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 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,