought it best not to go at once to 
 her home. The beloved mother had sorrow 
 enough, why should she add to it? So she 
 walked down to the Battery, and stood there, 
 and let the fresh salt wind blow away the little 
 fret and tumult of her hurt feelings. And as 
 she waited, her thoughts were busy with the 
 
 S 1
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 j 
 
 future. She knew she would have to work, 
 and she looked earnestly at the small, slender 
 hands which had provoked such scornful un 
 belief in their ability. Between her and the 
 happy life she had dreamed of living, there 
 seemed to have suddenly arisen a high, blank 
 wall ; would those small hands be able to help 
 her over it ? And as she wondered, a thought 
 leaped into her mind, and it was as if she had 
 seen a door open in that wall. With an eager 
 light in her eyes, and a smile on her lips, she 
 turned and began to walk rapidly homeward. 
 
 Her mother was standing at the window, 
 watching for her return, and she instantly 
 resolved to say nothing of her grandmother's 
 hasty dismissal ; for perhaps, after all, she 
 had no reason to take offence. So she met 
 her mother with pleasant words, and they sat 
 down to talk of her visit. 
 
 " It is a far better report than I expected," 
 said Madame Van Clyffe ; "but did you not 
 speak of your father at all to her ? " 
 52
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 " Only once, and she put the subject away 
 with a curt answer. Is she very angry with 
 father?" 
 
 " I fear so. He grieved her many years 
 ago, and she does not forgive." 
 
 " But at last she will forgive, for I do not 
 think she is really hard. I shall pray to the 
 good God about it ; for the heart that is 
 closed to us may be open to God." 
 
 " Dear one, that is the truth. Now, then, 
 I will talk to you of the only thing that is to 
 be done. Many nights and days I have 
 thought it over, and I am sure that we shall 
 not fail. You see that this is a very beautiful 
 house. There are in it many rooms, all well 
 furnished. We can rent four, even six of 
 them, and then there will remain more than we 
 require for our own use. Claes Brevoort is of 
 my mind. He says that he knows the cap 
 tains of all the large foreign packets, and that 
 he will speak to them about us. They bring 
 many rich travellers who will be glad to pay 
 
 S3
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 for comfortable lodgings. Do you under 
 stand?" 
 
 " Yes, mother." 
 
 " Bosnay will do the cooking, Sibbey the 
 laundry work, Jane will attend to the chambers 
 and wait on the table, and old Pop will cut the 
 wood and keep the fires going. I must be 
 housekeeper, and you, my dear little girl, 
 must set the table, and dust the parlors, and 
 wash the fine china and silver. Can you do 
 all this?" 
 
 " Oh, my mother ! I can do all you say, 
 and much more. So glad I will be to have 
 my hands full from morning to night ! I have 
 also a very good thought. I will write a little 
 note to Mrs. Van Home, and to Mrs. White, 
 and tell them how beautifully I can sprig crape 
 gowns, and embroider ribbons, and paint hand 
 fans, and work crests and initials on hand 
 kerchiefs, and fine linen, and when I add 
 that I learned these things from the Mora 
 vian Sisters I shall have plenty of such work, 
 
 54
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 and can make, I think, a great deal of 
 money." 
 
 " Darling Tryntje, I cannot permit you to 
 do such a thing ! Do you not know that 
 these ladies have been intimate with me when 
 the Government was in Philadelphia and I 
 was staying with my father? I have often 
 thought that I would renew my acquaintance 
 with them when your education was finished, 
 in order that you might have the advantage 
 of their society. Oh, my child, how can I bear 
 to see you embroider their gowns, when I have 
 always hoped, that you would be received by 
 them as their friend ? " 
 
 " Mother, I shall be quite as happy em 
 broidering as dancing. Besides, I am yet too 
 young to go to balls and parties, and before 
 the right time comes, who knows what may 
 happen ? There was a Scotch girl at Bethle 
 hem, who used in every disappointment to 
 comfort herself with an ancient rhyme that 
 went like this : 
 
 55
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " 'Bide ye yet, and bide ye yet, 
 
 Ye never ken what will betide ye yet ; ' 
 
 and at any rate, father may come home some 
 day when we are not thinking of such a good 
 thing." 
 
 But Madame Van Clyffe was hard to per 
 suade ; it was not until Catharine laid her wet 
 cheek against her mother's, and with loving 
 kisses pleaded for her own way that she gave 
 in so far as to promise, if Paul was willing, no 
 further objection should be made to her pro 
 posal. These plans gave them much to talk 
 over, but they also filled their hearts with new 
 hopes. Life began to look possible to 
 Madame Van Clyffe, and Catharine had all 
 the bright, self-denying enthusiasms which 
 make youth so lovely and so lovable. It is 
 true she was disappointed, and a flush of 
 annoyance flamed in her cheeks when she 
 thought of Lucia and Mary and Elsie. She 
 had anticipated so many pleasures, and had 
 promised to write them full accounts of all 
 56
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 her mother's visitors, and all her own amuse 
 ments, in the gay and great city of New York. 
 It would be humiliating to acknowledge the 
 change which had taken place in her circum 
 stances ; and for a moment or two she felt that 
 she would rather break her promise to write 
 than do so ; but she soon put down the un 
 worthy thought, and resolved, in order to 
 punish it, to make her confession of poverty 
 as complete as the truth demanded. 
 
 About two o'clock in the afternoon, Cathar 
 ine's mother said : " My child, your brother 
 would certainly tell Gertrude and Alida of your 
 return. I think, then, they will call here very 
 soon. Will you not put on something that is 
 prettier than your brown dress ? " 
 
 Catharine glanced at her simple gown, and 
 her small white apron with its ruffled bib, and 
 answered : " I think this dress is quite proper 
 in my own home, and there is now no time 
 to change it. Some one is knocking at the 
 door, and I dare say it is my cousins." 
 
 57
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 They listened a moment in silence, and th?ji 
 there was a sound of voices and a rustle of 
 drapery, and the parlor door was opened for 
 two girls, who seemed to be about Catharine's 
 age. Both were pretty, and the younger, 
 Alida, was considered a beauty ; but all 
 three girls had the curling, golden hair, the 
 brilliant complexions, and the tall supple 
 figures of those Zealand women, who for cen 
 turies had drunk in health and beauty from the 
 great North Sea. 
 
 Madame Van ClyfFe soon left them alone, 
 and then Gertrude at once threw off her great 
 coat of dove-colored taffeta, and her large hat, 
 heavy with feathers. Alida instantly followed 
 her example. Then they asked Catharine to 
 play for them on the pianoforte ; and they 
 were filled with amazement and some little 
 envy at her skill. 
 
 " Father would buy us an instrument, " 
 said Gertrude, "but our grandmother Van 
 ClyfFe will not permit it. To be sure, we have 
 
 58
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 to obey her, for she is very rich ; but for all 
 that, I think when women fall so far behind 
 the times, they ought to retire." 
 
 " However," said Alida, " she is not against 
 the singing school. It is held by Mr. Keller, 
 in the vestry of the church ; and Gertrude has 
 been asked to sing in the choir." 
 
 " Then I am sure you will sing for me," 
 said Catharine, turning to her cousin. "And 
 here are some of the newest songs." 
 
 " I know all the hymns and songs in the 
 1 Chorister's Companion ' " answered Gertrude, 
 " but they may not be the newest. However, 
 both I and Alida can sing by note." 
 
 " Here are the latest songs, then," said 
 Catharine. " This English hunting catch, c A 
 Hunting we will go.' Do you know it ? Or 
 * Soldier Tired with War's Alarms,' or * The 
 Cottage Maid,' or ' The Heaving of the Lead,' 
 or Gluck's 'Come, sweet Sleep,' or, if you 
 like best an American chorus, here is one 
 sung on the last Fourth of July " and 
 
 59
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 she began to hum softly as she touched the 
 notes. 
 
 " Fly, Fly, swift-winged Fame ! 
 The news proclaim, 
 From shore to shore j 
 Let cannons roar, 
 And joyful voices shout 
 Columbia's Name ! " 
 
 " We know not one of those," said Alida ; 
 " are they pretty ? " 
 
 Just at that moment, Trinity Bells began 
 their hour chime, and the girls ceased speaking 
 until the delightful melody was finished. Then 
 Catharine said, with a charming excitement, 
 " Now, I know what will please us all ! I have 
 here a famous bell round. It is for three 
 voices. Let us learn it together. It will pass 
 half an hour so delightfully. It is called 'Christ 
 Church Bells,' but we will sing it for c Trinity 
 Bells ! ' " 
 
 They were delighted at the proposal and 
 eager to begin, and as the music was easily 
 
 60
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 read, in ten minutes they were filling the 
 house with the old-world melody. 
 
 TRINITY BELLS! 
 
 
 
 ._ 
 
 (?h i r 
 
 
 
 9 f 
 
 
 Eu C 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 3 i/ 
 
 Hark, to sweet Trin - i - ty bells 1 one, 
 
 /) u .- 
 
 i/ i ? " 
 
 
 
 
 
 /L U r f 
 
 9 
 
 
 r r 
 
 
 f h y 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 
 WJ 1 E 
 
 
 
 i I 
 
 
 Hark, the first and sec-ond bell, 
 
 That 
 
 y i " i r i i 
 
 ' 
 
 c 
 
 r r r r 
 
 
 Sdo j G C u 
 
 
 
 -C u 
 
 
 EfcezzZZ f. * * 
 
 
 r^ I/ 
 
 .I/ u 1 
 
 
 Tin -gle, tin - gle, ting, goes the small bell at nine, To 
 
 E* 
 
 ; J| J. JJ-J: 
 
 two, three, four, five, six,They sound so woundy great, So 
 
 ifc 
 
 - 0- 
 
 ev - cry day, at four and ten, Cry come, come, come, come, 
 
 ^ 
 
 -\ 
 
 m 
 
 e 
 
 call the chil-dren home ; But there 's none will sleep till 
 61
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 ^n ^? 4i i 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 ErEi: 2 * ^V- 
 
 ' i 
 
 r 
 
 
 f 
 
 I 
 
 ; _E 
 
 L 
 
 
 won-d'rous sweet, and they troll so mer-ri - ly, mer - ri - ly. 
 
 n N ' 
 
 Jtrds 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 /r n is i> 
 
 -* 
 
 i i 
 
 s 
 
 A * 8 
 
 
 Etp. Li 
 
 
 
 
 15 
 
 <vT7 g v 
 
 
 
 L 
 
 IJ 
 
 7 ' 
 
 come to pray'rs, and the Verger troops be - fore the Dean 
 
 n t-i i 
 
 V * * - \ \ 
 
 
 
 
 
 i 
 
 XT -h J P P ^ 
 
 
 I 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 fm^ 7 * * 
 
 - 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 they hear the deep, deep boom of might - y Tom. 
 
 It delighted them so much that for nearly an 
 hour they followed each other round and round 
 in this tuneful fugue or unison. Then they 
 were tired and Alida began to ask questions. 
 
 " Who or what is this ' mighty Tom ? ' Cath 
 arine " she said. "Is it possible that ydu know ? " 
 
 " I know," answered Catharine, " because 
 Brother Van Vleck, the principal of Bethlehem 
 school, told us when we learned the music. 
 He would not allow us to sing what we did 
 not understand. He said that f Mighty Tom ' 
 or f Great Tom ' is a large bell, given to Christ 
 Church, Oxford, in the year 1545, and that it 
 strikes one hundred and one strokes every 
 
 62
 
 "So the New Days Come*' 
 
 night to remind people of the splendid char 
 ities which had founded there one hundred and 
 one scholarships. He told us also, that there 
 was a ' Great Tom ' of Lincoln, and a ' Great 
 Peter* of York, and that f Dunstan' of Canter 
 bury, and * Edward ' of St. Paul's were all 
 famous bells. When a King of England or 
 an Archbishop or a Lord Mayor of London 
 dies, then the clapper of c Edward ' of St. 
 Paul's is muffled. This clapper weighs one 
 hundred and eighty pounds, and its muffled 
 tone, so dull and booming, is said to be 
 awful, and not long to be endured." 
 
 " All this is very interesting," said Gertrude, 
 " but let us now see some of your needlework.. 
 Aunt Sarah has told us about it, and to be 
 sure Maria Van Vleck, who was also at Beth 
 lehem, has some very fine things to show." 
 
 Then they went together to Catharine's 
 
 room and examined her embroideries and 
 
 paintings, and she gave to Gertrude a pretty 
 
 fan which she had painted, and to Alida a piece 
 
 63
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 of ribbon embroidered with rosebuds. Then 
 they talked of her school experiences and com 
 panions, and Gertrude said she had seen Elsie 
 Evertsen at church ; " and her father is very 
 rich," she added. "They have a fine coun 
 try house in Greenwich village, and they 
 own many slaves and live in a most genteel 
 manner." 
 
 About five o'clock the girls were all tired. 
 They had talked, and sung, and wondered, and 
 criticised, and praised, and explained till every 
 subject was exhausted. "And I think we 
 ought to go home early," said Gertrude, " for 
 there was something unusual happening, I am 
 sure. Everywhere in the streets men were 
 standing together and talking as if they were 
 angry. I dare say it is war. For my part, I 
 shall not be sorry if we make up our minds to 
 give those insolent Frenchmen a few lessons 
 in minding their own business." 
 
 " I do not understand," said Catharine. 
 
 " But very soon you will understand. Noth- 
 64
 
 It delighted them so much that for nearly an hoar they followed each 
 other round and round in this tuneful fugue or unison "
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 ing else is now talked about but war war, 
 and only war. Every young man is for fight 
 ing France ; and indeed many of the old men 
 have also the same temper. My father says, 
 ' we must be protected in our trade and com 
 merce, lawfully if possible, lawfully with vio 
 lence, if need be.' I think to-day, perhaps, 
 there has come the ' need-be.' ' 
 
 As this conversation was in progress, Cath 
 arine was assisting her cousins to put on their 
 great-coats and hats ; and as soon as their 
 toilet was completed, they went away with 
 many expressions of pleasure and friendship. 
 But Catharine was sad, and she knew not why, 
 until she found her mother knitting by the 
 window in the house place. Then she under 
 stood. It was care. She had put it away 
 while entertaining her cousins, but it was there 
 waiting for her ; and, somehow, the hope that 
 had lightened it while she talked with her 
 mother had fled away. She almost felt as 
 if she had done wrong to be so happy while
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 that dumb fear about her father was in her 
 heart, and while their future was so unsettled 
 and uncertain. 
 
 " You have had a happy afternoon, Tryntje, 
 I think." 
 
 " Yes, mother," she answered; "but I should 
 have been happier alone with you. I tried 
 once or twice to tell Gertrude and Alida what 
 we must do ; but, mother, it seems so hard to 
 talk of poverty. You would imagine people 
 knew when you were going to begin and pur 
 posely turned the conversation." 
 
 " It was better not to speak until our plans 
 are settled. To-night Paul will not go out, 
 and we can talk everything down to the last 
 letter. Paul has a great deal of fore-sense, 
 and he is not discouraging." 
 
 In fact, Paul proved to be full of encourage 
 ment. He said Mrs. Daubigney and other 
 ladies of the highest respectability rented part 
 of their houses, and that Catharine's plan was 
 entirely sensible, and very creditable. And 
 66
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 with this assurance they talked over each 
 proposition in all its relations, and Paul took a 
 piece of paper and noted the probable expenses 
 of the house, and the probable income from 
 al! sources. It seemed businesslike to him, 
 and Madame Van Clyffe had the most pro 
 found respect for figures. So when Paul had 
 added up his list and declared that there 
 "might be a surplus of perhaps fifty dollars 
 a month," all were confident and happy. 
 Fifty dollars a month seemed a very nice sum 
 to come and go on, and Madame even felt a 
 slight stirring of that spirit of thrift, which the 
 Dutch nature is seldom quite without. Her 
 mother-in-law's cleverness and economies dur 
 ing the Revolutionary war, were a standing 
 subject for family pride, and there came into 
 her heart a glow of commercial ambition. 
 Perhaps she also might make money and be 
 able to prove to this woman who had always 
 slighted her abilities that she had not deserved 
 the scorn meted out to her. 
 67
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 It was nearly ten o'clock when they separ 
 ated, Madame and Catharine both full of 
 hope, and almost eager for the morrow, that 
 they might at once begin their new life. But 
 Paul, as soon as he was alone, sank to the 
 level of his own feelings, which were neither 
 happy nor hopeful. It grieved the young 
 man that he could not make sufficient money 
 to support the mother and sister whom he so 
 tenderly loved. And besides this, the money 
 he did earn was made in sorrow and disappoint 
 ment. His whole nature cried out for the 
 sea, and he hated the business of tanning 
 with an intensity which he dared not explain. 
 It made him sick. It filled him with unspeak 
 able longings to run a thousand miles away. 
 He had nearly finished his course of navigation 
 and his hands burned for the wheel. He 
 could think only of ships and the sea. He 
 was like a stormy petrel shut up in a cage. 
 And he believed no one understood or pitied 
 him. 
 
 68
 
 "So the New Days Come" 
 
 For a little while he indulged himself in this 
 dangerous luxury of self-pity ; then he remem^ 
 bered, not only his mother's and sister's 
 unspoken sympathy, but the expressed fellow- 
 feeling of a man so undemonstrative as his 
 Uncle Jacob. It was on a certain hot day, 
 when his work had been specially intolerable, 
 and he had not hesitated to express his hatred 
 of it Without anger, Jacob Van ClyfFe lis 
 tened to his complaints, and thus answered 
 them : 
 
 " Paul, thou art dissatisfied. For thee I am 
 sorry. Yes, indeed ! But complaining is not 
 for men. Patience ! The better time will 
 come. The bare twigs, the frozen river, do 
 they complain ? Not so. They wait ! " 
 
 And Paul was not sorry to remember that 
 he had looked up at his uncle with grateful 
 tears in his eyes. They wait! The words 
 comforted him. He said them over fre 
 quently, and finally went to sleep with them 
 on his lips. They wait I 
 
 69
 
 Ill 
 
 The Stranger in the House
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE STRANGER IN THE HOUSE 
 
 "TT TAKE up, Catharine, you have a great 
 deal to do to-day." This was what 
 the busy-hearted girl said to herself as soon as 
 she opened her eyes. She was eager to begin 
 her new life, and full of almost impossible 
 resolutions as to the amount of work she could 
 do. Her heart was so brave and loving, her 
 ideas of duty so large, her confidence in her 
 own strength and abilities so great, that things 
 impossible seemed reasonable. All she feared 
 was that the days would not be long enough 
 to permit the accomplishment of her plans. 
 
 Her happy, hopeful temper soon influenced 
 her mother, and even sent Paul to his hated 
 work with a lighter heart. No one could re 
 sist her air of busy happiness and that assuring 
 73
 
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 quality of success which entered into all she 
 said and did. The first of the duties was to 
 remove from the rooms to be rented all family 
 portraits and personal property, and to 
 empty drawers and wardrobes of clothing and 
 linen. In this work Catharine was especially 
 useful. To and fro, from room to room, up 
 and down stairs, from floor to floor she went, 
 carrying out her mother's instructions with a 
 cheerful intelligence. And no one needs to be 
 told how this kind of work threw the whole 
 house into confusion. Pictures had to be re- 
 hung, and fresh places found for clothes and 
 linen ; and when all this was accomplished, glass 
 and paint already spotless were to be made 
 more spotless, and floors already waxed and 
 polished to the danger point, to be waxed and 
 polished still higher. The Dutch passion for 
 cleanliness was inherent in both mother and 
 daughter, and for a week they indulged it to its 
 fullest extent. 
 
 It had been latent in Catharine's nature 
 74
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 hitherto, but in this one week of action it 
 obtained a position in her ideas that no after 
 experience altered. Henceforward, her room 
 was not only neat and tidy; it had an almost 
 religious atmosphere of spotlessness. And 
 there were times when this atmosphere was of 
 great though perhaps unrecognized moral 
 service to her ; when she found in the stillness 
 and repose which accompanied its purity and 
 order a peace and strength that would not have 
 been present in a room full of the restlessness 
 that abides with confusion and disorder. So 
 that, apart from all other service, she endowed 
 herself, in this one week of household duty, 
 with a sensibility which affected her whole 
 future in the most favorable manner. 
 
 And, though she was not aware of the fact, 
 never had her great beauty been so remarkable. 
 Her home dress had always been Dutch in 
 character, and this dress she felt instinctively 
 was the most suitable for her employment. 
 But then, how pretty it was ! Her little feet 
 75
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 in their buckled shoes were admirably supple 
 mented by the short quilted petticoat and 
 white linen bodice, while the last touch of 
 quaintness was given by the peculiar small 
 white cap which she had worn at school, and 
 which she now assumed to cover and keep in 
 place her beautiful hair. Nowhere out of a 
 picture could have been found so lovely a girl 
 in a dress so picturesque and so suitable. 
 When she first appeared in it her mother 
 involuntarily smiled approval and Paul stopped 
 drinking his coffee to look at her, and then 
 sententiously declared : " For the Dutch girl 
 there is nothing so beautiful as the Dutch dress." 
 It certainly, after this experience, became a 
 favorite house costume with Catharine. Even 
 if she put on a more fashionable dress in the 
 afternoon it was a little Dutch girl in short 
 quilted petticoats and pretty linen bodice that 
 came pattering downstairs every morning and 
 went singing about the house-place, setting the 
 breakfast-table and rubbing the least speck of 
 
 76
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 dust from off the furniture. And it was a little 
 Dutch girl that a month after this might 
 always be found in her mother's parlor, paint 
 ing fans and screens or embroidering gowns 
 and ribbons with an industry that grudged 
 every hour that chimed. So much so that she 
 would frequently say : 
 
 " Oh bells ! I know you are all wrong. It 
 is not half an hour since you said f Ten o'clock, 
 Katryntje,' and now you are chiming eleven." 
 
 This month had been on the whole a very in 
 teresting one. Madame had not, indeed, rented 
 her best rooms, but the three on the upper 
 floor were occupied by Jacob Van Clyffe's 
 book-keeper and by two of the clerks in the 
 Bank of New York. To be sure the fifty 
 dollars surplus which Paul had so confidently 
 predicted was not apparent, but then, as he 
 said, " every business must have time to grow, 
 and to make expenses is not a bad beginning." 
 
 The undertaking had met with no opposi 
 tion. When the house was ready for strangers 
 
 77
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 Madame went to see her brother-in-law. She 
 explained to him her position and her plans, 
 and he approved what she had done, and 
 promised to help her in any way within his 
 power. Then they spoke of The Golden 
 Victory and her captain, and Jacob was much 
 distressed to hear of his brother's long silence. 
 
 " But dead he is not, Sarah ! " he said with 
 great positiveness. " At sea you cannot make 
 things go smack-smooth. My dear brother 
 v jan home will come. Perhaps with the 
 shadow of many far-off countries on his face, 
 but yet, home he will come ! As for me, I do 
 not fear for Jansen. In the great South Sea 
 there are calms, than any tempest far worse. 
 On some unknown island he may be cast. 
 Rich lands he may have come to, never before 
 seen by any man. So many strange, unlikely 
 things can happen to the ship and the sailor. 
 Sarah, fear not. In the right hour home comes 
 every wanderer." 
 
 "Jan was always so careful to provide for 
 73
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 our wants. I think it will grieve him much, 
 Jacob, that I have had to rent my house." 
 
 " Not so. To be poor is not sinful. Who 
 ever is poor may say so. There must be poor 
 people. That is necessary." 
 
 " Claes Brevoort is of your opinion, but not 
 so Jan's friend, Van Beveland ; he thinks I do 
 a wrong to Jan to work, and to take strangers 
 into his home." 
 
 "Van Beveland! He, indeed! He is 
 proud, he scoffs at honest labor but then 
 he is a Lutheran. Go your way, Sarah, work 
 boldly, and leave the rest to God." 
 
 It was Catharine who broke the news to her 
 cousins. She had written that morning a 
 letter to her school companions, telling them 
 plainly of her father's long absence, and her 
 mother's want of money, and their intentions 
 for the future. It had cost her a little pain at 
 first to do this ; but as she wrote she gathered 
 courage and independence, and the closing 
 page of her letter was full of hope and antici- 
 
 79
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 pated success ; so that she was in a very good 
 mood for a further explanation. 
 
 Yet, with an instinctive wisdom, she dressed 
 herself very prettily for a visit to her cousins. 
 It was a beautiful day at the end of September ; 
 and as soon as she had passed beyond the city, 
 the still serenity of the autumn was all around 
 her. The air was subtle and ethereal ; the 
 foliage of the trees, thin and delicate ; and the 
 wild vines covered every wall and fence with a 
 richer drapery of scarlet and purple and gold 
 than was ever woven for a king's robes. Over 
 the few late flowers the bees hummed in a 
 melancholy manner; but the birds sang no 
 more. Even the merry wrens were altered. 
 They had become shy, and they twittered and 
 complained, and were restless and anxious, like 
 those going on long journeys. 
 
 Jacob Van Clyffe's house was on the East 
 
 River bank ; perhaps three-quarters of a mile 
 
 beyond the city. It was a long brick house 
 
 of two stories, with a red roof and big square 
 
 So
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 chimneys, and a side door having a little roof 
 of its own, and a kindly-looking green front 
 door, the upper half of which was open. 
 Through it could be seen the dusky, wide hall, 
 with its queer table, and large china vases 
 filled with sweet clover and woodbine. In 
 serted in the bricks above this front door were 
 some Arabic numerals "A. 1700. D." It was 
 therefore a century-old home, comfortable 
 and prosperous-looking, standing well back in 
 a fine garden sloping down to the river bank, 
 where there was a shelter for a boat, and some 
 fishing tackle. Catharine noticed these things, 
 as she walked up to the door, through a path 
 bordered with flowers and shrubs, and sweet 
 with the delicate incense of the odorous ever 
 lastings. Her cousins saw her approach, and 
 ran out to meet and welcome her. 
 
 " Such a long time you have been in 
 coming, Catharine," said Alida reproachfully. 
 " Every day we have looked for you, and 
 every day we have been disappointed." 
 6 81
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " I suppose, then, it is the genteel thing to 
 wait ten days before you return a call from 
 your near kindred," said Gertrude. 
 
 " I know not anything about genteel times, 
 Gertrude," answered Catharine. " I could not 
 come before to-day, because I have been help 
 ing my mother, who has been very busy 
 indeed." 
 
 " Is it the winter cleaning time ? But no ! 
 Grandmother says in three weeks it will be 
 soon enough to put up stoves, and lay the car 
 pets. Then what misery it is ! But there is no 
 help for it one must have a winter cleaning." 
 
 "It was not the winter cleaning," answered 
 Catharine. " Mother is going to rent most of 
 our house, and I was helping her to prepare 
 it." Then she went on, a little hurriedly, 
 " Mother is obliged to rent, because we have 
 heard nothing of my father for nearly two years, 
 and we have no money." 
 
 " How dreadful ! " 
 
 " It is very inconvenient, Alida, but I do 
 82
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 not think it is dreadful. For my part, I am 
 sure it will be rather pleasant to work and to 
 make money. I am going to embroider, and 
 paint fans and screens. I wish to help mother 
 all I can." 
 
 " The idea ! The very idea of such a thing ! 
 Why you are only a schoolgirl ! " exclaimed 
 Gertrude. " Grandmother will not like it. 
 She will say it is not moral and respectable 
 everything she disapproves is c not moral and 
 respectable.' ' 
 
 " That I cannot help, " answered Catharine. 
 " It would be still less respectable and still 
 more immoral to borrow, or beg, or even to 
 complain. I think mother is exactly right. 
 Paul thinks so also, and Paul is sensitive and 
 has very fine feelings." 
 
 " Paul is Paul Van Clyffe ; that, and noth 
 ing else," said Gertrude. 
 
 " That is sufficient. One cannot be more 
 than God wills." Catharine spoke with a 
 little tone of offence, for she was very fond 
 
 83
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 and proud of her brother, and Gertrude in 
 stantly understood the feeling. 
 
 " No offence was meant, Tryntje, and so 
 none need be taken. I will tell you what 
 thought has come into my mind. Suppose 
 you teach Alida and me the pianoforte. 
 Suppose you ask my father. He will not 
 refuse you, and if he says c Yes,' even grand 
 mother will not be able to say ' No.' Have 
 you any objections to teach us ? " 
 
 C( It would be a great pleasure." 
 
 " Father is now in the garden among his 
 dahlias. He is always amiable when he is in 
 the garden. Come, let us go and talk to him." 
 
 " Very well. Brother Van Vleck used to 
 tell us never to lose an opportunity. I should 
 think this was an opportunity." 
 
 "Well, then, come and see." 
 
 They went hand in hand through the dim, 
 sweet hall and out through the off-dock, full 
 of bright milk-pans, into the garden. The 
 walk through it, down to the river, was lined 
 
 84
 
 Welcome, little one!' said Uncle Jacob, 
 over for thee ? ' " 
 
 ' So, then, school is
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 with maples maples that had the last night 
 suffered an enchantment, and changed their 
 green dress for one of crimson and brown and 
 orange. Beyond them were masses of flaming 
 dahlias, scarlet and yellow and purple and 
 white, their lovely leaves fluted and folded 
 with the most delicate precision and beauty. 
 Jacob Van Clyffe stood among them with a 
 pair of scissors in his hand. He was snipping 
 off all that was withered, and pruning all that 
 was yet growing; and his face, strong and 
 placid, had something in it of the innocent 
 pleasure of a child. He looked kindly at the 
 three girls, and stooped and kissed Catharine 
 on the forehead : 
 
 " Welcome, little one ! " he said. <c So, then, 
 school is over for thee ? " 
 
 " Many things, uncle, I have yet to learn." 
 
 "That is the truth. Always going on, in 
 some way, is the education of life." 
 
 Then Gertrude looked at Catharine with 
 eyes which would not be denied, and Catharine 
 
 85
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 said, " Uncle, you know that at the present 
 time we are poor. I wish to help my mother, 
 and so I think it would be a kind thing if you 
 permit me to teach my cousins how to play 
 on the pianoforte. They are very desirous 
 to learn, and I can teach them, just as I have 
 been taught. It would be a great kindness, 
 Uncle Jacob. What say you ? " 
 
 He did not answer at once. He lifted his 
 eyes and looked steadily at his niece. From 
 her simple, modest drapery, her bright face 
 looked back at him with a charming expression 
 of hope, goodness, and intelligence. He felt 
 its influence. A smile slowly spread over his 
 countenance, and he answered : 
 
 " It is the way. Talk to a woman, even to a 
 littlegirl,andthen she asks something from you." 
 
 " Dear Uncle Jacob, to whom shall little 
 girls go, but to their fathers and their uncles ? 
 Of ourselves what can we do ? " 
 
 " That is the truth, little one. So you must 
 work ? " 
 
 86
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 " I wish to work, uncle." 
 
 " Yes, yes ! But let me tell thee something. 
 Work cheerfully. Work may give us daily 
 bread; but it is cheerfulness that gives daily 
 bread relish." 
 
 " To work does not trouble me, uncle. It is 
 necessary, therefore it is to be done." 
 
 " To be sure. And this is also the truth : if 
 a girl rejects work, then nothing great or high 
 will ever come out of that girl's life. Work, 
 and then also have the courage to be happy." 
 
 " I am happy. I do not fear." 
 
 " Fear ! " cried Uncle Jacob, snapping his 
 fingers, " fear is made of nothing. No trouble 
 that can come will shake the brave heart. 
 And I will tell you, moreover, that the 
 troubles of life are like hills. In the distance 
 they look high ; but when near you come, 
 there is always some way over them." 
 
 "That is true, uncle. But what about the 
 music ? " 
 
 Then he laughed. " So ! I see that you 
 87
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 have your grandmother's way you stick to 
 the point." 
 
 " I will teach for one guinea a quarter, 
 uncle." 
 
 " What said I ? First, girls ask from you 
 a favor ; then they desire you to pay them for 
 taking the favor that follows as the thread 
 follows the needle. I should also have to buy 
 a pianoforte. I should have to endure the 
 noise of it, and I am a peace-loving man. I 
 like to be quiet to think " 
 
 " If you had only heard Gertrude and Alida 
 singing to the pianoforte last week ! They 
 have most sweet voices. And you could sing 
 with them, uncle ; it would be a great pleasure." 
 
 " What say you ? I think it would make 
 me a great trouble. Your grandmother would 
 take it as an affront." 
 
 " But a man does as he likes, uncle, and 
 
 grandmother to you would say : l If you wish 
 
 to buy a pianoforte, Son Jacob, then buy one.' 
 
 It is only to Gertrude and Alida she says : 
 
 88
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 'There shall be no pianoforte.' My cousins 
 must come to you for their desire. You have 
 said f when we come we want something.' So 
 it is. Do not refuse us, Uncle Jacob. I must 
 make some money ; I wish, then, that my first 
 money should come out of your purse." 
 
 And her bright young eyes looked at him 
 with such eager hopes he could not bear to 
 dash them. " You are a good girl, Katryntje ! 
 I think that you have one of those sweet souls, 
 in which nothing will turn to bitterness. You 
 may teach Gertrude and Alida, and I will pay 
 you one guinea each quarter." 
 
 " For each pupil, uncle. It is best to 
 understand at the beginning." 
 
 " You are right. For each I will pay one 
 guinea. To-morrow you must go with me to 
 the music warehouse of Seton and Irving, and 
 show me how to choose a good pianoforte. 
 If then I make a mistake, I shall have you to 
 put the blame on." 
 
 At these words none of the girls could 
 89
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 restrain their joy. They put their arms 
 around his neck and kissed him. They told 
 him in twenty different ways, how happy he 
 had made them all. And surely as he stood 
 there among his dahlias, with the bright young 
 faces against his face, and their glad words 
 bringing the smiles to his lips ; he also was 
 happy, though he pretended to be quite alarmed 
 at the thing he had done. 
 
 Then the girls knew it was best to go away 
 with the promise they had obtained. " Father 
 will think it all over among his flowers, and 
 come in satisfied," said Gertrude. " And when 
 shall we begin, dear Catharine ? " she asked. 
 
 They talked the matter fully over, as they 
 strolled and stood in the garden ; and it was 
 finally agreed that each girl should have two 
 lessons weekly, but that they should never 
 both come on the same day. Then Catharine 
 said she must go home. " Mother feels so 
 lonely without me," she added, with a pretty 
 little touch of pride in her importance. 
 90
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 " And we shall call for you about the instru 
 ment to-morrow," said Gertrude. " I shall be 
 unhappy until it is bought. And indeed I 
 hope grandmother will not come until it is our 
 own, and in our own house. When a thing is 
 done, grandmother knows better than to op 
 pose it. She will say : ( Well, then, who can 
 teach fools wisdom ? ' or something like that 
 and after a little while she will make some 
 good out of it. I think I shall yet hear her 
 say, f My granddaughters have very fine voices, 
 and I am not opposed to them singing the 
 popular melodies.' So, and so, grandmother 
 will turn herself round, and then declare to 
 every one : f Where my principles are con 
 cerned, I am immovable/ ' 
 
 " I would not speak in that way of grand 
 mother, Gertrude. It is not right." 
 
 " She is so provoking." 
 
 " She is the mother of your good father." 
 
 " Thank you, cousin. Do not be too ami 
 able, I entreat you."
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 They were at the garden gate as Gertrude 
 said these words, and she laughed so good- 
 naturedly that no offence could be taken at 
 them. Still they left an unpleasant impression, 
 and Catharine said to her mother as they talked 
 over the successful visit : 
 
 " I am sure that I like Alida best. Ger 
 trude is very selfish. It is only of her own 
 pleasure she thinks. I could see that." 
 
 " Gertrude is vain, and a vain girl is always 
 selfish. Yet, think of this God gave to her 
 the fine voice on which she prides herself; God 
 gave to her the pretty face and graceful 
 figure of which she is so vain ; her father gave 
 to her the education which perfects these gifts, 
 he also supplies her with the handsome cloth 
 ing she wears, and the good home in which 
 she lives ; why then should she be vain ? 
 What has she done to warrant such approba 
 tion as she takes to herself, or such admiration 
 as she expects from others ? I say these things, 
 my child, to warn you against taking to your 
 92
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 own credit the credit which belongs to God 
 and your parents ; that is a great sin, though 
 girls are not apt to think of it." 
 
 The next day the pianoforte was selected, 
 bought, and, to Gertrude's delight, sent home 
 that afternoon. It was a very fine instrument, 
 a Broadwood, with the unusual scale of five 
 octaves, and the following week the music les 
 sons began. Gertrude, who had genuine talent, 
 paid great attention to both the theory and 
 practice of the art, and her success was easily 
 predicated, from her very first lesson. Alida 
 had neither the natural ability, nor the natural 
 industry of her elder sister. She wished only 
 to play and to sing the pretty dances and 
 songs which she admired, and as she had a 
 good ear, with a fine sense of time, she easily 
 acquired what she wished to learn so easily, 
 that she was impatient of the necessary techni 
 cal education, and it was difficult for Catharine 
 to gain her attention for the hour's lesson. She 
 interrupted it continually to talk, to tell of 
 
 93
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 Gertrude's and her own disputes, and of the 
 small impositions and household tyrannies 
 which Gertrude, as the elder, imposed upon 
 her. It was not always easy to evade such con 
 fidences; besides, Catharine's sympathies were 
 with Alida. She had felt once that imperious 
 glance of command, which compelled her to 
 open without a moment's delay, the subject of 
 the piano lessons, and though she had obeyed 
 the command, perhaps for that very reason, 
 she resented it. 
 
 For nearly a month there was no further 
 change in the affairs of the Van Clyffes. Catha 
 rine attended to her pupils and her house 
 duties, and walked a little, and read a little, 
 and waited. It was her mother's desire that she 
 should wait until some favorable opportunity 
 enabled Madame Van Clyffe herself to speak of 
 her daughter's abilities, and of her wish to 
 turn them into money. And one morning, as 
 she was standing in Rhodes and McGregor's 
 store at 187 Pearl Street, the opportunity 
 94
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 came. She was examining some kerseymeres 
 and rose blankets, when a sweet voice at her 
 side said : 
 
 " Good morning, Madame Van Clyffe. It is 
 an age since I had the pleasure of seeing you." 
 
 Madame turned to the speaker. It was 
 Mrs. White. She had been intimate with her 
 in Philadelphia, when the seat of government 
 was in that city, but they had drifted apart 
 afterwards. However, Mrs. White and her 
 handsome daughters were now residing in their 
 house on Broadway ; and after the shopping 
 was finished, they walked towards their homes 
 together. The next day Mrs. White called on 
 her old friend, and Catharine was introduced to 
 her. Then the subject of her education com 
 ing naturally to discussion, all the rest fol 
 lowed. Her work was examined and highly 
 praised, and within a few days Catharine was 
 busily and happily employed. And no further 
 advertisement of her skill and intentions was 
 ever necessary. Her hands were constantly full 
 
 95
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 of beautiful work, and her heart was as happy 
 as it could be. 
 
 So, little by little, the home horizon bright 
 ened. They made enough to live on, and 
 though the future held no wealthy prospects, it 
 had at least a promise of economical sufficiency. 
 And there are few lives without that delightful 
 element of "possibility " which makes sameness 
 not only endurable, but hopeful. Certainly 
 Catharine held it with cheerful persistence. 
 What a day would bring forth she could not 
 tell, and for that very reason she expected 
 nothing but what was good. And as Expecta 
 tion and Desire open the door for good for 
 tune, she was not very much astonished when 
 a piece of good fortune came to them. It came 
 unexpectedly, without any intimation, which 
 was natural, for Destiny loves surprises, and 
 though no one had any idea they were open 
 ing the door to Destiny, such was really the 
 case. 
 
 It was on a snowy day in November one 
 96
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 of those snowy days which are full of good 
 temper, the air not unpleasantly cold, the 
 snowflakes dry and exhilarating. Men passed 
 each other with a joke or an anticipation ; boys 
 went whistling through the streets with delight, 
 thinking of the Powder Hill, and the fine 
 coasting the snow would give them. Catharine 
 sat close to the window, partly to get the best 
 possible light, and partly to hear clearly the 
 happy chiming of Trinity Bells, by which she 
 was timing her work so many leaves in so 
 many minutes and any girl knows how 
 pleasant such a race with time can make 
 itself, and how inspiring the musical warning 
 of 15 30 45 60 minutes can become. 
 
 In a peculiarly clear and joyous tone the 
 Bells had just rung eleven when some one 
 knocked at the door. It was not a common, 
 indifferent knock, it was an imperative, impa 
 tient summons, like the knock of one who 
 brings good tidings and is not afraid to hurry 
 and to command attention. Catharine dropped 
 7 97
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 her needle to listen. She distinguished clearly 
 the voice of the eldest Bank clerk who lodged 
 with them, but there was also another voice, 
 low, but penetrating, and of singular authority. 
 In a few moments her mother joined the two 
 men and she heard them go upstairs together. 
 
 " It is a new lodger," she decided, " and 
 mother will tell me all about it ; " and with 
 this thought she bent her eyes upon her needle. 
 But she could not work; she felt that "some 
 thing had happened" and she watched im 
 patiently for the news. In about a quarter 
 of an hour the visitors went away, and Madame 
 Van Clyffe came to Catharine with a face full 
 of pleasure, and yet with a manner hurried 
 and anxious. 
 
 " Katryntje! " she exclaimed, " such a fortu 
 nate thing has happened to us ! Mr. Billings 
 brought here an English gentleman, who has 
 taken the two large front rooms on the floor 
 above, and also the small room at the back of 
 the house. And they are to stay all the winter ! 
 98
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 And, besides this, what think you ? He will 
 pay me three guineas every week ! " 
 
 " Mother ! mother, how glad I am ! But 
 then, what can a man want with two large 
 
 o 
 
 rooms and one small one? That is very 
 singular." 
 
 " Not so. One of the large front rooms is 
 to be made into a parlor, and the small room 
 is for the gentleman's servant." 
 
 " Then he is a very fine gentleman, I 
 suppose ? " 
 
 " Mr. Billings could tell me very little about 
 him. He only knew that his name was 
 Errington, that he is an Englishman, that his 
 remittances come to the Bank of New York, 
 and that he has just arrived from Mount 
 Vernon, where he has been spending a week 
 with General Washington. I should think, for 
 reference, that one thing would be sufficient. 
 A very fine gentleman I thought him, not at 
 all proud, and quite pleased with the rooms. 
 Would you believe it, Tryntje, he spoke of 
 99
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 their f sweet cleanliness ' and said c it was 
 delightful.' " 
 
 " Very good is all this, mother, but what 
 think you of the servant ? Will not a white 
 servant make trouble among our slaves ? If 
 he should be rude or cross to them, what would 
 happen? They have not been used to any 
 thing but kindness and civility. I wish, indeed, 
 the English gentleman had come without a 
 servant." 
 
 "He seemed to be an extremely inoffensive 
 creature. He never spoke unless Mr. Erring- 
 ton asked him a question ; and then he only 
 said ' Yes, sir,' or c No, sir.' I must now go 
 quickly to work. There is a bed to be taken 
 away and some chairs and parlor furniture 
 carried upstairs. And the fires must be lighted 
 at once, for the rooms are very, very cold. In 
 three hours they are to be ready. I want all 
 the help I can get." 
 
 " In two minutes, mother, my work will be 
 folded away, and I shall be ready to help you." 
 
 TOO
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 " Well, then, I shall be glad. Not every 
 day comes such good fortune, and we must 
 receive it with willing hands and happy hearts." 
 
 Then what a pleasant little tumult ran 
 through the house ! Fires were soon burning 
 brightly in all three rooms, and the largest of 
 the three was quickly transformed into a hand 
 some parlor. But, after all, the best furniture 
 was the big blazing fire of oak logs burning on 
 their bright brass irons and throwing ruddy 
 splendors on the snow-white hearth and the 
 papered walls and the grey moreen curtains. 
 
 Imagine now what a vivid interest had sud 
 denly come into the Van Clyffe household. 
 It was not diminished by the fact that Mr. 
 Errington that very night went out to dine 
 with Governor Jay, nor by the report of Jane 
 who had held the candle which lighted him into 
 his chair that he was dressed in white satin 
 breeches and a dark blue velvet coat lined 
 with white satin, and trimmed with silver lace. 
 "He had diamond buckles in his shoes," she 
 101
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 added, in a voice full of admiration, " and there 
 was lace at his wrists and lace at his throat and 
 shining rings on his white hands." And at 
 every fresh description Jane's adjectives grew 
 more and more resplendent and superlative. 
 
 Then the whole affair was to talk over with 
 Paul. Paul had come home that night full of 
 exciting political news, but he could not arouse 
 any interest in his tidings. Just at present the 
 affairs of the nation were not interesting to 
 Madame and Catharine. War and rumors 
 of war, and Napoleon's wonderful victories in 
 Italy, though they set the hearts of young and 
 old America on fire and filled whole columns 
 in that day's New Tork Journal and Patriotic 
 Register, did not raise any emotion in Catha 
 rine's mind nor elicit from Madame one ques 
 tion about them. 
 
 Paul was disappointed, and had a little feel 
 ing of pique at this stranger who had come 
 into their house and their lives. He thought 
 to himself: " Such a lodger will give no end of 
 
 IO2
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 trouble ; and my mother and sister will be com 
 plaining of him before one week is over. It 
 will be so, I have no doubt." 
 
 But it was not so. In a day or two the 
 house had settled comfortably to its new 
 conditions. Mr. Errington was very little 
 trouble. His servant prepared his breakfast; 
 and he either dined at the City Hotel or went 
 out magnificently attired to some dinner or 
 entertainment, many of which were given 
 specially in his honor. As for the servant, he 
 managed to almost efface himself. When he 
 entered the kitchen he bowed politely to the 
 negroes, who were much affected by this 
 attention, and then went about his simple 
 culinary duties without a word. So day after 
 day went calmly on until it was Christmas. 
 That is the way in life. Events take time to 
 mature, they do not tread one upon the heels 
 of the other. But there was plenty of interest 
 in Mr. Errington and his doings to flavor the 
 dull winter days. Even Gertrude and Alida 
 103
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 caught its spirit, and the music lessons were 
 spiced with bits of conversation relating to 
 his friends and his appearances. 
 
 "He actually paints pictures," said Catharine 
 one day to her cousins. "Jane says she has 
 seen him painting. And every English packet 
 brings him new books, and sometimes new 
 clothing. Yesterday he went sleigh-riding 
 with Mr. Burr and his pretty daughter. Do 
 you know that she is only my age, and that 
 she keeps house for her father ? " 
 
 " But," said Alida, " it is always Jane, and 
 Jane. Have you not, yourself, seen this Mr. 
 Errington ? " 
 
 " I have seen him twice as he passed the 
 window," answered Catharine. " But it was 
 very cold on both days, and he was walking 
 quickly, and, also, he had the fur collar of his 
 cloak turned up high ; he passed like a man in 
 a dream so quick so indistinct." 
 
 " I should peep at him going out in his fine 
 evening dress," said Gertrude. 
 104
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 " I am sure, Gertrude," answered Catharine, 
 "if you were tempted to open the door one 
 half-inch, that you would never forgive your 
 self." 
 
 "You are exactly right, Catharine. I am 
 glad you think so properly of me. For in 
 deed I am known among all our friends for 
 my correct behavior. To be sure, it is tan 
 talizing to have a person in your house living 
 their own life, quite different from your life, 
 and never thinking it might be pleasant for 
 you to know a little of what was going on. 
 Does Paul see the gentleman often ? " 
 
 " I do not think Mr. Errington knows of 
 Paul's existence. Paul pays no attention to 
 him, I am sure. Paul is, as you know, rather 
 proud." 
 
 " Well," said Gertrude, " I should not like 
 to have people in my house, with whom I had 
 no more in common than with the pavements 
 on the street. That is not the Dutch nature." 
 
 "We do not mind it," said Catharine, a 
 105
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 little wearily. She had so often discussed this 
 phase of the relation that its interest was ex 
 hausted. " But," she added, with that half- 
 unconscious utterance which is often a prophecy, 
 " perhaps, we may know more, some time." 
 
 The " some time " came sooner than could 
 have been expected from previous events. It 
 happened on the twenty-sixth of December, 
 the day after Christmas. Catharine was com 
 ing downstairs just at daylight. She had in 
 her hands a number of skeins of colored silks, 
 and she was examining them, and counting 
 them, as she walked slowly from step to step. 
 She was half-way down the long flight, when 
 the front door opened, and Mr. Errington got 
 out of a chair, and walked hastily towards the 
 stairs. Catharine trembled and hesitated ; and 
 knew not for a moment what to do. But her 
 natural self-respect instantly forbade any running 
 backward ; and the next moment she had re 
 flected that she was about her duty, and in 
 her own home ; so she calmly continued her 
 106
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 descent. Mr. Errington waited with his hat 
 in his hand, until she had passed him. He 
 looked curiously at her, and bowed slightly, 
 but Catharine did not remember, whether she 
 had recognized the courtesy or not. She was 
 flushed and trembling with the ordeal when she 
 reached her mother's room, and lifted her work. 
 
 "Who could have imagined Mr. Errington 
 being in anybody's way before eight o'clock 
 in the morning ? " she asked, with a little shrug 
 of her shoulders, and a voice plainly indicating 
 the annoyance she felt. " And this dress, too ! " 
 she added, in a tone of painful chagrin. "Oh, 
 dear me ! How provoking ! " 
 
 " You need not give it a second thought, 
 Catharine," said her mother. " He would not 
 notice a child like you. He was at a Christ 
 mas dance last night at Mr. Hamilton's, and 
 probably took coffee there when it broke up. 
 Never mind, Tryntje, my child ! He has for 
 gotten all about it." 
 
 Perhaps not. For that afternoon, as he was 
 107
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 at work on a landscape which he was painting, 
 he called his servant : 
 
 " McVickars ! " 
 
 " Yes, sir." 
 
 "Is there a little girl in this house a little 
 girl about twelve years old ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir ; about fourteen years old, I 
 should say, sir." 
 
 " Does she wear a singular dress ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir. A Dutch dress." 
 
 " With a queer little cap ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 " Who is she ? " 
 
 " Madame Van Clyffe's daughter, sir." 
 
 " Are there any other little girls ? " 
 
 " No, sir." 
 
 " Any boys ? " 
 
 " Yes, sir. There is a young man about 
 eighteen years old." 
 
 " A pleasant youth ? " 
 
 " I should say, a very pleasant youth, sir." 
 
 " Have I ever seen him ? " 
 108
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 No, sir." 
 
 " McVickars, look at this picture. Notice 
 that field of blowing wheat. What would you 
 think of the little Dutch girl standing in it ? " 
 " I don't think it would do, sir." 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " Her hair is the colour of the wheat, sir." 
 " She might wear that little cap." 
 " White is n't much of a difference, sir." 
 "You are right, as usual, McVickars." 
 No more was said at that time, but the fol 
 lowing Sunday evening, Mr. Errington, being 
 alone in his rooms, sent a polite request to Mr. 
 Paul Van Clyffe "Would he kindly give him 
 his society for an hour ? " Paul was exceed 
 ingly pleased, and Madame and Catharine 
 equally so. They sat together by the bright 
 fire speculating on the invitation, and wonder 
 ing what it might mean. 
 
 The first hour was not long, but it was 
 nearly the end of the second hour when Paul 
 returned to them. And by that time Catharine 
 109
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 was tired and sleepy, and perhaps a little cross, 
 for nothing makes people so fretful and cynical 
 as expectation long drawn out. Catharine had 
 begun to feel that Mr. Errington was no 
 longer interesting, that she cared nothing 
 about Paul's visit to him, and that the whole 
 circumstance was a disappointment. She had 
 just said : " I am going to bed, mother, for I am 
 tired of waiting for Paul, " when the loiterer 
 entered the room. 
 
 His face was in a glow of pleasure ; his whole 
 manner radiated a fervent admiration. He had 
 no words to express the satisfaction he felt in 
 his visit. For Errington, led by that courtesy 
 which springs from a noble heart, had met 
 Paul on a plane of equality in every respect ; 
 even as regarded age. He had talked to him, 
 as men talk to men of sports, of politics, and 
 of that marvellous campaign of Napoleon in 
 Italy, the very bulletins of which bristled with 
 bayonets. 
 
 " His pen is as great as his sword," said 
 no
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 Errington, "those bulletins and proclama 
 tions have the clang of the old-world battle 
 fields ; the shining of swords, and the clash of 
 steel upon steel is in them." 
 
 And Paul had absorbed such conversation 
 as the thirsty drink water. But Catharine and 
 her mother were disappointed. They wanted 
 to hear some personal story, something about 
 Mr. Errington's looks and ways and dress and 
 manners, and Paul had evidently noticed none 
 of these things. 
 
 " At least," said Catharine, " you might 
 remember what he had on." 
 
 " I think, then, that he was dressed in black, 
 except only his waistcoat, which was of some 
 lighter color, and his hair was turned backward 
 from his forehead, and tied behind with a black 
 ribbon. However, such things I did not 
 notice particularly ; there were others more 
 interesting." 
 
 " So ? " said Catharine. " Indeed, what 
 were they ? " 
 
 in
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 <e His eyes, for instance, which are large and 
 dark, and which flash into you, in an almost 
 inconvenient way, his commanding figure, his 
 low, even voice " 
 
 At these words, Catharine rose in a little 
 temper. " Brother Paul," she said, " I do not 
 think much of men with low, even voices. I 
 wish to remind you of that time when we 
 sailed to Boston with our dear father, and there 
 was, as perhaps you remember, a storm, and he 
 stood at the mainmast shouting out orders 
 that the winds and waves could not drown. 
 And though The Golden Victory was running 
 away like a ship out of her senses, he got, 
 as he said, a bridle in her mouth, and made 
 her fly before the wind as was best for her and 
 for us. It was not a low, even voice > that 
 would have made the ship mind, that day. 
 No, indeed ! I am not interested in Mr. Er- 
 rington at all. I even think he must be very 
 conceited and disagreeable." She was lighting 
 her candle as she said these words, and she 
 
 1X2
 
 The Stranger in the House 
 
 continued : " I am now going to bed. Good 
 night, dear mother; and, Paul, after such a fine 
 visit, I hope you may sleep well. I am much 
 disappointed." 
 
 That was the truth. She was very much 
 disappointed. She had thought of all kinds of 
 romantic things, in connection with this un 
 known dweller in their house, and it seemed 
 that, after all, he was only an ordinary gentle 
 man, talking of that tiresome Bonaparte, and the 
 French war, and the Federalists, and Anti-Fed 
 eralists. He had told Paul nothing wonderful ; 
 he had shown Paul nothing wonderful ; he had 
 given him no fresh hope; he had made him no 
 pleasant promise. 
 
 " It is altogether a disappointment," she 
 said to herself, as she stood loosening her hair, 
 and shivering before her mirror. " There are 
 the Bells ! It must be ten o'clock." She lis 
 tened till the last stroke was over, and then 
 added: " Even the Bells are disappointing to 
 night. They might have said, Good night, 
 8 113
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 Katryntje ! ' or ' Sleep well, Katryntje ! ' but 
 there was not a word in them. Altogether a 
 disappointing night, and it is bitterly cold ; my 
 drinking water is frozen, my fire is out, I am 
 shivering and sleepy, and so disappointed." 
 
 Foolish little Catharine ! She had no reason 
 to be disappointed. But then she could not 
 foresee the future. How was she to know that 
 this low, even voice, was the voice of Fate, and 
 that, of all the human voices in the world, it 
 was the only one able to speak to the Van 
 Clyffes the "Open sesame!" which could 
 reveal to them the secret of the sea. 
 
 1x4
 
 IV 
 
 Paul has Hopes
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 PAUL HAS HOPES 
 
 DURING this interval Catharine had seen 
 very little of her grandmother. The 
 old lady had made her clearly understand that 
 she was not to be visited in her home on 
 William Street ; at least, Catharine considered 
 her injunction " not to tell Gertrude and Alida 
 she had called there, lest they should follow 
 her example," as equivalent to a very decided 
 request not to repeat her own visit. And her 
 Uncle Jacob's house was too far away to admit 
 of an ordinary call in the short, cold winter 
 days. Sometimes after the music lesson was 
 over if there was good sleighing Catharine 
 went home with her cousin, but in such case 
 it was necessary for her to remain all night, 
 and return in her uncle's sleigh in the morn- 
 117
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 ing. A visit of this kind entailed nearly the 
 loss of a day, and when she had much work, 
 or work that required to be done in a hurry, 
 she could not spare the time. 
 
 Yet it was only at Uncle Jacob's, grand 
 mother was to be seen, and as her visits there 
 were irregular and unannounced, Catharine 
 could not arrange her own visits to accommo 
 date them. She also felt some delicacy in 
 showing a disposition to do this, for " grand 
 mother's money " was the frequent topic of 
 Gertrude's and Alida's conversation, and Cath 
 arine had no desire to appear as a claimant for 
 any share of it. Gertrude had spoken openly 
 to her of the control she put upon herself with 
 reference to these expectations, and Alida had 
 confidentially imparted the information that 
 " she was her grandmother's favorite " and 
 that she intended to buy herself a pearl neck 
 lace as soon as she received her share of 
 grandmother's money. 
 
 Catharine listened to such conversations 
 118
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 without interfering in them. She never put 
 forward Paul's or her own claim ; she felt, 
 indeed, a sense of shame and cruel unkindness 
 in even listening to such selfish appropriation 
 of what could only be enjoyed by the death of 
 a woman so near to them by the tie of kindred, 
 and who had also been as far as she was 
 able a mother to their motherless childhood 
 and youth. Certainly, for herself, Catharine 
 who had a loyal and tender heart would 
 gladly have chosen grandmother's love in 
 place of all her money. 
 
 One day, after a long music lesson, Gertrude 
 begged Catharine to return home with her, 
 " My father likes you, Tryntje," she said ; 
 " and I wish that you would bring some of 
 your music and play it for him. In the morn 
 ing you can return to the city with father ; his 
 sleigh will bring you to this very door. The 
 river is now well frozen, there is skating at the 
 bottom of the garden, and yesterday we made 
 the doughnuts and also the rollichies, and, I 
 119
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 can tell you, the apple butter is delicious. 
 Come, then, we can skate for an hour, and in 
 the evening have the music and singing. That 
 will be to my father a pleasant surprise. What 
 say you ? " 
 
 Madame Van Clyffe thought the proposal 
 a kind and pleasant one, and Catharine was 
 glad to be urged to leave her needle, and have 
 a sleigh ride and some skating and fresh com 
 pany. So in twenty minutes the two girls 
 were driving merrily towards the East River. 
 For reasons quite natural, they took their way 
 down Wall Street, and William Street, and by 
 Hanover Square. They were in no special 
 hurry, and they wanted to see the stores, and 
 meet the beaux and belles in the shopping 
 quarter. On their way down Wall Street they 
 passed the fine house of General Heywood, 
 and Catharine pointed it out to her cousin. 
 
 " I have been working the Heywood crest 
 upon some damask table-cloths, " she said, 
 " and I will tell you what I have heard ; it is 
 120
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 this the General makes welcome to his home 
 and table every man that fought in the Revo 
 lution, rich and poor ; also that he has sworn 
 never to forgive a Tory." 
 
 " Indeed, I think, as my father says, such 
 men stand too stiff in their opinions," answered 
 Gertrude. " I suppose that he has a wife ; 
 and how does she like Tom, Dick, and Harry, 
 just because they fought for their own political 
 ideas, coming to dinner and lodging with 
 her ? / should not permit such a thing. And 
 if the man is a Christian, he ought to forgive 
 his enemies, even if they are Tories. For my 
 part, I think there are some very nice Tories 
 the De Lanceys for instance Oh, what 
 lovely ribbons ! " 
 
 The cry was exceedingly natural, for they 
 were just crossing William, by Wall Street, and 
 the vicinity was full of dry goods stores. So 
 they drove more slowly and looked with specu 
 lating interest on the treasures displayed in the 
 windows * shimmering widths of florentines, 
 
 121
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 lutestrings, shalloons, velverets and taffetas in 
 the fashionable shades of bat's-wing, and 
 drake's-head, satin hats, paste buckles, artifi 
 cial roses, and lengths of gorgeously shaded 
 ribbons. 
 
 " I wish that I had a great deal of money of 
 my own ! " said Gertrude with a sigh. " Grand 
 mother never thinks a girl ought to have such 
 pretty things; and my father " 
 " He is so good to you, Gertrude." 
 " To be sure, also, that is the right way with 
 fathers. And it is true that my father often 
 says c No ' when he is ready to say ' Yes.' His 
 mouth is worse than his mind. But three 
 Sundays ago, Domine de Rhonde said in the 
 pulpit that 'God required from us good words 
 as well as good works.' And I nudged father, 
 
 for I, being the eldest, always sit next to him 
 
 and I am sure that he understood. He has 
 said more kind words to us ever since." 
 
 " It is so disagreeable to have to say unkind 
 words."
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 " Indeed, I think not ; I like to say them 
 when I feel them. To Alida this is possible ; 
 but to grandmother it is not possible. Once 
 I said to her : ' I think you are both cross and 
 ill-natured, grandmother ; ' and she boxed my 
 ears, and then told my father. So I had bread 
 and water for three days ; and then I had also 
 to unsay my words and make a great humilia 
 tion. Then I made up my mind to be ex 
 tremely civil to grandmother, and in about a 
 month she gave me the gold brooch I am now 
 wearing. That was because I had seen my 
 fault and conquered it," and Gertrude laughed 
 a little, and then whipped the horses into a 
 gallop. 
 
 They were by this time at Chatham Row, 
 with the fields of the common on their left 
 fields now white with snow, and therefore 
 showing all the more plainly, the jail and the 
 calaboose. The latter building the girls looked 
 askance at, and Gertrude said, in quite a differ 
 ent voice from her usual assertive tone : 
 123
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " What do you think, Catharine ! Jacob 
 Kors sent three of his slaves yesterday to the 
 calaboose to be whipped by the officer. He 
 had to pay three shillings ; and my father said 
 if they had charged him three pounds it was 
 too little. Father thinks a man ought not 
 to own slaves who cannot himself control 
 them." 
 
 " Well, then, Mr. Greenwood sent his white 
 servant a week ago to receive thirty lashes. Is 
 not that a dreadful thing ? I have heard my 
 friend, Lucia Delmaine talk about slavery ; and 
 I say this, Gertrude, of all conditions it is the 
 saddest. To be sure we have slaves, but they 
 feel not the bond with us. My mother is so 
 just and kind to them." 
 
 " Father is also kind more kind than 
 they deserve, I think. Look at the Collect, 
 it is full of skaters. My grandmother has 
 often told us how her friend Mr. Halleck 
 saved the Duke of Clarence from being 
 drowned there." 
 
 124
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 " And pray what was the Duke of Clarence 
 doing in New York ? " 
 
 " He was visiting Admiral Digby, who lived 
 in Hanover Square. He was only a midship 
 man then. See, it is going to snow, we must 
 make more haste, Tryntje." 
 
 Then the sleigh went flying up the Bowery 
 Lane, until it reached a point a little below 
 the present Canal Street. Here Gertrude 
 made a sudden turn eastward, and in a few 
 minutes they were at the Van Clyffe home 
 stead. This day the grandmother was pres 
 ent. She had come to superintend the making 
 of the rollichies, and had found them boiled 
 and pressed, and a dish cut into dice and 
 trimmed with parsley ready for the tea-table. 
 This forestalling of events had displeased her, 
 and she was not in a very good temper. Never 
 before had the girls ventured on such an act 
 of self-dependence. In the grandmother's 
 mind it indicated something like domestic 
 rebellion and chaos. 
 
 125
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 "What must be the end of all these changes, 
 I know not ! " she said sternly to Gertrude. 
 " First, it is the pianoforte. Then, the rol- 
 lichies are made two days before the proper 
 time. I am not satisfied with such ways. You 
 sing songs ! you drive yourself to the city ! 
 you take music lessons ! The Goverts, who 
 are richer than your father, and great lovers 
 of morality and respectability, do none of these 
 things." 
 
 " I thought you would be pleased, grand 
 mother, that I could, by my own self, make 
 something for the table." 
 
 "You will do things by yourself! You, 
 who are not yet seventeen years old ! I fear 
 that you have spoiled the good meat, fat and 
 lean ; and that the dice arc not large enough. 
 I am always exact about the dice. And I feel 
 sure they are not seasoned properly, nor pressed 
 as long as they ought to be. If you will do 
 things by yourself, do not be a bungler." Then 
 she turned to Catharine. " I am pleased to 
 126
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 see you, child," she continued. " I hear that 
 you have been doing great things with your 
 needle. That is right a needle is not much 
 of a tool, but every one must row with the 
 oars they have." 
 
 " You have heard, then, grandmother, that 
 at present we arc poor ; and I have need to 
 work." 
 
 " Poor ! That is nothing ; after ebb comes 
 flood." Then she turned away, and affected 
 a sudden interest in the gossip of the neigh 
 borhood ; listening, however, with scornful 
 indifference to Gertrude's tale of the punish 
 ment of the Kors slaves. 
 
 " Who told you this story ? " she asked. 
 
 " It was Femmetia Govert. I met her as 
 I was going to Tryntje's." 
 
 " The clashing jade ! " answered the old 
 lady. " But what could Jacob Kors expect ? " 
 she asked indignantly. " He bought these 
 slaves off a ship. They are pagans. They 
 could not care about God and His command- 
 127
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 ments. If people will have their work done 
 by those who cannot say the Lord's Prayer, 
 then they must have trouble. When I was 
 young the Bastians had pagan slaves, and they 
 failed in business, and had to go to prison for 
 their debts. In my house, I always had Chris 
 tian service. It is a principle of mine." 
 
 Then, as the quick falling snow prevented 
 any skating, Catharine sat down by her grand 
 mother's side and endeavored to make the 
 conversation turn upon her father and his long 
 absence. 
 
 " Your father has been quite as long away 
 before," she answered shortly. 
 
 " But always before he wrote to us. We 
 have had no word of any kind for nearly one 
 year." 
 
 " What is it you expect from a man in the 
 middle of the ocean ? " 
 
 " But sometimes, grandmother, he is on 
 the land." 
 
 "You know not. Are there mail coaches 
 128
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 between New York and China ? or between 
 New York and the Baltic ? or between New 
 York and the moon ? " 
 
 "No, indeed! We are not thinking that 
 father should do impossibilities. But to be 
 so long without sending us any word is not 
 his way." 
 
 " His way ! His way ! " she answered with 
 some temper. " His way was never easy to 
 understand. Good advice, and plenty of it, 
 I gave to him ; but your father was like Pha 
 raoh : he hardened his heart. Well, then, 
 trouble and sorrow come to those who dis 
 obey their parents. You may read that in the 
 Holy Scriptures. I am grieved in my heart 
 about your father ; but what is it I can do ? 
 Only God can make the crooked straight, 
 and the wrong right. What are you 
 crying for? Tears are no good. To hope 
 and to pray is the only thing ! Now, then, 
 dry your eyes. You are a sailor's daughter. 
 You must have a brave heart" 
 
 9 129
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " My heart is brave ; but I love my father 
 I cannot tell you how much." 
 
 " I hear that you are helping your mother 
 to make an honest living. I like that. I have 
 not opposed the pianoforte, because I would 
 not be against your making an honest liv 
 ing. Yet it was not agreeable to me far 
 from it." 
 
 Perhaps this was scarcely a fair statement of 
 her acquiescence in the piano. It had been 
 in the house two days when she was confronted 
 with it as an established fact ; and she was 
 too prudent a woman to attack what she di 
 vined was invincible. For her son Jacob was 
 not an easy man to oppose ; and he had from 
 the first taken all the responsibility for the 
 instrument upon himself. 
 
 " I have bought it," he said simply to his 
 mother, " and I wish that my daughters should 
 learn to play on it. It is a good amusement. 
 It keeps them happy in their home. I am 
 satisfied." 
 
 130
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 And Gertrude's prediction as to her grand 
 mother's answer was exactly true. The old 
 lady shrugged her shoulders, and said con 
 temptuously, " Well, then, I see that all the 
 fools are not yet dead." But there was no 
 active anger ; and, indeed, on this very night, 
 the final approval anticipated received ample 
 verification. For while the girls were singing, 
 as Jacob said, "like three little angels," Mat 
 thew Govert, and his sister Femmetia, came 
 in to " short-evening " with the Van ClyfFes. 
 And Miss Femmetia, relying on her previous 
 knowledge of Madame's opinions, and not 
 understanding that it is the strong and wise 
 not the weak who can change their opin 
 ions, began to complain, in her fretful way, of 
 the alterations in the good old manners and 
 customs that were everywhere taking place. 
 
 " I see," she said, " that even your son is 
 becoming very genteel. His coachman has 
 now a red waistcoat ; and his daughters play 
 and sing the fashionable songs on the piano
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 forte, just as the best families do. Heigho ! 
 I call that jogging along indeed! " 
 
 She expected sympathy from the old lady, 
 but she was disappointed ; for Madame an 
 swered with an air of satisfaction : " Well, 
 then, and why not ? The red waistcoat is very 
 suitable ; and as for the fashionable songs, they 
 are played also on the streets ; and the city 
 government would not permit them to be 
 played on the streets if they were not moral 
 and respectable." 
 
 " I thought you were opposed to changes ; 
 and " 
 
 " That is so ; but when the changes are here, 
 what will you ? We cannot turn back the 
 clock of Time, Femmetia. Well, then, it is 
 best to put forward our own clock. Perhaps 
 then we make some good come out of the 
 changes." 
 
 " To be sure ; yet I never played the piano 
 forte, nor even wished to play it ; and as for 
 you " 
 
 13*
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 " Oh, then, I could have done such a thing ! 
 It is not difficult. Little children of seven, of 
 six years old, do it. Listen to my three grand 
 daughters ! What is it they are singing ? and 
 a wonder a wonder past all wonders ! my 
 son Jacob and your brother Matthew are 
 singing also. I think, Femmetia, it will be 
 our turn next." 
 
 " And why not ? For my part, I can say 
 this I had a voice that was very musical, but 
 the fogs from the river have been against it. 
 I have colds ; and colds do not come and go 
 for nothing." 
 
 " No indeed ! nor our years, Femmetia. 
 Every year takes something we do not want 
 to lose, and leaves something we do not want 
 to have." 
 
 " You say what is true, Madame, but still, 
 the music stays in the heart. If it is an old 
 song that in my youth I knew, then my heart 
 sings it, whether my lips move or not." 
 
 " It is so," answered Madame, with a sigh-
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 "I myself, on Saint John's Day June the 
 twenty-fourth can never put Die Nieuwe 
 Haring 'The New Fresh Herring' out of 
 my mind ; " and in a thin, quavering voice, 
 Madame began softly to hum : 
 
 '* Here comes, laden with gold, the boat, 
 
 Bringing in the first fresh herring ; 
 It is a feast in Netherland ! It is a feast in Netherland ! " 
 
 "It is also the way with my brother Mat 
 thew," said Femmetia. "Always on Saint 
 John's Day he says at the breakfast table: 
 c To-day, then, Femmetia, the herring boats will 
 leave the Amstel. Some may go before, but 
 they will have no luck ; for the herring likes 
 not to be caught before Saint John's Day. I 
 think I can see the little brown herring boats, 
 tumbling about out to sea and home again, 
 as great friends with the sea as are the sea 
 gulls.'" 
 
 " I understand, Femmetia.' My father used 
 to say that Amsterdam was built on herring
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 bones ; and if you write about Holland you 
 will have to write about the fishing nets. The 
 sea is to the Dutch like a conscience ; they 
 must prove themselves, in its sight, to be 
 honest and industrious but listen ! that is 
 the song that I like best of all songs, and Ka- 
 tryntje plays it she plays it on my heart ! I 
 go back to the Zuyder Zee" and Madame 
 listened with a smile, while the old, old air of 
 De Kabels Los rang through the house with ex 
 traordinary spirit and charmful melody : 
 
 DE KABELS LOS. 
 
 XL t? f * 
 
 i 
 
 B r * 
 
 j -0 s: 
 
 vT) 4. f> 
 
 i 
 
 B 
 
 ' _p 
 
 
 * Lr 
 
 yf 1 Ui^l 
 
 
 
 2 --L 
 
 De 
 
 Ka bels 1 
 
 N. fi 
 
 DS, de zei - 
 
 len op, Dat 
 
 j f 
 
 P i 
 
 
 
 1 ^r t 
 
 K 
 
 P ^ 
 
 J^ * 
 
 1 |/|"\ ^ jf 
 
 4 S i 
 
 J * K 
 
 \ } 
 
 I v . / 2 * 
 
 * J 
 
 * 
 
 r V 
 
 3 
 
 gaat 
 n 
 
 er op een 
 
 -J- 
 var - en Al TI 
 
 'ar- en wij sin - 
 
 
 
 ! P i 
 
 
 i/r4* r ^ 
 
 ^ fe 
 
 J^ J J N- 
 
 ^ 1 1 r* 
 
 F^>-^=kr- 
 
 *l. iP- 
 
 H f ^~ 
 
 ~* j w 
 
 - jeurs aan wal, Ons hart lei in de bar - en ; Een 
 135
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 4^-R 
 
 
 Hollandsch kind, dat is be-kend, Die vindt in zee zijn 
 
 el - e - ment, Jo - ho, jo - ho, jo - 
 
 
 ho, jo - hoi Die vindt in zee zijn el - e-ment. 
 
 ' En zijn zoo geen banjers meer 
 Als in verledcn dagen, 
 Toen ieder voor Jan-Companie 
 Ecn flikker wij op iedre zee : 
 Zoo goed nog als de bcste mee, 
 Jo-ho, jo-ho, jo-ho, jo-ho ! 
 Zoo goed nog als de beste mec ! " 
 
 TRANSLATION. 1 
 
 " Let go the ropes, unfurl the sails, 
 And let us be off to sea ; 
 Were we even lords ashore 
 Our hearts would lie with thee. 
 
 1 By Laura Alexandrine Smith in her " Music of the Waters." 
 136
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 For a Hollander born, you all must know, 
 Finds in the sea his element, 
 Yo-ho, yo-ho, yo-ho, yo-ho ! 
 Finds in the sea his element. 
 
 " And if we cannot do the mighty deeds 
 They did in the days gone by, 
 When for honor of the Dutch Company 
 Every man in his heart did try, 
 Yet still we sail on every sea 
 As good as the best of them, 
 Jo-ho, jo-ho, jo-ho, jo-ho ! 
 As good as the best of them ! " 
 
 To this characteristic song Jacob's and 
 Matthew's voices, strong and resonant, added 
 a delightful volume to the ringing notes of 
 the girls, and when it ceased, though there was 
 a murmur of conversation round the piano, 
 Madame and Femmetia were silent. For 
 anything present which touches our hearts 
 deeply is sure to be full of reflected thoughts 
 and feelings both from the past and the future. 
 And seen through such thoughts and feelings, 
 how sad are some moments, filled with what
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 we call pleasure ; how much more pathetic the 
 songs and smiles that fill them than even sighs 
 
 o o 
 
 and tears 1 Both old women were thinking of 
 the days of their youth gone forever, and of 
 the Eternal Youth to which every day was 
 bringing them nearer. 
 
 So they remained thoughtful and silent until 
 another song arose with even more enthusiasm 
 than any other preceding it. Then Madame 
 roused herself; she put away her knitting and 
 began to move about the room, to open closets 
 and to take out chocolate and sweet cakes and 
 some of the children's rollichies. She gave her 
 whole attention to this employment until 
 Femmetia suddenly asked : 
 
 " Is it not your time to be saying something, 
 Madame? Listen 1 What is it they are singing? 
 It sounds to me most like the old Tory hymn." 
 
 " That is true. Jacob, what is it that you 
 sing ? " Madame called in an imperative voice, 
 for the singers were in an adjoining room. 
 
 " It is a good Dutch song, mother, made by 
 138
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 a Dutch lady at the Hague. She gave it to 
 the sailors of five American vessels at Amster 
 dam. It was printed in the Pennsylvania Packet^ 
 and I cut it out and have had it pinned in my 
 Almanac ; and now our little Katryntje plays 
 for us the music we remember so well. It is 
 fine music ; why should we not put the good 
 words to it ? Listen, then," and in a glow of 
 national love and pride, the three girls and 
 the two men sang with patriotic fervor : 
 
 " God save the Thirteen States ! 
 Long rule the United States ! 
 
 God save our Statei ! 
 Make us victorious, 
 Happy and glorioui, 
 No tyrants over us j 
 
 God save our Statei ! 
 
 " O Lord ! Thy gifts in store, 
 We pray, on Congress pour, 
 
 To guide our States. 
 May Union bless our land ; 
 While we, with heart and hand, 
 For right and Freedom stand ! 
 
 God bless our States ! 
 
 139
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 ' God save the Thirteen States ! 
 Long watch the prosperous Fates, 
 
 Over our States ! 
 Make us victorious, 
 Happy and glorious, 
 No tyrants over us ; 
 
 God save our States ! " 
 
 "Very good," said Madame complacently, 
 when the stanzas were finished ; " much better 
 than c God save Great George our King.' 
 You talk of changes, Femmetia. We have both 
 of us sung for f Great George,' and now / " 
 She threw down the stocking she was knit 
 ting, with the air of a woman who felt all 
 language to be inadequate. But after a minute 
 or two she added, " Come, Matthew and 
 Jacob, and have a smoke by the fire ; and eat 
 some rollichies made by the children not so 
 very bad are they and drink a little cider, 
 and tell us about the war. I hear that it is 
 now certain." 
 
 So passed the evening away, the whole con 
 versation clearly indicating the grandmother's 
 140
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 ability to accept the spirit of the times. She 
 even praised Catharine's voice and, in the 
 morning when she bade her " good-bye," said : 
 " You are a good singer ; well, then, be also a 
 good girl." But in spite of these words, Cath 
 arine did not feel that she had come any closer 
 to her grandmother's heart or love. And 
 without being at all envious or jealous, she 
 could not help but notice how much more 
 familiar and affectionate the old lady was with 
 Gertrude and Alida how much more inter 
 ested in their life, their amusements, their 
 friends and their dress. A polite inquiry 
 about her mother's health was all the attention 
 she gave to her daughter-in-law's affairs; and as 
 to her business venture, she never named it. 
 
 Perhaps Uncle Jacob also noticed this neglect 
 of interest, for he paid Catharine much atten 
 tion. He called for extra wraps in the sleigh, 
 he troubled himself about her feet and her 
 hands, and wondered if the little red hood she 
 wore was warm enough to protect her ears. 
 141
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 And all the way to the city he talked to her 
 about her father, and did his best to comfort 
 and to give her hope. When they reached the 
 home, Madame Van Clyffe was just coming 
 from the Fly Market with two of her negro 
 slaves, who were carrying the baskets of pro 
 visions she had been buying. Uncle Jacob 
 gave her a cheerful greeting, and clasping her 
 hands he told her how much he had enjoyed 
 little Tryntje's music, and how glad he was 
 they were doing so well. 
 
 They parted with smiles and good words, 
 but Catharine's heart fell in an unaccountable 
 manner as soon as she was alone. For the 
 very first time she rebelled at the thought of 
 work, and it was with great reluctance she un 
 covered the pretty blue' areophane gown she 
 was starring with silver thread. She could not 
 help thinking of Gertrude and Alida, who were 
 doubtless skating merrily on the frozen river, 
 and who, when this pleasure tired them, would 
 go in their sleigh to make calls on their young 
 142
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 friends, and talk about the dresses they were to 
 wear at the Miss Hoaglands' dancing party. 
 It was the kind of life which she herself had 
 expected to lead, and the tears came unbidden 
 and unchecked to her eyes as she lifted her 
 work. For this morning it was really work. 
 She could not disguise the fact, and when her 
 mother next entered the room she saw plainly 
 the signs of her trouble and dissatisfaction. 
 
 " What is it, then, Katryntjc?" she asked, as 
 she seated herself and looked sadly at her 
 daughter. 
 
 And Catharine did exactly as older persons 
 do she laid the blame of her tears and trouble, 
 not on herself, but on the most convenient 
 person outside herself. She said it was im 
 possible for her not to notice how much her 
 grandmother thought of Gertrude and Alida, 
 and how little she cared for her. " As for 
 Paul," she added, "she never named him, and 
 yet he is her only grandson." 
 
 " My dear one ! " answered Madame Van 
 H3
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 Clyffe, <c no one can make others to love 
 them. And you cannot go to the market and 
 buy love ; it must be freely given. But look 
 here, your grandmother knows you not; very 
 seldom has she seen you. But Gertrude and 
 Alida have been nursed in her arms. Their 
 mother died when Gertrude was not yet two 
 years old and Alida but two weeks. Then 
 your grandmother took the motherless little 
 ones to her heart. Also she was not opposed 
 to your Uncle Jacob's wife, and to me she was 
 much opposed ; that made much difference. 
 Now, Tryntje, think of this, your cousins have 
 your grandmother, but you have your mother ! 
 Am I not sufficient ? " 
 
 Then, with kisses and tears, Catharine clung 
 to her darling mother, and told her she was 
 " the dearest, sweetest heart in all the world ! " 
 And her mother held her on her knees, and 
 petted and blessed her, and said " her little 
 daughter had been the joy and the strength of 
 her life," and so wiped all tears away. Then
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 Catharine lifted her work with a smile, and in 
 half an hour she was softly singing a Canadian 
 boat song to the rapid movement of her 
 needle. Yet the depths of her young heart 
 were still troubled, though a smile like sun 
 shine hid their restlessness and gloom. 
 
 For Catharine had come to one of those 
 bitter hours of temptation, when the soul be 
 lieves that it has done well in vain. She was 
 tormented with questions she did not dare to 
 face. Why was she working ? Why not take 
 her pleasure like other girls of her age ? 
 Would not her mother have managed without 
 her help ? At any rate, would not Uncle Jacob 
 have helped in her place. What good had 
 come from her self-denial ? Into her mind 
 there flashed the fact that all her earnings had 
 gone for winter clothing for Paul and herself. 
 Was it worth while sewing so hard for great 
 coats and hats and bonnets ? Poor little one ! 
 She was righting alone that depressing tempta 
 tion, when virtue has failed to reward us, and 
 10 145
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 vrc regret having served her. Very good men 
 and women have often the same temporary 
 doubt of the omnipotence of righteousness ; so 
 it was no wonder that a girl so inexperienced 
 as Catharine should have succumbed to the 
 same temptation. 
 
 It was altogether an unhappy day ; and 
 many days of the like hopeless character fol 
 lowed it. It seemed to Catharine that some 
 thing ought to happen ; that something must 
 happen. She caught her mother's nervous 
 trick of listening for a knock ; for the knock 
 at the door. She was almost angry because 
 Paul was in a much brighter temper. She 
 would not listen to reports of his conversa 
 tions with Mr. Errington ; or sympathize with 
 his enthusiasm over public events. 
 
 " What does it matter to us ? " she asked, 
 " that France is insolent, and that we are going 
 to fight her. This will not bring home our 
 father; and mother says it will make every 
 thing very dear ; and the taxes much higher. 
 146
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 I see not what you are so happy about. 
 Mother is more anxious than ever before." 
 
 Then Paul took her work out of her hand, 
 and sat down beside her. " My little sister," 
 he said, " listen to me. You have always 
 been Paul's helper and comforter; at this time 
 you must not desert him. I am going to sea ; 
 I am going into the navy ! For we are now 
 organizing a navy, and Mr. Errington is sure 
 he has influence enough to get me a commis 
 sion on one of the new frigates. Uncle Jacob 
 says it is right for me to go ; and I am so 
 happy in this new hope ! Oh, my darling sis 
 ter, be happy with me ! " 
 
 Then all the gloom and coldness of her 
 selfish sorrow fell away from her. It was as 
 if she had slipped out of a black garment. 
 Her beautiful face was illumined by the unself 
 ish heart that instantly rejoiced in her brother's 
 happiness. She was the brave, bright, affec 
 tionate Catharine again. 
 
 " I am delighted ! I am glad for you, Paul ! **
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 she cried. " What can I do ? What is it you 
 wish from me ? How shall I show you my 
 pleasure ? " 
 
 " I have not yet dared to tell mother. I 
 knew that she would weep and beg me not to 
 go. She will remind me of father, and say 
 that I also will never come back. You must 
 stand by me, no matter what my mother says." 
 
 "I will. Now, then, tell me what is the 
 quarrel with the French. I think, ever since 
 I can remember, they have been filling the 
 world with their brawls and tumults and 
 hectoring." 
 
 " It is this, Katryntje. Ever since President 
 Adams was inaugurated, last March, Adet, 
 the French minister here, has been trying to 
 make us fight England, because France is 
 fighting her. It is not our quarrel. We may 
 not like England, but we are not going to 
 be made fight, whether we want to or not. 
 France has at length demanded our alliance ; 
 and, because we have again refused, she has 
 148
 
 " The United States has millions for defence, but not one 
 
 cent for tribute"
 
 Paul has Hopes 
 
 sent out men-of-war to assail our commerce, 
 and ordered our minister to leave French 
 territory." 
 
 " Well, then ? " 
 
 " Well, then, we sent ambassadors to France, 
 to try and make peace, and the French Gov 
 ernment would not receive them unless we 
 paid into the French Treasury a quarter ot 
 a million of dollars ! And one of our am 
 bassadors, Mr. Pinckney of South Carolina, 
 answered c The United States has millions for 
 defence, but not one cent for tribute! Was 
 not that a grand reply ? " 
 
 " Indeed it was." 
 
 " Mr. Errington says it is one of the finest 
 things in history. Very well, Washington is 
 to-day in Philadelphia, organizing an army ; 
 and, Tryntje ! there is to be a navy immedi 
 ately six frigates, and many privateers for 
 Washington has told Congress plainly c if we 
 want a commerce, we must have a navy ! ' Hur 
 rah for George Washington ! Now if father 
 149
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 was only here ! Surely this news will bring 
 him home ! " 
 
 And Paul, in a fever of fight and expecta 
 tion, walked the room as if it were a quarter 
 deck. His face was lifted up, his eyes flashing, 
 his hand involuntarily striking his side, as if 
 seeking a sword. He was so enthusiastic that 
 Catharine caught the patriotic fire from him. 
 She forgot herself entirely, and then, as soon 
 as she stepped out of her own shadow, she 
 was in the sunshine of life once more then 
 she experienced the truth of her teacher's 
 axiom, that true happiness is found in the 
 love that flows out from us y rather than in the 
 love that flows in to us.
 
 V 
 
 The Secret of the Sea
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE SECRET OF THE SEA 
 
 THIS conversation took place on a Satur 
 day night, and on the Sabbath nothing 
 could be done. Catharine had even a feeling, 
 that she would like to spend this one day 
 without a thought of the change that was 
 coming, to give every moment of it to the 
 ways and feelings of a life that was so soon to 
 pass away forever. Paul could not go to sea 
 without money ; but for this day, the parting 
 and the necessities of it should not enter into 
 their consciousness and spoil their pleasure. 
 
 So when Paul came down to breakfast with 
 his brightest face, Catharine met his smile with 
 one equally hopeful. The mother fell easily 
 into their happy mood ; the whole household 
 accepted the tone Paul set ; and the Sabbath 
 peace had a wonderful cheerfulness in it. The
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 streets were cold and still, but dry and sunny ; 
 the bells seemed to have caught the spirit of 
 the day's holy gladness, and sounded more 
 softly and sweetly than usual ; they were just 
 chiming ten, as Paul and Catharine left the 
 house together for church. Hand in hand 
 they went, their steps, and the gentle move 
 ment of their clasped hands, keeping time to 
 the melodious semibreves. The church was 
 cold, and the service long, but they sang out 
 of the same book, and sat close together 
 throughout it. Perhaps neither of them lis 
 tened very attentively to the preacher ; for 
 they were listening to the voices of the past, 
 and the future : one was full of tender re 
 miniscence ; the other full of joyful expecta 
 tion ; and, accompanying both, was the solemn 
 wonder as to how many Sabbaths might 
 elapse, ere this loving communion could again 
 be possible to them. 
 
 As they walked home after the service, 
 Catharine said : " We will tell mother to-night. 
 '54
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 The servants will be at Lorenzo Dow's prayer 
 meeting, and perhaps Mr. Errington may be 
 out. And there is always a feeling in the 
 house on Sundays that is different from the 
 feeling on other days. It will be in your favor, 
 Paul, and it will help mother to understand 
 and to bear better." 
 
 But very early in the evening Mr. Errington 
 sent for Paul, and as it was possible he might 
 have something to say which would change the 
 current of events, Catharine resolved to keep 
 her secret until Paul returned to them. It is 
 so easy for love to put off words that may 
 bring sorrow ; and, looking in her mother's 
 face and understanding the care below the 
 smile, and the anxious watching that was 
 always in her troubled eyes, Catharine was 
 glad to spare her even one night the knowl 
 edge of her coming loss. 
 
 With a meaning glance at his sister, Paul 
 went gayly upstairs to his friend. He was full 
 of hope, notwithstanding his assumed doubt, 
 '55
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 and Catharine watched his tall, agile figure 
 springing upward, two steps at a time, and 
 thought how handsome he would look in his 
 uniform, and how completely suitable his alert, 
 prompt manner would be on a man-of-war. 
 
 Mr. Errington had good news for the youth. 
 " It is settled," he said. " You are to have a 
 midshipman's warrant to the United States, a 
 fine frigate of forty-four guns, and you are off 
 at once for a cruise in West Indian waters. 
 You will be made master's mate very soon 
 after joining if you keep step with my report 
 of you and indeed I think your preparation 
 for sea service is far beyond the usual. Com 
 modore Barry, your commodore, says that the 
 navy is glad to get brave seamanlike youths, 
 though few of those accepted have yet any 
 knowledge of the navigation of a ship." 
 
 " I understand navigation theoretically," said 
 
 Paul, " and I think I can soon reduce my 
 
 knowledge to practice. Indeed, sir, I know 
 
 not what words to say. I am filled with grati- 
 
 156
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 tude. I never hoped for such good fortune. 
 I will try and be worthy of it ; you have been 
 a friend beyond all friends to me." 
 
 " Do not overrate my service, Paul. I had 
 only to ask in order to receive. As it happens, 
 I have some influence ; I mean I have friends 
 who were glad to give what I desired." 
 " Yes. I wonder Excuse me." 
 " I know what you wonder, Paul, and your 
 wonder is quite reasonable, and I have no ob 
 jections to satisfy it. You wonder how I, 
 being an Englishman, have so many friends 
 among men of power and influence in this 
 government. I will tell you. My father was 
 one of the stanchest upholders of the rights 
 of the American colonists, both before and 
 during the Revolutionary war. He spoke in 
 Parliament for them ; he wrote many forcible 
 pamphlets in support of their claims, he 
 suffered some political disgrace for his arraign 
 ment of the British government in respect to 
 its treatment of subjects of the same race and 
 '57
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 faith, and who really wished to be loyal to the 
 Crown, if the Crown would let them. When 
 President Adams was residing in London, we 
 were on terms of great friendship with him, 
 and I especially delighted in listening to his 
 descriptions of this great and wonderful coun 
 try. I used to sit and imagine what it would 
 be, to see a Mississippi running straight 
 through England ! The size of the woods, 
 the mere square miles of the prairies, the 
 picturesque story of the red man, the stirring 
 romance of these thirteen little communities 
 fighting a great power like England, filled my 
 heart and my imagination. I desired to be a 
 citizen of such a land; and as I am only a 
 poor youngest son, my father, the Viscount 
 Errington, thought my desire a very sensible 
 one. Besides, Paul, I have no taste for fight 
 ing or sailing, preaching, or diplomacy ; my 
 longings are all for land. I desire to be a 
 great landowner, to build, to cultivate, to 
 turn deserts into gardens, and to sec morasses
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 become great cities. My fortune is too smali 
 to permit me any such indulgence in the Old 
 World; but here I can make gigantic plans, 
 and reasonably hope to see them realized. " 
 
 " Then, sir, you intend to become an Ameri 
 can citizen ? " 
 
 " Exactly. I am even now considering, with 
 other gentlemen, a great plan for laying out 
 New York, miles beyond its present limits. 
 And I have already chosen a site for my own 
 home, far beyond the inhabited region of to-day. 
 So much faith have I in the future of this 
 beautiful city." 
 
 Then the conversation returned to Paul's 
 position, and the various points connected with 
 it ; but throughout all this pleasant discussion, 
 Paul was aware of a hurrying anxiety to go to 
 his mother and sister, and tell them of the 
 good fortune that had come to him. But he 
 knew that on Sunday nights Mr. Errington 
 liked company, and it appeared ungrateful to 
 run away from his friend as soon as he had
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 obtained the desire of his heart. So he re 
 mained until the Bells chimed ten ; then he 
 rose, saying : 
 
 " I have to-night only one sorrow in my 
 heart. I wish that my dear father was here to 
 share my joy and pride." 
 
 " Of course," replied Mr. Errington. " Of 
 course, that is natural and right quite right." 
 
 " You see, sir, he might come home to 
 morrow ; he might come any hour. If my 
 life was in a story-book I dare say that is what 
 would happen ; but in real life it is different." 
 
 " I thought your father was dead that is, 
 that he had been lost at sea. Pardon me ! I 
 am glad I am mistaken." 
 
 " Lost at sea ! That is exactly the truth. 
 We have not heard from him for nearly two 
 years ; but that he is dead drowned I will 
 not believe. No indeed ! My father is too 
 fine a sailor to lose his ship ; and The Golden 
 Victory is too fine a ship to be lost. I " 
 
 Mr. Errington had listened with a polite 
 1 60
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 interest until Paul said " The Golden Victory" 
 These words might have been a stone thrown 
 at him. He made a sudden involuntary ex 
 clamation, and was visibly and powerfully 
 affected. Something like terror crept into his 
 face. He set his lips tightly, and grasped the 
 back of a chair, as if he felt himself to be in 
 need of support. So great was his emotion 
 that Paul was struck dumb by it and left his 
 sentence unfinished. A moment of intensely 
 painful silence followed, then Paul asked : 
 
 "What is it, sir? Are you ill? Shall 1 
 call my mother ? " 
 
 " Sit down, Paul. Let me think you said 
 The Golden Victory?" 
 
 " Yes, sir. My father's ship." 
 
 "Is there any other Golden Victory? " 
 
 " I do not know of any other." 
 
 " But the captain ? His name was not Van 
 Clyffe. Oh no ! It was Johnson, I think." 
 
 " No, sir, it is Jansen. All sailor-folk call 
 my father f Captain Jansen.' ' 
 " 161
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 "Yes Captain Jansen." 
 
 " Do you know something about him, sir ? 
 If you do, tell me. Is he dead ? " 
 
 "No I hope not. The Golden Victory^ after 
 a terrible fight, was taken by the Algerine pirates. 
 Your father was sold as a slave in Tripoli." 
 
 Paul stood as motionless as if he had been 
 turned into stone. He tried to speak, but no 
 words came. Errington led him to a sofa, 
 and sat down beside him. He clasped his 
 hands and spoke as tenderly as a woman. 
 "Try and bear it, Paul, as steadily as you 
 can," he said. " It is a great calamity an 
 awful calamity I know that. I have seen 
 it. My dear Paul, speak to me ! " 
 
 " Oh God ! Oh God ! " cried the youth in 
 a passion of tears. " My father ! My good, 
 brave father ! " 
 
 " He may yet live. He can be ransomed. 
 Paul, what arc you now going to do ? " 
 
 " Free him ! Free him ! If I give my life 
 for his." 
 
 16*
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 "That is right. It is what I expect from 
 you." 
 
 Then he rose, and, instead of calling his ser 
 vant, he himself put more wood on the fire ; 
 drew two chairs within its warmth, and led 
 Paul to one of them. " While you are gaining 
 some control over your feelings," he said, " I 
 will tell you how I know this about The Golden 
 Victory. I had a friend, whom I loved as my 
 own soul. He went to Italy three years ago. 
 On his return to England, he stayed in 
 Southern Spain a few weeks, and at the port 
 of Cadiz took passage for London in a vessel 
 called The Golden Victory^ which had a cargo of 
 fruits and wines for that port. In the Bay of 
 Biscay they were met by an Algerine man-of- 
 war, and although she was double their size, 
 and carried twenty-eight guns, to the twelve 
 guns of The Golden Victory, a long and bloody 
 fight ensued. It was in vain. When all the 
 men but your father, my friend, and three 
 seamen were dead or disabled, when the 
 163
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 human fiends were clambering on all sides 
 into the gallant ship, resistance was no longer 
 possible." 
 
 "Why did not my father blow her up? I 
 would have sent her to the bottom, and gone 
 there with her." 
 
 " Nineteen years old does many foolish 
 things ; that would have been one of them, 
 even if it had been possible, which it was not. 
 The ship and men were taken to Tripoli. The 
 Golden Victory now sails as a pirate craft, under 
 a name which means The American Slave. 
 Your father was driven inland. My friend 
 was permitted to write home for his ransom ; 
 and in the meantime was heavily ironed, and 
 set to drawing large blocks of building stone 
 from the quarries ; yoked sometimes with 
 mules or oxen. Being the son of a noble 
 man his ransom was heavy ; six thousand 
 pounds but it was quickly provided, and I 
 myself went with it. Need I tell you what I 
 saw ? Have you heard anything of these in- 
 164
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 fidel monsters, whose delight is in torturing 
 their Christian slaves ? " 
 
 " I have heard too much," said Paul, almost 
 in a whisper. " My uncle has had many of 
 those redeemed by our government at his 
 house. I have seen their crippled limbs, the 
 marks of the lash and the bastinado cruel 
 scars that nothing can hide. Oh, sir, I must 
 go to my father. Thank you ! Thank you 
 for what you have done ; but that dream is- 
 over. I must get the money for my father's 
 redemption. I know not how I am all con 
 fused yet but I can see, and feel, that to be 
 my first duty. How much money shall I 
 need?" 
 
 " I can only give you two facts to judge 
 from. This government paid sixty thousand 
 dollars for twenty sailors ; and again one mil 
 lion dollars, for one hundred and eighty officers 
 and men, taken from fifteen American vessels. 
 Your father, by his resistance, caused the death 
 of many Tripolitan pirates ; I should not think 
 165
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 he will be freed for less than ten thousand 
 dollars. On the subject of ransom, these sav 
 ages are implacable. They never give up a 
 prisoner without one. It is rather singular 
 that I had some thoughts of getting you as 
 signed to the ship George Washington, of twenty- 
 eight guns, which is soon to leave for Algiers, 
 with half a million of money for the Dcy." 
 
 Paul's face radiated a passionate anger. "It 
 is a shame ! " he cried. " It is a burning 
 shame that the United States should do such 
 a thing ! After whipping England are we 
 forced to pay blackmail to such infamous 
 pirates ? How can it be borne ? " 
 
 "Patience, Paul ! It is the inexorable logic 
 of events. But your anger is natural and 
 shared by every American officer. Bainbridge, 
 who goes with this protection money, would 
 far rather blow the Dey's forts about his ears. 
 The United States will do so eventually. She 
 is biding her right time." 
 
 " Every time is the right time for such a 
 166
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 deed. Every hour these pirates poison the 
 world is a scandal to Christianity and civiliz 
 ation ! " 
 
 " You must be reasonable. There are many 
 things to be considered. The very day I car 
 ried my poor friend on board an English ship, 
 a. free man again, two English ships came into 
 Tripoli harbor with one hundred and sixty 
 thousand dollars worth of naval supplies as a 
 present from the English government to the 
 Dey." 
 
 " What an infamy ! England at least is 
 strong enough to blow these devils from off 
 the earth and the seas." 
 
 " She has her reasons for protecting them. 
 And they in return permit no other ships to 
 enter the Mediterranean Sea for trade but 
 British ships. They are, in fact, England's 
 sea-dogs ; their business is to throttle all com 
 merce but that carried on in English merchant 
 ships. At present America is really at war 
 with France ; does she want also to pick a 
 167
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 quarrel with the Dey of Algiers and his 
 powerful backer ? " 
 
 " How can England be so wicked ? " 
 
 "It is business, Paul. f Every one for 
 themselves/ is a national as well as an individ 
 ual maxim." 
 
 " England is Christian. How, then, can she 
 encourage Mohammedans to sell and torture 
 Christians in the interests of trade ? " 
 
 " We are not inquiring into that subject at 
 present, Paul. I have told you these facts to 
 show you why America is at present forced to 
 buy protection for her merchant vessels." 
 
 " Glory to George Washington ! " cried 
 Paul. " He has truly and boldly told us that 
 if we want commerce we must have a navy." 
 
 " Nothing is truer. Merchant ships will 
 be prey unless there are men-of-war behind 
 them." 
 
 "And your friend? " asked Paul. 
 
 " He is dead. He reached home, and lin 
 gered a few weeks." 
 
 1 68
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 " What if my father is also dead ? It is a 
 long captivity. How could he bear it? " 
 
 " I think he is alive." 
 
 " But your friend in " 
 
 " My friend was delicate and had been deli 
 cately reared. Your father is inured to hard 
 ships of all kinds. Moreover, Paul, I believe 
 in God Almighty. I do not think he would 
 have so wonderfully sent me with this message 
 to you unless your father was alive and able to 
 profit by the giving of it. I had no knowl 
 edge of you when I casually asked the clerk 
 in the bank, who was attending to my business, 
 about a lodging-house. I had not before ever 
 thought of such a thing. I was astonished at 
 myself for the inquiry. Do you not see that I 
 was sent here to tell you about The Golden Vic 
 tory and your father's captivity ? Perhaps I 
 am the only free man in life who could do 
 this. God is just and kind. He would not 
 raise a hope unless he intended to realize it. 
 Such hopes are prophecies." 
 169
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " Thank you, sir, for that thought. I will 
 trust the hope, and work towards it.'* 
 
 " I am sure you will. Now, you had 
 better try to sleep ; you look ill and weary. 
 In the morning, you will see better what 
 to do." 
 
 But it was impossible for Paul to sleep. 
 This was a calamity undreamed of. He 
 doubted if his mother and sister knew anything 
 about the Algerine pirates. They were one 
 of those factors in the national affairs about 
 which even the newspapers were discreetly 
 eloquent. It is true, both American and Eng 
 lish philanthropists were holding meetings and 
 collecting money for the redemption of these 
 Christian slaves ; and that public sentiment 
 was rapidly rising to a point which would in 
 sist on active interference ; yet, for all this, the 
 average men and women were not more inter- 
 
 D 
 
 ested than they usually are in calamities far 
 
 off and which do not personally concern them. 
 
 Paul and his sister had often spoken fearfully 
 
 170
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 of the possibility of the ship having foundered ; 
 they had even imagined her cast upon some 
 unknown, or savage shore ; but that their 
 father should be sold for a slave, and The 
 Golden Victory turned into a robbers' and mur 
 derers' craft, was a disaster which had never 
 occurred to them as a possibility. 
 
 Sleep ! Sleep was a thousand leagues away 
 from Paul. The wretched stories which he 
 had listened to in a half-credulous mood at 
 his uncle's fireside, and which, at any rate, he 
 had never thought could have any connection 
 with himself, now returned to his memory 
 with all the stupendous effects night and dark 
 ness and distance and flesh and blood rela 
 tions could give them. He could not be quiet. 
 The terrors of wakeful, excited feeling and 
 imagination made the stillness of the bed in 
 tolerable. He got up, and then the cold drove 
 him back to bed. When the bells chimed 
 midnight he dressed himself, and went to his 
 sister's door. 
 
 171
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " Katryntje ! " he called softly ; and at the 
 third time she asked : 
 
 " Paul, is it thou ? " 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Is mother sick ? " 
 
 " No ; but there is great trouble. Dress 
 yourself and come to the parlor fire. I will 
 make a good fire." 
 
 " It is so bitter cold, Paul. Will the morn 
 ing not be soon enough ? " 
 
 " Come quickly." 
 
 Then she heard him go downstairs, and the 
 cold and the darkness, with this vague phan 
 tom of " great trouble " in them, felt terrible. 
 She shivered palpably, for there was no coal 
 in those days, no furnace or steam heat, only 
 the wood fires, which were so inadequate un 
 less constantly replenished. Outside and 
 inside it was below zero ; she groped about 
 for her clothing ; and was finally obliged to 
 get the tinder-box and try to strike a 
 light. But it was difficult work. Her hands 
 172
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 shook ; the tinder was badly burnt ; it took 
 her several minutes to get a spark from the 
 flint that would ignite it ; then the first spark 
 went out before she had the match ready ; 
 and she was crying with real suffering before 
 the welcome blaze was strong enough to light 
 her candle, and show her the whereabouts of 
 her shoes and stockings and garments. And 
 all the time she was sure it was something that 
 Mr. Errington had said or done something 
 about Paul's going to sea; and she did feel 
 that Paul might have waited until morning 
 brought light and warmth. 
 
 However, when she got downstairs there was 
 a good fire, and Paul had drawn the sofa close 
 to the hearth, and brought a buffalo robe to 
 wrap her in. His consideration pleased her and 
 she gave him a smile for it ; then she saw some 
 thing in his face that went to her heart like a 
 blow. "Paul/'she said in a fright, "is it father?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, Katryntje ! It is father ! Poor 
 father!"
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 Then, he plunged at once into the pitiful 
 story. His words trod one on the other, they 
 burned with his anger, they were wet with his 
 tears ; when he ceased speaking it was as if the 
 room was on fire. At the beginning of his 
 narrative they had both been sitting on the 
 sofa ; when it was finished unconsciously they 
 had risen, and were standing together quivering 
 from head to feet. All their life was swallowed 
 up in a sense of stress, in a hurry of love and 
 sorrow that could not endure the limitations 
 of hours. 
 
 " Will it never be morning ? Will it never 
 be morning? " cried Catharine. " How dread 
 ful to sit here and be able to do nothing but 
 think and weep. And what shall we do when 
 morning comes ? " 
 
 " We ought at least to be ready to do some 
 thing," said Paul. " For this reason I awakened 
 you, Tryntje, my dear one." 
 
 " First of all, mother must not be told, if 
 there is any way to prevent it. I shall go to
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 grandmother after breakfast as soon as it is 
 possible." 
 
 " And I will see Uncle Jacob. But suppose 
 that they can do nothing ? " 
 
 " They must do something. Oh, Paul, at 
 this very moment, our father may be hungry 
 and thirsty, or suffering from the cruelty of the 
 wretches who drive him to work. Oh, I can 
 not bear it ! " and she put up her hands and 
 clasped her forehead to keep down the smoth 
 ering sense of terrible imaginations that assailed 
 her. 
 
 " Let us keep some hope, Katryntje. He 
 may have found a good master. And God 
 would not desert him, nor leave him 
 comfortless." 
 
 " That of course, Paul, but we must not 
 forget for a moment our father's sufferings. 
 You tell me that he has but one pound of black 
 bread in a day, and a little water. Very well, 
 then, I will taste nothing but the food that is 
 necessary to me until I know that father is 
 J75
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 either at rest with God, or a free man. Bread 
 and meat and water I must have to do my 
 work, but sweetmeats, cakes, dainties, oh, 
 indeed, I feel that they would choke rne ! " 
 
 " You are quite right, little sister. I too, 
 will refuse them." 
 
 "It will be nothing great to do," continued 
 Catharine. " If my mother sets before me a 
 delicious custard, or a fresh doughnut, I 
 should think of father's black bread of his 
 one pound of black bread and how, then, 
 could I taste them ? " 
 
 " Mother will wonder, if you eat nothing 
 but bread and meat ; and what excuse can you 
 make to her ? " 
 
 " Oh, then, I have a better thought about 
 mother than the keeping of her in ignorance. 
 It would be extremely selfish in us to do so, 
 and at the last she would feel this. She has 
 pearls and other jewelry ; she will want to give 
 them. As soon as we find out what others 
 can do, we must permit that our mother also 
 176
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 does her part. She would suspect, she would 
 fear ; it is far better that she should know the 
 worst, and hope for the best; that is my second 
 thought about mother. What think you, 
 Paul?" 
 
 " I think it is the best thought. Listen to 
 the wind, Katryntje ! How it blows." He 
 made her lie down, and wrapped the buffalo 
 robe around her, and threw more wood on the 
 fire, and they talked in sad, low voices, while the 
 winter wind clashed the wooden shutters, and 
 roared down the wide chimney, and blew the 
 hour chimes far out to sea on its noisy bluster. 
 Sleep had gone far from them, they had for 
 gotten the cold, they sat in wretched commun 
 ion until the wet, pale daylight broke. Then 
 a negro came in to attend to the fire, and the 
 burden of active life was to lift again. 
 
 After the breakfast was over, Catharine made 
 an excuse for leaving the house, and went as 
 rapidly as possible to William Street. All 
 was as still as the grave in the little passage 
 
 I* I77
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 on which Madame Van Clyffe's rooms opened 
 Catharine stood listening at her door a mo 
 ment, and there was not a movement. Her 
 heart fell. She feared she might have to go to 
 her uncle's, and then there would also be 
 Gertrude and Alida, and she did not feel as if 
 she could tell her sorrowful tale before them. 
 Very lightly she tapped on the door, and 
 waited breathlessly for an answer. 
 
 It came at once. There was the movement 
 of a chair, a few heavy steps, and the door 
 stood open. 
 
 " Grandmother ! " 
 
 The one word was charged full of grie 
 anxiety, entreaty, and the old woman looked at 
 the woeful young face confronting her with a 
 kind of angry pity. 
 
 " What brings you out and here this morn 
 ing ? " she asked. " You are wet through. 
 Come in." 
 
 She followed her grandmother into a kind 
 of parlor-kitchen. There was a good fire on 
 178
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 the hearth, and some ham broiling in a little 
 Dutch oven before it. A plate of buttered 
 toast stood on the fender and a small round 
 table, drawn close to the hearth, was set for 
 breakfast. An open Bible also lay on the 
 table, and it was evident Madame had been 
 reading her morning portion from it when 
 disturbed by Catharine's knock. 
 
 The unhappy girl went to the fire and put 
 her wet feet upon the fender. She no longer 
 made any effort to control her feelings, and 
 tears wet her white cheeks as she loosened her 
 bonnet strings and shook them clear of the 
 gathered raindrops. 
 
 " Now, then, what is it ? For nothing you 
 are not here. And I am not pleased at your 
 coming. Why have you come ? " Madame 
 spoke a little sternly ; for she had instantly 
 made up her mind that her daughter-in-law 
 was in some financial difficulty, which she was 
 to be asked to relieve. 
 
 ** Grandmother we " 
 179
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 "Well, then?" 
 
 " We have heard of father." 
 
 " Nothing good, I see that." Her aged 
 form shook all over and she sat down in her 
 chair, quite unwittingly laying her hand on the 
 open Bible. " Why don't you speak then ? " 
 she asked fretfully. "What have you heard ? " 
 
 " His ship was taken by the pirates. He 
 was sold as a slave ; he is now either dead, or 
 a slave." 
 
 A sudden great passion was the first out 
 come of this intelligence. " He deserves it 
 all ! " she cried. " He deserves it ! I told 
 him what would happen ! He would go to 
 sea ! He would have his own way ! c Dis 
 obedient to parents.' Right ! Right are the 
 Holy Scriptures, in putting children Disobe 
 dient to parents ' with murderers, and revilers, 
 and blasphemers " 
 
 " Oh grandmother, hush I " and as she 
 spoke, the weeping girl let her hands fall to 
 her side with an impetuous thud. 
 1 80
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 " ' Hush ' I will not ! To me, how dare 
 you use such a word ? I say your father is a 
 disobedient son and disobedient children live 
 not out half their days. You may read that in 
 the Holy Scriptures." 
 
 "Well, then, grandmother, if he has done 
 wrong, he has suffered ; he is suffering. Have 
 pity on him ! Even God forgives the sinner." 
 
 "When the sinner asks Him, then He 
 forgives. Jansen has never written me a line. 
 Never once has he said to me, f Mother, I am 
 suffering. Mother, I am sorry.' ' 
 
 " Not one word has he sent to us. Well, 
 then, it must be that he cannot send any word. 
 Grandmother, have you heard ? Do you 
 know what dreadful men these pirates are?" 
 
 " Heard ! Know ! Yes, I know well that 
 hell itself is blacker for every one that goes 
 there. Who told you this news ? " 
 
 " Mr. Errington." 
 
 " The Englishman ? Then I believe not 
 one word of it." 
 
 ifti
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " It is the truth. Listen ! " and Catharine 
 went over the story which Mr. Errington had 
 told Paul. She noticed that her grandmother's 
 face glowed with pride she could not conceal, 
 when told of the stubborn fight made by 
 the Captain of The Golden Victory, though she 
 asked with a tearful anger: 
 
 " Why did n't he run ? Why did he fight ? 
 How could he fight devils, slipped away from 
 the bottomless pit ? " Then she broke utterly 
 down. She rocked herself backwards and for 
 wards; she wrung her old hands, and sobbed 
 out in a voice, that filled her rooms with its 
 passionate anguish : 
 
 " O mijn zoon Jan ! Mijn zoon ! mijn zoon 
 Jan ! Och dat ik, ik, voor u gestorven ware, 
 Jan mijn zoon ! mijn zoon ! " 1 
 
 For a minute or two Catharine let her 
 sorrow have full sway. Then she stepped to 
 her side, kissed the tears from her cheeks, laid 
 the gray old head against her breast and said 
 
 1 2 Samuel xviii. 33. 
 182
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 she hardly knew what words of hope and 
 comfort. 
 
 By and by the old woman recovered herself. 
 With the slow, cold, bitter tears of age, she 
 began to consider the stunning facts that had 
 fallen like a thunderbolt on her lonely hearth 
 stone. " You say your father inland has been 
 taken ? " she asked. 
 
 " Mr. Errington's friend said the captain 
 with whom he sailed and the three sailors who 
 had survived had been driven inland. They 
 were chained two and two for the march. He 
 bade them a mute f good-by ' as they passed 
 him." 
 
 Madame set her lips hard, her eyes filled 
 again ; but she said : " Well, then, what is 
 it you want?" 
 
 "That my father should be ransomed, with 
 out one hour's delay." 
 
 " Yes, yes ! I will send Claes Brevoort to 
 Washington. He will tell the Government 
 they try to ransom all Americans. O mine 
 183
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 Goden I it is a crying shame and sin, to give 
 good gold to such villains. Why, then, do 
 they not give cannon balls ? " 
 
 " Oh, grandmother, for the government we 
 cannot wait." 
 
 " If alive your father is, God has kept him 
 alive ; and what He has done, that He 
 will do." 
 
 " Grandmother God has now sent the 
 word to us. It is you and I, and Uncle Jacob, 
 and Paul, and mother, who are to work for his 
 release." 
 
 " What can I do ? An old woman am 
 I, nearly seventy years old am I." 
 
 " You can perhaps give some money ; 
 that " 
 
 " I will not give my money to such wicked 
 men." 
 
 " It is for father." 
 
 " How much money ? " 
 
 " Mr. Errington thinks ten thousand dol 
 lars." 
 
 184
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 <c Quite crazy are you. Ten thousand dol 
 lars. Owee ! owee! 1 In the way of the 
 wicked your father would go; and " 
 
 " Now then, grandmother, no use is there 
 in blaming father. He is not to blame. Not 
 at all. Very brave and good is he. Ten 
 thousand dollars is nothing at all for his life ; 
 and it is ten thousand dollars we must have ! " 
 and Catharine spoke with an anger that an 
 noyed her grandmother. 
 
 " Oh, indeed ! " she answered. " Nothing 
 at all is ten thousand dollars. Very well, then, 
 for nothing at all why come to me ? See, now 
 I have had no breakfast leave me leave 
 me" 
 
 " I cannot leave you, grandmother, till some 
 thing is said till something is done." 
 
 " I will see your Uncle Jacob I will think 
 about it. In one minute I cannot think, I 
 cannot do. Oh, Jan ! so wicked, so cruel you 
 have always been ! " 
 
 Alas! Alas! 
 185
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 <f It is cruel in you, grandmother, to speak 
 ill of my father. I cannot bear it " and 
 she burst into such a passion of weeping as 
 astonished and even a little frightened the old 
 woman. " I love my father," she continued ; 
 "I will move heaven and earth to set him free. 
 If you will not help, I will ask every one 
 I meet to do so. I will stand at Trinity 
 gates and beg for the money. I will ask 
 Domine de Rhonde to make a collection in 
 the church for it. I will " 
 
 " One great fool you will make of yourself. 
 People will think shame of you." 
 
 " They will not. Who is there that will 
 not pity a girl begging for her father's free 
 dom ? Now, this minute, I will go straight 
 to the Domine." 
 
 " Nothing of the kind you will do. Sit 
 down. Your senses you have quite lost. Like 
 some one crazy you talk. And what is the 
 use of cry, cry, crying ? No good are tears." 
 
 At this moment Jacob Van Clyffe entered 
 186
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 the room, and seeing Catharine in great dis 
 tress, he plunged into the subject at once. 
 " Here is a calamity, mother," he said. " Paul 
 has just told me, and I see that you also 
 know." 
 
 " I know." 
 
 " What is to be done ? " 
 
 " That I know not." 
 
 " But ten thousand dollars are to be got at 
 once." 
 
 " And that is impossible." 
 
 " It must be made possible. How my 
 affairs stand I cannot in an hour say. I fear 
 that out of my business it cannot come. To 
 take it would be to wrong my creditors." 
 
 " Yes, and all to pieces will go your business, 
 and you will get into debts you cannot pay ; 
 and then it will be bankruptcy, and a debtor's 
 prison for you, and I see not the good of that." 
 
 " As I was saying, mother, I cannot for the 
 sake of many others risk my business, but I 
 can mortgage my home." 
 187
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 "Without my will and name, you cannot 
 mortgage your home ; and my will and name 
 for any such purpose I will not give to you. 
 Any trouble can come out of this great trouble ; 
 it will breed troubles of all kinds, and Gertrude 
 and Alida shall not be put in danger of losing 
 a roof to cover their heads." 
 
 " But, mother, in some way this money 
 must be obtained. In the newspapers Jan's 
 situation will be told ; in everybody's mouth it 
 will be ; in the church the Domine will offer 
 prayers for him, and how among my friends 
 could I show my face if I said only poor 
 Jan ! * and buttoned up my pockets. There is 
 yet more. I love my brother ; eat I cannot, 
 nor drink, nor sleep, nor do my business, until 
 all that is possible for Jan's release is set going." 
 
 " Heaven and earth I " cried the old woman. 
 " Leave me ! Both of you leave me to myself! 
 I have to bear; more than you I have to bear. 
 I must have time to think. I must speak to 
 Claes Brevoort. I must find out what moneys 
 x88
 
 The Secret of the Sea 
 
 I have. O mine Goden I " she cried pitifully, as 
 she dropped her head upon the Bible. " Mijne 
 Jan I Mijne Jan I Owee ! Owes / " 
 
 Her grief was terrible, and she would not be 
 comforted. In a manner too imperative to be 
 disregarded she bade both her son and her 
 granddaughter " leave her alone with her sor 
 row " and Jacob took Catharine by the hand 
 and led her away. When they reached the street 
 he said : " Go home, my poor lamishie ! Go 
 home and wait. Whatever can be done I will 
 look to. So wet it is, and so cold too. You 
 will make yourself ill, and then that will be 
 more trouble." He spoke a little impatiently, 
 but Catharine saw the tears in his eyes and felt 
 the strong, tender clasp of his hand as he said : 
 
 "In the dark am I, Katryntje ! I see not 
 what to do." Then, as he turned away, she 
 heard him utter with the strong entreating of 
 his mother-tongue : " God in de hemelin verlichte 
 mijne oogen ! " l 
 
 1 God in heaven enlighten my eyes? 
 189
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 All day long Paul and Catharine waited, 
 watched, listened. But no word of help or 
 hope came. They were so young, they could 
 not understand that even the fondest, strongest 
 love must meet delays of all kinds. When the 
 light faded into darkness, they stood together 
 at the parlor window and asked each other 
 what was to be done. 
 
 " We must do now what we should have 
 done at first," said Paul. " We must tell 
 mother. Never yet have I seen mother in a 
 strait she could not find her way out of." 
 
 " Yes, we will go to mother. It is we, our 
 own selves, who must help father. Was not 
 the word sent to us ? We will go to mother."
 
 VI 
 
 Raising the Ransom
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 RAISING THE RANSOM 
 
 ALL that Paul expected from his mother 
 she realized. In the midst of her 
 anguish she was calm and mentally clear and 
 alert; and before the sorrowful tale was fully 
 told she had decided what course to take. 
 "Children," she said, " I know well that Jacques 
 Cortelyou will give me a mortgage on this 
 house. Long he has desired to have it, for 
 he owns the houses on each side of us. To 
 morrow morning I will see him ; this is the 
 first thing to do. Your Uncle Jacob has so 
 many claims to consider; your grandmother 
 loves her gold as her life. We must help 
 ourselves." 
 
 She made little outcry, but her whole being 
 expressed the woeful wretchedness in which her
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 soul labored. And she finally confessed that 
 this very thing had been the haunting fear 
 which had filled her days and nights for 
 months with terror unspeakable. " Not to 
 think of it, not to speak of it I tried," she said, 
 " because I was so afraid by doing so I might 
 call the sorrow unto us. Yet six months ago 
 I wrote to our consul at Algiers begging him 
 to make inquiries about your father. No 
 answer came to my letter ; so then I had hope 
 that the thing I dreaded had not happened 
 to us." 
 
 They went early and sadly to rest. Paul 
 and Catharine, worn out with their previous 
 night, soon fell into deep and restful forget- 
 fulness of all sorrow, but Madame Van ClyfFe 
 was long awake with her grief. However, she 
 was not a woman who sought help through the 
 Gate of Tears ; to her the Gate of Prayer stood 
 open and entering into that sanctuary a voice 
 from the unseen soon called to her to give her 
 patience under suffering, and to assure her that 
 194
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 her case was not hidden from the Lord of the 
 Universe. 
 
 In the morning she came down calm and 
 strong and ready dressed for the street. But 
 as the servants were passing to and fro nothing 
 was said of the business in hand. Indeed, the 
 time for talking was over, and all felt that the 
 hour had come for effort that must not be 
 slackened until it was successful. Paul and 
 Catharine remained together while their mother 
 took the step which she believed would prove 
 the right one. Paul sat musing by the fire. 
 Catharine could not work. Her sewing lay on 
 the table, the gay silks and the white lute 
 string, but she had no heart for making rose 
 buds. Neither could she talk. She was too 
 anxious. She walked up and down the room 
 and sometimes stood at the window looking 
 out but seeing nothing. She longed for the 
 Bells to say a word, but they had no message 
 for her. Nine o'clock chimed, and the notes 
 were without meaning ; ten o'clock chimed, and
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 it was only a chime. She turned impatiently 
 when it was over and saw her mother coming 
 up the steps. It was a very stormy morning 
 and Madame was wet through, but when she 
 entered the parlor there was a look on her face 
 which told of success before she found breath 
 to say : 
 
 " Children, I have got six thousand dollars 
 on the house. Now, Paul, you will go to your 
 Uncle Jacob, and tell him that if he and your 
 grandmother cannot manage the other four 
 thousand to-day I shall go to Philadelphia to 
 morrow, and get the money from my relatives 
 there." 
 
 Catharine was helping her to remove her wet 
 clothing as she spoke, and as soon as he had 
 received his message Paul went to deliver it. 
 Then as Madame took up at once the regular 
 duties of her household, Catharine also lifted 
 her needle and resolutely resolved to imitate 
 her mother's noble self-control. 
 
 In about half an hour she heard a knock at 
 196
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 the door, and, pausing a moment to listen, 
 was aware that one of the servants went to 
 answer it. The circumstance was an ordinary 
 one, and did not arouse any special interest; 
 but when Jane ushered into her presence an old 
 woman breathless with the wind and dripping 
 with the rain, she started to her feet, and ex 
 claimed with utter amazement: 
 
 " Grandmother ! You ! " 
 
 " Yes, child. My cloak and my wet shoes 
 take off, and my hood it is soaked ; shake it. 
 Your mother ? Where is she ? " 
 
 " I will go for her." 
 
 " A minute wait. Put for me a chair near 
 to the fire ; and then I will have a cup of 
 hot tea." 
 
 As Catharine was obeying these orders, 
 Madame Van Clyffe came into the room. 
 She stood speechless, for never before had 
 her mother-in-law visited her. It was the 
 older woman who spoke first. She stretched 
 out her hand, and said : 
 197
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " Sarah, the same trouble have we. Sorry 
 I am for you ! " 
 
 Then Madame lost all her fortitude. She 
 sat down by Jan's mother, and wept like a 
 child. She kissed the strong, withered face, 
 that was as old-looking as a crinkled leaf in 
 December. She took in her own white young 
 hands, the aged yellow hands, seamed all over 
 with blue veins ; and stroked, and petted 
 them, with an unmistakable affection. She be 
 gan to speak of Jan's goodness and his love for 
 his mother ; and when Catharine entered with 
 the cup of hot tea, the two women were weep 
 ing together, and exchanging confidences about 
 the beloved one, who was in such a terrible con 
 dition, and who was so dear to both of them. 
 
 Catharine was greatly affected. She quietly 
 set down the little tray, and was going out of 
 the room, when her grandmother said : 
 
 " Katryntje ! come here. Listen to me. I 
 have put this morning in the bank, for your 
 father's ransom, ten thousand dollars. Now, 
 198
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 then, at Trinity Gates you will not need to 
 beg; nor to the Domine you will not need 
 now to go. Oh, child, child ! " and then she 
 broke down again, and covered her face with 
 her trembling hands. And they comforted 
 and blessed her, and gave her the warm drink ; 
 and after a little broken conversation she fell 
 asleep, and lay like one dead, for more than an 
 hour. 
 
 When she awoke she had quite recovered 
 her strength. She insisted on going to her 
 home ; but she did not refuse her daughter- 
 in-law's assistance through the wet and windy 
 streets. Nor did she neglect to warn her 
 about undue haste : 
 
 " How you feel, that I know, Sarah, " she 
 said. * f For myself, I wish that I had wings 
 like the bird that flies eighty miles in one hour. 
 But with Jan is my heart and my thoughts ; 
 and sure am I that he will feel some new 
 strength and hope. Perhaps, then, God will 
 send to him some dream full of comfort ; for 
 199
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 into my heart has come a sure and certain 
 belief that I shall see again, in the land of 
 the living, my boy Jan. But one thing, mind, 
 Sarah : the money in the right way must go. 
 In a bag you cannot put it, and then send a 
 boy like Paul with that bag in his hand. The 
 right way must be found, the right time, and 
 the right person." 
 
 " Dear mother, all you say shall be done ; 
 and I thank " 
 
 " No ! No ! In my own heart is the wit 
 ness ; " and then all the way to her house she 
 tried to impress on her daughter-in-law the 
 necessity for some official protection for Paul 
 and the ransom. " I have heard of that scoun 
 drel Yusef!" she said passionately. "There 
 is no measure to his treachery and cruelty, 
 Quite capable is he of taking the gold, and 
 making the bearer of it his slave." 
 
 " I have thought of that, mother. Mr. 
 Errington told me this morning that he would 
 devise means for Paul's protection.", 
 200
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 "The Englishman ! Can you trust him ?" 
 
 " He is to be trusted. Of that I am 
 sure." 
 
 In the evening Mr. Errington visited the 
 unhappy family. He was delighted at the 
 promptitude they had manifested, and was 
 quite ready to second it. " I will go with Paul 
 to Baltimore," he said, " and if we have time, 
 we must go to Washington, and get letters 
 which may be powerful aids to success. I 
 think, too, that I can obtain permission for 
 Paul to go on the George Washington, with 
 Captain Bainbridge. Some sort of position 
 may be found there for him ; he would then 
 have the protection of a United States man- 
 of-war; and also the favorable consideration 
 from Yusef which half a million of money 
 may have upon his temper." 
 
 " Paul can leave at any time," said Madame 
 Van Clyffe. 
 
 " Say, then, in two days. Madame, you 
 may rely on me. I will do all that is possible ; 
 201
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 and I will see Paul safely on his merciful jour 
 ney before I return." 
 
 Large as these promises were, Mr. Errington 
 kept them. Paul carried an urgent and power 
 ful letter to the consul ; and one which in case 
 of extremity, might be given to the piratical 
 emperor himself. Many details not necessary 
 to explain were to attend to ; but at length, 
 the gold for Captain Van Clyffe's ransom was 
 on board the George Washington; her sails 
 were set, her anchor lifted; and Paul on board, 
 hopefully waving an adieu to the stranger, who 
 had served him so nobly. 
 
 In the meantime, his mother and sister took 
 up their daily life again, with what heart they 
 were able. Eight or nine weeks, perhaps 
 much longer, must elapse before they could 
 hope to have any intelligence ; and at first it 
 seemed to Catharine, that she could not, could 
 not, bear the suspense. Fortunately, the need 
 for work was greater than ever; and in this 
 need, the two anxious women were able to lose 
 aoa
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 that distressing sense of watching and listening, 
 which is the sting of fear and uncertain anxiety. 
 Every hour of daylight was rilled with labor 
 of some kind. Catharine taught her mother 
 the slight, but effective embroidery, by which 
 the largest amount of money was made ; and 
 very soon it was two busy needles at work al 
 most from morning to night. 
 
 Besides which, Catharine had three new 
 music scholars ; though, as they were more 
 advanced than her cousins, she was often 
 obliged to herself practice the lesson she was 
 going to teach. Just at dusk one day, she put 
 down her embroidery, and began to go over, 
 very softly, a sonata of Mozart's. As she did 
 so, Mr. Errington entered the room, walked 
 to her side, and said: "You are playing that 
 passage incorrectly. It is rapid and legato ; 
 and the turn is on E, not on D. Let me 
 show you." He played it twice or thrice over, 
 and Catharine, burning with shame and anger, 
 imitated his rendering. But when she told 
 203
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 her mother of the circumstance, she did not 
 get the sympathy she expected. 
 
 " Very glad you ought to be, Tryntje, and 
 not cross," answered Madame. " A young 
 girl like you cannot know everything." 
 
 " To be sure ; but then, he was not asked to 
 teach me." 
 
 " So much the greater his kindness. Mr. 
 Errington told Paul, he would do everything 
 he could to help us while we are alone that 
 was one thing in which he could help, and he 
 did it. It was a trouble, and no pleasure to 
 him." 
 
 " All the same, I am not sure but what I 
 played the passage in the manner most 
 correct." 
 
 " I do not think so." 
 
 " And I hope that he will not interfere with 
 my music again. He talked to me as if I was 
 at school. I am not a child. I am almost a 
 young lady." 
 
 " Katryntje ! You make me astonished at 
 904
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 you. I hope, then, he will tell you whenever 
 you arc wrong. It is very good of him." 
 
 This was precisely what Mr. Errington did. 
 He fell into the habit of calling upon the two 
 ladies once every day, of telling them any 
 public or social news he thought might interest 
 them, and of asking Catharine to play for him. 
 When he found out that she had a very sweet 
 and sympathetic voice he began to teach her to 
 sing many charming and even difficult solos 
 from the great masters of melody. In fact, he 
 conceived himself to have a certain providential 
 charge over these desolate, anxious women, and 
 in two or three weeks managed to become that 
 excellent thing a familiar friend, who knows 
 just how far friendship is convenient and 
 acceptable. 
 
 A kindly notoriety was now attached to the 
 Van Clyffes. The story of the captain's cap 
 tivity was told at every hearth, and many 
 wealthy and important people took a great 
 interest in his release. Indeed, sympathy on 
 205
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 every hand waited for them. Catharine's won 
 derful industry and cleverness was constantly 
 praised ; every one was desirous to have some 
 thing from her hands, simply because every one 
 desired to help her. Her refusal to taste any 
 luxury or to participate in any amusement, 
 while her father's fate was undecided, in some 
 way became known, and mothers and fathers 
 looked kindly into her young face wherever 
 she went. Besides which, her grandmother 
 took more notice of her, and that pleased 
 Catharine most of all. 
 
 In a large measure Jacob Van Clyffe com 
 pelled in his household a similar condition of 
 seclusion. " Church is our only pleasure 
 now," said Gertrude fretfully one morning to 
 Catharine. " The Schuylers have a dance to 
 morrow night a family dance and yet 
 father will not let us go. We may not skate, 
 we may not visit, we may not have a few 
 friends to short-evening with us. And when I 
 complain, he says, 'You have the pianoforte, 
 206
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 Many times you said it was all the pleasure 
 you wanted.' Is it not too bad, Catharine ? " 
 
 " What can I say, Gertrude ? The thought 
 of pleasure-making is to me impossible." She 
 had just given her cousin a music lesson, and 
 was sitting a little while to rest before return 
 ing home. Her face was sad ; she was tired ; 
 she had grown weary of counting the days ; the 
 Bells had forgotten her; Mr. Errington had 
 been at Mr. Morris's for nearly a week ; her 
 mother's anxiety, through all her attempted 
 cheerfulness, was so pitifully evident, and she 
 could not help but share it, all her life seemed 
 to be held in a painful suspense. And the 
 weather was so gray and damp and chill, and 
 she had a bad headache. Gertrude's complain 
 ing was the last straw, for it had a tone 
 of personality that offended her, and she 
 continued : 
 
 " I should think you would not like to 
 dance, or to be seen dancing, Gertrude, when 
 the family is in such trouble." 
 207
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " Oh, indeed, an uncle is not a father, and I 
 have not often seen Uncle Jansen, he is usu 
 ally away. I know one thing, he has made 
 for us all a very bad winter. Grandmother 
 says " 
 
 " I am sure she says nothing like what you 
 have said," answered Catharine sharply. 
 
 "And to think," said Gertrude, with increas 
 ing ill temper, "to think of all the money she 
 has had to give to those dreadful creatures ! " 
 
 " I do not think that one dollar of her 
 money will be used," said Catharine with a 
 flushing face. " I hope not." 
 
 " I also hope not," continued Gertrude. 
 " Out of our pocket it will really come." 
 
 " I think it will not come out of your pocket ; 
 but if so, that is far better than that my father 
 should be a slave. Mr. Errington says six 
 thousand dollars may be sufficient. My 
 mother sent six thousand, and besides that 
 Paul has with him mother's pearl necklace and 
 her ruby brooch and ring." 
 208
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 " What a shame ! Such lovely jewels ! I 
 remember Aunt Sarah wearing them to a great 
 dinner at Richmond Hill. And of course 
 they would come to you. How could 
 you let them go ? There was money enough 
 without them." 
 
 " What are a few pearls to my father's 
 liberty ? I would fling them into the river 
 only to see him for one five minutes." 
 
 " Such words are nonsense." 
 
 " No. They are the truth." 
 
 " Six thousand dollars and the pearls and 
 rubies ! Certainly that ought to be enough 
 without any of grandmother's money." 
 
 " I have no doubt it will be enough." 
 
 " I don't think we need care whether it is 
 enough or not," said Alida. "If grand 
 mother likes to give her money to save Uncle 
 Jan, it is nothing to us. She never gives us 
 any money." 
 
 " But she will leave it to us when she dies," 
 answered Gertrude. " For my part, I think 
 H 209
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 she never will die. She is seventy now, 
 and " 
 
 " Well, then ! " said Catharine in a passion, 
 " you ought to die before her. If you did, 
 who could be sorry ? You have always the 
 thought of grandmother's death in your 
 greedy heart. I am ashamed of you ! " 
 
 " I will never take another music lesson 
 from you Miss Van Clyffe." 
 
 " I am ashamed of you, and I do not wish 
 to give you another music lesson." 
 
 "Please don't quarrel, Catharine," said 
 Alida. 
 
 " Oh, indeed ! " answered Catharine, " it is 
 time to quarrel with Gertrude on this subject. 
 Grandmother, when our great need came for 
 her love, was as tender and generous as the 
 good God makes mothers ; and I would not 
 deserve my own sweet mother if I listened 
 patiently any longer to Gertrude's constant 
 wishes for our grandmother's money for it 
 is all the same as wishing for her death." 
 
 210
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 "Well, then," said Gertrude in a violent 
 passion, " I do wish she was dead. I wish 
 that I had that old leather bag in which she 
 keeps her guineas. And I will wish she was 
 dead just as often, and just as much as I want 
 to, without caring whether Catharine Van 
 Clyffe likes it or does not like it." 
 
 " Gertrude ! Gertrude ! " said Alida. " I 
 would not say such things." 
 
 "You have said them yourself, miss. Often 
 you have said them." 
 
 " I am going home," said Catharine, rising 
 hastily to her feet, " and what is more, here I 
 will never come again." 
 
 The room in which they were sitting was 
 the big house-place, and as it opened directly 
 on the garden, there was in winter time a 
 large oaken screen extending half the way 
 through the room and forming a sort of hall 
 or passage. The side of this screen facing the 
 room was panelled, and slightly carved ; the 
 other side was fitted with hooks for hats and 
 
 211
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 cloaks. There Catharine's hood and cloak 
 were hanging and she rose to get them ; but 
 ere she reached the end of the temporary 
 partition her grandmother came from behind 
 it. 
 
 She pushed Catharine gently aside and stood 
 facing Gertrude with such grief and anger on 
 her aged face as no words can translate. There 
 was no necessity for her to say a word. Ger 
 trude burst into a storm of tears and cries, 
 averring that she did not mean a single word 
 of what she had said ; and that she had only 
 said them to tease and anger her cousin Cath 
 arine. She attempted to take her grand 
 mother's hand, to kiss her, to plead with her, 
 but the wounded old woman would not listen 
 to her or answer her in any way. 
 
 She turned to Catharine and told her to put 
 on her cloak and hood, and she would take 
 her back to town, and she ordered Alida to 
 tell her father exactly what had occurred. 
 Then Gertrude fled to her room, crying, and
 
 Gertrude burst into a storm of tears "
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 bemoaning her fate, and wishing that Catharine 
 had never come into their house. For she 
 was angry at every one but herself. " Catha 
 rine had been sitting ci^se to the screen ; she 
 had heard the door open and guessed who was 
 coming, and of course that was the reason she 
 had < stood up ' for grandmother. It was just 
 like Catharine's double ways." These, and 
 many other accusations quite as unjust, she 
 reiterated with ever increasing passion. Alida, 
 even, was not exempt from her angry sus 
 picions. 
 
 " Ton heard grandmother come in; I am 
 sure you did," she said to her sister. 
 
 " I did not, Gertrude." 
 
 "Yes, you did. And that was the reason 
 you told me c not to say such things.' You 
 have said them yourself often." 
 
 " I have not." 
 
 "You have. You and Catharine are two 
 deceitful creatures! You, both of you, heard 
 grandmother ; and you might have warned me, 
 213
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 Alida. Only like a sister it would have been. 
 As for Catharine, never do I wish to see her 
 again. Very tired am I of all the fuss made 
 about her goodness and her cleverness. I 
 would have done just the same things, if in her 
 place I had been. No better than any one else 
 is she. The way the Goverts, and Hoaglands, 
 and Evertsens, and even the Domine, go on 
 about her is shameful. I, for one, am not 
 going down on my knees before Miss Catharine 
 Van ClyfFe's virtue ! Oh, dear, what will 
 father say to me ! He also will be against 
 poor Gertrude !" 
 
 " Gertrude, I am not against you." 
 " Every one, and everything, is against me. 
 Not one shilling now will grandmother leave 
 me well, then, I don't care ! " 
 
 "We shall always share together, Gertrude, 
 in every way." 
 
 " Alida, what will you say to father ? " 
 " The truth I must tell him there is no 
 other thing to do."
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 " I know that. But I hope that you will 
 also say that Catharine provoked me very 
 much. You will take my part, Alida, my dear 
 sister ? " 
 
 " Always I shall stand by you, Gertrude. 
 I suppose now there will be no more music 
 lessons, and for that I am sorry." 
 
 " Other teachers can be got very easily. 
 And you might tell father that since Catha 
 rine had Margaret Freer and Jane and Anna 
 Rysdick to teach, she has not cared about our 
 lessons at all ; and that I was angry about this. 
 Remember how stupid she was this morn 
 ing. Once she was so good-tempered and 
 merry " 
 
 " But she had a headache this morning, and 
 she is so anxious and sorrowful." 
 
 " Well, then, is that our business ? Very 
 pleasant are we to her. It is, however, things 
 like this you must tell father and grandmother ; 
 and also say to them both, f You know what a 
 quick temper our little Gertrude has, and that 
 215
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 she means nothing at all by her bad words.' 
 Surely, Alida, you will stand up for me ? " 
 
 " You know well that I shall do and say 
 all that is possible for you, Gertrude." 
 
 " I dare say at this very minute Catha 
 rine is petting our grandmother and telling 
 her all sorts of things against both of us 
 our father ought to be told that also and 
 grandmother will now be talking to Catharine, 
 and asking her questions about us and you 
 may guess what that double-faced creature will 
 say to her." 
 
 In this respect Gertrude was very far 
 wrong. The grandmother did not say one 
 word to Catharine all the way back to the city. 
 When she put her down at a point not very 
 far from her home, she asked, but with evident 
 effort, if Catharine's mother was quite well, and 
 to the girl's answer, her expression of f thanks ' 
 and her c good-bye ' she made no response, 
 except a slight nod, and the faintest flicker of a 
 smile. 
 
 ai6
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 Catharine had even a feeling that her grand 
 mother was glad to be relieved from her com 
 pany; and she said to herself, as she threaded 
 the wet, crowded streets, " Grandmother was 
 only kind to me in order to punish Gertrude 
 and Alida." It was indeed one of those days, 
 in which life is apt to show us only the wrong, 
 or seamy, side of all events ; and this incident 
 weighed on Catharine's heart very heavily. 
 She feared her Uncle Jacob would be made to 
 throw the blame on her that she would 
 lose both his love and her pupils that in 
 some way or other she would be made to feel, 
 even by her grandmother, that she had been the 
 bringer-forth of unhappiness. As she walked 
 drearily forward, life was at its lowest point ; 
 and she wondered if any other girl in all 
 New York was so miserable, and so hopeless. 
 As she neared her home, the Bells chimed the 
 noon hour, but though she listened with her 
 soul in her ears, they said nothing to her. It 
 was just another disappointment. 
 217
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 When she came close to Trinity gates, she 
 saw they were partially open, and the church 
 door ajar ; and a sudden overwhelming desire 
 to enter the holy place took possession of her. 
 There was apparently no one in the church ; 
 but a brush and a duster, lying in the vestibule, 
 gave her the key to the conditions ; and she 
 said to herself: 
 
 " Some one has been dusting the pews, and 
 when twelve chimed they have gone to their 
 dinner. Very well, then, I shall have one hour 
 alone." 
 
 She walked reverently forward, and soon 
 came to a high, square pew. It was canopied 
 and curtained and richly ornamented ; but she 
 regarded only its deep seclusion. It was easy 
 to enter, and she closed the door again, and sat 
 down on one of the soft, velvet footstools. In 
 a few minutes she was sensitive to that singular, 
 supernatural peace which pervades places in 
 which men are accustomed to pray. The fret 
 of life was outside ; it was far away from her 
 218
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 she was in a sanctuary, and she felt as if she 
 was in the presence of a great, calm friend. 
 No one was near but God and her Angel. 
 And suddenly there came to her mind a pas 
 sage in her Imitation, against which her 
 mother had put a mark ; and though she had 
 not consciously learned the words, they now 
 came to her remembrance, one by one, like 
 drops of comfort ; and she slipped down to her 
 knees, and let them taste on her lips like 
 honeycomb : 
 
 " When I desired to speak to my Beloved, He 
 Himself met me most joyfully. Behold I am here, 
 He said j tell me now what new thing has happened." 
 
 A KEMPIS. 
 
 And she told everything all her anxiety 
 about her father and mother and brother ; 
 her weariness, her depression ; her longing for 
 some happiness ; her distress in that morning's 
 quarrel. And as she prayed thus, a feeling of 
 tender, vague mystery, bringing distinctly the 
 sense of God's presence, encompassed her. 
 219
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 She was no longer afraid ; she was no longer 
 unhappy. All the shadows were gone. She 
 had been comforted in a way exceeding all 
 reasoning whatever, and penetrated with an 
 unutterably sweet sensation of God's love and 
 care for her. 
 
 Fearing to break this heavenly sense of hap 
 piness, she sat very still, her face calm and 
 shining, her eyes soft, deep, full of holy peace. 
 Soon an irresistible languor soothed and pos 
 sessed all her faculties, the carpet was warm 
 and thick, the cushion-like hassocks soft as 
 pillows. Almost unconsciously she fell into a 
 sleep, dreamless, profound, full of rest from 
 head to feet such sleep as " He giveth His 
 beloved." 
 
 For more than two hours she slept ; then in 
 a moment she was wide awake. Some one 
 was playing the organ very softly, and a 
 young priest was silently praying at the altar. 
 With a song of joy in her heart, fearing, doubt 
 ing, sorrow all fled away she passed quietly 
 220
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 out of the sanctuary, in which she had found 
 such comfort. And just as she reached the 
 church gates the Bells began to chime. She 
 listened, and the happiest light spread from her 
 lips to her eyes, and transfigured her whole face, 
 for this was what they said to her : 
 
 "&^ 1 , | | p | , 
 
 ! z2= F ^ 1 ^ 
 
 \^ 
 
 Nothing to fear, Ka - trynt- je! Nothing to fear! 
 
 Lightly as a fawn she stepped across the 
 muddy street. Her mother had been expect 
 ing her for some hours, and she looked up 
 from her work at the delayed girl with a 
 serious inquiry. But when she saw the radi 
 ance, the peace, the happiness in Catharine's 
 countenance she held back the words of 
 reproof that seemed deserving, and asked 
 " What is it, Katryntje ? " 
 
 " I have had a message, mother," she said. 
 lc The Bells have spoken at last," and she sat 
 down by her mother's side, and softly told her 
 what she had already told God. And Madame, 
 
 221
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 who had a heart simple and trustful as a child's, 
 was equally comforted, and the words of re 
 proof that had been on her lips were turned 
 into words of hope and affection. The quarrel 
 at Uncle Jacob's was indeed a very disquieting 
 circumstance ; but Catharine thought she ought 
 " to let it alone," and her mother soon came to 
 the same conclusion. " In a muddy stream, 
 there is no use in stirring ; we will let it settle," 
 she said ; " for whatever move we make, it may 
 be wrong." 
 
 The wisdom of this course was evidenced 
 by facts. In about a week, Alida called to 
 ask Catharine to continue their lessons. She 
 said Gertrude had gone to her grandmother, 
 and come back forgiven ; but it was not to be 
 hidden that the family inquisition had been a 
 very severe one, and that the intervening week 
 had been full to the brim of penitence and 
 penalties. Nor was the domestic atmosphere 
 yet settled after the storm. Gertrude was 
 sullen and gloomy, Alida only half as pleasant, 
 
 222
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 and as for Uncle Jacob and the grandmother, 
 neither of them made any sign to Catharine. 
 She could not tell whether they were angry 
 at her or not ; but she thought of what her 
 uncle had once said to Paul, about the leafless 
 trees and frozen streams " they don't com 
 plain, they wait." And she resolved to make 
 neither inquiry nor complaint, but simply 
 wait. 
 
 In other respects life was brighter, and she 
 did not try to reason away the comfort of the 
 Bells. She kept their assurance like a song in 
 her heart. When she awakened in the morn 
 ing, she said to herself, " Nothing to fear, 
 Katryntje ! Nothing to fear," and all day 
 long, if a cowardly doubt disturbed her peace, 
 she answered it with, " Nothing to fear, 
 Katryntje ! Nothing to fear ! " 
 
 So the days went and came, and were full of 
 work and hope and sympathy. Acquaint 
 ances began to say, " You ought to hear some 
 thing good soon, Madame Van ClyfFe," and 
 223
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 her mother always answered, "Yes, then, that 
 is what we are expecting." One morning Mr. 
 Errington came into the parlor to ask Madame 
 Van Clyffe if she would permit him to make 
 a picture of a Dutch interior from her best 
 kitchen. And as Madame was pleased at the 
 proposal, they stood talking about the arrange 
 ment of certain old oak presses and cupboards, 
 and the furniture of the room especially of 
 the big fireplace. Catharine went on with her 
 embroidery listening the while, and sometimes 
 offering a suggestion, but really more in 
 terested in her work and in her own thoughts 
 than in the " Dutch Interior." 
 
 In the midst of this quiet discussion the 
 parlor door was abruptly flung wide open, and a 
 little figure in a light blue hood, and a quantity 
 of pale brown hair on her shoulders, ran im 
 petuously forward to Catharine, exclaiming, in 
 almost hysterical crescendo, " My dear Delight ! 
 My dear Delight ! ! My dear Delight ! ! ! " 
 
 It was, of course, Elsie Evertsen. No one 
 224
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 but Elsie would have so charmingly violated 
 all sensible, conventional rules and forms of 
 " Glad to see you." Madame and Mr. Erring- 
 ton looked at her with pleasant smiles. They 
 ceased their conversation to watch her, for 
 indeed, in her blue hood, and blue cloak, her 
 short dress, and buckled shoes, her child-like 
 beauty and fairy figure, she was a very at 
 tractive picture. In a minute or two she 
 turned to Madame and said " Good morning, 
 my dear Delight's mother ! Forgive, that I 
 did not speak to you the first." Then looking 
 critically for a moment at Mr. Errington : 
 "You are Paul, I suppose," adding, in a tone 
 of disapproval, " I did not think you were so 
 big." 
 
 " I am not Paul," answered Mr. Erring' 
 ton, laughing. And then Catharine intro 
 duced Elsie to their friend. She made him 
 an exceedingly pretty curtsy, and then turned 
 away with her " dear companion." They 
 were very quickly left alone, and then Catha-
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 rine lifted her work, and their confidences 
 began. Without a word Elsie took up Ma 
 dame Van Clyffe's embroidery, and continued 
 it with a dainty rapidity not even Catharine 
 could exceed. 
 
 " You see, Delight," she said, " I have 
 heard all about your great trouble and your 
 great goodness ; and I also wish to be good. 
 It is a very unreasonable thing that you 
 should have so much credit. I intend to 
 come here every day and sew; and then at 
 night I shall say, with a face quite serious, ' I 
 have been helping poor Catharine Van Clyffe. 
 I think it is my duty.' People will then ap 
 prove of me." 
 
 " But how did you get away from school ? 
 And can you remain ? " 
 
 " There are ways and means for everything. 
 My brother Joris has been sick; and he said 
 to my father, f If I can see Elsie, I shall get 
 better.' And my father sent for me, and I 
 came in a great hurry." 
 226
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 " How, then, is your brother ? " 
 " Joris is now nearly well but I am not 
 going back to lovely Bethlehem. Oh no ! I 
 have examined myself, and I have said to my 
 self: ' Elsie Evertsen, you have as many ac 
 complishments as are good for you. More 
 learning will make you vain and disagreeable.' 
 I do not wish to be vain and disagreeable, so 
 I am not going to learn any more." 
 
 " But what will your father and mother say ?* 
 "My father and mother have fears lest 
 Joris should go into a decline. I have asked 
 Joris to declare he cannot keep well without 
 me ; and father and mother are extremely 
 sensible ; they always call the way of Joris 
 their own way." 
 
 " Will Joris do what you ask him to do ? " 
 
 " Boys are queer very queer, Delight. 
 
 But I shall assure my brother, that I cannot 
 
 be happy away from him that also is the 
 
 truth, and that will please him, and he will 
 
 say to father and mother, ' Do not send Elsie 
 
 227
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 from home, I cannot bear it.' If he should 
 be in a stubborn, unpleasant temper, I shall 
 cry. Joris will not endure me to cry not 
 for one minute. He will say ' There, now ! 
 Stop, you little baby ! ' Then he will do all 
 I desire. Boys are easily managed, one way 
 or the other. I am sorry Paul is not here. 
 I have thought of Paul like another brother. 
 A girl can do with so many brothers, and I 
 have only one. Who was the gentleman in 
 the room ? " 
 
 "An Englishman, who lodges with us. 
 He has been a great friend." 
 
 " An Englishman ! I am extremely sorry I 
 made him a curtsy. It is against my princi 
 ples, to curtsy to Englishmen. Is he nice ? " 
 
 " When you know him. I did not like 
 him at first. He treats you as if you knew 
 nothing at all. I had to remind him often, 
 that I had been to school, whether he believed 
 it or not. However, he has helped me with 
 my music and he paints beautiful pictures." 
 228
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 Does he dance ? " 
 
 "He goes to balls ; I suppose, then, he 
 dances." 
 
 " Does he skate ? " 
 
 " No. He says he never wished to skate." 
 
 " Well, then, how can he be nice ? " 
 
 A person who did not "skate" was uninter 
 esting to Elsie ; and she turned the conversa 
 tion instantly to the school, and the events 
 and changes that had happened since Catha 
 rine's farewell to it. In this way the morning 
 and afternoon went like a pleacant dream ; 
 and at four o'clock Elsie's little fingers had 
 accomplished more than a sufficiency of 
 beautiful work to fully entitle her to say " I 
 have been helping poor Catharine Van Clyffe. 
 I think it is my duty." 
 
 Elsie did not go oack to school ; so it was 
 evident that Joris though he declared him 
 self devoted to the truth had been managed 
 by his "little baby" of a sister. Indeed, 
 Elder Evertsen was heard to say, with some 
 229
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 domestic pride, " his boy and girl were so fond 
 of each other that they could not be in good 
 health apart." 
 
 And Catharine was glad of Elsie's company. 
 She had a true, tender heart below all her af 
 fectations ; and if she was not very intelligent, 
 she was certainly a very great favorite. Mr. 
 Errington was delighted with her childish, 
 meddling, saucy imperiousness ; and he in 
 duced her to obtain her parents' consent to 
 sit at Catharine's spinning-wheel, and become, 
 in this character, a part of his great picture 
 "A Dutch Interior." For the sittings she 
 wore the quaintest of Dutch costumes ; and 
 her pretty airs, and quarrels with Mr. Erring- 
 ton, and her criticisms of his work, made 
 many a hearty laugh, and passed happily 
 many a gloomy day. 
 
 Elsie was all the more desirable, because 
 Gertrude and Alida did not recover their old 
 friendship. The lessons were continued, be 
 cause Uncle Jacob wished them to be con- 
 230
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 tinued ; but the girls were both of them shy 
 and cold, visiting on Catharine the conse 
 quences of their own fault. Elsie's quick wit 
 divined the situation. She understood with 
 out a word the jealousy of the sisters ; and 
 their envy of Catharine's many friends and 
 great popularity. It gave her, therefore, great 
 pleasure to walk part of the way home with 
 Gertrude, or Alida, and make such remarks as 
 the following : 
 
 "I wish that Catharine was my cousin. 
 Another girl so good, so clever, so beautiful, 
 you cannot find in New York." 
 
 " Do you indeed think her beautiful ? " 
 asked Gertrude. 
 
 " Well, then," answered Elsie, " we are all 
 of us dowdy girls when we stand beside her. 
 Her face is perfect ! and her figure ! and as for 
 her voice, it is wonderful ! " 
 
 " Indeed," said Gertrude, "my voice is much 
 stronger. I have been asked to sing in the 
 choir." 
 
 231
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 "Of the Dutch church! Perhaps, indeed, 
 your voice, or my voice, might do for the 
 choir but if you have once heard Catharine 
 sing Where the Bee Sucks then you do not 
 want to sing yourself, any more." 
 
 And neither Gertrude nor Alida cared to 
 contradict Elsie very far. In the first place, 
 her father was rich ; and Elsie was a desirable 
 acquaintance. They liked to boast to other 
 girls of knowing her; they were distinctly 
 proud of visiting 4t her house ; and, in the 
 second place, any dissent implied a certain 
 jealousy and envy they did not like to ac 
 knowledge. And it is always some gain to 
 keep envy and jealousy silent ; far better they 
 should torment those who encourage them 
 than make miserable the innocent. 
 
 With this new element infused into their 
 quiet, busy days, Madame Van Clyffe and 
 Catharine bore with bravery, and even cheer 
 fulness, the slow wearing away of weeks into 
 months. Her music, her teaching, her em- 
 232
 
 Raising the Ransom 
 
 broidery, and Elsie's companionship left little 
 space for fretting. Nor was Catharine inclined 
 to fret. Her nature was, like all fine natures, 
 distinctly hopeful ; and if, after some specially 
 stormy day, or specially unhappy visit from 
 her relatives, she was disposed to doubt, or to 
 think of her father's or Paul's return with 
 uncertainty, the next chime put music in her 
 heart again. For ever after that day when she 
 found in President Washington's pew in Trin 
 ity church a little sanctuary, the bells had 
 chimed one song to her : 
 
 Nothing to fear, Ka - trynt - je I Nothing to fear I
 
 VII 
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 2 35
 
 D 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 ALL IS WELL, KATRYNTJE ! 
 
 URING this interval Paul had reached 
 
 Algiers safely. The voyage there had 
 been somewhat delayed by adverse winds, and 
 by no wind at all; but one day, after five weeks' 
 sailing, the George Washington cast anchor with 
 in the mole of Algiers. The next day the 
 gold for the barbarian monarch was carried to 
 his palace by American seamen the officers 
 and the American consul, with a body of 
 sailors, making a guard for it. Cannon from 
 the ship announced its approach ; cannon from 
 the Dey's forts thundered out a welcome for 
 it. But it was a most humiliating embassy for 
 American naval officers ; and it was no easy 
 matter for them to observe the necessary for 
 malities. Far more cheerfully they would
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 have bombarded the Dey's palace, than en 
 tered it as envoys or guests. 
 
 Paul had previously been well instructed 
 by the consul as to his wisest course; and 
 in pursuance of this advice he went with 
 the procession bearing the Dey's present. 
 And he could not help feeling as if he was 
 taking a part in some Arabian Nights' dream. 
 So remote all seemed from American life, 
 from the very century in which he was 
 living. Even the unchangeable sea was 
 strangely unreal in this African harbor. For 
 it was crowded with black war-vessels, with 
 Moorish xebecs, with strange barques of all 
 
 kinds, and sails of every fantastic shape and 
 color. 
 
 And how different from Broadway or the 
 Battery were the narrow, dark streets where 
 the eaves met, and he walked between dead 
 walls. Yet through these sandy, up-hill lanes, 
 what a wildly romantic population poured ! 
 Bedouins, on fleet Arabian horses, civilians, 
 238
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 all in white, dragging their slippered feet 
 through the dust, with majestic unconcern, 
 sea robbers armed to the teeth, Jews, in a 
 costume the very counterpart of that worn by 
 Isaac and Jacob, date and sherbet sellers, 
 sheiks, mollahs, dervishes, negroes, mer 
 chants in dusk, unwindowed stalls, sitting 
 cross-legged, smoking, upon bales of drugs, 
 perfumed leather, and fragrant tobacco, mu 
 sicians, filling the blue quivering air with the 
 shrill laments of Arab pipes, and little African 
 tam-tams, and iron castanets, and over every 
 thing the intense whitewash, lying like a 
 shroud. The atmosphere of the place was 
 just as foreign and strange and fabulous ; for 
 the homelike odor of salt-water, pitch, and 
 tar was powerfully blended with a multitude 
 of unusual scents, caporal tobacco, attar of 
 roses, haschisch, melons, musk, the peculiar 
 perfume of Morocco leather, Arabian drugs, 
 spikenard, the animal smell of camels, and of 
 all the wild life of the desert.
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 It was through these old, old-world sights 
 and sounds and smells, the Americans slowly 
 proceeded to the palace of the Dey the in 
 tolerably offensive, cruel Yusef. They found 
 him surrounded by negroes of immense size, 
 black as ebony, very barely clothed in scarlet, 
 with gold bands round their arms and legs ; 
 and great gold hoops in their ears ; and by 
 Mohammedan viziers in snow-white veils and 
 burnouses. In his hand he held the large, 
 heavily-jewelled fan, with which he had, more 
 than once, struck consuls of the European 
 courts, who had not done him sufficient hom 
 age ; and over his head was a scarlet umbrella 
 of such antique form as may have sheltered 
 the Queen of Sheba. 
 
 He received the American embassy with 
 marked indifference ; and there was on his 
 handsome face a repulsive and unspeakably 
 scoffing expression. With apparent uncon 
 cern he waved the coin aside ; but conde 
 scended to say that "he would extend his 
 240
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 protection over American ships of commerce." 
 Then at a motion from the American consul, 
 Paul stepped forward. He took from their 
 satin-lined cases his mother's string of pearls, 
 and her ruby brooch and ring, and laid them 
 at the despot's feet. And the Oriental 
 passion for gems immediately asserted itself. 
 A look of intense interest came into the 
 Dey's disdainful face. Gold was a common 
 commodity of certain value, but pearls and 
 rubies had the charm of rarity and of uncer 
 tain value. He regarded them with a longing 
 eye, and looked inquiringly at the consul, 
 who said : 
 
 " Great Bashaw, Yusef. This young Amer 
 ican beseeches you to accept these jewels as a 
 ransom for his father and three American 
 seamen, whom your sailors captured on the 
 eleventh of March, about two years ago. It 
 is ail he can offer. The American's for 
 tune was in the ship, which is now yours. 
 
 These jewels come from the women of his 
 16 241
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 family. Deign, Bashaw, to hear his petition 
 favorably." 
 
 " The cadi of the slaves and prisoners shall 
 be consulted," answered the Bashaw. " By 
 the Prophet ! if these Americans are still alive 
 they have been too well treated." 
 
 Then Paul did a very wise thing. Instead 
 of restoring the jewels to their cases, he handed 
 them to the interpreter for the Dey, saying, 
 " Let the pearls and rubies remain. And may 
 the inquiries be propitious." 
 
 This was all. It seemed to Paul very little ; 
 but the consul considered it a great deal. 
 Yet Paul passed three days of sickening anx 
 iety before the investigation was made. It 
 was then declared that two of the four men 
 taken from I'he Golden Victory were dead ; 
 but that, for the lives of the other two the 
 holy Bashaw was willing, in his great generos 
 ity, to consider the ship and the jewels a suffi 
 cient ransom. 
 
 Three more days were consumed in getting 
 242
 
 All is Well, Katryntje ! 
 
 the necessary orders and discharges ; and in 
 securing men and camels to go with Paul to 
 the station at which his father, if still alive, 
 was detained. But at length all was ready, 
 and Paul left Algiers for the works at Me- 
 quezna a journey of four days inland. It 
 was a terrible journey. The country itself was 
 enough to inspire despair the vast treeless 
 plains, the large salt lakes, the arid grandeur 
 of the white rocks, the fiery glories of the 
 sun, the whole strange, solitary landscape, 
 filled him with an indescribable sadness. 
 Everything was savage, burning, cruel ; the 
 land and the men alike partook of the nature 
 of the lions which haunted every mile of their 
 journey. And oh ! how these four awful days 
 of travel filled Paul's heart with pity for his 
 captive father ! and with love and longing for 
 his own green, cool, free, beautiful native land ! 
 " Oh America ! America ! " he sobbed as he 
 lay down fearfully to try and sleep in the 
 shadowy caravan, among the camels and asses, 
 243
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 the fathomless depths of the African sky 
 above him, and the roar of hungry lions all 
 around "Oh, my native land! if ever I 
 forget thee, or cease to love thee, may I die in 
 this awful place ! " For it was impossible to 
 rid himself of a frightful impression of entire 
 separation from home and country. He felt 
 as if he was changed into another person, and 
 lived in a different world, and in a long-ago 
 time. 
 
 Twice they met parties of Christian slaves 
 being driven to some other post, where their 
 labor was needed. The clang of their chained 
 limbs, their hopeless looks, their bare feet and 
 heads in the hot sand and sun, and the over 
 seers armed with long whips accompanying 
 them, made a scene that Paul could not endure 
 to look at. After it, he felt as if camels must 
 forever be hateful to him ; they were so slow, 
 so wearisome, so indifferent, and he was aching 
 and sick with an impatience that neither the 
 men nor camels cared anything about. He 
 244
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 was sure a horse would have comprehended 
 would have felt his passionate stress and 
 hurry, and at least have carried him with 
 some sympathy. 
 
 At last, however, Mequezna was in sight, 
 though all that appeared was some old walls 
 of hardened clay, seamed and cracked by the 
 sun, and a few roofless huts. An air of un 
 speakable misery hung over the place; it was 
 desolate and sad beyond description. Half 
 a mile away there were many lime-kilns, and 
 the cadi directed Paul thither. His soul out 
 ran his body, he sent his loving, longing 
 thoughts before him, and perhaps his father 
 was insensibly influenced by them. For, though 
 it was not permitted that any slave should lift 
 his eyes, even for a moment from his labor, 
 Captain Jan was standing erect by his burn 
 ing kiln. 
 
 For amid the blaze and heat, a sudden 
 vision had come to him, of the wild free waves, 
 of his bounding ship, and of the fresh 
 245
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 cool winds of heaven blowing all around him. 
 He shaded his hot eyes with his hands, and 
 looked across the white desert, as if he was 
 looking and praying for help. And in that 
 moment his prayer was answered. For Paul 
 saw him, and knew him, and called out with a 
 voice that pierced that dreadful solitude : 
 
 " Father I Father I Father I " 
 
 He was answered by a cry that was hardly 
 human in the intensity of its agony and 
 wonder and joy. Then, despising all dis 
 cipline, and indifferent to punishment, Captain 
 Jan ran to meet the approaching caravan. 
 And oh ! how amazing, how bewildering, were 
 the words that greeted him : 
 
 " Freedom ! Freedom, father ! You are 
 FREE!" 
 
 It was soon ascertained that Captain Jan 
 was the only man from 'The Golden Victory still 
 alive. But Paul had brought money with 
 him, and the overseer was induced to put in 
 the dead sailor's place a poor little lad from 
 246
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 Nantucket the only other American at that 
 station. Fortunately, Paul had not forgotten 
 to bring with him some linen and clothing for 
 his father, and hardly anything that was 
 merely physical could have so delighted the 
 captain. " It was mother's thought," said 
 Paul. " She packed the clothing, and bade me 
 on no account forget it." 
 
 " And it was just like your mother, Paul," 
 he answered, his eyes full of happy tears. 
 " No one but mother would have considered 
 such a thing. I was dead, and am alive 
 again ! " he cried, with a transcendent grati 
 tude, " I was lost, and am found ! " 
 
 In four days they were in Algiers. Then 
 the captain caught sight of the sea, and he 
 shouted aloud; and the little sailor lad cried 
 like a child. But all were yet trembling with 
 anxiety and terror. Yusef was as capricious as 
 the wind, and as treacherous as a bog ; some 
 trouble might have arisen which would change 
 all. But no ! Thank God, there lay the 
 247
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 George Washington, the blessed ship on which 
 their safety depended. They reached the 
 mole. The cadi, having examined their pass 
 ports, and received the consul's assurance that 
 the ransomed were Americans, they were suf 
 fered to embark. 
 
 During these awful moments of suspense, 
 Captain Jan was dumb. He stood by Paul's 
 side in a trance of unspeakable, agonizing fear. 
 For his life he could not have said a word ; he 
 was quivering, breathless, until the little boat 
 was under the lee of the George Washington, 
 and a ladder of ropes was flung over her side ; 
 then in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
 he seized the ladder, and the next moment 
 he was received on her deck with a shout of 
 welcome. 
 
 But Captain Jan saw no human being ; he 
 flung himself upon his knees to thank God ; 
 and when he rose, his first action was to clasp 
 the starry flag of America to his breast, and 
 kiss it, and kiss it, and kiss it again and again, 
 248
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 until a passion of tears relieved the almost un 
 bearable tension and pressure of his emotions. 
 Oh what a marvellous hour that was ! He 
 was free ! He was safe ! And he had not felt 
 safe for a moment, until the Stars and Stripes 
 were blowing over him. Now, even if the Dey 
 should alter his mind, he could fight he could 
 die for his freedom. 
 
 And that very night there seemed to be a 
 prospect of a fight. Captain Bainbridge re 
 ceived an impudent but imperative order, to 
 take on board the George Washington, a present 
 of slaves, wild beasts, and money for the 
 Sultan ; and carry them to Constantinople. 
 In vain Captain Bainbridge protested ; the 
 Dey assured him that the George Washington 
 was fully in his power, and unless he obeyed, 
 she would be appropriated, her officers and 
 crew sold as slaves, and war immediately de 
 clared against American trade. 
 
 D 
 
 There was nothing, therefore, to be done, but 
 to proceed to Constantinople on the despot's 
 249
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 business ; and it appeared as if there was no 
 other course for Paul and his father, except 
 that of accompanying them. But fortunately, 
 that very night an English ship anchored close 
 beside the George Washington ; and as soon as 
 it was dark, Paul managed to board her ; and 
 to so engage the captain's sympathy that he 
 was not only willing but very desirous to carry 
 the three men out of danger. Before mid 
 night the transfer had been made ; but not 
 until they reached the Bay of Biscay, did Cap 
 tain Jan feel safe. 
 
 " The Mediterranean," he said, " is full of 
 these Moorish robbers and murderers ; and no 
 vessel is secure, no matter under what flag she 
 sails. For when they have sunk a craft, they 
 vow she was flying some flag not under their 
 protection." 
 
 In London they deposited the money which 
 
 Paul had brought for ransom in the Bank of 
 
 England ; and without a moment's delay sought 
 
 a ship bound for New York. They were for- 
 
 250
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 tunate enough to find the Elijah Pell, a fast 
 clipper, just ready to sail, and with glad 
 hearts they stepped on board of her. In those 
 days, however, to sail, even in a merchant 
 vessel, was to sail with danger ; and with the 
 chance of fight or capture. England and 
 France were liable at any hour to go to war ; 
 America and France were ready to fight when 
 ever their crafts met ; and the privateers of all 
 three nations hung round in perilous proximity 
 to ingoing and outcoming ships. 
 
 But at last ! at last ! the low-lying, happy 
 shores of America were in sight the Hook 
 was passed they were in the river the city 
 itself was coming into view in two or three 
 hours Captain Jan and his son might be sing 
 ing in their own home, the delightful little sea 
 chantey that had interpreted their hopes and 
 longings many an hour on their voyage the 
 chantey that home-bound Northern sailors had 
 sung for at least two hundred years ; and may 
 sing for twice as many more :
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 /( 
 
 9 5 
 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 ! " 
 
 
 in" 
 
 u -1 
 
 
 E 
 
 
 
 4 
 
 
 
 \^i 
 
 r ^ 
 
 p 
 
 
 <5J 4 
 
 
 22 
 
 
 d 
 
 
 i 
 
 -*- 
 
 
 
 And it 's Home, dear - ie Home ! Oh, it 's 
 
 ^ 
 
 Home I want to be! My top - sails are 
 
 hoist - ed, and I must out to sea ; For the 
 
 &=S L -f- 
 
 v- 
 
 oak, and the ash, and the bon - ny birch - en 
 
 tree, They 're all a grow - in' green in the 
 
 North Coun - tree, And it 's Home, dear - ie Home ! 
 252
 
 The return of Captain Jan and Paul
 
 All is Well, Katryntje ! 
 
 It was a charming day in late April ; one of 
 those spring days when New York is at her 
 very loveliest when the sky is blue, dappled 
 with white, and the west wind blows gently 
 through her streets, and every man has a 
 flower in his button-hole, and every woman 
 violets on her breast, or daffodils in her 
 hands when there are early flowers selling at 
 the street corners, and the very beggars ask 
 for pennies with music. It was just the same 
 a hundred years ago. Madame Van Clyffe had 
 a box of English daisies in bloom at her parlor 
 window ; they were crying violets on the street ; 
 they were selling pansies, and snowdrops, and 
 lilies of the valley in pots, at the street corners. 
 A man was playing a fiddle on the sidewalk 
 before Trinity ; and the shop windows were 
 full of Indian calicoes and muslins, and spring 
 delaines, and straw bonnets, and green para 
 sols, and summer lutestrings, and delicate 
 mercery goods of every description. 
 
 Madame Van ClyfFe was busy with her
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 needle ; Catharine was painting a fan ; Mr. 
 Errington was upstairs working on his " Dutch 
 Interior;" they could hear his footsteps as he 
 moved about, and the soft echo of Full 
 Fathoms Five, which he was singing, as he 
 worked. Catharine had been telling her 
 mother something amusing about Elsie ; but 
 they had talked the event over, and were both 
 silent so silent that the movement of needle 
 and pencil, and the murmur of song above 
 them, were all distinctly audible. 
 
 This conscious quiet was broken by an 
 indescribable movement at the door, and a 
 rapid knock the knock y for which their hearts 
 were always listening. With an uncontrol 
 lable cry, Madame ran to the door. Catharine 
 followed her. This time it was the glory and 
 fruition of long months of prayer and watch 
 ing. She was in her husband's arms. She 
 was in Paul's arms. She was laughing and 
 crying. They were all laughing and crying. 
 None of them could, at first, utter a word.
 
 All is Well, Katryntjel 
 
 But after a few minutes what a hubbub of 
 joy filled the house ! What running hither 
 and thither ! What exclamations of welcome ! 
 What hurrying hospitality ! all the wonders 
 of meeting love, when the dead is alive again, 
 and the lost is found. As quickly as the first 
 excitement was over, the captain asked to see 
 Mr. Errington. Paul ran upstairs to bring 
 him down. He had already guessed what 
 had happened ; and he stood with eager face 
 listening to the strange voices, when Paul 
 entered, and, with an utter abandonment of 
 Dutch phlegm, flung his arms round his 
 friend's neck, crying " Come ! Come ! Come 
 to my father ! " 
 
 There was, however, no necessity for Mr. 
 Errington to " come." Captain Jan had 
 closely followed Paul ; and he stood within 
 his deliverer's room. The two men met with 
 clasping hands. They looked at each other 
 until their eyes filled, and the captain said 
 solemnly :
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 " Like an angel from heaven you have 
 been to me ! All my life long I will love 
 you ! " 
 
 " It was God Himself who thought of 
 you, captain," answered Mr. Errington. 
 " I was only His messenger. But I thank 
 God that he trusted and honored me so 
 far." 
 
 " I have now something to do, and I wish 
 then that you would come with me," said 
 the captain, and the three men went down 
 stairs together. And I am sure, every boy 
 and girl reading this story knows well what 
 Captain Jan had to do, and would lose all 
 interest in him if he lost any time in perform 
 ing it. But indeed his heart was full of joy in 
 the duty before him. He went into Ma- 
 dame's parlor, and in a voice full of happy 
 impatience, sent Paul to summon Pop, and 
 Bosney, and Sibbey, and Jane ; and as soon 
 as he saw their black faces beaming a thou 
 sand e welcomes home ' to him, his own face 
 256
 
 All is Well, Katryntje ! 
 
 grew very sad, and full of wistful pity. But 
 there was something wonderful, more than 
 human, in the jubilant voice with which he 
 cried : 
 
 " Friends, from this moment, you are all 
 free ; every one ol you free as a bird in the 
 air ! I will not own a clave another moment. 
 I will not have a slave in my home. Do you 
 understand me ? You are all as free as I am ! 
 As free as the Governor ! As free as the 
 President ! As free as my own dear wife and 
 children ! To-morrow I will have the papers 
 recording your freedom made out ; and I will 
 give to each of you two hundred dollars. I 
 would gladly make it a thousand, if I had the 
 means to do so. To these promises God 
 and Mr. Errington are witness." Then he 
 shook hands with each, and they went out of 
 the room dumb with their amazing joy, nor 
 scarcely able to comprehend at once, that 
 their bonds had been broken asunder, and 
 that they might do what they wished, and say 
 17 257
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 what they wished, and go where they wished 
 being, as they had never before been, free as 
 the bird in the air ! 
 
 Then Paul went with the glad tidings to his 
 grandmother and uncle ; but the news had, 
 by this time, spread like wildfire through the 
 city. There was soon a great crowd before 
 the door of the Van Clyffes' house ; and the 
 captain had to go out and show himself alive, 
 and be cheered and congratulated by thou 
 sands. For all day long, and far into the 
 night, these impromptu public receptions con 
 tinued. Paul was also called for; and the 
 father and son standing together, were a mirac 
 ulous story, full of the noblest emotions that 
 touch the human heart. Many parents wept, 
 and almost envied the man whose son had 
 dared the tyrant, even in his palace, for his 
 father's life and liberty. And if the public 
 respected the privacy of Madame and her 
 little daughter, not one soul was oblivious of 
 the fact that they, in their silent work and 
 258
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 patient waiting, had borne the hardest share in 
 the heroic story. 
 
 In the midst of one of these popular exhi 
 bitions of sympathy, the captain's old mother 
 was recognized. She was trembling with 
 joy and excitement, though leaning upon Paul ; 
 and strong arms carried her to her son's arms ; 
 and when they met, a great shout of fellow- 
 feeling filled the street. For in those days, 
 life was not so rapid, and men and women 
 had time to "rejoice with those who do re 
 joice ; " and really, children, if you will be 
 lieve me, it is one of the grandest things 
 humanity can do. Nothing opens the door 
 of the soul so wide for heavenly influences ; 
 because it includes a total forgetfulness of 
 self a godlike joy, kin to the joy of the 
 angels, rejoicing over a soul returning to God. 
 
 Then Uncle Jacob, and Gertrude and Alida 
 
 came ; and at the captain's eager request, Mr. 
 
 Errington cancelled his engagement for that 
 
 night, and spent it with the happy reunited 
 
 859
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 family. Indeed, the whole atmosphere was 
 so thrilled, and ^permeated with rapture and 
 thanksgiving, no one would willingly have left 
 it for a lower stratum. For in this common 
 place house there was, that night, the very air 
 of heaven an influence so noble and unself 
 ish that they might hardly hope to experience 
 its like again in all the years before them. 
 
 In the evening they listened to the captain's 
 sorrowful tale, and to Paul's description of his 
 interview with the Dey. Then, for the first 
 time, all became aware of the fact that Paul 
 had brought back very nearly all the money 
 he had taken away : 
 
 " But you must not give the credit of its 
 preservation to me," said Paul. " It was our 
 consul that saved it. I should have offered 
 all I had; but he said tome, c The jewels will 
 be irresistible to Yusef. If you offer him 
 any sum of money, he will suspect that you 
 have more, and every added thousand will in 
 crease both his cupidity, and your difficulties. 
 60
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 But if he believes that these pearls and gems 
 are all you possess, he will not risk the losing 
 of them ; he cares nothing for human life, 
 a man or two, more or less, he will not count 
 against that string of pearls.' And thus it 
 proved. So, then, after all, it was you, mother, 
 who ransomed our father." 
 
 However, every one had for the time risen 
 above the power of gold ; even Jan's mother 
 hardly seemed to care that her ten thousand 
 dollars were safe in the Bank of England. She 
 sat next to her recovered son ; she drew his 
 poor head burned, and bleached white 
 down to her aged breast ; but her heart was 
 as young and tender as in the days she had 
 hushed him to sleep there. And she forgot 
 the dollars, and thought only of her boy, of 
 the dreadful " far country " from which he had 
 returned to her love ; of the happy fact that 
 he had been dead, and was alive again ; that 
 he had been lost, but was found. 
 
 These were the blessed words that Jan con- 
 261
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 stantly repeated that his mother echoed 
 that lingered in the heart of every one that 
 heard them lost, but found ! " God saw me," 
 said Jan, reverently. " He saw me, a sailor, 
 loving the great sea which He made, a free 
 citizen of the wide ocean, breathing gladly the 
 wildest, and coldest of His winds that blew, 
 He saw me, in that white, blinding, burning 
 desert, over the lime-kilns ; and He remem 
 bered me, and sent His messenger," and 
 here he went across the room to Mr. Erring- 
 ton, and took his hands and raised them to his 
 lips, and my boy Paul came for me. I was 
 lost, and am found ! " 
 
 That night Catharine went to her room 
 weary beyond words with love and joy. She 
 had felt until she could feel no longer. She 
 was too tired to uncoil her hair, too tired to 
 undress, too tired to think, she did not 
 remember when, nor how, she put her aching 
 head upon the pillow. Her father's words 
 filled all the consciousness left her ; they echoed 
 262
 
 All is Well, Katryntje ! 
 
 in her soul ; they stirred half-remembered 
 things in her mind and memory ; they must 
 have lingered in her ear chambers ; for when 
 the first glimmer of understanding returned to 
 her in the morning, the bells were chiming 
 seven, and she could not help repeating after 
 them 
 
 
 " Lost, and found, Ka - trynt - je ! Lost and found 1 " 
 
 No event in life is without its consequences, 
 and the return of Captain Van Clyffe had a 
 very important influence on the life of his 
 daughter. For he was a man of known skill 
 and energy in all nautical matters ; and from 
 every side a ready and practical sympathy 
 flowed to him. In five weeks he left New 
 York in command of The Retribution^ a fine 
 privateer ; and in three months he had sent 
 back two prizes, which the firm of Jeremiah 
 Cruger & Co. handled with remarkable suc 
 cess, both for Captain Jan and themselves. 
 263
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 Paul brought back one of these prizes ; and 
 showed himself, on a rather perilous voyage, 
 to be worthy of the trust reposed in his skill 
 and judgment. 
 
 During these first three months, Catharine 
 was not free from the obligations of the past 
 sorrowful winter. She felt in honor bound 
 to attend to her music pupils, until their terms 
 were fully completed ; and also to finish, with 
 even extra beauty and care, the embroidery 
 which she had undertaken. In the latter work 
 she was constantly assisted by Elsie's clever 
 fingers ; and so the time, with a positive 
 hope to bless and brighten it, passed very 
 pleasantly away. 
 
 Then, as Mr. Errington had gone to Eng 
 land on a visit, and it was very warm weather, 
 Catharine took a long, sweet rest with her 
 mother. The house was now quite their own ; 
 the other lodgers having found quarters else 
 where ; and the enfranchised slaves were work 
 ing in various ways in their own homes, " for 
 264
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 themselves." Two Irish girls supplied their 
 places, and Madame and Catharine found time 
 to read, and to walk, and to visit their old 
 friends together. 
 
 But as soon as autumn brought cool days, 
 Catharine began the completion of her inter 
 rupted education. The finest music and singing 
 masters were obtained. An old French gentle 
 man read and spoke French with her two hours 
 daily ; and beside these things, she learned how 
 to dance the stately minuet, and the grave 
 saraband ; and her time was as fully occupied 
 as if she had been at school. 
 
 Soon after the New Year, Mr. Errington 
 returned, and they were glad to see him again. 
 His rooms which the captain insisted should 
 always be his had been very still and lonely 
 in his absence ; and it was a real delight to 
 hear him stepping about them to the music 
 of his own singing, a real delight, to see 
 him going in and out, always so handsome 
 and cheerful ; always so exquisitely dressed 
 265
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 always with a pleasant word to them in 
 passing. 
 
 One morning, when Elsie, with her skates 
 over her arm, came for Catharine for an hour's 
 skating, he took a fancy to join them. Whether 
 he was really ignorant of the art is doubtful ; but 
 the girls believed they taught him ; and, at any 
 rate, many a delightful hour followed this ini 
 tiation. For no one could desire a more vivid, 
 enchanting companion on the ice, than was 
 Elsie Evertsen. She would buckle the steel 
 firm to her heel, and then wheel and skate so 
 that the evolutions of a swallow were not 
 swifter or more graceful, one might indeed 
 say that the ice was Elsie's native element. And 
 with Mr. Errington there was always that 
 " something more " which made play delight 
 ful. Thus one day, when they were quite 
 wearied, and had sat down to rest, and to 
 watch the gay throng before them, he said : 
 
 " Elsie, Catharine, have you yet noticed, 
 what a very individual thing skating is ? 
 366
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 Really, you may read a man's or a woman's 
 character in their heels, if they are on the ice. 
 Human nature, upon a few inches of steel, 
 makes a display of itself." 
 
 "You are exactly right," answered Elsie. 
 " It is a most delightful way of display. I am 
 more particular about my skating dresses than 
 even my dancing dresses." 
 
 Errington smiled, and added, " I had a 
 deeper thought than mere clothing, Elsie. 
 Look at that jaunty girl, for instance; she will 
 most likely go through life, as she skims over 
 the ice, with her nose in the air ; and that 
 solemn-looking man, who plods along, and 
 sees only his own reflection in the surface, will 
 be very apt to plod along his rut of life unto 
 the end and I will be bound that stately 
 girl in brown and red is a very just girl. 
 See ! She never gets in any one's way ; and I 
 am sure that she will be angry at any one, who 
 gets in her way. And there is a dreamy girl " 
 pointing to one in a striped petticoat "a 
 267
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 girl no more sure of her opinions than she is 
 of her skates ; but the man who is with her, is 
 a dauntless fellow; he will make a career out 
 of the slightest materials." 
 
 "And that girl in orange, what of her?" 
 asked Elsie. 
 
 " I dare say that she is both selfish 
 and proud," answered Mr. Errington. " No 
 tice how persistently she is the centre of her 
 circle." 
 
 Elsie clapped her hands. " So true ! So 
 true ! " she cried. " It is Annetje Roe, and 
 she is for nobody but Annetje. She wants the 
 first and the most of everything. Proud ! I 
 should think so! Annetje believes herself to 
 be everybody." 
 
 In this way he pointed out the trim, the 
 affected, the timid, the careless ; and Elsie 
 listened, and made her little personal commen 
 taries and applications ; and Catharine listened, 
 and watched, and partly understood something 
 of the deeper meaning. But with or without 
 268
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 understanding, the mere physical exercise was 
 a great pleasure to all. During the previous 
 winter, skating, or indeed any amusement, 
 had been impossible to Catharine ; and when 
 she thought of the difference between the 
 two seasons, her heart was full of a joyous 
 gratitude. 
 
 As the spring opened, Mr. Errington re 
 turned the girls' kindness by offering to make 
 them as clever horsewomen as they were 
 skaters ; and the offer was gladly accepted. 
 Then what consultations there were about habits 
 and hats, and the little embroidered habit- 
 skirts that, in those days, gave such a neat, 
 clean aspect to the riding dress. Mr. Erring- 
 ton selected the horses ; and the early lessons 
 were given in a paddock belonging to the 
 Evertsen mansion. But both Elsie and Cath 
 arine had a natural seat and fearlessness ; and 
 in a month they were quite able to take the 
 famous " fourteen mile round," that is, up 
 Broadway to Chambers Street ; across to Chat- 
 269
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 ham Row ; then up the Bowery Lane, till they 
 could round the eastern slopes of Murray 
 Hill ; and so on, to a point above the present 
 Seventy-seventh Street; where they turned to 
 the west, among the leafy hillsides now in 
 Central Park ; then southward, on the Bloom- 
 ingdale road, through a lovely region studded 
 with fine country houses, all the way to 
 Twenty-third Street; where the Bowery Lane 
 was again chosen, to reach Franklin Square, 
 and Broadway. 
 
 All summer these fourteen-mile canters 
 were continued, in the early morning, or in the 
 cool evening ; and if to this pleasure be added 
 the pleasures and duties already named, some 
 idea of the happy life Catharine led at this 
 time, may be easily formed. Besides, there 
 was a tolerable certainty of letters and visits 
 from the captain and Paul, not very far apart ; 
 and when they did come, it was always with 
 prizes ; and thus, not only a good deal of 
 money, but a good deal of eclat was associated 
 270
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 with their appearances. Upon the whole, then, 
 at this period of her life, Catharine was as 
 happy a girl as health, and beauty, and loving 
 relatives and friends, and plenty of occupation, 
 and plenty of amusement and money, could 
 make her. 
 
 The following winter Grandmother Van 
 Clyffe died. She had failed slowly, but con 
 stantly, after her son's return from captivity ; 
 and she went away at last, as quietly as a child 
 goes to sleep. Her will made some sensation. 
 She divided her real estate equally between 
 her sons and her grandson ; and her savings 
 equally between her granddaughters Alida and 
 Catharine. To Catharine she also bequeathed 
 her pieces of rare Middelburg tapestry, and her 
 carved Nuremberg cabinets ; to Alida she left 
 also her jewelry and clothing ; and to her 
 daughter-in-law all her silver, linen and damask. 
 But to Gertrude she left nothing at all; and 
 the girl in spite of her frequent declarations 
 that she did not expect anything was abso- 
 271
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 lutely shocked by the neglect. Then she was 
 angry ; and said some very hard things, until 
 her father stopped her with a stern wrath she 
 had never before seen in him. 
 
 " Be afraid ! " he said, " to speak ill of the 
 dead. Has not your speaking ill of the living 
 brought you punishment enough ? " 
 
 " My grandmother forgave me," answered 
 Gertrude. " Why, then, did she punish me ? 
 She had no right." 
 
 "All rights had she. Forgiveness can 
 not do away with punishment. No, indeed ! 
 Wrong it would be to forgive, if it could. 
 See, now, I have told you not to ride the new 
 horse, because he is dangerous ; but suppose 
 that you did ride him, and that he threw 
 you, and your arms were broken ; well, then, 
 I might forgive you with all my heart, I 
 might be so sorry for you but the suffer 
 ing, you would have to bear that ! No help 
 for it. That is God's way that is Nature's 
 way and your grandmother was just and 
 272
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 right in making you suffer. I myself told 
 her so." 
 
 A few days afterwards, Alida and Catharine 
 asked him to permit them to share their 
 grandmother's gifts equally with Gertrude ; 
 but he was still more angry. 
 
 " What is it you ask ? " he said with a 
 passionate stamp of his foot. " Ingrates that 
 you are ! Now that the dead cannot speak 
 for herself, you will disobey her ! You will 
 make of no value her wishes : I am ashamed 
 of you all. By such conduct, what would 
 you obtain ? Would the living be grateful to 
 you ? No. Would the dead be pleased with 
 you? No. If you fear to disobey the living, 
 be a thousand times more afraid to disobey 
 the dead. Speak not another word on this 
 subject. I will not hear it." 
 
 And Gertrude had the wisdom of the inevi 
 table. She accepted what she could not alter. 
 Yet, oh with what bitterness of self-reproach, 
 she remembered that morning, when, for the 
 '8 273
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 sake of being disagreeable to her cousin, she 
 had permitted her tongue to say words that 
 had cost her many thousands of dollars. 
 "Counting the cost" of sins and follies is 
 alv/ays a hard sum in arithmetic ; and Ger 
 trude did this sum very often, in a solitude full 
 of regrets, and self-reproaches. 
 
 Now, if I was going to write the whole life 
 of Catharine Van Clyffe, I should have to 
 begin a glorious story of Retribution ; to tell 
 how, in one way or the other, the American 
 people were so roused and incensed by the 
 Barbary pirates, that they sent out a fleet the 
 next year to punish them how Captain Van 
 Clyffe and Paul went with this fleet how 
 young Stephen Decatur burnt the Philadelphia 
 how four hundred American officers and 
 seamen were released from the Dey's dun 
 geons, and from slavery, with cannon balls 
 and still later, how Captain Van ClyfFe and 
 Paul went again to Algiers ; this time in com 
 mand of a man-of-war, one of the American 
 274
 
 All is Well, Katryntje! 
 
 fleet that, in conjunction with the English fleet 
 under Lord Exmouth and the Dutch fleet 
 under Admiral Capellen, fought a series of 
 the most terrible naval battles in history 
 battles which, however, really knocked the 
 Dey's forts, and palace about his head ; de 
 stroyed his power forever ; and set free, without 
 a cent of ransom, over twelve hundred Chris 
 tian slaves. 
 
 But, glorious as this tale is, it does not con 
 cern the girlhood of Catharine ; and her 
 womanhood is a story by itself a story yet 
 to write a story never quite separated from 
 the influence and charm of the Bells. She 
 travelled far and wide, but they travelled with 
 her. Nor must you think her experience 
 either strange or unnatural. No fact is more 
 positively authenticated than this fact of 
 home-loving and home-longing travellers 
 hearing the church bells of their native place. 
 Dr. Hall heard Trinity Bells far in the Arctic 
 snows. Alexander William Kinglake, in the 
 275
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 middle of the eternal sadness, and immense 
 abandonment of the desert, was awakened 
 from a sleep on his camel's back, by a peal 
 of church bells his native bells the inno 
 cent bells of Marlen. In vain he plunged 
 his face into the hot, dazzling daylight ; for 
 full ten minutes they continued " properly, 
 steadily, merrily, ringing for church." Na 
 poleon, at Malmaison, trembled to hear the 
 bells of Brienne ; and almost any old sailor 
 can tell how under vertical suns in mid-ocean 
 thousands of miles from land he has 
 thrilled with wonder, to hear his own village 
 chimes. 
 
 We will not seek after the philosophy of 
 
 these things ; because such messages are 
 
 always supremely personal. It is enough 
 
 here to know, that Catharine's best life history 
 
 set itself to the charming octave of Trinity 
 
 Bells. They heralded her wedding day with 
 
 the jubilant notes of Hail, smiling morn, 
 
 1 Eothen. 
 
 276
 
 All is Well, Katryntje ! 
 
 and when the last scene in her life came they 
 were not silent. 
 
 It was on a lovely day in November, just 
 fifty years ago, one of those days which are 
 after-thoughts of summer. John Errington, 
 Paul, and Elsie stood by her grave, under the 
 shadow of Trinity. The stir of Broadway 
 seemed only a murmur in the silent yard ; 
 and through the open doors of the church 
 the music of the organ was faintly audible. 
 Both Errington and Paul were old and feeble, 
 and dry-eyed in their great sorrow ; but Elsie's 
 grief had her old passionate abandon. She 
 was shrunken and withered, and white-haired ; 
 but she wrung her hands in childlike distress, 
 and moaned "Oh, our dear Delight! What 
 shall we do without you ? " 
 
 And as she spoke, the chimes began ; and 
 they stood silent till they were finished. "How 
 sad they are ! " said Paul, almost in a whisper. 
 "What did they say to you, Elsie?" And 
 in a fresh passion of grief she answered, 
 277
 
 Trinity Bells 
 
 w Fare thee well, Katryntje! Fare thee 
 well! " 
 
 But John Errington said softly : " I heard 
 them differently, Elsie. To me they said : 
 
 
 All is well, Ka trynt - jel All is well!'
 
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