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 A little colonial dame; a story of Old Ma 
 
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A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014519262 
 
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 •I MUST THANK THEE, FRANZ DE MILT."— -Pa^^ 5- 
 
A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 A Story of Old Manhattan Island 
 
 BY 
 
 AGNES CARR SAGE 
 
 Author of "Christmas Elves," " The Jolly Ten," Etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY 
 
 MABEL HUMPHREY 
 
 Second Edition 
 
 * ■ m • 
 
 
 
 NEW YORK 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
Copyright, i8g6, 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY 
 
 ^ ^t^os 
 
TO 
 
 THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA 
 
 THIS TALE OF 
 
 YOUNG LIFE IN OLD NEW AMSTERDAM 
 
 IS CORDIALLY DEDICATED 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
AUTHOR'S NOTE 
 
 In preparing this story of Colonial Days the best histories 
 and biographies have been consulted and many bits of folk- 
 lore unearthed in order to produce as true a picture as 
 possible of those simple early times, while many a veritable 
 incident has been interwoven with the fiction. 
 
 The Indian myths are those that were handed down by 
 the redskins from father to son, and to J. K. Paulding's 
 "Book of St. Nicholas " am I indebted for the quaint legend 
 of the patron saint of the New Netherlands as related by 
 Nicholas Bayard. Catharine Dubois, the pirate Captain and 
 a few minor characters were real personages who " lived 
 and moved and had their being " in the middle of the seven- 
 teenth century. 
 
 It is, then, with the hope that "A Little Colonial Dame" 
 may win favor in the sight of her descendants and that she 
 and her friends, white, black, and red, may help to revive 
 fresh interest in the honest sturdy settlers of Manhattan 
 Island, that this story of their joys and sorrows, festivals and 
 sports is given to the young people of to-day. 
 
 Agnes Carr Sage. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 COAPTEIt PAOB 
 
 I. On the Verlettenberg i 
 
 II. St. Nicholas Eve lo 
 
 III. Knecht Rupert 23 
 
 IV. Franz's Story 30 
 
 V. The New Year KruUers 39 
 
 VI. Brave and True 51 
 
 VII. Hendrick 58 
 
 VIII. Williamstadt 65 
 
 IX. Pinxter 74 
 
 X. Sunshine and Shadows 82 
 
 XI. The White I<ady 94 
 
 XII. The Flight , 104 
 
 XIII. Between the Acts 116 
 
 XIV. Rychis Visits Dirck 122 
 
 XV. In the Pleasant Valley- 130 
 
 XVI. Pieter and Blandina Make a Discovery 141 
 
 XVII. The Capture 149 
 
 XVIII. Deerfoot 161 
 
 XIX. The Swan's Song 173 
 
 XX. Rychie to Hendrick 184 
 
 XXI. After Three Years 191 
 
A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 ON THE VERLETTENBERG 
 
 " Tie the splendid orange, 
 Orange still above I 
 
 O oranje boven 
 Orange still above." Oranje Boven. 
 
 Snapping cold but clear and radiant was the winter air, 
 one December day, more than two hundred years ago. 
 Bitter cold, in spite of the sunshine dancing over the blue, 
 ice-flecked bay, sparkling gayly on the checker-work gables 
 of black and yellow brick, the numberless chimneys, cornices 
 and pinnacles which adorned the simple houses of the squat 
 little town of New Amsterdam, and setting every gilt weather- 
 cock to glittering with an increased and dazzling lustre. But 
 verily, now, if ever, was the time for these variable fowls of 
 the roof-tree to announce favorable winds, and do their 
 prettiest to enhance the feeling of hilarity pervading the 
 Island of Manhattan, — a hilarity which gave a truly joyous 
 ring to the voices of the merry coasters on the Verlettenberg 
 — the steep hill at the end of Garden Street. For it was the 
 Fifth of December and the eve of the Festival of St. Nicholas 
 — or San Claas as the children called him — the acknowledged 
 
2 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME. 
 
 patron saint of the little Dutch colony and beloved of every 
 loyal Hollander, old and young. 
 
 " A rare fine night will De Patroon van Kindervreugd* have 
 for his long ride," remarked one rosy-cheeked maiden of 
 some twelve summers, as she dragged her wooden sledge 
 to the top of the hill, where were gathered several girls in 
 warmly wadded hoods and cloaks and a few small boys in 
 ten-broecks and flat wool hats. 
 
 "That he will, Rychie Van Couwenhoven," responded 
 Geertruyd Vanderen. "Sore disappointed, too, shall I be, 
 if he fetch not a string of gold neck-beads to pop into my 
 green yarn stocking." 
 
 " Well, I know what I am to have," said Katrinka Kock, 
 "It is a fine embroidered petticoat of rare India stuff. I 
 caught a glimpse of it, hidden beneath the linen in the great 
 oak chest." 
 
 " Tut, tut, you Peep-Eye ! Do you think the gracious 
 Christ-Kinkle sends his gifts before him?" asked Geertruyd 
 with a warning glance toward the little boys who were listen- 
 ing eagerly, " Were I his saintship naught whatever would 
 I leave you but a bundle of switches, to pay for such treason. 
 For have we not all been taught that he loves not faithless 
 children ! " 
 
 " At fourteen, I scarce consider myself a child," retorted 
 Katrinka with a toss of her auburn head. " But Metje and 
 Rychie have not yet told us their desires." 
 
 " Oh, I wish for skates, real Dutch skates, that I may join 
 in the winter sport on the canal," cried blithe Metje De 
 Groot ; while Rychie remarked more slowly, — " I care not. 
 It is the joy of the little ones I like most to see, and then I 
 long for the festival, so I may show the mother the bfeautiful 
 
 * " The patron of children's joy." 
 
ON THE VERLETTENBERG. 3 
 
 chair-back I have worked for her on the sly, under the direc- 
 tion of my sister Grietje." 
 
 " I have made a quilt for mein moeder," said Geertruyd. 
 "A gay quilt of many patches for the best feather-bed and 
 after a brand new pattern which mine cousin Anneken 
 brought direct from Rotterdam." 
 
 " So ! But look ! who is that coming up the hill ?" 
 
 " It is Mynheer Van Boot's French boy, Franz de Milt," 
 piped little Hans Tyson, " always is he mooning off by him- 
 self and making pictures on stones and bits of bark." 
 
 " Much fault too, does Master Van Hoboken find with him 
 at the school," said Katrinka. " He spends half his time in 
 the corner under the rope-end for scribbling on his books 
 and lagging over his lessons." 
 
 " That is so," laughed Metje. " He must know the text 
 that hangs above, by heart. " Go to the ant, thou sluggard, 
 learn of her and be wise." 
 
 " Ach yes, often has my heart ached to see him," sighed 
 Rychie. " For he must have a sorry life with cross Dirck Van 
 Boot. I, too, would make the pictures if I could draw as 
 well as he does. Why, he made a portrait of Jan Gillertsen the 
 bell-ringer that was as like — as like as two pieces of wampum. 
 I fancy his face also, though it is so dark and melancholy." 
 
 " Ho, ho ! Who would have dreamed Mynheer Lazy- 
 bones had such a champion," began teasing Katrinka, when 
 all were startled by loud cries of dismay from the youngsters, 
 who had returned to their coasting. Turning, they discovered 
 that a big, burly youth — one of the ne'er-do-weels of the town 
 — had appeared upon the scene. Rudely pushing the little 
 lads aside and with a loud shout of, " Hollo there ! clear the 
 track. Doughnuts ! " he threw himself head-foremost upon a 
 huge sledge and went spinning down the steep hiU with tre- 
 mendous velocity, entirely regardless of a small sled ahead 
 
4 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME. 
 
 of him, which moved very slowly, and on which were seated 
 two chubby little urchins, their minds so intent upon steer- 
 ing straight that they were quite unconscious of the danger 
 that threatened from the swift, heavy runner fast overtaking 
 them. 
 
 " Oh, oh ! It is that dreadful Rip Van Clomp ! " exclaimed 
 Metje, while Rychie clasped her hands screaming: "St. 
 Nicholas preserve us ! There must a collision be, and Jacob 
 Kip and my brother Pieter will be hurt ! " 
 
 Truly this appeared only too probable, when an interven- 
 tion came from a most unexpected quarter. The French 
 boy, who by this time was half-way up the hill, suddenly 
 made a dash forward, and, at imminent risk of being knocked 
 down by the iron points protruding from the forward part 
 of Rip's Flying Spud, seized the rope of the sled, and, with a 
 quick vigorous movement, turned it from the track and 
 brought it to an abrupt standstill in a snowbank. 
 
 So rapidly indeed was all this accomplished that, for an 
 instant, Rip was speechless from rage and astonishment. 
 Then realizing what had occurred, he sprang to his feet 
 sputtering with anger and, shaking his fist in Franz's face, 
 demanded : " What — what do you mean, you rascally frog- 
 eater, you nobody's child, by interfering with your betters 
 in that fashion ? " 
 
 " I mean, sir, but to let you know that the leetle fellows 
 have the right of vay," replied the lad with the utmost 
 courtesy, but with a rather scornful curl of his short upper 
 lip. 
 
 "Dander and blixen ! What impudence ! And I'll teach 
 you, sirrah, that no one has a right of way where Rip Van 
 Clomp chooses to go." Saying which he leveled a blow at 
 the boy's head. With ready dexterity, however, the little 
 Frenchman evaded it, and then, as the ruffian made another 
 
ON THE VERLETTENBERG. 5 
 
 lunge forward, put out his foot over which Rip tripped and 
 fell sprawling in the snow, where he lay muttering a thousand 
 threats of vengeance, his ire increasing as a burst of mocking, 
 girlish laughter floated down from the top of the hill. 
 
 " Now, girls, you see what a good, clever creature he really 
 is ! " cried impulsive Rychie, and, as the victor without even 
 a smile of triumph on his dark, grave countenance, ap- 
 proached, she flew to his side exclaiming : " I must thank 
 thee, Franz de Milt, for that act. It was bravely and skil- 
 fully done." 
 
 " /fl, ja,* it was so," echoed the other little maidens, while 
 Metje shook with merriment. 
 
 "Ha, ha, ha!" She chuckled. " How like a great ugly 
 bug Rip looked floundering and fuming there in the snow ; 
 and mark, he is afraid to come this way, and is skulking off 
 across the fields." 
 
 " His hot blood ought to cool soon in this veather, though 
 greatly I fear ve shall be unfriends hereafter," said Franz 
 with a slight French accent, though living as he did in a 
 community composed principally of Dutch and English, he 
 generally spoke the composite language of those around 
 him. 
 
 " I fear so, and you must be on your guard," sighed Ry- 
 chie. " But, oh, it makes me tremble all over when I think 
 what a sad festival of St. Nicholas would have been ours if 
 our dear Pieter had been killed ! The kind saint should 
 reward you bountifully, this night, good Franz." 
 
 " That is not likely jufvrouw. My baas, Heer Van Boot, 
 believes not in vat you call the poetry, the sentiment of your 
 Dutch fete." 
 
 " Do you mean that you have never hung up your stock- 
 ing on St. Nicholas eve ? " 
 
 * Pronounced ya. The Dutch for yes. 
 
6 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME. 
 
 " Once, jufvrouw," and the boy smiled bitterly at the 
 remembrance. "In the morning I found a stout twig of 
 birch, and felt it as veil," 
 
 " Ach, but that was a shame ! " exclaimed Geertruyd. 
 
 " Disgraceful ! " cried Katrinka. 
 
 " Too bad ! " echoed Metje. 
 
 And Rychie, carried away by her feelings, added : " Then 
 to-night you shall eat your mush and milk by our fireside and 
 hang your stocking in our chimney-corner. I warrant the 
 good San Claas will leave no switches there." 
 
 A radiant expression of delight flitted across the poor lad's 
 sober face but quickly faded as he said regretfully, — " Thanks, 
 jufvrouw. You are kind. But that cannot be. Never vould 
 Mynheer Van Boot permit it. There is much trade, too, at 
 the shop to-day, and, already, have I lingered longer than I 
 ought. Good-day, for I must haste me back." 
 
 " Then I shall go with you, and ask Mynheer myself," de- 
 clared Rychie, with the stubborn determination of a well- 
 born Dutch girl, although her heart beat faster at the thought 
 of encountering the cross-grained tobacco merchant, who 
 was none too well liked in the colony, and about whom there 
 were sundry curious rumors afloat, although they were as 
 intangible as they were mysterious. 
 
 "Let us all go," cried Geertruyd, "for the sun has set 
 and it waxeth very cold." 
 
 " I, too, must stop at Cornelis Steenwick's to buy my 
 orange ribbon," said Katrinka. 
 
 " And so must I," chimed Metje. 
 
 Together, then, Franz and the quartet of maidens pro- 
 ceeded through the town, he gallantly dragging all the wooden 
 sledges ; but Katrinka kept somewhat in the rear and aloof 
 from the shabbily-dressed boy whom every one knew had 
 been taken in, years before, out of charity, by old Vrouw Van 
 
ON THE VERLETTENBERG 7 
 
 Boot while, since her death, he had been the adopted son 
 by name, but the servant and drudge in reahty, of miserly 
 Dirck Van Boot, the philanthropic widow's only child. 
 
 The narrow, unpaved streets were thronged with people of 
 various colors — white, black, brown and red. Angola slaves 
 the property of the rich ; fantastically-garbed Indians from 
 Ihe settlements without the town ; and bevys of soot- 
 begrimed little chimney-sweepers begging every passing 
 burgher and motherly matron, for a stiver or a few bits of 
 -wampum— which then circulated as currency — in order 
 ihat they might " make merry on San Claas's Day." In every 
 ■window, too, shone the " Orange Boven," the St. Nicholas 
 ■color, while in some, likewise, appeared pictures of his saint- 
 ship himself, represented as a jolly, apple-cheeked little man 
 in low-crowned hat and Flemish trunk-hose, smoking a pipe 
 ■of enormous length. 
 
 The girls were kept constantly nodding to acquaintances, 
 and not a few paused to look back in wonder at winsome 
 Rychie Van Couwenhoven and her companion. Not a whit, 
 however, cared she, though she did think it rather mean 
 that Geertruyd and Metje, as well as Katrinka, should drop 
 off before they reached Broad Street, which bordered on the 
 canal, and where she found herself alone with Franz before 
 a dingy door, over which was painted " Pipen en Tabac." 
 This the lad pushed open, and, as they entered the low, dark 
 shop, were greeted by a growl from behind the counter, 
 where stood a keen-eyed, scowling man of middle-age, his 
 queue very much awry, and his rusty vest and long-waisted 
 coat decidedly the worse for the snuff with which they were 
 plentifully besprinkled. 
 
 "Ha, splutterkin! Where de duyvel have you loitered 
 all this time ? " he snarled. " You are not worth your salt and 
 meal, and I'll—" but there the sight of Rychie caused him 
 
8 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 to pause in some confusion, and it was in quite a different 
 tone of voice that he next spoke. 
 
 " Ah, good-evening, Jufvrouw Van Couwenhoven. So it is 
 you who so kindly brings my naughty zoon home to me." 
 
 " Son, indeed ! " muttered Franz under his breath. 
 
 " How, now, can I serve you ? Is it that you have come 
 for more of the prime Virginia of which your honored father 
 is so fond ? " 
 
 " Not this time. Mynheer," repUed Rychie. Adding, with 
 instinctive tact, " Though oft have I heard him observe that 
 the very best tobacco in all the New Netherlands was to be 
 found in your shop." 
 
 " He did but speak the truth." 
 
 " No doubt. But now it is to ask a favor I am here. It 
 is, good Mynheer, that you will allow Franz to sup with us 
 this evening and stay to welcome Knecht Rupert." 
 
 " Hum — m — m! " A frown darkened the tobacco- broker's 
 features. He longed to refuse, but Dirck Van Boot, surly 
 miser that he was, often showed himself in his generation 
 "wiser than the children of light," and there were reasons 
 why he wished to stand well with the family of the Schepen 
 Van Couwenhoven, who was a prominent member of the 
 influential West India Company. After a moment's hesita- 
 tion, then, he said: "Franz is an idle, lazy fellow, jufvrouw, 
 and scarce deserves your gracious invitation. But since it 
 is your desire, he shall go, though I can ill spare him on the 
 edge of a festival." 
 
 " All the packages vill I tie up before I start," put in the 
 boy. 
 
 "Very well, then, be about it, for time you must have to 
 get into your kerck clothes." 
 
 "And I must away home to don my St. Nicholas ribbon," 
 cried Rychie. " But I thank you. Mynheer, for your con- 
 
ON THE VERLETTENBERG 
 
 sent. Mind, too, Franz, that you are not late. Good-night! " 
 So, gathering her warm cloak about her, the little lass, with 
 a gasp of relief, escaped from the store and sped toward 
 Pearl Street, in the fast falling twilight. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 ST. NICHOLAS EVE 
 
 " Ah, well I recollect the ample space, 
 Where little people did their stockings place, 
 Then sit delighted round the hickory blaze. 
 And watch the chimney with expectant gaze. 
 Discussing all they thought the dawn would show, 
 And wondering where Saint Nicholas next would go." 
 
 A MOST inviting picture of homely comfort was presented 
 to the eyes of poor Franz De Milt when, one hour later, he 
 knocked timidly at the back door of the Van Couwenhoven's 
 substantial stone house in Pearl Street. 
 
 The portal swung wide, and a cheery-faced lad, somewhat 
 taller than himself, welcomed him with a hearty shake of the 
 hand, and, drawing him into the spacious kitchen or living- 
 room, cried: " Enter, enter good Franz. Glad are we to see 
 you, for mine Sister Rychie has told us how you saved the 
 little Pieter from a broken head on the Verlettenberg. Most 
 bad and unmannerly was that of Rip, but, after all, he is a 
 funny chap, and often makes much sport on the Parade and 
 in the Market Place." 
 
 Franz thought he had never been so happy as when, 
 having been also warmly greeted by Vrouw Van Couwen- 
 ftoven, he found himself ensconced on the comfortable settle 
 in the chimney-corner, gazing about the pleasant, fire-lit 
 apartment. 
 
ST. NICHOLAS EVE ir 
 
 Dutch houses were always clean, but at the Festival of St. 
 Nicholas they were superlatively so, not an atom of dust or 
 rust being allowed to remain in crack or crevice, and to-night 
 the long dresser was fairly resplendent with its array of well- 
 polished mugs, platters, and porringers of pewter and Delft 
 ware. The floor was scrubbed to a state of immaculate . 
 whiteness and plentifully besprinkled with snowy sand, 
 while in the great fireplace mammoth hickory logs snapped 
 and crackled beneath the iron pots suspended from the 
 hooks and trammels. Best of all in the hungry boy's sight, 
 however, was the square table spread with a cloth of home- 
 spun linen on which were set forth, not only the regulation 
 mush-and-milk, but small saucers of preserved plums and 
 heaps of savory oly koecks, sweet, rich, and brown as chest- 
 nuts. Round this board briskly stepped Grietje Van Cou- 
 wenhoven, a fresh-faced maiden of eighteen, whose dark eyes 
 contrasted strikingly with her blonde locks and fair com- 
 plexion, and who looked pretty as a peach in her house dress, 
 consisting of a gay, quilted skirt, short enough to display her 
 fancifully-clocked hose and low shoes with silver buckles ; 
 a white apron and dark bodice confining her slender waist ; 
 while her golden hair was rolled plainly back beneath a little 
 muslin cap. She was directing the movements of two negro 
 women engaged in dishing up a platter of fried ham and 
 preparing other portions of the evening meal, their dusky 
 features, gaudy turbans, and short gowns and petticoats of 
 green linsey-woolsey adding a touch of the picturesque to the 
 home scene. 
 
 "How good ! how beautiful it all is ! " thought the young 
 orphan. 
 
 Presently, in danced Rychie, fluttering with excite- 
 ment, and with her flaxen braids tied with orange-colored 
 ribbon. "Welcome art thou, as the blumies in the spring- 
 
12 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 time, Franz," she exclaimed. " And rarely glad am I that 
 sour old Herr Van Boot was as good as his word. He is a 
 veritable bear, and not at all like mine vader here, who always 
 is so kind and generous." Deftly, then, the happy girl perched 
 herself on the knee of the fat, jolly burgher, who was con- 
 tentedly puffing at his long pipe of " Virginia," in his com- 
 fortable easy-chair, and began arranging his skull-cap of 
 tawny orange silk. 
 
 " Whish ! whish Rychie ! It is not good manners thus to 
 speak of Franz' employer," reproved Mynheer Van Couwen- 
 hoven, trying to look grave, but relapsing into a low chuckle. 
 " Have you discovered, boy, that my daughter has a sadly 
 flattering tongue ? One would think she took rhe for San 
 Claas, and wanted to wheedle a very fine gift into her blue 
 worsted stocking." 
 
 "Now, cruel is that," cried Rychie. " Nor is it like you, 
 mine vader, to accuse me of grinding the axes, when well 
 you know how much I love thee." 
 
 "Ay, sweetheart, even as I love thee." And an affection- 
 ate embrace passed betwixt father and child, making the 
 little stranger sigh, half enviously. " Truly, a blind man 
 would know that." 
 
 " Come ! come ! " called the mother at that moment. 
 "The supper is on the table, so draw up and eat ere the 
 hog's meat gets cold." 
 
 Willingly enough, then, all took possession of the rush- 
 bottomed chairs around the appetizing board, and a very 
 genial, united family party they formed, the good-humored 
 Hollander and his buxom wife, surrounded by their five 
 children, Grietje, Hendrick, Rychie, Pieter, and little six- 
 year-old Blandina, the baby of the household, while Franz 
 felt wonderfully at home, and laughed and chatted as he 
 had not done since the death of his benefactress, old Vrouw 
 
ST. NICHOLAS EVE 13 
 
 Van Boot Be{ jre they had finished, there came a rap on 
 the upper half of the divided door. 
 
 " It will be Nicholas Bayard," remarked Grietje, with a 
 blush, and black Sophia admitted a stalwart young man 
 with a pleasant, open countenance. All greeted him cor- 
 dially, and, after shaking hands with Franz, he dropped into 
 a seat and entertained them with bits of gossip and funny 
 stories, while he partook of the preserves and cakes pressed 
 upon him by the hospitable hostess. 
 
 Supper over, the company gathered around the wide 
 hearth ; Mynheer returning to his beloved meerschaum ; the 
 thrifty housewife busying her fingers with some intricate 
 knitting ; Grietje and Nicholas planning together a holiday 
 merry-making, and the boys and girls roasting apples and 
 nuts in the ashes. Meanwhile the black women cleared 
 away the dishes, and the little negro children — Hendrick's 
 boy Flip, Rychie's small maid Deborah, and a scrap of a 
 pickaninny called Clytie, all born and bred in the house — 
 mingled familiarly with the family. 
 
 Apollo, Sophia's husband, also stole into a warm corner 
 and sat with a short pipe between his teeth and his ebony 
 face all aglow. 
 
 "These chestnuts and shagbarks I picked myself on 
 Nutten Island," said Hendrick, " so know they are fine and 
 fresh. Here, Flip, come and crack some hickories, while 
 Pieter and I roast chestnuts for Franz and the girls." 
 
 " Then I," remarked the French boy, producing a knife 
 from his pocket, " vill the head of San Claas cut on one of 
 these shagbarks." 
 
 " Oh, can you really do that ? " asked Blandina. cuddling 
 down by his side. 
 
 " I tink I can, though better would I like to paint it." 
 
 " That will be fine," declared Rychie. "And meanwhile 
 
14 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 Elsje shall repeat to us the pretty legend of the good St. 
 Nicholas. Hast thou ever heard it, Franz ? " 
 
 " No, I have not. Never." 
 
 "Then you shall. Come, Elsje, leave Sophia to wash, 
 the plates and mugs, while you tell us of the poor young 
 women to whom the gracious saint brought such rich dow- 
 ries." 
 
 "Yah, yah, leetle missy always lub dat story," chuckled 
 the aged negress, whose wrinkled face curiously resembled 
 a withered russet apple, and, dropping on to a low cricket, 
 she at once began: "You must know, chilluns, dat when St. 
 Nicholas libbed on dis earf, he was no small, fat mynheer 
 wif a big hat and a long pipe. No, no! A great, gran' bishop 
 was he, wif trailin' robes, a crown on his head, and a' crook 
 in his hand." 
 
 " A crosier," corrected Hendrick, while Nicholas Bayard, 
 a smile playing about his lips, whispered to Grietje: "What 
 a come-down for his saintship to sooty chimneys, and knit 
 stockings ? " 
 
 " Far, far ober de big sea was his home in a land called 
 Asia, and he was always berry amiable and kind to every- 
 poty. But, pest of all, he liked the jufvrouws, and it made his 
 so kind heart pain like de toothache when he heard ob a 
 nobleman who was too poor to get his three daughters any 
 marriage portions whateber. Not eben one silk petticoat or 
 one silver chain could he buy, so neber, neber could dey be 
 vrouws." 
 
 " That was naught so direful," remarked Grietje, with a 
 toss of her pretty head. 
 
 " Well, dey thought so," retorted the old woman. " And 
 often did dey cry demselves to sleep pecause of it. But 
 listen what St. Nick did do. One night, when de moon 
 shone bright, up to de house he crept. Still and soft, like a 
 
ST. NICHOLAS EVE 15 
 
 weasel, he came and in at de winder, tossed a silken stockin' 
 filled wid gold up to de berry top. No wampum, no stivers, 
 but all good gold guilders. It came down ker-plump! right 
 at de vader's feet. He handed it to his oldest girl, and de 
 berry next day dere was a weddin'. 
 
 " Den, soon after, de bishop went again and brought 
 anoder hose ob money for de second daughter, who lost no 
 time in marry in' de man ob her choice. 
 
 " But all de while, de Herr Nobleman could not rest for 
 botherin' his head over who in the world could be to him 
 so kind. Ebery night he watch, watch until, at last, he espied 
 the saint comin' wid de youngest wench's dowry. And den 
 out he popped, and, catching de holy man's robe in his 
 hands, cried: 'O, Nicholas, servant of God, why dost thou 
 seek to hide thyself ? ' 
 
 " Now, so modest was St. Nicholas dat he was not pleased 
 at being discovered, and he made de nobleman swear neber 
 to tell any one of de fortune giben to him and his. Away 
 den, he vanished; but eber after, de patroon, his daughters, 
 and deir handsome husbands lived as happy as clippers 
 when de tide is high. And dis is why you chilluns hang up 
 your stockins on St. Nicholas Eve and in de mornin' find 
 'em full ob toys and sweeties." 
 
 " If we have been good, Elsje," added small Blandina, with 
 a world of solemnity in her gentle voice. 
 
 " That, too," said Rychie. "is the reason our saint is some- 
 times called ' the guardian of maidens.' Is it not a pretty 
 tale?" 
 
 " Charming," replied Franz. " And much have I enjoyed 
 hearing it." 
 
 " But it is a rare foolish.one," cried Nicholas Bayard, with 
 a twinkle in his merry eye. " I am astonished, Elsje, that 
 you should talk such nonsense." • 
 
l6 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha! Baas Bayard must always hab his joke," 
 cackled the old crone, not a whit offended. 
 
 " Now, see! I know the true, authentic story of our 
 patron saint, for I am his namesake and learned his history 
 before I did my Heidelberg." 
 
 "Tell it; tell it, then!" chorussed the youngsters, while 
 even the Schepen drew his chair nearer to listen, and Vrouw 
 Van Couwenhoven let her knitting fall upon her lap, 
 
 " Not a bit of a bishop was St. Nicholas, and he never so 
 much as set foot in Asia. He lived and died in the Father- 
 land and was the joUiest of bakers, his trade being deter- 
 mined the night before he was born by his mother dreaming 
 that the sun was turned into a vast New Year cake and all 
 the stars to oly koecks. Therefore, as soon as he was old 
 enough, to a famous baker in Old Amsterdam was he 
 apprenticed, and made and sold and gave away no end of 
 cookies and gingerbread alphabets to the little folk of that 
 great city. He was a pleasant, sweet-tempered caitiff, and 
 at twenty-four years of age fell head over heels in love 
 with his master's daughter, pretty little Katrinchee, who was 
 plump as a partridge and the toast of every 'prentice lad 
 in town." 
 
 Here young Bayard looked hard at Grietje, who seemed 
 deeply engrossed in twisting the corner of her apron. 
 
 " Now, Baker Nicholas was as odd and original in his 
 courting as he is now in his gift-giving. First of all, then, 
 he made a cake in the form of a heart pierced half through 
 With a toasting-fork, and presented it, smoking hot, to Ka- 
 trinchee, who straightway ate it up with marvelous gusto." 
 
 Again the story-teller paused to put a chestnut down to 
 roast, while Pieter and Blandina shouted, " Proceed ! pro- 
 ceed!" 
 
 " A month later, he baked another cake which represented 
 
Sr. NICHOLAS EVE 17 
 
 two hearts gracefully entwined with a true-lover's knot. 
 This, also, did Katrinchee devour, smiling her thanks." 
 
 Just here the chestnut burst open with a loud " pop." 
 
 " One more month, however, he waited, fluctuating be- 
 twixi nope and fear, and then he contrived a third cake that 
 took the shape of a letter, upon which he engraved the sweet- 
 est sort of a poesy, and when the girl read the lines she 
 heaved such a sigh, it made my hero feel as hot, — as hot as 
 this chestnut." And Nicholas fished his nut from the ashes. 
 
 " He was so encouraged, though, that he ventured on a 
 downright declaration by means of a fourth cake in the like- 
 ness of a chubby Dutch Cupid, the acceptance of which 
 meant a timid little ' J a ' and permission to ask her hand of 
 the head baker." 
 
 At this point occurred another interruption, while young 
 Bayard offered the roasted chestnut to Grietje, and, as she 
 took it with a becoming blush, the Schepen and his vrouw 
 exchanged meaning glances. 
 
 " Well, after smoking and pondering, and pondering and 
 smoking from Kierstydt to Pinkster, the father at length gave 
 his consent, and the loving pair were married and lived hap- 
 pily for many years, especially as when the Boss Baker was 
 called to join his forefathers, he left all his business and for- 
 tune to Nicholas. They had no children, but all the boys 
 and girls in Amsterdam knew and dearly loved the generous 
 little man who, morning and evening, distributed among 
 them his nice fresh cookies and doughnuts. He was made 
 a burgomaster, and, likewise, became a good Calvinist, unit- 
 ing with the true Reformed Church, although many perse- 
 cutions had the followers of our faith then to undergo. But 
 trials come to all, and one day the gude vrouw Katrinchee 
 died, and after that Nicholas would have been sadly lonely 
 but for his friends, the children." 
 
l8 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 "I would have given him a big bear's hug and a dozen 
 kisses if I had been there," hsped Blandina, 
 
 "Ay, httle heart, I warrant you would, and so I hope did 
 some other small curly-heads. Still, one night, the baker 
 was feeling very downcast as he sat alone thinking of his lost 
 Katrinchee, when, suddenly, a tremendous uproar arose 
 without, his door was burst rudely open, and in rushed an 
 unknown person gasping: ' Hide me; hide me, I pray! For 
 in sorest danger is my life.' 
 
 "'How and by whom, friend?' asked Nicholas, rising. 
 'Who would harm thee ? ' " 
 
 "'Ask me not now, Nicholas, I beseech thee,' said the 
 stranger, at which the host exclaimed : ' Then thou knowest 
 my name ! ' 
 
 '"Surely, for everybody has heard of thy kindness of 
 heart. But hide me now, and when the danger is past all 
 will I explain.' 
 
 "'But first,' asked the baker, 'thou art no murderer or 
 fugitive from justice ? ' 
 
 " ' No, I swear it oh my faith. But hark ! they are coming ! 
 Wilt thou protect me or no?' 
 
 " ' I will.' Saying which, the good Nicholas conducted the 
 man to a secret closet built in the wall, the door of which 
 could not be distinguished from the other panels. Giving 
 him, too, the key, he bade him : ' Lock thyself in so, should 
 they take me away, thou may'st be able to escape.'" 
 
 " Dinorah thinks that Mynheer Van Boot has just such a 
 closet," whispered Franz to Rychie. 
 
 " For what and wherefore ? " 
 
 " I know not, but list ! Herr Bayard proceeds." 
 
 "Soon a loud hallooing and banging sounded outside, 
 and a babel of voices shouted, ' Open ! open ! ' 
 
 " Nicholas went to the door, and at once a mass of people 
 
ST. NICHOLAS EVE 19 
 
 forced themselves in, demanding the arch heretic they had 
 seen enter. 'He is here, we saw him come in,' they cried. 
 
 " ' If he be here, find him,' quoth my namesake calmly. 
 ' I will not say he is not here ; neither would I betray him 
 were it so.' 
 
 " The religious fanatics — who really honored and respected 
 the burgomaster, if he was a Calvinist — ^ransacked the house 
 from attic to cellar, but failed to discover the concealed cup- 
 board. At last, however, as they paused in disappointed 
 rage, one dismayed Nicholas by saying : 'We have heard of 
 a secret place in your home where your money and papers 
 are kept. Open that to us, and aught that is yours we swear 
 not to molest.' 
 
 " The hidden fugitive also heard these words, but he was 
 stout-hearted and trusted in the Lord. 
 
 "'Ja, where is thy strong closet?' asked another of the 
 party. ' We must and will examine it.' 
 
 '"Very well, find it, then,' answered the brave baker." 
 
 " Bonder ! but that old St. Nick was a plucky wight ! " 
 ejaculated Pieter admiringly. 
 
 "That was he. So at it, again, the rabble went, hunting 
 and tapping on the walls. But all in vain, and finally the 
 leader, in his temper, shouted : " Let us take this fellow, 
 then. One heretic is as good as another — as bad, I mean.' 
 
 " ' Seize him ! ' cried another. 
 
 '"Away with him ! ' roared a third. 
 
 '"To the stake ! ' added a fourth. 
 
 " So, forgetting all the kindness he had shown to them 
 and their children, these burghers, carried away by mis- 
 taken zeal and bigotry, actually bound Nicholas, and were 
 about to drag him off to execution, when the secret panel in 
 the wall flew open, and forth stepped the stranger with so 
 lofty and inspired a mien that the startled mob was hushed 
 
20 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME. 
 
 to silence. ' Unbind that man,' he thundered, ' and bind me 
 in his stead,' 
 
 " Awestricken, all stood as though spellbound. 
 
 " ' Unbind this man, I say,' he repeated. 
 
 " No one moved.' 
 
 "'Well, then, I shall do it,' and quickly he released the 
 prisoner from his bonds, after which, gazing at the excited 
 men around him, with mingled pity and indignation, he 
 made them such an address that, one by one, they bowed 
 their heads in shame and slunk away like whipped hounds. 
 
 "'Who art thou?' asked the baker, in wide-eyed wonder, 
 when all were gone. 
 
 " ' Thou shalt know,' replied the strange guest. ' But 
 first, listen to me, kind and good Nicholas. Thou willingly 
 endangered thy life for one who had no claim upon thee but 
 the holy claim of hospitality. For this, then, blessed be 
 thee and thine, thy memory when thou art dead and thy lot 
 hereafter. Truly, thou art worthy to know who I am,' and 
 he then disclosed the fact that he was the famous John 
 Calvin, of whom full oft you children have heard the Domi- 
 nie speak.' " 
 
 "The great reformer?" asked Hendrick. 
 
 "Yes, the same. But when Nicholas would have knelt to 
 him, he forbade him and departed, saying : ' Now farewell, 
 but let me have thy prayers, for blessings, indeed, are the 
 prayers of good men.' 
 
 I " After that, our friend devoted himself more and more to 
 the cause of the Reformation, while ever were his house and 
 purse open to the needy and distressed. He still gave his 
 goodly cakes to the little folk, and every year, on his birth- 
 day, made a feast for old and young. To a very old age did 
 he live ; but one sixth of December, as he sat by the fireside 
 after all his guests had departed laden with gifts and pleasant 
 
ST. NICHOLAS EVE. 21 
 
 wishes, a knock came on the door, and there entered a 
 stately figure, who sat down beside him. The aged burgo- 
 master's eyesight was dim, but, with his wonted cordiaHty, 
 he exclaimed : ' Thou art welcome ! ' 
 
 " 'Well do I know that,' said the stranger. ' In the home 
 of the good Nicholas everybody is welcome ! ' 
 
 " 'Thou knowest my name ; may I not, then, know thine?' 
 
 "'Assuredly,' and, bending down, the newcomer whis- 
 pered in his ear that name which once before had made his 
 heart leap in his breast, adding, ' Dost thou remember the 
 adventure of the closet ? ' 
 
 " 'Yea, blessed be the day and hour,' responded the old 
 man. ' But, now, thou must partake of my cheer on this 
 anniversary of my birth, for never shall I see another.' 
 
 " So Calvin remained with him the entire night, and on 
 leaving in the morning said, as though in prophecy: 'Those 
 who remain behind thee shall bless thy name and memory. 
 The little children will love thee, and, so long as thy coun- 
 trymen cherish their ancient customs, thou wilt not be 
 forgotten.' And has it not so proved, even in this New 
 World? 
 
 " Peacefully, then, the gracious Nicholas passed to his fore- 
 fathers and there was mourning for him throughout all 
 Amsterdam, while, on the day of his funeral the shops and 
 schools were closed and the girls and boys had no heart for 
 play. The whole city gathered at his grave, and all at once 
 among the throng appeared the same imposing personage 
 who had visited him on his birth-night. In glowing praise 
 words he spoke of the open-handed baker, closing with, 
 ' Now, join me, my friends, old and young, men, women and 
 children, in blessing his memory as the good Saint Nich- 
 olas.' 
 
 " So spake John Calvin, and, as with one voice the multi- 
 
22 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 tude shouted: ' Long live the blessed memory of the good 
 Saint Nicholas.' 
 
 " Thus he won his title ; while on this eve of the festival he 
 
 loves, he still returns to earth, rides on the housetops and glides 
 
 down the chimneys, to gladden with his sweet cakes and 
 
 • fine gifts, the little kinder folk of whom he always was so 
 
 dearly fond." 
 
 "A rare, choice tale, with an excellent moral wrapped up 
 in it," remarked Vrouw Van Couwenhoven, with an approv- 
 ing nod. 
 
 "And well told," added Mynheer, while the children 
 wished there was more. But Grietje uttered not a word, 
 only gazed into the fire and twisted the corner of her 
 apron. 
 
 " See," cried Pieter, " Franz has cut upon the nut a 
 head as like to the bountiful San Claas as the picture' 
 in the window." 
 
 And truly, the tiny bit of carving was skilfully executed' 
 and won much enthusiastic praise when Franz handed it to 
 Blandina, with a courtly little bow. The mother smiled 
 and whispered to her husband : " The poor lad seems well 
 mannered, and I feel a great liking and jammer for him in 
 my heart. The boys must have him here as oft as Dirck 
 Van Boot will permit." To which the genial Schepen re- 
 sponded: 
 
 " Ja, ja, gude Vrouw ! See that they do ; see they do. 
 Perchance it may brighten him up, and I like not to see so 
 old and sad a look upon so young a face." 
 
 But at that instant, the merry tinkle of sleighbells 
 sounded without, and a thundering rap-tap-tap on the door 
 caused every one to start, while the eyes of the small folk 
 grew round and bright with half-frightened expectation. 
 
 * Pity. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 KNECHT RUPERT 
 
 " Look 1 the moon shines through the trees, 
 Children cease your noisy play. 
 The joyous moment has arrived, 
 
 St. Nicholas' happy, happy day. 
 With beating heart we wait to see 
 Who gets the cake and whose the rod will be." 
 
 With a cry of terror, little Blandina flew to the refuge of 
 her mother's arms, and the small negroes hid their silly 
 heads. Pieter, however, assumed all the airs of the hero he 
 felt, as he thrust his chubby hands into his pockets and 
 boldly announced : " See, I'm not afraid. Don't be a goose, 
 Blandy! It will only be Knecht Rupert." 
 
 " Knecht Rupert," repeated Franz, in a puzzled tone. 
 
 " To be sure," cried Rychie. " Hast thou never heard of 
 St. Nicholas' most trusty messenger ? " 
 
 But before the words were out of her mouth, Heer Van 
 Couwenhoven had flung wide the portal, and, with mock 
 reverence, was bowing in a gigantic figure which strode into 
 the center of the room and, from beneath shaggy brows, 
 cast searching glances upon the little fireside group. 
 
 Clad all in furs, from his head to his foot, the new- 
 comer presented a truly curious appearance, while his long, 
 heavy robe was edged with a fringe of sleighbells that kept 
 up a cheerful tintinnabulation as he walked. A tall fur cap, 
 
 22 
 
*4 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 with three fox tails hanging behind, crowned a shock of 
 raven hair ; great boots lengthened out like Esquimaux 
 snowshoes covered his feet ; a long black beard swept his 
 chest, and his dark eyes gleamed and glowed like coals of 
 fire. But what interested the youngsters most, were twa 
 enormous quivers, strapped, Indian fashion, on his back — 
 one brimming over with tempting cakes, and the other filled 
 with ominous birch rods. 
 
 "Worthy Knecht Rupert, you were expected and are 
 most welcome," said Vrouw Van Couwenhoven, dropping a 
 ceremonious curtspy, while Blandina ventured one eye up 
 from her mother's capacious shoulder. " From whom do 
 you come ? " 
 
 " From my master, the gracious St. Nicholas," replied 
 the giant, in a deep but kindly tone. 
 
 "And think you he will follow himself before the cock 
 crows ? " 
 
 " So, without a doubt." 
 
 At this Rychie clapped her hands, Pieter chuckled, and 
 Blandina risked two eyes. 
 
 " Do you bring a message, good Rupert, from his Saint- 
 ship ? " Asked the mother again. 
 
 "That I do, honored madam, and tokens of his favor and 
 disfavor also. He sends a cordial greeting to thee, 
 Catherina Van Couwenhoven, to thy husband the worthy 
 Schepen, to pretty Grietje, and to honest Nicholas Bayard, 
 one and all. Thy kinderen he will always remember, while 
 too, the brown faces he will not forget if they have proved 
 faithful and kept their fingers from picking at the sweet- 
 meats." 
 
 At this, black Flip hung his head and old Elsje shook a 
 warning finger at Deborah, whom she had caught that very 
 day, dipping into the treacle pot. 
 
KNECHT R UPER T 25 
 
 " Children, dark and pale, I greet you all ; Hendrick, 
 Rychie, Pieter, Blandina and thy young friend Franz — St. 
 Nicholas sends you his blessing, and says you have done 
 well, on the whole. But he would remind you of a few 
 faults that you may correct them. He is highly pleased 
 with Hendrick's progress at the Latin School, but regrets 
 that he feels his manhood so much that he waxeth a trifle 
 headstrong, and is not so obedient to his father and mother 
 as becomes a lad just turned fifteen. For Rychie, he has 
 naught but commendation words, as she has been all that is 
 truthful and generous ; while he praises Pieter for not tear- 
 ing his tenbroecks so oft as formerly, but bids him beware of 
 unseemly boasting. You, Franz, are worthily patient with 
 your severe master, but you too often neglect your book for 
 your pencil and should try to be more industrious. San 
 Claas, too, always hears little Clytie cry when Blandina 
 pulls her wool. She should endeavor to treat the small 
 maid more kindly when the New Year makes her her 
 mistress." 
 
 At this, the yellow head on Vrouw Van Couwenhoven 's 
 shoulder bobbed wildly and a muffled little voice sobbed — 
 " Oh, I will, I will. Mynheer. I do promise it." 
 
 "Then will his saintship accord thee his gracious for- 
 giveness and drop many gay trinkets in thy blue stocking. 
 Nevertheless, over the mantelshelf, I will hang a birch-rod, 
 as a reminder to all ; and may the glad Nieu Jar dawn in 
 peace, good-will and joyfulness. Fare-thee-well." And 
 then the quiverful of St. Nicholas goodies came showering 
 down upon the broad hearth and a glorious scrambling 
 ensued, while, when the merry-makers thought to look up, 
 Knecht Rupert had vanished, furs, bells, quivers, and 
 all. 
 
 "Well, now, this is what I call sport," exclaimed Pieter, 
 
26 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 munching a sugared confection. "And I wager I have 
 grabbed more than any of you." 
 
 " Beware of unseemly boasting," quoted Rychie laugh- 
 ingly, and then turned away to divide her spoils with the 
 little colored servants. 
 
 " Was the sweet cake, that Baker St. Nicholas made for 
 Katrinchee, like this one?" asked Blandina of young Bayard, 
 holding up a heart-shaped cookie. " Yes, I daresay it was," 
 he laughed. Then taking it from the child's hand, after re- 
 placing it with a fat little doughnut man, he said : " Come, 
 Grietje, let us eat this together," which they did amidst the 
 applause of the whole family, though blushing Jufvrouw 
 Van Couwenhoven declared it was " naught but St. Nicho- 
 las fun and that her parents we-re as silly as the children to 
 be amused at such foolishness." 
 
 "No matter, no matter," cried the jovial Schepen, "the 
 sagest , often relish a scrap of nonsense. But look, the 
 ' farmer's bell ' will soon ring for nine and the stockings are 
 not yet hung." 
 
 "Oh, let us hang them at once," screamed the little 
 people, and then what excitement followed and what cries of 
 delight and bursts of rollicking laughter as the home-spun, 
 woolen hose were produced, with a long red one for Franz, 
 and a procession was formed headed by the father and 
 mother, while a bevy of small darkies brought up the rear. 
 
 Each armed with a lighted candle, away they went, 
 through the corridor to the best parlor which, on this festal 
 night, was a bower of evergreens and orange-hued ribbons. 
 There in the fireplace (the jambs of which were inlaid with 
 blue and white Dutch tiles, brought across the sea from the 
 never-to-be-forgotten Fatherland) the stockings were hung, 
 while the boys and girls, clasping hands, stood in a semi- 
 circle and sang — 
 
KNE CHT R UPER T Zf 
 
 THE SAN CLAAS HYMN. 
 
 " ' Saint Nicholas, good holy man, 
 Put your best Tabard on you can, 
 And in it go to Amsterdam : 
 From Amsterdam to Hispanje 
 Where apples bright of Orange 
 And likewise those pomegranates named 
 Roll through the street all unreclaimed. 
 Saint Nicholas, my dear, good friend 
 To serve you ever was my end; 
 If you me now, something will give, 
 Serve you, I will, as long as I live.' " 
 
 Sweetly the fresh, young voices rang out on the pine- 
 scented air and then the children fell on their knees and re- 
 peated their evening prayer with extra fervor and devotion. 
 
 As they finished, the bell of St. Nicholas church, within 
 the fort, chimed the ninth hour, which was the signal for 
 retiring and Franz cried : " Oh, I must away home without 
 delay or locked out shall I be." 
 
 "Nay, boy, stay with us the night," said the hospitable 
 mother. "There is a second sleeping-bench in Hendrick's 
 room and then you will be on hand in the morning to see if 
 the good Saint has remembered you in his round." 
 
 " But Dirck," stammered Franz, " I fear he would be 
 full of anger." 
 
 " Give yourself no kommer on that score," put in Nich- 
 olas, "for in Broad Street will I stop on my way home and 
 tell Van Boot that the Heer Schepen wishes to keep you 
 over the festival." 
 
 The lad hesitated, but the temptation was strong and he 
 finally yielded, following Hendrick to his dormer chamber 
 under the eaves, while young Bayard said " Good-night," 
 adding, "A new gun have I just bought for myself, so the 
 old firelock I left here the other day you might place beside 
 
is A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 the French boy's stocking. Mayhap it will please him and 
 some time do him good service," 
 
 "A fine idea and thou art kind to think of it, Nick," said 
 Grietje, and the little familiar pronoun— which in the Hol- 
 land tongue means so much more than you — sent the young 
 Dutchman trudging toward his father's farm in Bouwery 
 Lane, with a dancing heart, while clear, crisp and starlit, the 
 December night settled down over the quaint, picturesque 
 New Netherland town. 
 
 Nor were the fair promises of the eve belied by the day 
 itself, for all bound in blue and gold seemed the festival 
 morn, so yellow was the sunshine and so azure the winter 
 sky and the waters of the beautiful bay. Few, too, were 
 the gable roofs in the little Knickerbocker City beneath 
 which eager youngsters were not early astir, and where 
 grateful childish lips did not chant the praise of generous 
 St. Nick. 
 
 The Van Couwenhoven mansion was no exception, and 
 the irosy little Day-god had scarce gilded the snow-topped 
 bastions and mud walls of Fort Amsterdam, when Blandina 
 pattered into Rychie's room, a wooden Dutch doll clasped 
 to her breast and her dimpled hands filled with sweeties 
 and a host of tiny clay figures supposed to represent animals 
 but which were like nothing living on the earth or in the 
 sea. 
 
 " Wake up ! Wake up, mine sister ! and see what San 
 Claas has left for thee," she lisped, dropping rose-leaf kisses 
 on the girl's closed eyelids. 
 
 In a twinkling;- then, Rychie was out of bed, and drawing 
 forth a string of amber beads, a pair of deerskin moccasins 
 made by the Manhattan women, a book of Dutch tales and 
 legends, a jar of India sweetmeats and a bright gold guilder, 
 which toed off her St. Nicholas stocking in royal style. 
 
-.^3^' 
 
 'blandina pattered into RYCHIE'S -9iOoyiy—Page -^ 
 
KNECHT R UPER T 29 
 
 From the boys' apartment, also, issued shouts of deUghted 
 satisfaction, as Hendrick discovered his new low-gutter 
 skates and fine silk coat with silver buttons ; Pieter a long 
 desired sled, and Franz a warm knitted scarf and mittens, 
 and, above all, the gun. 
 
 Later, too, on descending to the living-room, they found 
 "the slaves holding jubilee over various articles of clothing 
 .and papers of snufi and tobacco, while Mynheer and his 
 wife glowed with pleasure at the gifts of their children. 
 
 " Many, many thanks, sweetheart, for the so beautiful 
 chair-back," whispered the mother to Rychie. " I know 
 well that much of thy playtime has been worked into it, 
 .and rarely proud am I of mine daughter's skill. A place 
 shall it have on the best carved Holland chair." 
 
 " My meerschaum suits me like green cheese suits a 
 mouse," added the Schepen waving an elaborately orna- 
 mented pipe with a procession of fat little figures encircling 
 "the bowl. 
 
 "I, too, am charmed with my kerck girdle," said Grietje, 
 holding up a curiously wrought belt frorn which a Bible 
 and hymn book were suspended by silver chains. 
 
 " It is good that all are so content," remarked Vrouw Van 
 'Couwenhoven, and Franz sighed : — " How could it be other- 
 wise ven all is so lovely ! Such joy have I not felt since 
 Moeder Van Boot went to heaven." 
 
 " Poor Franz," whispered Rychie. "By and by you must 
 iell me more of her, and, also, of your own unfortunate 
 mother." 
 
 " So I vill if you care to hear it." 
 
 " But now," summoned the housewife, "let us to break- 
 fast for much is there to do before our friends arrive from 
 Bre'ucklyn and from Pavonia." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 FRANZ'S STORY. 
 
 "My mother! When I learned that thou wast dead, 
 Say, wast though conscious of the tears I shed ? 
 Hovered thy spirit o'er thy sorrowing son — 
 Wretch — even then, hfe's journey just begun I " 
 
 — COWPER. 
 
 The Knickerbockers kept early hours, and, long before 
 the sun touched the noon mark on the garden dials, saddled 
 and pillioned horses, capacious sleighs and long lumber 
 wagons were crossing the ferries from Long Island and 
 Pavonia and galloping, gliding and rumbling through the 
 postern gates in the wooden palisade or wall, which ex- 
 tended from river to river, and up past the batteries, the 
 block-houses and parade, all bringing country folk to keep 
 the festival with their town friends. 
 
 Cheery were the greetings exchanged on all sides, and 
 blithe and light-hearted the innocent laughter, as hospitable 
 doors flew open, while, at the Van Couwenhovens, a whole 
 score of kinsfolk, Van Brunts, Bergens and Van der Grists, 
 gay as peacocks in long-waisted silk coats or elaborately em- 
 broidered petticoats, took possession of the Russia leather 
 parlor chairs, strayed into the big kitchen or tripped up to 
 the plain little sleeping rooms to arrange a disordered cap or 
 tie anew a St. Nicholas ribbon. 
 
 "Who, pray, is that ugly little redskin hanging about 
 30 
 
FRANZ'S STORY 31 
 
 your from gate ? " asked Jannekin Bergen of Rychie, as they 
 stood by one of the small paned windows. 
 
 " Oh, that is Owano, a Manhattoe boy who fetches us 
 oysters from the shore and helps Hendrick pound the corn 
 in the great mortar. He is a steady, patient creature, and 
 Elsje often lets him sit in the chimney corner and gives 
 him a mug of milk or bowl of suppawn." 
 
 "Then she is very foolish, for the Indian is our enemy. 
 Ihate every Lenni Lenape as I do poison, and, so, too, does 
 , mine father. Only last week he caught a Shinnecock girl 
 picking up sticks in our wood and broke one of them across 
 her back. They are all thieves and scalpers and should be 
 hunted and killed like the beavers, though not half so valu- 
 able are their copper peltries ; " and Jannekin threw back 
 her head and laughed at her own rude wit. 
 
 "Whish! Jan, whish! It is wicked to speak such 
 cruel words," cried Rychie, flushing with indignation. 
 " God made the Lenape as well as the Hollander, and he 
 first gave him this great land. I am sure it was most un- 
 wise of Uncle Bergen to do such a thing. Has he forgot- 
 ten what befell Hendrick Van Dyck for shooting the squaw 
 who stole his peaches ! My father says that shot cost the 
 colony two thousand guilders, besides all the poor people 
 who were murdered at Hoboken and Pavonia." 
 
 " Ja, ja ! And that just shows what a bad, revengeful set 
 they all are." 
 
 " Not all, Jufvrouw," put in Franz, who had been listen- 
 ing in silence to the girls' conversation. " Owano is truly 
 good and grateful. A leetle favor I vonce did for him and 
 now ever to me he brings the paints made by his tribe. 
 But for that my poor pictures I could not make. The 
 Indian is like to the looking-glass, that reflects. You kind, 
 he kind ; you cruel, he cruel ; you cheat him, he cheat you ; 
 
52 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 you steal his land, his squaw, his papoose, he steal your 
 scalp. So ! " 
 
 " And pray who made you so wise, Mynheer frog-eater ? " 
 retorted Jannekin, with an insolent glance at the lad that 
 caused Rychie's blood to boil. 
 
 " Nobody, for I am not at all sage ; but I have eyes to see 
 and I have likewise a heart, Jufvrouw." 
 
 Jannekin had the grace to blush at this gentle reproof, 
 but all felt it a relief when Sophia appeared to summon the 
 company to the holiday feast spread in the spacious kitchen, 
 for in those simple days and contracted houses, dining- 
 rooms were unknown. 
 
 Very different, too, was the substantial meal from the 
 elaborate collations of many courses served to us of a later 
 and more aesthetic time. But good Vrouw Van Couwen- 
 hoven saw no fault and beamed with satisfaction at the 
 head of the long table, feeling that her culinary efforts did 
 her proud. She was sure there was nothing left to be de- 
 sired, for were there not geese stuffed with prunes ; fat 
 turkeys garnished with necklaces of sausages ; plump 
 chickens cheek by jowl with dishes of fried ham ; noodles 
 swimming in savory sauce ; the richest of apple pies and 
 oly-koecks, and the most generous supplies of sauer-kraut, 
 preserves and waffles ! And then, too, the circle of candles 
 in the center of the board shone upon as jovial and con- 
 tented a company as was gathered together in all the Amer- 
 ican colony ; the rotund Mynheers cracking many a far- 
 fetched Dutch joke and their wives turning again and again 
 to the majestic Delft teapot, ornamented with chubby little 
 shepherds and shepherdesses, from which Grietje dispensed 
 fragrant tea in fairy-like cups not much larger than thimbles. 
 
 Poor Franz's eyes grew round and bright at this profusion 
 and he enjoyed himself mightily, being snugly tucked in 
 
FRANZ 'S STOK Y ^ 
 
 between Hendrick and jolly little Jacob Van der Grist, at 
 the lower end of the table, while he and all the other 
 urchins did flattering justice to their hostess's skill, until 
 waistcoat buttons became uncomfortable. 
 
 " And, now, let us away at once to the Kolck and have a 
 skate on the ice, ere the shadows fall," suggested Hendrick, 
 when, at length, knives and forks were laid aside, the 
 women had withdrawn for a dish of gossip among them- 
 selves, and pipes and tobacco were beginning to circulate 
 among the men. 
 
 "Ja, ja ! That will be the most fun of all," agreed the 
 other boys. All, that is, except Franz, who had never 
 owned a pair of skates and whom Rychie drew asidf, b°,g- 
 ging that he would take a walk with her instead. 
 
 " For I am longing for a breath of fresh air," she said. 
 " And surely my cousins cannot think me uncivil if I slip 
 away for half an hour, since they have Grietje and Blandina 
 to entertain them. Besides, Jannekin is in such a contrary 
 mood to-day that I care not to be with her. All, too, be- 
 cause she did not like the gifts in her St. Nicholas stocking." 
 
 "So! Vas that it? Veil, then, it vas not so vith me," 
 replied Franz with a contented laugh, and he willingly 
 donned his warm new scarf and mittens and accompanied 
 the young girl through the almost deserted streets down 
 toward the squatty little fort, which, however, on this gala 
 afternoon, appeared more imposing than usual with the 
 beautifying snow topping its mud walls and the Prince's 
 banner floating from a flag-staff on the outermost bastion. 
 
 " See, even the heavens to-night wear the dear oranje 
 boven," cried Rychie, pointing to the western sky which the 
 setting sun had dyed a dozen tawny golden tints, from 
 palest lemon to deepest, richest orange. " Is it not a fine, 
 delightful holiday, Franz ? And now that we are alone I 
 3 
 
34 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 want yon to tell me all you can remember of your poor 
 mother and your life over the seas, and how it chanced that 
 you came to live with, Mynheer Van Boot." 
 
 "Ah, it is leetle then I have to tell," sighed the boy, the 
 bright look fading from his expressive countenance. " I 
 do not know vere it vas ve lived in the Old Vorld, for 
 the first thing I can recall is a very tall man who took me 
 in his arms and kissed me again and again, saying, ' Good- 
 by, leetle Franz, good-by, good-by,' He did not 
 say ' adieu,' and I am almost sure it vas English he 
 spoke, vhile my maman cried and sobbed and hung 
 about his neck imploring him not to leave us. But 
 he vent. He put me down and ran out the door very quick, 
 and I fancy never came back." 
 
 "And that tall Mynheer! Was he your father ?" asked 
 Rychie. 
 
 "Maybe so. I do not know, for I vas too young to miss 
 him much and I vas soon as gay as any butterfly playing in 
 the pretty garden of our j)etit chateau. But my poor 
 maman vas alvays full of sorrow, and, at last von day she 
 said to me, ' Franz, man enfant, ve must go and find thy 
 father. Ve must go a long, long vay.' Then she packed 
 our clothes in two bundles and ve started ; valking, alvays 
 valking, and a great, great distance. But, finally, ve came 
 to the sea and there vere three big vessels and many, many 
 people — such queer-looking people, vith grave faces and 
 tears in their eyes ! Since then, I have heard that they 
 vere called Valdenses." 
 
 " Waldenses ! The persecuted Waldenses from Pied- 
 mont, who were driven from their homes and came to make 
 a settlement here, on the South River ! " 
 
 " Yes, those are the vons. My mother and I Joined them, 
 and, vith them, sailed for this New Vorld, vhere, I think. 
 
• LIKE A BLESSED OLD ANGEL, IN A CAP OF QUILTED CALICO."— /'a^s 35. 
 
FRANZ'S STORY 35 
 
 she hoped to find my father, I do not know all this my- 
 self but Vrouw Van Boot and Dinorah have told me so. 
 Ve sailed in the chief ship, the Prince Maurice, and you 
 must have heard how she vas wrecked off the far coast of 
 Long Island. I can recollect that and vat a cold, vintry 
 storm vas raging ven ve vere cast ashore in a spot vhere 
 there vere no trees, no sticks, nothing of vich ve could 
 make a fire." 
 
 " Oh, Franz, how dreadful ! Whatever did you do ? " 
 
 " Veil, not much, I think, except cry, because I vas so 
 cold and hungry, for I remember my dear maman took off 
 her cloak and wrapped me in its varm folds. I remember, 
 too, that the men made a sort of tent of sails in vich ve all 
 huddled. I cannot say just how long ve stayed there, but 
 ve vould certainly have been frozen or starved to death, but 
 for some Indians that came to our aid. They proved very 
 good and friendly Red Men, for they brought us food and 
 sent two swift runners to inform the Heer Director of our 
 sorry plight." 
 
 " Yes, I have often heard my father mention that, when 
 some one says the natives have no good in them, whatever. 
 Then you were speedily fetched to Manhattan, and a few 
 days after, most of the Waldenses were despatched on to 
 New Amstel ; was it not so?" 
 
 " Just so. But my poor maman did not go. The ex- 
 posure on that bleak, barren shore, vithout her cloak, must 
 have given her her death-blow. The bitter cold and the 
 hardships vere too much for her. Ven ve reached New 
 Amsterdam she vas ill, very ill. Then it vas dear Vrouw 
 Van Boot came to our aid, like a blessed old angel, in a cap 
 of quilted calico. Right into her house she took us and put 
 us to sleep in the Kirmes bed, close beside the fire." 
 
 " Did your moeder die soon ? " asked Rychie softly. 
 
36 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 " That very night. Ven the cock crowed at daybreak, 
 she had gone and I vas all alone in a strange land, vith only 
 this ;" and Franz drew from beneath his jacket a small gold 
 locket suspended by a chain, and showed his companion 
 the curl of dark hair within and the inscription outside 
 Leonie De Milt from C. D. M." 
 
 The girl examined the trinket with deep interest, and 
 sympathizing tears stood in her eyes as she whispered : 
 " Poor Franz ! Sad, indeed was that. But was there noth- 
 ing else in the bundles ? No money, no jewels ? " 
 
 " Nothing, but some clothes, Dinorah says. I know not 
 vat.vould have become of me, but for the kind vrouw. She 
 gave me a horne and vith her last breath made Dirck prom- 
 ise to do the same. Alvays vas she good and gentle and I 
 loved her as though she had been my grandam. Ah, if her 
 son vas only like her ! " 
 
 " Aye, but he is not. Like a wicked changeling is Heer 
 Van Boot," cried Rychie. "I am half afraid of him." 
 
 " So do I believe was his mother. Often have I seen her 
 look at him and tremble, and turn pale. Listen, mine 
 friend ; if something I tell you, give me 3'^our vord never to 
 repeat it to a living soul ? " 
 
 "Yes, Franz. I think I can promise that." 
 
 " Veil then, on that night, my first night in the Colony, I 
 remember vaking up. Very suddenly I avoke and there — 
 there in the fireshine — I beheld Dirck Van Boot. Close 
 beside the bed he stood and down over maman he bent, 
 lower and lower. She never stirred but lay vith closed eyes 
 and a face like marble. He laid his hand on her throat, 
 there vas a flash of steel and I think — I shall alvays think — 
 that then and there he cut something from off her neck." 
 
 " Do you mean that he robbed her ? " exclaimed Rychie 
 aghast. 
 
FRANZ'S STORY 37 
 
 " I believe so, though I could not svear it. All at vonce, 
 he saw I vas avake, started back vith an oath, and, mutter- 
 ing to himself, hurried from the room." 
 
 "And you did not scream or call?" 
 
 " No, for remember I vas but eight years old and under- 
 stood neither Dutch nor English.' Indeed I dropped off 
 again to sleep and ven I next opened my eyes, all vas like a 
 dream. The sun vas shining in the vindows and Dinorah 
 and the gude vrouw vere crying and vringing their hands 
 over my poor, dead mother." 
 
 " But is Dirck really cruel to you ? " 
 
 " Sometimes. He has a heavy hand and alvays vas he 
 jealous of his mother's liking for me. For his vow's sake 
 he dare not turn me off, but I know he hates me. If it 
 vere not for Dinorah I could not stand my life." 
 
 " Poor Franz ! But now often must you come to us and 
 we will try to make you happier." 
 
 " Oh, you have, you have, jufvrouw ! Never shall I for- 
 get this blissful day." 
 
 " It has been pleasant, and it is time we went home to 
 wind it up with a dance," said Rychie cheerfully. 
 
 But in this closing festivity, Franz was not destined to 
 take part. As they crossed De Heere Straat, they en- 
 countered Rip Van Clomp, who, with a sardonic grin dis- 
 torting his features, shouted : " Ho, ho, Frenchy ! There's 
 a rod in pickle for you. Heer Van Boot is fuming with 
 rage at your long absence. He sent me to bid you return 
 to the canal shop without delay." 
 
 " Do you believe he speaks the buth ?" asked Rychie of 
 Franz, under her breath. 
 
 " I fear so. Dirck does not like me to have much pleas- 
 uring. Anyvay it is better that I go at vonce. So, jufvrouw, 
 please bear my thanks to your good father and mother 
 
38 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 for all their kindness. The joy I have had is vorth a few 
 strokes of the lash." 
 
 " What ! You think you will be beaten ?" 
 
 " It is possible. But that is no matter ; I am used to 
 flogging. Glad vould I be though, if Hendrick could find 
 time to bring my gun to Broad Street. Dinorah vill help 
 me to smuggle it into the house." 
 
 " He shall do so. Good-night, dear Franz. But no 
 longer must you call me jufvrouw, simply Rychie." 
 
 "May I? Thanks. Good-night, then, friend Rychie," 
 and, with a brave smile, the boy hurried off while, rather 
 sadly, our sympathetic little Colonial dame returned home 
 to join in the gay tripping to Apollo's merry fiddle. 
 
 As she entered the house, Blandina exclaimed : " Why, 
 sister, one of your orange ribbons you have lost ! " 
 
 " Have I ? " Answered the girl absently. " It must have 
 dropped off my braid. But no consequence is that, since 
 the festival is so nearly over." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE NEW-YEAR KRULLERS 
 
 " Only a night from old to new I 
 Only a night and so much wrought ! 
 
 « « # 4^ « * 
 
 The Old Year's heart was full of greed, 
 With selfishness it longed and ached, 
 And cried : " I have not half I need, 
 My thirst is bitter and unslaked." 
 
 — H. H. 
 
 Several weeks elapsed before the Van Couwenhovens 
 saw or heard much more of Franz De Milt. Hendrick and 
 Rychie, when skating on the canal, sometimes caught 
 glimpses of him peering from one of the tiny upper win- 
 dows or hurrying in and out of the shop, bearing huge, 
 bulky packages ; for the festal season made trade brisk. 
 He never had the opportunity, however, to do more than 
 nod and wave his hand to them, for, in those days his mas- 
 ter was in a testy mood and was putting his young charge 
 through what he termed " a course of sprouts." This, too, 
 because Rip Van Clomp, smarting from his mortifying en- 
 counter on the Verlettenberg, had taken his revenge in a 
 mean and underhand manner by rehearsing to the tobacco 
 merchant a lengthy and mendacious tale, declaring that 
 Franz had, in his hearing, mocked and made sport of Heer 
 Van Boot to the wealthy Schepen and his family. This 
 
 39 
 
40 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 filled Dirck with ire, and, utterly refusing to believe the 
 French boy's vehement protestations to the contrary, hardly 
 allowed him to leave the house and rendered his dreary 
 existence more of a burden than usual. 
 
 But in the downtrodden lad 's bosom beat a very grateful 
 heart, and, at every leisure moment he could secure, he stole 
 away to his small attic chamber and bent over a smooth, 
 square board, upon which he was endeavoring to portray a 
 view of the blue bay and snow-capped fort, beneath a sun- 
 set sky, such as his girl friend had declared to be like " the 
 dear oranje boven." 
 
 Rudely drawn and crudely colored though it was, with 
 the poor materials at his command, the sketch displayed 
 considerable talent and ability, and when, on Kerstydt or 
 Christmas, Owano carried it, carefully wrapped in paper, to 
 Rychie Van Couwenhoven, with a pleasant greeting from 
 the lonely boy, she was in ecstasies. She was certain even 
 Gerard Douw, the famous artist of Leyden, could paint 
 nothing finer, and, proudly hung it on the parlor wall, 
 among the portraits of her Holland ancestors and the 
 pictures of naval combats, where it certainly gave a touch of 
 bright color, very pleasing to the eye. 
 
 " I am sure he is the best boy on all Manhattan," she de- 
 clared, " and that Rip Van Clomp ought to be clapped into 
 the stocks for telling wicked lies about him." 
 
 " Pouf ! " sneered Hendrick. "Girls always think a soft, 
 'glib tongue and civil manners are everything ! Rip is not 
 such a bad fellow, and makes no end of fun in the market- 
 place and on the Parade. I would not ask for better com- 
 pany, for he can keep everything spinning and that is a 
 fact!" 
 
 "Ja, spinning till your head swims," spoke up Mynheer 
 Van Couwenhoven sternly. " I do not like, my son, to heat 
 
THE NEW-YEAR KRULLERS 41 
 
 you take his part. Can it be that you go with him and his 
 set of idle splutterkins, who, more than once, have been 
 reprimanded by the Schout for their noise in the street on 
 Sabbath morning ? " 
 
 To this, however, Hendrick vouchsafed no reply, but left 
 the room, shutting the door with more energy than was 
 necessary, while his father frowned and his mother looked 
 troubled. 
 
 Christmas was kept in a religious manner by the ancient 
 Hollanders but was not extensively observed as a great 
 holiday, being overshadowed by the festivals of St. Nicho- 
 las and New Year, betwixt which it is sandwiched in, and 
 with a very cold snap, followed by days of unseasonable 
 mildness, the year wore to its close. 
 
 And, at length, the last day dawned, the eve of the glad 
 Nieuw Jar, the time when every worthy Dutchman con- 
 sidered it an imperative social duty to call upon all his 
 friends and neighbors and when the seldom opened 
 front doors, with their shining brass knockers, swung on 
 their hinges from early morn till late at night, to admit the 
 well-wishers of the season. 
 
 In the cheerful kitchen of the Van Couwenhoven man- 
 sion, you may be sure active preparations were going for- 
 ward. A royal fire blazed in the deep chimney and the 
 energetic Vrouw, clad in short gown and petticoat, was cut- 
 ting out and boiling the light, rich kruUers for which she 
 was famous among the skilled housewives of the town ; for 
 no ordinary oly-koecks were these, but real Dutch kruUers 
 made after a time-honored recipe, that was a secret in the 
 family, brown as chestnuts and crisp as pie-crust. 
 
 " Out of the way, youngsters," cried the busy dame to 
 Rychie and Hendrick who lingered near to watch the boil- 
 ing. "Else you will be spattered with the hot hog's fat. 
 
42 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 Take thy sister, Rick, and be off with her to the Flatten 
 Barrack. I am sure she would enjoy a bit of sledding this 
 fine day." 
 
 " That I would, if you, brother, were there to keep Rip in 
 order," put in Rychie. 
 
 " I would rather go skating on the Salt River," * said 
 Hendrick. " For the canal and the collect pond are rough 
 and no good whatever." 
 
 " But that you cannot do. I forbid it. Only this morn- 
 ing thy father did observe that the river was very unsafe 
 since the last thaw." 
 
 " Yet that was rare foolishness, moeder," argued the boy, 
 " for last night, Tunis Van der Grist came over on the ice 
 from Breucklyn and told me it was as firm as thy head- 
 cheese and as smooth as thy soft, pink cheek." 
 
 " Oh, thou wily flatterer ! " laughed his mother. " Never- 
 theless thou canst not pull the wool over my eyes. So, 
 away with you both to the sliding, and here are two stivers 
 with which to buy New- Year cookies at Peter Van Twinkle's 
 bake-house," and, diving into the patchwork pocket hung at 
 her side, Madam Van Couwenhoven produced the coins 
 which sent the young folks off with smiling faces to join the 
 merry-makers on the Verlettenberg, or Flatten Barrack, 
 into which the name was sometimes corrupted. 
 
 On the way, they stopped at Peter Van Twinkle's tidy 
 little shop, fragrant with savory odors, to invest in the 
 sweet New Year cakes stamped with a crown and breeches. 
 Hendrick made short, work of his, but Rychie had scarce 
 begun to nibble her fluted oval of seedy richness, when her 
 eye fell upon an aged man with flowing gray hair and 
 beard, who was soliciting charity on the corner of the 
 street. 
 
 * Now East River. , 
 
THE NEW-YEAR KRULLERS 43 
 
 "Oh, see, Rick," she cried. "What a poor, forlorn, old 
 beggar ! He looks perishing with cold and hunger ! " 
 
 " Then he should go to work and earn some jacobusses 
 for himself," replied her matter-of-fact brother. 
 
 " But, mayhap, he can get no work to do. Ach, the sight 
 of him makes my heart ache, and I shall help him all I can." 
 Saying which, the easily touched girl darted to the mendi- 
 cant 's side and shyly slipped her cake into his hand. 
 
 " A thousand thanks, kind little lady," exclaimed the man 
 fervently. " For, verily, I am near to starving or I would 
 not be here, and you are the first who has heeded me 
 to-day." 
 
 He was evidently English, but Rychie cared not for that, 
 and, carried away by her feelings, she added the guilder 
 from her St. Nicholas stocking to her gift of the New- Year 
 cookie, thereby calling forth a gracefully worded blessing 
 from the ancient, although he seemed strangely nervous 
 meanwhile, starting at the glance of every passer-by. As 
 soon, too, as the children's backs were turned, he slunk into 
 a dark alley and disappeared. 
 
 " Well, Rychie, I must say thou art a silly noodle thus to 
 fling away thy presents," cried Hendrick as they hurried on. 
 
 But his sister only shook her flaxen head, remarking, 
 "On Christ-Kinkle Eve, the good Knecht Rupert bade us 
 be kind and liberal to all, and he is wiser than thou, mine 
 brother," while her heart beat a joyous roundelay all that 
 short December afternoon as she slid and frolicked with 
 Geertruyd Vanderen, Katrinka Koch, Metje De Groot and 
 the other little Dutch Vans and Vanders on the " Flatten 
 Barrack hill." 
 
 Twilight was falling ere the young Van Couwenhovens 
 tore themselves from the fascinating sport and wended their 
 way home to find their bread and buttermilk awaiting them 
 
44 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 by the kitchen fire, their parents absent at a tea-drinking 
 and Grietje gone to a supper of soft waffles and chocolate 
 and a New- Year Eve dance at the Bayard Bouwerie. 
 
 " Does the best parlor look neat and fine, Elsje ?" asked 
 Rychie as she finished her evening meal. 
 
 " Dat it do," replied the old slave. " De sand on de 
 floor am washed like white clouds and de brass chair nails 
 shine jest like leetle missy's eyes. I 'spect de ole Mynheer 
 and his vrouw gwine to come down and dance dis night, 
 for sure." 
 
 "What old Mynheer, Elsje ?" asked small Blandina, who 
 sat near by on her low green cricket. 
 
 "De great Mynheer ob de portrait, your honored grand- 
 fader, of course. Hasn't you chilluns eber heard how 
 ebery New Year Eve, when de clock strikes twelve, de pic- 
 ture folk all come down to shake hands and wish each oder 
 ' Happy New- Year.' Den if nobody disturbs 'em, some- 
 times dey dance in de firelight." 
 
 "O Elsje ! do they really?" exclaimed Rychie. 
 
 Hendrick, however, jeered at the idea. 
 
 "Ja, dey do so. Massa Rick may laugh if he like, but 
 my old moeder once saw de gostes wid her own eyes and 
 watched 'em step a minuet." 
 
 "Then I wish that I could do the same, for it must be a 
 rare sight," said Rychie, and, when, on her way up-stairs, 
 she stopped in to inspect the apartment prepared for the 
 morrow's visitors, she gazed up with increased respect and 
 awe at her stolid-faced Holland ancestors. As, too, the 
 light from the hickory fire flickered over them, they seemed 
 to beam down approvingly on this winsome young scion of 
 their house, as well as on the festal room with its high- 
 backed chairs, the carved bedstead upholding a puffy 
 feather-bed — ever the odd adornment of a New Amsterdam 
 
THE NEW-YEAR KRULLERS 45 
 
 parlor — the huge chest containing the household linen and 
 the New- Year table already set with bowls, flagons and 
 tankards of massive plate. The vessels were filled with 
 cherry brandy, Hollands, Geneva and other strong waters, 
 and the dishes with a tempting variety of cakes and sweet- 
 meats, while conspicuous among the good things appeared 
 Vrouw Van Couwenhoven 's famous kruUers, heaped upon a 
 shining silver platter. 
 
 " Ah, how I should love to see them tread a minuet," 
 sighed Rychie again, and, even after her head was on her 
 pillow, the idea haunted her dreams, while, just as the tall 
 clock in the hall struck eleven, she started up wide awake, 
 with the vague feeling that something eventful was about to 
 happen. 
 
 "The old year is almost spent," she thought, " and very 
 soon, now, the picture folk will come down to greet the 
 new. Oh, I must, I must them see ! " 
 
 The household was, by this time, wrapped in profoundest 
 slumber, but, possessed by Elsje's fable, she crept out of 
 bed, slipped on her clothes and stole noiselessly down-stairs, 
 shivering from sheer nervous excitement. 
 
 The best room was still illumined by the ruddy glow 
 from the hickory logs, and Rychie basked for awhile in the 
 grateful warmth. 
 
 "They are quiet yet," she soliloquized, glancing up at the 
 painted countenances. "But the hour draws near, and I 
 must hide or they may not come down. Elsje says that they 
 much dislike spectators. Good ! Yonder is the very 
 place," and running to the linen chest, she Hfted the lid and 
 clambered lightly in. 
 
 There was no danger of her meeting the luckless 
 Ginevra's fate, for this strong box had no spring lock, but 
 an honest Dutch fastening, and, by placing something to 
 
46 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 slightly raise the cover, the curious little maid had as com- 
 fortable a hiding spot as could be desired, nestled as she 
 was among the lavender-scented sheets and homespun 
 table-cloths. ' 
 
 So cozy, indeed, did it prove, that she became somewhat 
 drowsy before the clock — one of the very few in the New 
 Netherlands— chimed the midnight hour and the knell of 
 another twelvemonth. But, then, in an instant, she was on 
 the alert and eagerly peering out from her snug nest. The 
 corner where the chest stood was in shadow, but the fire- 
 light revealed the portraits still unmoved, and, Rychie was 
 about to utter an exclamation of disappointment, when her 
 thoughts were diverted and her heart gave a great bound 
 into her throat, as she saw a door leading to the rear of the 
 house, suddenly and silently swing open. Scarcely daring 
 to breathe, then, she gazed with wide-open, staring eyes, as a 
 dark figure, bearing a lantern, entered with slow and 
 stealthy tread. A very ancient man, apparently, bowed and 
 bent, with long grizzled hair and beard, and a sack thrown 
 across his shoulders. 
 
 " It is the Old Year," thought the fanciful girl, recalling 
 certain cuts she had seen of Time personified. But the 
 next moment, she almost betrayed herself by a scream, as 
 she recognized the beggar to whom she had given her 
 cookie and guilder that very afternoon. 
 
 Cautiously, the midnight marauder advanced into the 
 fire-shine, hungrily eyeing the bountifully laden table. And 
 then, all at once, a startling transformation took place. The 
 bent old creature became straight and tall ; the gray beard 
 and hair were torn off and flung aside, and a handsome 
 man in the prime of life, stood before the little watcher 's 
 astonished sight. 
 
 She could scarce credit the evidence of her senses, and> 
 
'ate and drank almost ravenously."— Pa^,. 47. 
 
THE NEW-YEAR KRULLERS 47 
 
 too dumfounded to speak, pinched herself to see if she were 
 awake, as the intruder seated himself at the board, and ate 
 and drank almost ravenously, snatching the viands and 
 draining several glasses of Heer Van Couwenhoven's 
 choicest brands. His appetite appeased, however, he threw 
 himself back in his chair and seemed to hesitate. But, at 
 length, with a frown and muttered, "Well, what must be, 
 must, and here's for Cherie, home and the boy ! " seized a 
 silver bowl and dropped it into his bag, following it up with 
 the porringers and plates that were the very apple of the 
 house-mother's eye. 
 
 Utterly aghast, poor Rychie watched these proceedings, 
 too frightened to utter a sound, but when the burglar laid 
 violent hands upon a very old and beautifully engraved 
 flagon with three handles, she murmured under her breath, 
 " The loving-cup ! The dear loving-cup ! Oh, mine 
 vader's. heart will it break, to lose that ! " while the lid of the 
 chest was wildly agitated. 
 
 "Plenty of the needful here !" chuckled the thief, but the 
 next instant his humor was changed .to alarm, as out of the 
 shadows suddenly emerged a slim, wraith-like form, and a 
 stern, girlish voice cried, " Stop ! " 
 
 With an oath, the man fell back, looking as though he be- 
 held a ghost, as indeed he thought he did, and, then, as 
 Rychie exclaimed, "Ah, do not take the loving-cup of our 
 forefathers!" he sank into a seat ejaculating, "By St. 
 George and the Dragon, 'tis the little lady of the cake ! " 
 
 " That is so," said Rychie, understanding him at once. 
 " And is it thus you British reward all who do you a ser- 
 vice?" 
 
 The man reddened. " Believe me, young Mistress," he 
 stammered, almost humbly, " I never dreamed this to be your 
 home or naught would have tempted me here. I only heard 
 
48 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 that a rich New- Year table was always spread over night in 
 the house of the Schepen Van Couwenhoven ; while, on my 
 honor, this is the first time I have ever soiled my fingers 
 with such work as this." 
 
 " Then why begin now ? " asked Rychie. " Do you not 
 know that it is wrong and wicked to steal ? " 
 
 " I do, I do," cried the miscreant, with a stifled sob. 
 " But wait ; let me tell you my story, before you judge me 
 too harshly. I was a gay, young fellow and perhaps a trifle 
 wild, but really bad, never. Cast off by my father for 
 marrying, as he fancied beneath my station, in a moment of 
 desperation I left home and wife, determined to show my 
 family that I could win name and fame by my own unaided 
 efforts. Alas, that is easier said than done ! For five years 
 I wandered over Europe, now trying this, now that, but 
 always ashamed to return without the fortune of which I had 
 been so confident. At length, fancying that the will-o'-the- 
 wisp I followed might be beyond the seas I joined the army, 
 and was despatched out here to the Colonies and, though I say 
 it myself, no more honest soldier ever entered the Province. 
 Like an Angola slave I worked, I who had been born and 
 bred a gentleman ! But in the end my health gave way 
 and for weeks I languished ill of a low fever. I recovered, 
 but felt I could endure the rude fare and homesickness no 
 longer. One month ago, then, I deserted from Fort Orange 
 at the other end of the Great River. I will not harrow your 
 tender heart with a recital of the pains and perils I under- 
 went, as with an Indian guide I traversed on foot the long 
 distance hither, suffice it, that I am here ; but the officers are 
 on my track, though so far, thanks to this beggarly disguise, 
 I have escaped detection right under their very noses. If 
 caught I shall be flogged within an inch of my life, or it may 
 be, shot." 
 
THE NEW YEAR KRULLERS 49 
 
 The listening maiden shuddered. 
 
 "Across the ocean I hope and beheve my patient forgiving 
 wife and my dariing son are waiting and watching for my 
 return, though God knows it is long ,very long, since I heard 
 aught of them, weak coward that I have been ! After all these 
 weary, wasted years the desire to look upon their sweet faces 
 has overwhelmed and conquered my pride and every other 
 feeling, but, saving your guilder, I was utterly penniless and 
 so for the first time, determined to take what was not my 
 own, hoping that the end might justify the means ! " 
 
 "Poor man!" sighed tender-hearted Rychie, the tears 
 starting to her bonny blue eyes. 
 
 " To-morrow night, the Golden Unicorn sails for England. 
 Her crew, after the New- Year festivities, will be so dazed 
 that I can easily slip on board and conceal myself until the 
 ship is far out at sea. Then ho for home and my little 
 woman ! who, I pray Heaven may be there to welcome the 
 prodigal." 
 
 " And will you go to heras a bad wicked robber ? " asked 
 the girl. 
 
 " No, by my faith, no ! " cried the Englishman, emptying 
 his sack. "You have saved me from that, little lady, as well 
 as from starvation to-day, for I would cut off my right hand 
 before I would steal from you or yours. Give me but these 
 krullers to eat while I am a stowaway, and all the plate shall 
 be left behind." 
 
 " Yes, that will I do." And Rychie, much relieved and 
 rejoiced, herself dropped the cakes into the stranger's bag. 
 " Now go at once and God speed." 
 
 " But first I must have your promise not to mention this 
 meeting until the Golden Unicorn weighs anchor at seven 
 o'clock on New Year night." 
 
 "To my mother, may I not ?" 
 4 
 
50 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 " No, no, to no one, walls too often have ears ; and think, 
 just think, my life is in your hands ! Promise, I implore ! " 
 His tone was so agonized and beseeching that the girl was 
 touched. 
 
 " I do not like it, but I will promise," she said. 
 
 " Thanks, for I know I can trust you, and now farewell," 
 and, resuming his disguise, the deserter turned to depart. 
 Near the door, however, hung Franz's little picture and he 
 paused abruptly before it. 
 
 "Who painted that ? " he inquired. 
 
 " It was a friend of mine," answered Rychie, surprised. 
 " A young boy of the town." 
 
 " Well, sweet mistress, you can tell him, from one who 
 knows, that he has the gift, — the gift of genius which should 
 be cherished, and improved. But, also, bid him beware ! 
 Beware of the restless Bohemian blood that too oft goes with 
 the artistic temperament. That was my undoing. Once I, 
 too, had the knack of drawing, and an eye for color, and held 
 the brush of a ready painter. By it I hoped to soar above 
 my fellows, but I lacked stability and now it is too late, too 
 late," and with a sigh that almost sounded like a groan this 
 mysterious being departed, as he came, by a back window. 
 
 Feeling as though in a dream, Rychie rearranged the dis- 
 ordered table, and then creeping back to her sleeping-bench, 
 fell so sound asleep that she failed to hear even noisy Pieter 
 when he awoke the household with his " Happy New Year ! " 
 
 She was absent, too, from the family circle when Schepen 
 Van Couwenhoven formally presented to his youngest 
 daughter — smiling dimpled Blandina — ^that chocolate-hued 
 pickaninny known as Clytie, to be her special property and 
 handmaiden, even as on a former first of January, Deborah 
 had been given to Rychie and Flip to Hendrick. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 BRAVE AND TRUE 
 
 " Oh, deem them not for ridicule a theme, 
 Those worthy burghers with their spouses kind ; 
 Scorning of heartless pomp the gilded dream, 
 To deeds'of peaceful industry inclin'd. 
 In hospitality sincere and grave, 
 Inflexible in truth, in simple virtues brave." 
 
 Gaily the sunbeams glittered on the black and yellow 
 gables that first day of January, and fully as resplendent 
 were the maids and matrons of New Amsterdam, in their 
 Sunday-go-to-meeting muslins and brocades, silken petticoats 
 and multitude of chains. Rychie presented a curiously 
 quaint, attractive little vision when, at last, she descended 
 arrayed in her best taffeta gown and embroidered stomacher, 
 with her amber beads about her neck. 
 
 Her face was hardly in accord with her attire, however, 
 when she found the house in an uproar and every one 
 demanding, — " What has become of the krullers ? The New- 
 Year kruUers ? " 
 
 Madam Van Couwenhoven looked flushed and angry. 
 " The beautiful cakes with which I so much trouble took ! " 
 She cried "Ach, but it is an outrageous theft and a mystery 
 unaccountable." 
 
 " Mebbe de great ole Mynheer and his vrouw gobbled 'em 
 up," said Elsje." 
 
 " What is worst of all, too," continued the dame, " is that 
 
 51 
 
52 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 in the biggest kruller of them all I did hide a fine gold ring. 
 It was at the request of Nicholas Bayard I hid it there, for he 
 fain would follow in the footsteps of his namesake saint. 
 It was to be his surprise gift to Grietje. That too, is whisked 
 away." 
 
 At this Grietje blushed and looked concerned, while she 
 suggested that perhaps little black Flip was the miscreant. 
 
 " If that be so, to the whipping post shall he be sent with- 
 out mercy," cried the enraged Dutch- woman starting for the 
 kitchen, but before she reached the door Rychie, turning 
 more scarlet than her sister, exclaimed, " No, mother, no ! 
 Flip is not the culprit." 
 
 " Why, mine Rychie ! What canst thou know of this ? " 
 asked Heer Van Couwenhoven in amazement. 
 
 " I know — I know who has taken the cakes," stammered 
 the confused girl, " but at present I cannot tell." 
 
 "Not tell," gasped her mother, " why and wherefore?" 
 
 " Because my promise I have given ; but when the night 
 comes then shall you know all." 
 
 " But Maritje, this is outrageous foolishness," cried the 
 tried housewife who was fast losing her temper as well as 
 her cakes. "And I command you to say, at once, who has 
 my New- Year kruUers." 
 
 " And my ring from Nicholas ; though forsooth, I do not 
 know why I should wear his tokens," added Grietje. 
 
 "That I cannot do. It would be a lie. Oh, mijn vader 
 canst not thou trust me until the nightfall ? " 
 
 " Surely, sweetheart. There ! there, good vrouw, say 
 no more, and leave the little one in peace. You would not 
 have her break a "promise ? " 
 
 "There be some better broken than kept. But whom did 
 she promise ? " Rychie was silent and now even her father 
 looked grave. '" Speak my child, whom didst thou promise ?" 
 
BRAVE AND TRUE 53 
 
 " That too, I cannot say." 
 
 " See Wolfert ! It is stubborn, she is and truly bad it 
 looks. But hearken to me, Maritje. This instant moment 
 shall you speak or else to your chamber go and there 
 spend your New-Year day." 
 
 At this the Schepen puffed grimly at his long pipe and 
 Grietje would have ventured a remonstrance, had not Rychie, 
 without a word turned and left the parlor. 
 
 She felt her tongue was tied, so that it was useless to argue 
 the point with her excited parent. But the lump in her 
 throat made her tug at her neck-beads as though they choked 
 her and she could not repress a low sob as she thought of 
 all the pleasure she should miss. For, certainly Franz 
 would come to-day, if ever, and kind Nicholas Bayard of 
 whom she was so fond. She hoped they would not tell him 
 that his little favorite was banished in disgrace. 
 
 " But I could not help it," she murmured as, ascending to 
 her dormer-room, she removed her holiday finery and sat 
 sadly down to work on her Flemish lace. From time to time 
 too, she endeavored to console herself by repeating — " I am 
 right. I know J am right. When once a promise is given 
 never should it broken be," while the New- Year callers came 
 and went and the sound of merry greetings floated up from 
 below. 
 
 During the afternoon Sophia, bursting with gratitude for 
 Rychie's defense of her son Flip, whom she felt would have 
 been dishonored forever had he been sent to the public 
 whipping-post, appeared with an inviting little lunch. Plump, 
 white oysters brought by Owano from Gouanes ; sweet 
 wheaten bread and a cup of rich, smoking chocolate which 
 she persuaded her young mistress to eat, meanwhile trying to 
 cheer her by chatting of the visitors she had admitted. 
 
 " Most all de gran' folkses of de Province hab been here." 
 
54 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 she said, "as well as some dat ain't quite so gran', De 
 Van der Doncks and de Van Boskercks andde Rapeljies from 
 Breucklyn. Burgomaster Van Cortland, dat lawyer Van 
 Schelluyne, Dominie Bogardus, Dirck Van Boot and his 
 !French boy, and de Herr Director's son. And, Missy Rychie, 
 Nicholas Stuyvesant bring wid him jest de mos' splendiferous 
 young gemman I eber done clap my peepers on." 
 
 " Oh, then Franz has really been here and I have missed 
 him ! " exclaimed the disappointed girl, paying small heed 
 to the negro woman's last words. 
 
 " Yah, he am here now. But you not lose much, for he 
 only tip-toed in sort o' scared like after his baas, and am 
 settin' down dar wid his mouf shut tight as a periwinkle, 
 dough de missus herself holped him to all de goot tings and 
 de harnsome Britisher axed him ' if he allays left his tongue 
 at home when he went to make calls.' He, he, he ! " 
 
 ' ' Poor Franz ! No doubt he is afraid to talk before Mynheer 
 Van Boot. But Sophia, who do you mean by the Britisher ? " 
 Her mind reverting, with a start, to the one she had so 
 strangely encountered the previous night. 
 
 " De big, purtty one I done tell you about. De one wat 
 come wid young Heer Stuyvesant and who am down-stairs 
 yet. He rigged out fine, jest as dough he gwine to a kirmess, 
 wid his hair in curls on his shoulders ; and he has eyes as 
 brack as ripe dew-berries and so sharp dey seem to look 
 right trough yer. He look mighty often, too, at Missy Grietje 
 when she laff and pucker and pass him cakes on de bestest 
 silver waiter. Apollo say he tink he is stoppin' at Wolfert 
 Weber's inn." 
 
 "A newcomer then ? But were he dressed in cloth-of-gold 
 and were he twice as comely, I know he could not hold a 
 tallow dip to good Nicholas Bayard." For Rychie was as 
 stanch in her friendships as in her veracity. 
 
'm -, -■ 
 
 SHE LAFF AND PUCKER AND PASS HIM CAKES."— /Vj^s 54. 
 
BRA VE AND TRUE 55 
 
 ' Nevertheless, when Sophia had departed with the tray, 
 she — being after all, a true daughter of Eve — slipped into 
 the hall and peered over the balusters, hoping to catch a 
 glimpse of the magnificent gallant as he passed out. 
 
 But for some time she had to wait, as Sir Ralph Hastings 
 and the two Nicks, Nicholas Stuyvesant and Nicholas 
 Bayard, lingered long in the Heer Schepen's best room, 
 while Vrouw Van Couwenhoven politely tried to entertain 
 the gruff tobacco merchant. Meanwhile, Blandina and 
 Franz eagerly listened to the war of wits flashing around the 
 nut-wood table where from a swinging kettle of burnished 
 brass, bonny Grietje poured the tea that Elsje brought on 
 at three o'clock. 
 
 "Stir or bite. Sir Ralph? Will you stir or bite? "she 
 asked, pausing, sugar-tongs in hand. 
 
 At this, the Englishman looked bewildered, the children 
 laughed and young Bayard, who appeared out of sorts, 
 muttered under his breath — " So my fine Britisher does not 
 know everything, though he does pretend to a title." 
 
 Evidently he was not prepossessed in the stranger's 
 favor. 
 
 " I mean. Sir Ralph, shall I sweeten your tea or place a 
 lump in the saucer ? " Greitje hastened to explain. 
 
 " Ah, that is it ! Pardon my stupidity, kind hostess, and 
 sweeten it, sweeten it for me, by all means, while in the 
 honeyed draught I '11 drink the health of the fairest maids 
 in all the world, the maidens of Manhattan." 
 
 "A neat turn and a ready wit,' I vow," chuckled the Gov- 
 ernor's son, while a pleased smile crossed Greitje 's cherry 
 lips. 
 
 " Aye, aye, a rare fine wit, and a worthy gentleman, a 
 very high-born, worthy gentleman, whom it is an honor to 
 have amongst us. I fear our Holland boys will have small 
 
56 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 show with the jufvrouws, while Sir Ralph is around." This 
 was put in abruptly and somewhat unnecessarily by Dirck 
 Van Boot, with a quick glance at Nicholas Bayard who was- 
 leaning moodily against the mantelpiece. 
 
 But that youth only wondered lazily why the crusty 
 tobacconist should care to flatter this gay cavalier from over 
 the sea, and thought no more about it. The fact was, no- 
 one had mentioned to him the disappearance of the krullers, 
 and he felt hurt at missing the ring from Grietje's finger. 
 As soon, then, as the other young men bowed themselves, 
 out he, too, took his departure. 
 
 Now would have been the time for the fair hostess ta 
 explain that his gift had not been received. But the. 
 coquettish damsel was anuviyed by his manner to the 
 stranger, and determined to torment him a while longer. 
 
 As he held out his hand in farewell, she only remarked 
 coldly — "Methinks you are rather uncivil to my guests, 
 Mynheer." 
 
 " In this world, Grietje, there be worse things than inci- 
 vility," he answered sadly. " And not always is the ready, 
 oily tongue, the true one." 
 
 " Like Rychie's," lisped Blandina, who was helping her- 
 self to a sweet lump out of the sugar-bowl. " Just think, 
 all the visits she has lost to-day, because she would not a 
 promise break." 
 
 " Hey ! Is that so ? . Then, forsooth, she has my love 
 and commendation." 
 
 " And mine, likewise," whispered Kranz, who had, hither- 
 to, sat in silence. 
 
 " Oh, but she was very naughty and filled the moeder 
 with anger," said Blandina. " The father, too, says she 
 has the Van Couwenhoven obstinacy." 
 
 " Rychie unruly and obstinate ! " Franz could hardly 
 
BRAVE AND TRUE 57 
 
 credit it of the kindly little being who was his ideal of 
 sweetness and light, but, learning there was no chance of 
 seeing her that day, was nothing loath, when Dirck sum- 
 moned him to depart, though, once outside, he was taken 
 severely to task for behaving like a whipped cur and sitting 
 mute as a roach in the Collect pond." 
 
 Long and earnestly, he scanned the small-paned upper win- 
 dows, but nowhere could he catch sight of the rosy, girlish 
 countenance, framed by a halo of golden hair, he had so 
 counted upon looking into that day. 
 
 As they turned into the Great Highway (the present 
 Broadway), they again encountered Sir Ralph Hastings, 
 this time alone. He paused to chuck Franz under the chin 
 and bid him, " Stiffen up and cultivate a ready tongue of his 
 own," and, as he did so, the boy was almost certain he saw 
 him slip a paper packet into the snuff-stained hand of Dirck 
 Van Boot. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 HENDRICK 
 
 " I am a young fellow, 
 
 Who loves to be mellow, 
 
 With jovial companions from morning to night, 
 
 I've no taste for squalling, 
 
 Or old women's bawling, 
 
 Who string nonsense together and call it all right." 
 
 —The Merry Man. (Adapted). 
 
 So it chanced that with many of our Knickerbocker 
 friends it was scarce as happy a New- Year as it should have 
 been, and the little weathercock, which adorned the Van 
 Couwenhoven 's peaked roof, must have pointed due East 
 if he considered the way the wind blew within doors, for 
 even Hendrick turned fractious and declared : " There 
 was no fun in calling on a parcel of old vrouws and he 
 should go to the turkey-shooting at Beekman's Swamp 
 instead." 
 
 But this his mother quickly vetoed. 
 
 " Nay, mine zoon, you will not shoot this day," she said. 
 " At fifteen, it is full time you began to behave like a civil 
 Hollander and a gentleman. So start at once and my greet- 
 ings bear to the De Groots and Vander Voorts and to Miss- 
 tress Hogeboom." While his father bore him off with him, 
 to pay his respects at the White Hall, near the Battery, the 
 home of the Governor, Petrus Stuyvesant. 
 
 A jolly, rubicund-faced dignitary was this Dutch ruler of 
 58 
 
.^^ 
 
 'BIDDING HIM TREAD IN HIS FATHER'S FOOTSTEPS."— /'rt^*' 59. 
 
HENDRICK 59 
 
 the New Netherlands, and gay as a flamingo did he appear, 
 in his scarlet waistcoat and yellow breeches, with a sword 
 at his side and his best wooden leg strapped with bands of 
 silver. Many a joke did he crack with Hendrick, bidding 
 him, "tread in his father's footsteps, and, like him, he 
 might become an Heer Schepen and administer justice 
 every Monday morning in the stone Siadt Huys or City 
 Hall," while he raised his peaked eyebrows until they 
 almost met his bald head and his small eyes twinkled with 
 merriment upon each side of his extremely prominent nose. 
 "His High Mightiness, the Lord Director" was in a par- 
 ticularly amiable humor that day, which, unfortunately, was 
 not always the case. 
 
 This visit over, the elder and younger Van Couwenhoven 
 parted company, and Hendrick lingered long in the market- 
 place to watch the negroes dancing to the rude music 
 of horns and tom-toms. And here, alas, he encountered 
 two of his least desirable companions, Rip Van Clomp and 
 Rem Hockstrasser, each of whom carried a gun on his 
 shoulder. 
 
 "Ho, Rick, is that you ?" they cried. 
 
 "Now that is good, for we are bound for the turkey-shoot- 
 ing and want your company. You are a capital shot, you 
 know, and sure to win a prize." 
 
 " But I started to make the New- Year visits," began 
 Hendrick. 
 
 " And paid them in the market-place," interrupted 
 Rip. " Oh, you are a sly dog. Rick ! But I hear there is 
 to be fine sport at the Swamp to-day ; much better anyway, 
 than the silly chatter of the wenches and a headache 
 tomorrow from eating too much cake and East India 
 sweetmeats." 
 
 " So do I think. Rip, but I have on mykerck clothes," and 
 
6o A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 Hendrick glanced down at his best galligaskins and Sunday 
 coat with its big silver buttons. 
 
 " That is no matter. It will not harm them. So come 
 along like a little man." Thus urged Hendrick yielded, 
 joined his friends and was soon at Beekman's Swamp, 
 where a bevy of youths were squandering their stivers in the 
 exciting sport of firing at live turkeys put up for the purpose. 
 
 Rip and Rem did famously, each bearing off a plump 
 fowl, but luck seemed against Hendrick, who could not 
 succeed in ruffling a feather, while, at last, he had the mis- 
 fortune to slip and get a rough tumble, thereby soiling his 
 breeches and tearing an ugly rent in the skirt of his new 
 silk coat. 
 
 " Ha, ha ! What will the Vrouw Van Couwenhoven say 
 to that ? " laughed his unsympathizing companions, when 
 they saw him stamping around, his little queue of hair tied 
 with black lute string, fairly standing out with rage. 
 
 " Whatever she says, it will be your fault, ye doughnut- 
 headed splutterkins ! " he shouted, and would have followed 
 it up with some Dutch epithets more forcible than polite, 
 had not his cousin, Teunis Van der Grist just then ap- 
 proached, saying soothingly: — "Tut, tut. Rick! Calm 
 thyself and with me come home, to Breucklyn, where mine 
 sister Mina will mend the tear so neatly it will scarce be 
 noticed. I have two pairs of ' low-gutters ' here so we can 
 skate across." . 
 
 " Ja, that will better be than facing the mother in this 
 plight," sighed Hendrick gloomily and he was spinning 
 across the Salt River before he remembered that only the 
 day previous, he had been forbidden to venture there. 
 
 " Think you that the ice is strong, Teunis ? " he asked. 
 
 "Well, not so strong as it was. The thaw has weakened 
 it considerably, but 'twill hold to-night if — " 
 
HENDRTCK 6 1 
 
 At that instant, however, a sharp, ominous cracking 
 sounded beneath their feet and Teunis, who was slightly in 
 advance, had but just time to glide to a firmer spot, when a 
 scream of wild terror rang through the air, and, looking 
 back, he beheld the dark surging water in a jagged opening 
 in the ice and Hendrick's brown head disappearing 
 beneath. 
 
 At early twilight, Rychie sat in her lonely chamber, think- 
 ing of the deserter so soon to make his desperate attempt to 
 leave the American shore and of the wife and child awaiting 
 him somewhere in that great Old World, beyond the broad 
 Atlantic ; when a voice on the shed roof without her 
 window cried: "Let me in, Rychie, let me in quick!" 
 On flying to open the casement, an exceedingly wet and 
 bedraggled boy tumbled at her feet, sputtering : " Oh, 
 mine sister, run for dry clothes and a hot drink as fast as 
 you can, for I am nearly drowned and frozen as well." 
 
 Indeed, he seemed so, as he lay almost exhausted on the 
 floor, his teeth chattering, his lips blue with cold and his 
 garments stiff from the congealing of the water with which 
 they were soaked through. 
 
 Thoroughly alarmed, the girl hastened to do his bidding, 
 helped him to disrobe, ordered Elsje to prepare a warm 
 posset, and covered him up snugly in her own feather-bed. 
 
 Then, and not till then, when a reaction had taken place 
 and a delightful glow was stealing over the lad's shivering 
 frame, did she venture to inquire : — " Whatever is it that 
 has happened to you, Hendrick ? " 
 
 " Why, I was on the Salt River, skating across to Breuck- 
 lyn, when the ice broke and in I went. But for a shabby 
 old fellow who risked his own life to save mine, I should be 
 ■down at Davy Jones's locker this blessed minute, for there 
 
62 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 stood Teunis Van der Grist and never stirred a finger to 
 help me, for which, I vow, we shall be unfriends hence- 
 forth." 
 
 " And, oh, dear ! Thy fine kerck suit is quite ruined ! 
 Does the mother know it ? " 
 
 " No ; it was for fear of her that I came in by the roof, 
 though my arms and legs were so numb I could hardly 
 clamber up. But outside I met the father and he is full of 
 spleen because I went to the turkey-shooting and on the 
 river and failed to pay the tiresome New- Year calls. How 
 he did joker ^ and says I shall live on bread and water for a 
 week and he will not take me with him to Williamstadt. 
 This last I think is too hard ; " and the boy buried his face 
 in the pillow to choke down an unmanly sob as he thought of 
 the trip up the Great River and visit at the vast domain of 
 the Patroon Van Rensselaer, to which he had looked for- 
 ward for many months. 
 
 " Poor Rick ! I am sorry for you," said Rychie, though 
 she could not but think he deserved to lose his anticipated 
 pleasure. 
 
 "What is queer, too," he, at last, continued, "is that the 
 old cove who yanked me out from under the ice seemed to 
 know me. He called me Van Couwenhoven, and gave me 
 something for my ' younger sister with the blue eyes.' 
 That must be you, Rychie, for Blandina's are like hazel 
 nuts," and diving into the pocket of his damp breeches, 
 Hendrick produced a very moist and soggy package, which, 
 on being undone, revealed a single broken kruUer. "Well, 
 I '11 be dondered ! Whatever made him send that ? " 
 
 "Oh, I know ; I am sure I know," cried Rychie. "It is 
 a token ! a token to let me know who your saviour was and 
 it fills me with gladness. Though," she added half undei 
 her breath, " I would it had been the one with the ring." 
 
HENDRICK 63 
 
 " What, do you mean that that brave old chap was the 
 thief who walked off with the mother's cakes?" And 
 Hendrick sat bolt upright in bed, in his excitement. 
 
 " It may be so and it may not be so. Not yet can I tell 
 you." But Rychie's dimples came and went mischievously, 
 and putting on her festival dress, when the clock struck 
 seven, she tripped happily down to the best room, and, 
 creeping to Vrouw Van Couwenhoven 's side, whispered, 
 " Now, mijn moeder, all shalt thou know." 
 
 In mute amazement the family listened to her tale oi 
 the midnight guest, and, when she ended by saying — " I am 
 sure he was no common, wicked robber, while to-day, he 
 dragged our Hendrick from a grave in the Salt River," the 
 contrite Dutch woman caught her to her heart, sobbing — 
 " O mine Rychie ! my white lambkin ! forgive thy mother ! 
 It was in my temper I spoke this morning and thou has 
 been the truest and bravest of girls ! To think but for thee, 
 all our rare old silver would now on its way to England be." 
 
 Grietje, too, hugged her rapturously, and tears were in the 
 Schepen's eyes as he asked: "How can I repay my 
 daughter for rescuing the loving-cup of her ancestors and 
 for her dreary day above ? " 
 
 " By pardoning Hendrick, dear vader, letting him come 
 to the New Year supper and taking him with you, as you in- 
 tended, when you go up the Great River for the fur-trading. 
 I know that he has been most headstrong and disobedient, 
 but he has, likewise, been well punished, while much re- 
 pentance does he feel." 
 
 "Well, then, sweetheart, to please thee, it shall be so. 
 But on one thing I have made up my mind and that is to 
 separate him from Rip Van Clomp and his unruly crew. 
 Always have I meant that in Holland the boy's education 
 should be finished off, and the time is nearing when to his 
 
64 ^ LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 Uncle Johannes in Rotterdam, he should be sent. He is 
 now fifteen and when the Spring comes, he shall go." 
 
 " Oh, not really, my father ?" 
 
 " Ja, dear one. It is for his best. But whish ! Let not 
 the thought of it cloud thy brow to-night, but run up and 
 tell thy brother that, for thy sake, he has my pardon." 
 
 So Hendrick was summoned down and a truly happy, 
 festal evening was spent within the home circle, beneath 
 the gaze of the old Mynheer and his placid-faced vrouw, 
 who looked down benignantly from their heavy frames. 
 
 And at that very time, opposite Najack — an Indian settle- 
 ment where Fort Hamilton now stands — the Golden Unicorn 
 was plowing her way through floating blocks of ice and on 
 board was one more passenger than Appeared on the cap- 
 tain 's list, a concealed stowaway, whose pockets were stuffed 
 with Dutch krullers and in whose heart was the sentiment, 
 if not the words, of a then unwritten song— the song of 
 " Home, Sweet Home ! " 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 WILLIAMSTADT 
 
 " See here and there the buildings cluster round, 
 All to the street their cumbrous gables stretching, 
 With square-clipt trees and snug enclosures bound, 
 (A most uncouth material for sketching). 
 Each with its stoop, from whose sequester'd shade 
 The Dutchman's evening pipe in cloudy volumes play'd." 
 
 The small village clustered about Fort Orange at the head 
 of the noble stream discovered by Hendrick Hudson and 
 called by the Dutch Groot Rivier or Great River has since 
 grown into the City of Albany, the capital of the Empire 
 State. But in colonial days this place changed its name as 
 often as did New York. Aurania and Beverwyck were its 
 .earliest cognomens but at the time of our story it was known 
 as Williamstadt, and being the advanced post of the fur-trade, 
 thither at certain seasons, those interested in the chief export 
 of the country went to barter with the Indians for the 
 valuable skins of the beaver, otter, fox, wolf, deer, raccoon, 
 bear, elk and buffalo. 
 
 The West India Company always sent agents to bargain 
 with the savages, but this year the Heer Van Couwenhoven 
 decided to go himself, and combine pleasure with business 
 by visiting for a time at the home of his old friend Van 
 Curler, the representative in this country of the wealthy 
 pearl merchant of old Amsterdam, the Patroon Van Rensselaer, 
 and the director of his famous estate Rensselaerwyck. 
 
 So soon therefore as the river was navigable which, owing 
 S 6s 
 
66 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME. 
 
 to a\mild February, was unusually early, he set forth in a 
 small yacht and with him went Hendrick and his boy Flip, 
 the former overflowing with delight and with gratitude to 
 his sister for the intercession which had won him back the 
 treat he had forfeited. 
 
 " Try if you can learn aught of the deserter from Fort 
 Orange, who got away in the Golden Unicorn," was Rychie's 
 parting injunction. 
 
 " And see if you can hear anything regarding Sir Ralph 
 Hastings whom, folks say, must have gone northward for the 
 fur-trading," added Grietje with a little blush. For after 
 several weeks of jollification with the young men and women 
 of New Amsterdam that brilliant cavalier, without the 
 ceremony of a leave-taking, had abruptly disappeared, 
 nobody knew exactly whither. Nicholas Bayard, however, 
 was well content at his departure and, having finally learned 
 the fate of his New-Year gift, was once more a constant 
 visitor at the hospitable house in Pearl Street. 
 
 " Dough it be a berry bad omen to hab de gold circle 
 whisked off in dat fashion ! No luck, 'till it am foun' again, 
 no luck 'till it am found ! " croaked old Elsje. 
 
 " Do not fail, too, to give Madam Van Curler this pot of 
 my best apple-butter and repeat to her all the civil messages 
 with which I have charged you," put in Vrouw Van Cou- 
 wenhoven. " And I hope you will ever behave in a man- 
 nerly way, and do us great credit whilst abroad." 
 
 " That I will, mother, and try to remember all the girls 
 wish news about," and with a kiss on each cheek all round, 
 the excited, happy lad scampered away to start on his two 
 weeks sail through almost primeval wilds, where he could 
 hear wolves, bears, panthers and other beasts of the forest 
 howling by night and could discern dusky savage figures 
 flitting, specter-like, amidst the trees upon the shore. 
 
WILLIAMSTADT 67 
 
 The stay at Williamstadt was also a novel experience for 
 the homebred youth, and he returned such an exceedingly 
 " traveled young monkey, " boasting of all he had seen 
 and heard, that his mother was inclined to make fun of 
 him. 
 
 But the good-humored Schepen only laughed, saying, — 
 " Let the little cockerel preen his feathers if he will. 'Tis 
 a harmless bit of conceit that will soon blow over. The 
 lad will not so proud-stomached be when he has crossed 
 the sea and looked upon things of greater worth." 
 
 His sisters and Pieter, however, were eager enough to 
 hear all he had to relate, and on the evening after his return, 
 Franz, as well as Nicholas Bayard, dropped in to bid him 
 welcome home and to listen to his adventures. 
 
 " Our yacht, the Blue Beaver, was just fourteen days and 
 nights in going up the Great River," he said. "And Schip- 
 per Hardenbroeck declares ' a rare good boatman Will be 
 spoiled by sending me to Holland, for the book-learning. 
 In no time, he taught me the names of all the ropes and 
 sails and how to manage them, so now I can sail a craft with 
 any one. O, it is fine to fly with the wind, and the owner of 
 a vessel do I mean to be, when the tiresome study-days are 
 over. You, Grietje, would like the highlands up yonder. 
 They are more grand and lofty than anything you ever saw. 
 Mountain upon mountain, all covered with pine trees as 
 thick as the palisades in the longel.* At Esopus we 
 stopped several hours to take on wood and water and 
 Dorigeman Jansen, whom the mother knew in Dordrecht, 
 came down to greet us and to shake us by the hand. He 
 seemed rarely glad to see me and says that you, Rychie, and 
 our cousin Jannekin Bergen must go up to stop awhile with 
 his girls. In the early summer he wants you to go, when 
 
 * City wall. 
 
68 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME. 
 
 the wild strawberries are ripe and you can pull the pink 
 laurel in the woods." 
 
 "Oh, I should love that," cried Rychie, "And I know Jan 
 would like it, too. May we really have such pleasure, mine 
 vader ? " 
 
 "Well, we will see," said the Schepen. "It can hardly 
 be this year, but some year mayhap you can go." 
 
 "There are hosts of i-edskins around Esopus and at 
 Williamstadt also," continued Hendrick. " Mohawks and 
 Mohic-cans, who are not half so mild and friendly as our 
 Manhattoes and the Shinnecocks and Canarsies of Long 
 Island. At Fort Orange, there is a coffee-colored face for 
 every white one. They come there from far and near to 
 sell their furs, and will give anything or do anything for 
 gunpowder and ' Dutch Dare-Devil.' " 
 
 " Ja, ja, that is the truth. Powder and liquor make all 
 the trouble with the natives," put in Nicholas Bayard. 
 
 " Heer Van Curler told me as many firearms are paid for 
 peltries, as there are guilders, and everybody in the place 
 buys furs. The soldier^s at the barracks, and the merchants 
 in the shops, as well as the traders. Why, they even pay in 
 pelts the wage of the clergyman and schoolmaster. Dominie 
 Gideon Schaats. They give him one hundred and fifty 
 beaver skins every year." 
 
 " Well, he is better off than the teacher who birched the 
 horn-book into my pate," laughed Nicholas. "Poor, old fellow ! 
 He earned so few stivers and wampum-beads, that he had to' 
 take in washing after school, to keep soul and body together." 
 
 "Ach, what a shame ! I never thought the folks of New 
 Amsterdam could be so stingy as that," exclaimed Vrouw 
 Van Couwenhoven. " I have always heard they were more 
 open-handed than the Walloons of Beverwyck, and put 
 much more hearty food on their tables." 
 
WJLLIAMSTADT 69 
 
 " Thou art right there, gude vrouw," chuckled her more 
 ponderous half, " More than one morning I caught Master 
 Rick making grimaces at his breakfast of bread and butter- 
 milk, though Madam Van Curler dropped a lump of sugar 
 into the bowl, as big as my thumb-nail." 
 
 " I could not help it," stammered Hendrick apologetically, 
 "Though I did not mean to be rude. If, too, Williamstadt 
 housewives are economical, so are they clean. I never saw 
 people so afraid of dirt. They are scrubbing and scouring 
 from cock-crow to sundown. But they stay up later than 
 we do, especially on winter nights when the sledding is 
 good. Then, they tell me, the whole town is often out until 
 within an hour of midnight. The Walloon girls and boys 
 have, too, another fine custom. Into companies are they 
 all divided, according to age, from the time they have seen 
 as many years as the little Blandina here. Those of the 
 same company go everywhere together, and, when a mem- 
 ber has a birthday, they all meet at his or her home, and 
 hold a royal, roistering regale. With Hans Van Curler, I 
 went to one that was held at the Schuylers' house. By St. 
 Anthony, what fun we had ! There were pasties and sweet- 
 meats enough there. It was Lodowick Schuyler's festival 
 and his father and mother and sisters went out and left us 
 to play and junket and dance just as we pleased." 
 
 "Well, never would I do that, never," declared his 
 mother emphatically. 
 
 " No need to say that," whispered Franz to Rychie, 
 with an amused, little laugh ; for the thrifty, stirring Dutch 
 dame always tickled his quiet sense of humor. 
 
 " We had rare sport, also, when the wild pigeons came," 
 went on Hendrick. " They appeared just after April Fool's 
 day, scores and scores of them, with ducks and wild geese. 
 My, but it was jolly, and all Williamstadt kept holiday and 
 
70 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 went out to shoot them. Pop ! pop ! pop ! could be heard 
 on all sides, and at every pop down tumbled a bundle of 
 feathers. The Walloon lads are very fair marksmen, but I 
 warrant I brought down as many as Hans and Lodowick to- 
 gether." 
 
 "You must have improved, then, in your shooting, since 
 the New Year," snickered small Pieter, but his brother 
 passed over this unnecessary remark in contemptuous 
 silence. 
 
 " I carried home fifteen brace one night, and you may be 
 sure we ate something beside bread and milk and boiled 
 beef, that week." 
 
 " Did the officers and soldiers at the Fort take a hand in 
 the bird-shooting?" asked Grietje. 
 
 " That they did. Every mother's son of them. And oh, 
 that reminds me ! I heard something Rychie, of your New 
 Year visitor who makes his calls at midnight." 
 
 "Really, dear Hendrick ! Oh, what was it you heard ?" 
 cried his sister, now deeply interested. 
 
 "Heer Van Curler well remembered the uproar there was 
 over the deserter and his mysterious escape. His fat sides 
 shook like a jelly-fish, when I told him how you gave the 
 man the kruUers and held your tongue, so he might get 
 away. He thought it so good, that he repeated it to the 
 Commander of the Fort." 
 
 " And what did the Heer Commander say ?" 
 
 "Why, he almost jumped out of his top-boots with sur- 
 prise, and shouted, 'Wat donder is dat ! Confound the 
 saucy hussy I Methinks she deserves to have her flaxen pig- 
 tails snipped off, for letting the Prince's men come back like 
 whipped hounds, leaving their prey behind them.' Then he 
 likewise roared with laughter and declared, ' But truly it was 
 a fine joke, a rare fine joke ! and after all, Charles Morrow 
 
WILLIAMSTADT 71 
 
 -was a taking rascal, and one I should be sorry to see riddled 
 with leaden bullets.' " 
 
 "Oh, is his name Morrow ?" 
 
 " Yes, and he seems to have been very fond of a lark, 
 while he would trade off half his rations to the Indians for 
 colors with which to paint pictures. He made a portrait of 
 the beauty Alida Schuyler. Ah, Sister Grietje, there is a 
 belle for you ! She is the comeliest girl in all the New 
 Netherlands, and it is lucky for you his curly-headed high- 
 ness Sir Ralph Hastings did not seek his beaver pelts in 
 Williamstadt. He would never look at Manhattan jufvrouws 
 .again." 
 
 " What do I care, pray, for Alida Schuyler or Sir Ralph 
 Hastings, either!" exclaimed Grietje pettishly, while 
 Nicholas frowned grimly. 
 
 "Owano told me he saw the British lord at Coney Island, 
 landing from a curious looking black ship that lay just o£E 
 the shore," put in Franz modestly. 
 
 " Then it was nonsense Owano spoke, or else he does not 
 Tcnow Sir Ralph's lineaments. What, forsooth, would a 
 grand Mynheer and a friend of the Director's be doing in 
 "that God-forsaken spot, with the clippers and the conies ? 
 But, hark ! The farmer's bell rings for nine, and the chil- 
 dren should have been on their slaap-bancks* an hour ago. 
 Good-night, Franz ; good-night, Nicholas." And thus sum- 
 marily dismissed, the guests departed, while Grietje bustled 
 about fastening doors and windows, and sweeping the young 
 folks — ^white and black — off to bed. 
 
 From this time, Hendrick found himself quite a person of 
 importance among the boys of the town, who had never been 
 six miles from home. Rip Van Clomp and Rem Hocks- 
 Irasser, especially, flattered and made much of him, and he 
 
 • Sleeping benches. 
 
72 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 was constantly seen in company with those undesirable 
 companions. Soon, too, he began so to neglect his studies, 
 in order to play at marbles or angle for sun and roach fish in 
 the Kolck, that Dominie Luyck, the master of the Latin 
 School, was obliged to complain of him to his father. 
 
 " Alack, alack ! " sighed the worthy Schepen. " No longer 
 can I delay. One week from to-morrow the Angel Gabriel 
 sails for Rotterdan^, and in her, to the dear Fatherland, the 
 lad must go. 
 
 Very rapidly, then, preparations were pushed forward, 
 and only too quickly for the already homesick urchin, the 
 last night he should spend for years beneath the gabled 
 Pearl Street roof had arrived. 
 
 Affecting, too, was the parting interview betwixt parents 
 and son. The sobbing mother mixed plenty of good advice 
 and entreaties with the woolen hose and knit vests she was 
 packing in his box ; and Mynheer bade him ." remember 
 that he had now come to years of discretion, and should en- 
 deavor to act wisely and well." So saying, he gravely pre- 
 sented to him a bundle of goose quills, to one of which was 
 appended a scroll bearing this inscription : " This quill 
 given by Pieter Wolfertsen Van Couwenhoven to his eldest 
 son Hendrick Lucas, in 1661, was a present in 1635, from 
 his grandfather in Holland." 
 
 "Cherish these mijn zoon" he said. " And when thou 
 art a man and hast boys of thine own, follow the custom of 
 thine ancestors and to each give one of these heirloom 
 quills. Tell them of the good and sturdy men of our race 
 who have been gathered to their forefathers, and may the 
 great God bless thee and make thee an honor to thy name." 
 
 So Hendrick was sent out into the world. On a smiling 
 May morning, when the green island shone like an emerald 
 in the sunshine, the Angel Gabriel spread its white wings 
 
WILLIAMSTADT 73 
 
 and flew away with him down the lovely bay, while a tearful 
 group watched the vessel out of sight and waved a long fare- 
 well from the ramparts of Fort Amsterdam. Little, though, 
 did the young voyager dream of the wonderful changes that 
 were to take place ere he beheld the small, quaint, colonial 
 town again. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 PINXTER 
 
 " Pentecost, day of rejoicing, had come. 
 The church of the village 
 Gleaming stood in the morning's sheen. 
 
 Clear was the heaven and blue, and May, with her cap crowned with roses. 
 Stood in her holiday dress in the fields, and the wind and the brooklet 
 Murmured gladness and peace, God's peace." — H. W. Longfellow. 
 
 In the middle of the seventeenth century New York's 
 busy, bustling Maiden Lane was only a fair, green country 
 road, the rural stillness of which was rarely broken by aught 
 but the murmur of the little stream that flowed from a 
 crystal spring, the warble of song-birds in the tree tops, or 
 the merry, light-hearted chatter of the thrifty Dutch maidens 
 who here came to wet and bleach in the sun, the yards upon 
 yards of strong, serviceable linen spun by the firesides and 
 laid away for their marriage portions. Indeed, it was from 
 this practice of the frugal Holland women that T Maagde 
 Paatje (as it was called in the Netherland tongue) won its 
 name. 
 
 Thither, then, one warm, pleasant morning, a fortnight 
 after Hendrick's departure, went Rychie Van Couwenhoven, 
 Katrinka Kock, Geertruyd Vanderen and other of their 
 young friends, each having an armful of the winter's weav- 
 ing which their mothers had sent to be dampened and laid 
 upon the grass. As, too, they knelt beside the creek, dipping 
 the white fabric in the sparkling water, a little bobolink 
 
 74 
 
PINXTER 7S 
 
 tilting and lilting in a willow tree overhead, heard Metje De 
 Groot remark: "So, after his long absence, the fine young 
 Britisher has returned once more to Wolfert Weber's 
 tavern." 
 
 " Ja," responded Katrinka, " I met him yesterday walking 
 on De Heere Straat with the Heer; Director. Oh, but truly, 
 he is a brave-looking beau, and had I seen a few more birth- 
 days and made my first Communion I should dearly love 
 such a one to take me to the corn-huskings and apple-bees. 
 But what do you suppose brings so grand and mighty a gal- 
 lant to New Amsterdam ? " 
 
 " Ah, my brothers were wondering that very thing only 
 this morning. Mayhap, though, Rychie Van Couwenhoven 
 can tell us, for he has called more than once at her home to 
 see her sister Grietje." 
 
 " Do you hear that, Rychie ? " called Katrinka. " They say 
 your family more than any one knows the whys and where- 
 fores of Sir Ralph Hastings' visit to the New Netherlands." 
 
 "Then it is untruths they speak," retorted Rychie. "He 
 has sat in our best room and on our stoop, but we have inter- 
 changed no confidences whatever. I do not like him, and 
 neither does our mother. I have heard mine father say he 
 brought letters to Governor Stuyvesant, and that it is for the 
 fur trade he has come and wishes to barter in wild beasts' 
 skins." 
 
 " Well, that sounds sensible, but surely it is not for 
 peltries that he goes to the Heer Schepen's house ! There 
 are none there, unless it be a red neat's hide," and Katrinka 
 showed a dazzling row of strong white teeth at her own wit. 
 
 " Nay, it is for pretty Grietje, and the love-making more 
 like," put in Geertruyd Vanderen. " All the grown-up girls 
 are ready to pull their muslin caps for him, and of course a 
 young Mynheer wants some pleasuring. You know all work 
 
76 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 and no play makes Jacobus a very dull, stupid splutterkin. 
 Grietje, too, has a wise blue eye, and is aware what a comely 
 couple she and the dark Englishman make together. Least- 
 wise mine Cousin Anneken says so." 
 
 At this free girlish criticism of their elders Rychie flushed 
 angrily and started up, exclaiming, " Whish, Truyde ! I 
 will not let you talk so and make sport of my sister ! You 
 very well know it is Nicholas Bayard who will some day be 
 my brother, and it is only as a friend of the Director's son 
 that this stranger comes under our roof."^ 
 
 " So ! Well, then, you need not show such kommer and 
 turn so red and white ! A moment since your face was the 
 color of my scarlet petticoat, and now it is as white as that 
 of the lady who is said to haunt this lane by night." 
 
 " Oh, Geertruyd, do you believe that story ? " cried Metje, 
 her cheek rivaling Rychie's in its pallor. 
 
 "What story?" asked Katrinka curiously. 
 
 " That a woman all clad in white, walks up and down the 
 Maiden's Path, after the shadows fall.* They say she has 
 walked ever since the New Year, and Cornelius Clopper, the 
 blacksmith, declares he has beheld her with his own eyes. 
 She was pacing very slow and solemn, and always and ever 
 wringing her hands." 
 
 " Oh, but that is sheer nonsense talk," sneered Katrinka. 
 " Did Cornelius Clopper venture near enough to have a good 
 look at her ghostship ? " 
 
 " Not he. He took to his heels like a rabbit, and scudded 
 back to his forge, where, straightway, he fell down in a 
 fit." 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! What a brave Corney. How then did he 
 even know it was a woman ! It might have been Rip Van 
 
 * A legend existed among the early settlers of New York that a white figure haunted 
 the Maiden Lane by night. 
 
PINXTER. 77 
 
 Clomp or some of the other boys who love a bit of deviltry- 
 better than their mush and milk." 
 
 " No, it was not Rip," said Rychie decidedly. " Our old 
 black Elsje is very wise in such things, and she feels sure it is 
 a true phantom ; the phantom of an Indian bride whose brave 
 was killed in battle, and who for grief drowned herself here 
 in the bleaching brook. I would not come here after dark 
 and meet the pale vrouw for a hundred fathoms of sea- 
 want." 
 
 " Nor I," chirped Metje, with a shudder. " And your 
 chatter makes me feel creepy all over." 
 
 " And I am all turning to goose-flesh," laughed Katrinka 
 mockingly. " Ach, but you are a set of silly noodles, with your 
 shivers and your squaw-spectres. The White Lady does not 
 bother me half so much as Old Silverleg putting a stop to 
 the Pinxter merrymaking on the Parade. That is what I 
 call a mean, abominable shame." 
 
 "Tush, Trinka," reproved Geertruyd. " Of our Heer Di- 
 rector it is not seemly so to speak." 
 
 " Then let him more seemly act. First the Shrovetide 
 revels went and now the Pinxter fun. Why, pray, should he 
 spoil our pleasure ? Even the old folks like it not. They 
 say the Governor is too straight-laced by far, and it will do 
 his High Mightiness no good whatever." 
 
 "Well, well, young heads like ours cannot judge," said 
 Rychie. " But look how near the sun is to the noon mark. 
 The linen, too, is all wet and spread ; so let us be going." 
 
 " Ja, for it is the dinner-hour." 
 
 So, still laughing and arguing, the friends, with arms wound 
 about each other, sauntered slowly down the pleasant rural 
 road, while the eavesdropping bobolink flew home to his mates 
 bearing her a tender, juicy worm, together with the scraps of 
 gossip picked up from those "little, chattering, human hens." 
 
78 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 The following day was Sunday, and yVhitsunday or Pinxter 
 at that, and winsome GrietjeVan Couwenhoven was as radiant 
 as the gay Dutch tulips in her flower-garden, as she stood in 
 her neat little bed-chamber arrayed in a full half-dozen richly- 
 embroidered petticoats^ as was the fashion of the day, a trim 
 bodice, elaborately wrought, clasping her round svelte young 
 figure, and a necklet of gold beads shining against the milky 
 whiteness of her throat. Meanwhile, her wealth of fair hair 
 — which she never on Sabbaths and holidays covered with cap 
 or bonnet — was brushed smoothly back and fell in two long 
 heavy plaits far below her waist. 
 
 She was just buckling on the silver girdle received at the 
 festival of St. Nicholas, and to which were hung her Bible 
 and hymn-book, when quick, light footsteps were heard 
 ascending the stairs, and in bounded Rychie, bearing in her 
 hand a bunch of pure white lilies that seemed to have 
 caught and held the Whitsuntide sunshine in their golden 
 hearts. 
 
 " See, Grietje," she exclaimed, " what Nicholas Bayard 
 has brought to you for a Pinxter blumie. Are they not 
 sweet ? and in your girdle you must wear them to the 
 kerck." 
 
 " Ah, ever is Nick thoughtful and kind," said the older 
 maiden, taking the fragrant blossoms from her sister, to 
 fasten at her corsage. But Just then a woolly head was 
 popped in at the half-open door, followed by the meager 
 form of small, black Deborah, clad in a scant robe of green 
 linsey-woolsey, with a string of "Job's tears" around her 
 ebony neck. She held out a daintily arranged nosegay of 
 pink and white English daisies and gracefully drooping 
 ferns. 
 
 "Oh, the cunning, button posies!" cried the much-fa- 
 vored girl. 
 
' THE DARK, HANDSOME CAVALIER."— /"a^e 79. 
 
PINXTER. 79 
 
 " From whence came they, Deb ? " 
 
 " From de big, gran' furrin' gemman. Dat Injun 'Wano 
 fotch 'em, and says de British haas promised to gib him ten 
 stivers for pullin' de brakes in de wood." 
 
 Tucked in the bouquet was a tiny, three-cornered note, 
 which Grietje seized and read eagerly, a becoming roseate 
 glow suffusing cheek and brow, which keen-eyed Rychie 
 noted with a curious contraction of her loyal, little heart. 
 As, too, she accidentally caught a glimpse of the opening 
 words, she muttered indignantly, "Sweet Mistress Marga- 
 ret, forsooth ! If I were mine sister thus would I not be 
 called. The Holland names are good enough for Holland 
 girls." 
 
 When, then, the lilies were cast aside, and the daisies 
 given their place at the fickle damsel's waist, she said en- 
 treatingly, " Oh, Grietje ! Surely poor Nicholas's flowers 
 thou wilt not so disdain ! " 
 
 " Disdain them ! No. never. But both I cannot wear, 
 and Sir Ralph might think me uncivil if I left his gift at 
 home. Many a Pinxter have I sported Nicholas Bayard's 
 blumies." So, gathering up her handkerchief and bead of 
 purple wampum for the collection bag, this Knickerbocker 
 belle hastened to join her mother, and with her walked, as 
 demure as a little nun, with downcast eyes, to St. Nicholas's 
 Church within the Fort. Scarce a word, too, did she vouch- 
 safe the large, fair young man in a long-waisted, big-flapped 
 taffeta coat and bulging breeches, or the dark, handsome 
 cavalier in velvet doublet, gold lace and plumed hat, although 
 both stood at the door of the sanctuary and saluted her with 
 low bows as she passed. 
 
 Rychie lingered behind to put the poor, discarded lilies in 
 water, before following with the younger children, while 
 Schepen Van Couwenhoven had preceded his family some 
 
So A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME. 
 
 time before, and, elad in his long robe of office, sat with the 
 other City Fathers in the pew reserved for their use ; and 
 soon the most profound Sabbath calm descended upon the 
 town, not even a negro or Indian boy daring to shoot a 
 marble or utter a shout in the quiet streets, during morning 
 service. 
 
 Well trained, likewise, were the small Dutch folk within 
 the kerck, and still as bright-eyed mice kept even Pieter, 
 Blandina and little roguish Jacob Kip during the hour ser- 
 mon of Dominie Megapolensis, though they anxiously 
 watched the grains of sand dropping through the hour-glass 
 on the pulpit, and drew a tiny sigh of relief when the clerk 
 rapped sharply with his cane for the discourse to end. 
 
 Church over, however, tongues wagged merrily, and 
 much of the conversation on all sides was of the Governor's 
 unexpected suppression of the Pinxter Monday sports, great 
 dissatisfaction being expressed by old and young. Only the 
 City Fathers maintained a discreet silence on the subject. 
 As for the Director himself, he looked as grim and stolid 
 as the Stadt Huys, and stumped off to Whitehall without a 
 word or greeting for any one. 
 
 Not so, though, his two sons, Balthasar and Nicholas, who 
 joined the Van Couwenhovens, the former saying somewhat 
 moodily, " Pray, good people, do not visit the father's orders 
 on our heads. We like them no better than you, and to 
 make some amends have planned a riding party to the 
 Wedding Place at New Harlem. Will you go with us, 
 Grietje ? " 
 
 " With all my heart, if I can get a horse." 
 
 •' Good ! And it has been arranged that our English 
 friend. Sir Ralph, is to ride with you." 
 
 ' ' Oh, dear, I wish I was grown up," sighed Rychie. 
 "Then I, too, would be of the party. Dear Nick, could 
 
PINXTER. 8 1 
 
 you no' take me on a pillion behind you, even if I am not 
 yet in my teens ? I shall soon be thirteen, and it is so 
 lonely at home since Hendrick went away." And a pleading 
 little face was turned up to young Bayard's, and five soft 
 fingers slipped into his strong, muscular hand. 
 
 " Aye, willingly will I take you, dear heart," he responded. 
 But Grietje interposed, " Tush, Rychie ! I am astonished 
 at you. Most forward and unmannerly is it of you to make 
 such requests. Of course you cannot go. I am sure that 
 the mother would never allow it." 
 
 "No, little Maria; there be times and seasons when small 
 'gooseberries' are not wanted," laughed Sir Ralph, who 
 hovered near. 
 
 "If you please, sir, my name it is Maritje," retorted the 
 tiny maiden, drawing herself up with a dignity that made 
 her elders laugh. Then, as she turned away, she murmured 
 under her breath, " If I am a gooseberry, you will find that 
 I am not a green one." 
 
 Nor did the Englishman's loud " Ho, ho ! What a pep- 
 pery bantam-hen it is ! " tend to increase her liking for him. 
 
 Scarcely better pleased were the worthy Schepen and his 
 wife when they heard of the holiday excursion. 
 
 " Since all is cut and dried, I suppose you must keep to 
 your word and go," said the former. "But, Grietje, I like 
 not this walking and riding with the foreigner. He does 
 not look you full in the eye as an honest man should, and 
 occasion shall I take to tell him that my daughter is to wed 
 only one of her own race and faith." 
 
 " Then will he think I have jumped to great conclusions, 
 and my father will make me appear most unmaidenly," 
 pouted the offended girl, as she went to exchange her best 
 gown for a simple house costume, that being the unvarying 
 custom of thrifty Dutch women on reaching home. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS 
 
 " Good fortune quite a fickle Miss is 
 And in one place will never stay ; 
 The hair from off thy face with kisses 
 She strokes, and then she flies, away." 
 
 H. Heine. 
 
 " Franz, some day this week, can you walk with me to the 
 Kyckout ? " 
 
 It was Rychie who asked this question, one balmy, mellow 
 evening in July. The boy had come over to deliver a bundle 
 of tobacco for Heer Van Couwenhoven, and, as that worthy, 
 pipe in hand, was leaning over the fence, discussing the pros- 
 pective price of beaver-skins with his next door neighbor. 
 Burgomaster Van Cortland, he was nothing loath to linger a 
 few moments with his girl friend on the cozy little stoop and 
 enjoy the pleasant animated scene Pearl Street always pre- 
 sented on a warm summer night. 
 
 The checkerwork fronts of the big-doored, small-windowed 
 mansions which lined one side shone startlingly bright in the 
 last rays of the setting sun. 
 
 Below, the broad river shimmered with a tender twilight 
 hue, and the closely trimmed trees gave the appearance of a 
 toy village to the neat thoroughfare. Neighboring burghers 
 gathered in social groups to smoke and talk over the doings 
 of the town or latest news from Fatherland ; while their gude 
 82 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS 83 
 
 vrouws also visited from stoop to stoop exchanging confi- 
 dences, receipts and patterns of quilts and chair-backs won- 
 derful to behold ; merrily too, the children played in the road 
 and young people wandered in the prim, box-bordered gar- 
 dens now brilliant with tulips, ragged robins, gold cups and 
 pink and lavender hyacinths. 
 
 " Will you go as far as the Kyckout with me ? " repeated 
 Rychie. " For I have not had a good long walk outside the 
 walls this year. Other summers Hendrick and I often went 
 there, but I am afraid to go alone, or with just the girls. I am 
 afraid of the wild horses." 
 
 " Certainly I vill go, vith the greatest of pleasure," re- 
 sponded Franz, highly gratified ; " I vish to fill Hendrick's 
 place for you as much as I can. By the vay, have you 
 heard from him ?" 
 
 " Oh, no. It is not time yet. It takes a vessel many weeks 
 to cross the great sea and, ah me ! how Flip and I do miss 
 him ! Flip is like a twin separated from his other half. He 
 begged hard to go with my brother, but they do not like 
 black servants in Rotterdam, so he had to stay behind, and 
 it fills me with sorrow to see the way he mopes around." 
 
 " I vonder if Hendrick vill chance to run across the 
 painter soldier, Charles Morrow," remarked Franz musingly, 
 for he felt strangely interested in the stowaway who had 
 taken so much notice of his little picture. 
 
 " That is not at all likely. One went to England and the 
 other to Holland. The Old World is a very big place. But 
 what 'day, Franz, can we have our ramble ? " 
 
 " I might go to-morrow. I think both Dirck and Dinorah 
 vill then be at home and there is not much trade now at 
 the shop." 
 
 " So soon ! Oh, that is fine ! Then I will be ready in 
 the early afternoon and we will have a goodly chat, while 
 
84 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 mayhap \<iq, can find a few late strawberries in the long 
 grass." 
 
 " I hope so. But now I must hie me home at once. I 
 only came to fetch the paper of fresh ' Virginia.' A ship is 
 just in from the Southern Colony." 
 
 " So ! Well if you must go, I will step down the street for 
 a word with Geertruyd Vanderen. She promised me some 
 seeds of her crimson hollyhock. Good-night, dear Franz, 
 and sugared dreams." 
 
 " ' Sugared dreams ! ' Not often are they that," thought 
 the lad, as he wended his way to the gloomy old house on 
 the canal where, he however, found the slave Dinorah, — who 
 had a very warm corner in her heart for the boyish waif — 
 waiting with a dish of sweet baked apples and cream that she 
 had prepared for his " night-cap," before retiring. 
 
 " Vhere is the baas ? " he inquired, as he enjoyed the un- 
 expected tid-bit with hearty gusto. 
 
 " Lors, honey, he am gone out as usual. Dirck Van Boot 
 is like the bats and owls and hawks. He lubs to fly by 
 night. Dere am berry 'sterious goin's-on in dis house, and 
 it am a goot ting you sleep so sound.^ Mebbe keep your head 
 from turnin' white, like my pore ole cocoanut." 
 
 " Oh, you dear foolish old Dinorah ! " laughed Franz in 
 his soft, caressing voice that was so winning to true womanly 
 souls, and winding an arm about the ancient negress he im- 
 printed a kiss upon her withered, wrinkled cheek. 
 
 " Bress his bright face," she muttered as she lighted his 
 candle and watched him disappear aloft. " If Dirck am 
 plottin' mischief agin dat chile, he got to do it to de ole 
 woman fust. Dat I do swar." 
 
 As Dinorah said, Franz was a sound sleeper. Made happy 
 too, to-night, by the savory apples and cream and by the 
 prospect of a pleasant outing on the morrow, his head had 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS 85 
 
 hardly touched the pillow before the drowsy little god waved 
 his poppy wand and sent him floating away, away to the 
 beautiful Land of Nod — that enchanting land where all are 
 equal and earthly cares are all forgotten. Loudly Jan Gil- 
 lertsen the koeck, or bell-ringer, chimed the hour of nine. 
 Franz heard it not. His dreams were a fantastic medley of 
 black faces and white ; blue waters and green rolling pas- 
 ture-lands. A vision of his mother came to him beckoning, 
 beckoning, and then she faded into old Vrouw Van Boot, 
 while like an echo from past ages he fancied he heard the 
 voice of his long-lost and scarce-remembered father, calling 
 him from over the ocean. 
 
 Was it that that awoke him or was there an odd thumping 
 noise below? He could not tell, but all at once he found himself 
 sitting up on his sloping slaai>-banck, listening intently, with 
 strained ears, and the bewilderment a sudden recall to the 
 world of reality often causes. Profound, silence for an in- 
 stance, and then, again, stealthy footsteps and the dragging of 
 some heavy objects certainly broke the stillness of the night. 
 
 " It must be that robbers are breaking in," was Franz' first 
 idea, for though the modest abode seemed to offer scanty 
 inducements for plunder he knew the tobacconist was be- 
 lieved to be far richer than he appeared, and to have much 
 treasure hidden away. " Veil, the testy miser deserves to 
 lose his precious guilders, vhile vhy should I risk my life to 
 save them ? " he thought. 
 
 But, presently, better feelings triumphed, and he deter- 
 mined to rescue his master's property if it was in his power. 
 His curiosity, too, was excited by discerning a long, narrow 
 skiff floating on the canal beneath his window. 
 
 " By St. Anthony ! The rascals came by vater ! " he ex- 
 claimed, and hastily donning his coat and trousers, he stole 
 on tip-toe down the rickety stairs, every creak of which 
 
86 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 made him pause and tremble, for fear of discovery. To his 
 surprise, however, the first floor was just as he had left it, 
 the shop and apartments at the rear being as dark and silent 
 as might be expected at midnight. " Perhaps, after all, it 
 vas but a dream," he murmured. 
 
 But as he stopped to consider, the low murmur of sup- 
 pressed voices fell on his ears, and seemed to issue from 
 beneath his feet. 
 
 " Vhy, they must be in the cellar," he concluded, in 
 some surprise, and shivering from head to foot, although the 
 night was almost sultry, he softly opened a door leading to 
 an underground basement, and crept cautiously down a 
 
 , steep ladder. Soon a glimmer of light in the distance 
 assured him that the marauders were at work in an inner 
 room, where the finest brands of snuff and cigars were sup- 
 posed to be stored, and of which Heer Van Boot alone car- 
 ried the key. 
 
 With pale face and startled eyes, he silently made his way 
 to a long, narrow crack in the wall and peered through, 
 when, so great and overwhelming was the shock he received, 
 that his brain reeled and a sick faintness seemed for the 
 
 •moment to paralyze all his faculties. " Could this be a 
 
 ! nightmare ? " he wondered stupidly, or did he really see 
 three stalwart men — masked men at that- — in the long, dark 
 cloaks and slouched hats of typical desperadoes ? No, he 
 was not deceived. They were there, and were rolling up 
 and throwing into boxes the richest of fabrics, utensils of 
 gold and silver, and precious glittering stones, all of which 
 
 ' they bore up a gang-plank and out of a low door opening on 
 Broad Street and the canal. 
 
 " Robbers ? Aye, without doubt ; but Dirck Van Boot 
 was not the sufferer, for he himself stood in their midst, 
 
 f giving orders in low tones, or turning aside to consult in 
 
"1 SEE NOTHING, NOR Uo i HEAR AVaYlT."-Pageij. 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS 87 
 
 whispers with one who appeared to be a sort of commander, 
 and whose figure the boy fancied he recognized, in spite of 
 the visor which concealed his features and his voluminous 
 mantle. 
 
 " Oh, vat does it mean ! vat can it mean ! " groaned the 
 distressed little watcher. " Bad and cruel as Dirck is, 
 surely, surely he cannot be a — a — " but the last word was 
 merged in a frightened gasp, as a small dry stick lying on 
 the earthen floor snapped sharply under his feet. At the un- 
 wonted sound, Dirck wheeled round with an oath, exclaim- 
 ing, " What in donder is that ?" 
 
 Franz had only just time to slink into a dark corner and 
 hide behind a bale of tobacco, before the man appeared, 
 lantern in hand, at the entrance of the stone cellar, glancing 
 anxiously to the right and left. 
 
 " I see nothing. Nor do I hear aught now," he said at 
 last, returning after a moment of breathless suspense. " It 
 must have been a rat, but this sort of work makes one quake 
 at his own shadow." 
 
 "Aye," responded another voice, "but the ducats, my 
 man, think of the Virginia ducats ! And drink, drink to our 
 enterprise ! It will steady your pulse." 
 
 Years older, looked poor, bewildered Franz, and years 
 older did he feel, when he again ascended the stairs to his 
 small attic room beneath the eaves, while so overstrained 
 was every nerve, he almost screamed aloud at sight of a 
 woman's form standing in the middle of the floor. 
 
 It was Dinorah, and there was a gray, ashy tinge to her 
 dark skin, as she caught him in her arms, crying, "Oh, 
 Franz, Franz, why did you leab your bed dis unlucky night, 
 and what — what is it you hab seen ? " 
 
 In a few concise, sobbing words he told her all. 
 
 " Den, like Heer Adam and Vrouw Eve in de garden ob 
 
is A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 Eden, you hab tasted de fruit ob good and ebil, and your 
 eyes is opened to de bad naked truf," said the aged negress 
 solemnly. " But, boy, if you wants to lib out your 'lotted 
 days, neber dar' to breave to anoder soul what you hab seen 
 to-night. You can talk to old Dinorah, but to no one else. 
 Promise me dis. Promise it by de memory ob our bressed 
 dead-an'-gone missus, who wrastled wid de Lord for dat son 
 ob hers many an' many a time, and who, I tank Heaben, am 
 took from de shame to come." 
 
 "I promise it, Dinorah," said Franz, awed by her heart- 
 broken fervor, and then she sat beside him and held his 
 hand until he fell asleep. 
 
 The Kyckout or Look- Out was a high point of rocks jut- 
 ting out into the East River, at about the place where Eighth 
 Street now ends. It was a pleasant walk from the compact 
 little settlement of four hundred houses bordering on the 
 bay, over the green, rolling land of upper Manhattan .; the 
 only drawback being the herds of horses, branded with their 
 owners' names, and there turned out to graze during the 
 summer months. 
 
 Some of these, born and raised among the rocks and 
 fields, were as wild as the buffaloes and bison of the Western 
 prairies, and a stampede was always to be dreaded. But 
 Rychie felt quite courageous with Franz and his gun by her 
 side, and gaily set off past the Vly block-house and Half- 
 Moon battery, and out of the Water Gate ; although it 
 struck her that her companion appeared unusually grave and 
 absent-minded. 
 
 " A stiver for your thoughts, Franz," she laughed, as they 
 paused for a short rest on the shady bank of the fresh-water 
 pond known as the Kolck. ' ' Your wits seem wool-gathering." 
 
 "Yes, I fear that is the truth, but my thoughts I cannot 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOV/S 89 
 
 sell, and you must pardon my stupidity, for not so veil as 
 usual did I sleep last night." 
 
 " No, how was that ? " 
 
 " Oh, very strange noises were in the house. At break- 
 fast Dirck said they vere made by the rats and mice, and 
 asked if they kept me avake, and if I took them to be 
 ghosts." And the boy laughed a bitter, scornful little laugh, 
 at the remembrance. 
 
 " Ach, of late, always does our talk come round to ghosts ! " 
 exclaimed Rychie. " For we still hear of the pale vrouw 
 taking her night ramble in the Maiden's Path ; and even on 
 the Kolck here they, say the wraith of an old Indian sachem 
 comes in his bark canoe, and that the sound of his paddles 
 may oft be heard. How I wish he would glide out now 
 from under the trees and tell to us something of the future. 
 I would like to know whether it will really be true, as Nicho- 
 las Bayard thinks, that New Amsterdam will grow and 
 spread into a great city, as big as old Amsterdam in Hol- 
 land. Why, Nick thinks that a hundred or two hundred 
 years hence it may even reach as high up as the Kissing- 
 Bridge across the Tamkill. Wouldn't that be marvelous ? 
 If it does, I wortder what just here will stand ?" And the 
 eyes of the imaginative little maiden wandered dreamily 
 over the fair, sweet, rural landscape.. Naught, however, whis- 
 pered of the sighs and groans to arise from that peaceful 
 spot, nor of the Tombs prison that, in the course of centu- 
 ries, would cover the skating and fishing place of the 
 Knickerbocker youths and the haunt of the Manhattoe 
 chieftain. 
 
 " The Kissing- Bridge," said Franz, as they sauntered on, 
 " a long vay is that, but Owano and I vent there on Pinx- 
 ter Monday. To spear eels did ve go, and there I saw 
 Jufvrouw Grietje riding vith Sir Ralph Hastings." 
 
90 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAMS. 
 
 " Yes, with him she went to a Pinxter dance at New 
 Haarlem and came home so late that the father was sorely 
 angry. Ke likes not the gay young Britisher." 
 
 " He is right, for much I fear his deeds are as dark as his 
 face, and, Rychie, he is not fit to kiss thy pretty sister." 
 
 " To kiss her ! " 
 
 " Aye, for I saw him steal von kiss from her lips, upon the 
 Kissing-Bridge. ' It is the custom of the country, I believe,' 
 he remarked." 
 
 " And what did Grietje do ? " 
 
 " She tossed her yellow head with indignation, ' Ja, Myn- 
 heer,' I overheard her say, for I vas down by the kill right 
 under the bridge, ' Ja, Mynh'eer, it is the custom for the 
 Holland boys, for those who are like our brothers and with 
 whom we have learned our Heidelberg and cracked our 
 Paas eggs ; but for others, no, never ! " 
 
 '' That was a good answer, was it not ? " 
 
 " Yes, but Sir Ralph did not mind it^ He only bent, down 
 saying : ' Oh, sweet Margaret, I prithee think that with 
 thee I learned my Heidelberg." 
 
 " Oh, the bold, rude trifler ! I do not believe he ever 
 learned it at all. But what more did you hear ? " 
 
 " No more ; for just then the horses started up, and they 
 galloped off, vhile Owano began to sputter and fume and shake 
 his fist at the Englishman. ' Owano no like Yengee man,' 
 he muttered. 'Yengee man got false tongue. He say, 
 " Bring brakes I gib you ten stivers." Owano go tc the voods, 
 he pull much leetle leaves, but no stivers does he see. Ugh ! 
 No like Yengee man.' " 
 
 Rychie laughed heartily at Franz' mimicry of the Indi'in 
 lad's wrath, while shortly after they reached the Kyckout 
 and spent a halcyon hour perched on the high rocks, gazing 
 out over the broad shimmering river and beyond to the forest- 
 
SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS 9I 
 
 crowned banks of Long Island. Sewanhacky, or the Isle of 
 Shells, the Red Men called it in their soft, musical tongue. 
 
 Indeed, the verdure-clad hills were casting long sun-down 
 shadows, ere they, at length, turned their footsteps home- 
 ward, and, hand in hand waded through the long grass which 
 almost reached their waists, while often their feet caught in 
 the wild pea-vines interlaced through it, and frequently a 
 grape-vine stretched out finger-like tendrils to clutch them 
 as they passed. 
 
 " Such a charming promenade ! Not so happy have I 
 been since St. Nicholas Eve," declared Franz, who had cast 
 aside the somber feelings left by his exciting night, and with 
 the light-heartness of his mother's race lived only in the 
 present, reveling in the sunshine, the summer beauty and 
 the companionship of his little friend. 
 
 Rychie was about to agree when the tramp, tramp as of a 
 marching army suddenly sounded on the air, and with a 
 quick glance to the west she stopped, screaming in terrified 
 tones, " Oh, Franz ! Franz ! the wild horses ! " 
 
 Too true ! An enormous herd of the pasturing beasts 
 loomed up like a dark cloud not far away, and evidently in- 
 furiated by some unknown cause was madly bearing doWn 
 upon them in a great seething, snorting, panic-stricken 
 mass. 
 
 What should they do ? Where should they run ? About 
 a quarter of a mile distant, a grove of chestnut trees offered 
 a possible refuge, and towards this they scurried, the boy 
 almost dragging poor Rychie over the ground. But the un- 
 dergrowth of vines retarded them sadly, and, at length, the 
 trembling girl tripped, fell, and lay still, completely exhausted 
 panting, " Leave me ! Leave me and try and save yourself, 
 for not another step can I go." 
 
 Leave her indeed ! The gallant little Frenchman would 
 
92 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 have been trampled to atoms first. Placing he^- behind him, 
 he bravely, though with a white, set countenance, faced the 
 oncohiing, frantic horde, his gun leveled, ready to fire at the 
 head of the leader a powerful gray animal with waving mane 
 and tail streaming out like a pennant ; the flash of whose 
 rolling, blood-shot eyes, he could already discern. 
 
 On the herd came, steadily, relentlessly, crushing many 
 a tiny, weak colt beneath their hoofs, in the mad unreasoning 
 rush. Crouching, Rychie whispered, " Good-bye, dear 
 Franz," and covering her face, tried to remember her prayers. 
 
 " Five minutes more, and, like the poor leetle horses, all 
 trodden and mangled, ve too, shall lie," thought the lad, but 
 the next instant a rapturous shout of " Hola ! hola ! Here, 
 quick, this vay ! " escaped him, for across the green plain a 
 fearless rider on a fleet-footed steed came speeding, and, before 
 Rychie could at all comprehend her unexpected deliver- 
 ance from a violent death, muscular Nicholas Bayard had 
 stooped and lifted her, like a baby, onto the saddle before 
 him ; Franz had scrambled up behind and they were all 
 flying toward the town. 
 
 But not before the pawing, prancing, half-crazed creatures 
 were so close that they could feel their hot, fiery breaths 
 upon their cheeks, and it was a race for life to outstrip them. 
 
 Fortunately, however, this was accomplished, and they 
 whizzed through the city gate. 
 
 " O Nick, good Nick ! Whatever can I do to show my 
 gratitude ?" sobbed the unnerved girl, when the young man 
 set her gently down at her father's door. 
 
 " Speak not of gratitude, dear little one, for always shall I 
 thank my lucky stars that I chanced to turn off the Boston 
 Highway to-day. Turned off just to see if the wild raspber- 
 ries were getting red, and so was there to see the stampede, 
 and thy danger. But — " and now she fancied there was a sad 
 
SUNSHJNE AND SHADOWS 
 
 93 
 
 .look in the kindly eye, and a sad note in the kindly voice, 
 " It would make me more at ease if thou could'st watch thine 
 .sister a bit and advise me if her manner and movements be 
 different from the ordinary. Do not think I would make a 
 spy of thee, child. I only desire thee to keep thy blue eyes 
 •open. It is forGrietje's own good, I ask it, and the good of us 
 all, while often have I heard the Heer Schepen say that 'a 
 very old head has the little Maritje on her young shoulders.' 
 Dost thou understand, sweetheart ? " 
 
 And with a knowing smile, Rychie answered, " Ja, ja, I 
 understand, dear Nicholas." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE WHITE LADY 
 
 " Dear, you should not stay so late. 
 Twilight is not good for maidens ; 
 Should not loiter in the glen, 
 In the haunts of goblin men." 
 
 — C. G. RossetH. 
 
 July once over, the remainder of the bright, jocund sum- 
 mer sped bUthely by in the social little Dutch colony, its 
 monotony broken by many homely, festive gatherings in the 
 way of berrying-parties, roof -raisings, and apple and husking 
 bees ; besides the great long-looked-forward-to St. Bartholo- 
 mew Kermis or Cattle Fair, always a ten days' excitement at 
 the close of every August. 
 
 It was at this time, too, that Rychie attained a new dig- 
 nity. She entered her teens and the quaint grown-up 
 demureness sometimes assumed by young girls, — 
 
 " Standing with reluctant feet. 
 Where the brook and river meet,'» 
 
 sat rather prettily on her cheery, plump little personality. 
 
 " Oof, but the small one seems older than Grietje there 
 with all her nineteen years and her wisdom teeth, though 
 much do I fear the very best of common sense has not 
 sprouted with them,' declared the mother, casting an anx- 
 ious glance at her eldest daughter. For truly during these 
 94 
 
THE WHITE LADY 95 
 
 monttis the fair Jufrouw Van Couwenhoven was strangely 
 unlike herself. Often, too, did she grow restless beneath 
 the steady, puzzled gaze her young sister bent upon her, 
 and once exclaimed impatiently, " Pray, Rychie, why look 
 you at me so reproachfully ? Such staring is very annoying, 
 as well as unmannerly." 
 
 " But the reason I could not tell her," said the little maid 
 to her confidant Franz, " I could not say to her that it was 
 because I was surprised at her disregard of the father's 
 wishes. Though she knows he and the mother like it not, 
 she will talk and dance with the British Sir Ralph more 
 than with anyone else, and the cold shoulder turns to 
 Nicholas Bayard— dear, good Nicholas, whom I would love 
 to serve and please. Truly sometimes I think it is bewitched 
 my sister is." 
 
 So October came with its golden days and nutty spoils to 
 delight the active boys, and one chill evening, after a busy 
 day at the Stadt Huys, the Schepen heaved a deep sigh of 
 content as he drew his arm-chair into the cozy ingle-side 
 and watched his vrouw bringing out the big spinning-wheel 
 from its accustomed corner. 
 
 " Like frost does it feel to-night, and soon now the winter 
 will be upon us again," he remarked. 
 
 "Ja," responded the dame. "And with the warm days 
 the lingering, loitering ways of summer should be laid aside. 
 Come ! come ! girls. To work ! Blandina, fetch your 
 knitting-pins and make the green yarn stocking grow beneath 
 your fingers. Rychie, I wish you would make some use of 
 the instruction given you by Master Van Hoboken at the 
 school, and write out the recipe for my famous krullers. It, 
 as a great favor, have I promised to Madam Stuyvesant, 
 though to no one but the Director's lady would I think of 
 granting it." 
 
96 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 " I will do SO, mother," responded Rychie, who was peer- 
 ing out of the window, wondering what had become of 
 Grietje. Upstairs, then, she ran, and despatched Deborah 
 in quest of pen and paper. 
 
 " In Missy Grietje's room I done find de quill and dis 
 piece ob paper lay dere on de floor," said the little slave as 
 she returned, holding out a long, narrow slip. 
 
 " Good ! for just the right size is it for the recipe," re- 
 plied her young mistress, but the next instant she gasped 
 and turned pale on perceiving that there was writing on 
 one side of the sheet. Then almost mechanically, and 
 without a thought of prying into her sister's secrets, she 
 read : 
 
 "The Maiden Lane — thanks to the absurd myth of the 
 White Lady — is the safest spot. Be brave, my dear one, and 
 meet me there soon after nightfall. Fail not, too, to fetch with 
 you the strong box containing your gold chains, silver por- 
 ringer, seawant and guilders. Hide it beneath the ever- 
 greens as we arranged. A boat rowed by Indian water-dogs 
 will await us on the river below, and in Breucklyn, by special 
 license, can we be married. R. H." 
 
 As in a flash, the sensible child, old beyond her j'^ears, 
 comprehended it all. Motioning Deborah to leave her, she 
 dropped into a chair, exclaiming, " Oh, oh, oh ! Can it be 
 that Grietje is already gone ! Would she really make us all 
 so unhappy ? Surely, she must be bewitched to dare to 
 face the pale vrouw, even for one that she loves." 
 
 The next moment, however, she started up again with a 
 sudden determination. " But, perchance, I also must face 
 her if I would stop mine sister ere it be. too late. The very 
 thought makes my blood freeze in my veins. But, there, I 
 
THE WHITE LADY 97 
 
 can do it. For Grietje's sake I can do it, and for our 
 parents and for Nicholas whom I promised to serve." 
 
 Truly our little colonial dame was formed of the stuff of 
 which heroines are made, and now, without giving herself 
 further time to think, 'she slipped softly downstairs, un- 
 bolted the rarely opened front door and darted out into the 
 night. 
 
 But it appeared to her like a special providence when, 
 just without the gate, she encountered Franz, accompanied 
 by Owano. Waiving then the ceremony of a greeting, she 
 cried, " Run, Owano, run as fast as your feet can fly to the 
 Bayard Bowery and beg Herr Nicholas to haste to the 
 Maiden Path without delay, while, Franz, do thou come with 
 me, for I am in sore trouble." So imperative, indeed, were 
 her words and manner that both boys obeyed her behest 
 without question. 
 
 Meanwhile, we must revert to foolish young Grietje, 
 whose head having been turned by a flattering tongue, had 
 in an evil hour agreed to forsake home, family and country 
 for the gallant looking stranger, the dashing manners of 
 whom appeared so attractive beside the plain, staid ways of 
 the Manhattan men. 
 
 Poor, innocent, simple, little Dutch girl ! At the last 
 moment her heart almost misgave her, and a surging wave 
 of home-sickness threatened to overwhelm her as she 
 plucked a few frost-kissed artemesias from the garden and 
 pressed her lips in a passionate farewell against the cold 
 bricks of her childhood's home, while she murmured 
 between her chattering teeth, " Cruel, cruel was it of Ralph 
 to choose that haunted spot for me to meet him in ! " 
 
 Nevertheless, with a dark mantle gathered lightly about 
 her, and quite unaware that the tell-tale note had slipped from 
 beneath her bodice, she flitted like a shadow down the quiet 
 7 
 
gS A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 street, which was almost deserted at this hour, past Cor- 
 neUus Clopper's forge glowing like a fiery red' eye on the 
 corner of Maiden Lane, and sought the ancient willow tree 
 standing leafless and gaunt in the pale moonlight. In this 
 a screech owl had taken the place of the gossipy bobolink. 
 Once a shimmer of white made her start back in affright, 
 but a moment's thought assured her it was but the linen on 
 the bleaching-ground, and, trying to still the rapid, suffocat- 
 ing beating of her heart, she waited and watched with 
 hearing painfully alert and nerves strung to that high tension 
 which comes very near to breaking. 
 
 Longer and longer grow the shadows ; higher and higher 
 rides the moon ! A rustle in the bushes makes her jump, 
 but she does not see two small people creeping coftly up be- 
 hind her. 
 
 " Oh, why does he not come ? " she inwardly cries. 
 
 The owl hoots dismally, but above its doleful cry may dis- 
 tinctly be heard the tread of a heavy footstep crunching the 
 dry grass. Sir Ralph beyond a doubt! and with a cry of 
 relief and joy Grietje turns to encounter — what ? A tall, 
 weird, white form ! A spectral-looking form ! No delusion 
 this time, but a veritable figure which, with trailing robes and 
 waving hands, comes slowly gliding directly toward her. One 
 wild, terrified shriek startles the night-bird from his perch, 
 and the girl gasping, " 'Tis she ! 'tis the White Lady ! " 
 shivers, sways and falls to the ground in a deathlike faint. 
 
 Almost as frightened also was the watching Rychie, but 
 her anxiety regarding her sister overpowered her fear of the 
 apparition, and in a twinkling she had cleared the bank, her 
 plump arms were round the unconscious maiden's neck, her 
 soft cheek pressed close to hers, and she was wailing, — " O 
 Grietje ! Grietje ! Can it be that thou art dead ? Open 
 thine eyes and look at me. See, it is Rychie, thy own sister 
 
"I ^jfc^ijiyfc 
 
 UT UP YOUR WEAPON, OUTLAW ! "—/"a^^ 99, 
 
THE WHITE LADY 99 
 
 Rychie, who followed to beg thee to return to our home. 
 Franz, too, is over yonder and he will let naught do us a 
 harm." 
 
 " By all the powers of evil, what is this hubbub about ? 
 Maria here ! Margaret swooning ! Confusion ! This is a 
 pretty coil ! " and Sir Ralph Hastings, bearing a dark lantern, 
 strode upon the scene. " But hist ! There is no time to lose. 
 My pinke waits below and she must go, in her senses or out 
 of them." 
 
 So saying, he lifted the fainting girl, and would have 
 carried her off then and there, had not Rychie, with the 
 strength of desperation, clung to him like a leach, retarding 
 every movement and screaming and sobbing, — " No, no ! 
 You shall not take her thus when she has no will or knowl- 
 edge whatsoever." 
 
 "And think you I am to be balked by a little spitfire wench 
 like you ! Beshrew me no ! We must be off ere the tide 
 turns. Confound you, girl ! Let go my doublet and cease 
 that to-do ! You will bring the whole town down upon us." 
 
 "I care not. For O, Sir Ralph, if Grietje leaves us so, the 
 mother's heart will break and our father's head be turned to 
 gray, while Nicholas — Nicholas '' 
 
 "Is at hand to speak for himself," shouted a clear, manly 
 voice, and young Bayard, closely followed by Owano, came 
 crashing through a neighboring hedge. 
 
 " Thanks be to the great God that I am here in season." 
 
 Without a " by your leave," then, he took quiet possession of 
 the still oblivious damsel, and as Sir Ralph, scowling with rage, 
 drew a dirk from his belt, continued : " Put up your weapon, 
 outlaw ! With such vermin I would not deign to fight. 
 But, unless from this spot you depart at once, in the bleach- 
 ing-brook shall you be ducked." 
 
 " I do not stir without Mistress Van Couwenhoven, sirrah ! 
 
100 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 She is my promised wife, and my wife she must, and shall, 
 be." 
 
 " Never, that I swear. Long have I had my suspicions, 
 but until to-day they could not be proven. Now, however, 
 I know. Hearken, Rychie ! No English noble is this ; no 
 English noble whatever. He is the pirate captain, Evan 
 Jones, of whom full often you have heard. He is the bold 
 wicked sea-robber who seized and captured Henry Appel's 
 ship, the Prophet Daniel, and who has had many a poor 
 trapped slave sold at the Coffee House. Off Coney Island 
 his black-flagged bark now does lie, and 'tis thither he would 
 have taken our dear Grietje. To think of her being a pirate's 
 bride ! But, Mynheer, for her sake, one chance shall you 
 have. To-night you are free to leave these shores forever, 
 but if you do not go, to-morrow all shall the Heer Director 
 know, and then I warrant that in' irons will you be borne to 
 the ' keep ' within the Fort." 
 
 The exposed man ground his teeth with rage, but Nicholas 
 was a young giant in height and strength, and his muscle 
 commanded respect. 
 
 " So, by the arch fiend, the jig's up ! And it is you, you 
 copper-skinned imp, and that blockhead of a Dutch ghost, I 
 have to thank for it ! " and, shaking his fist at Owano as well 
 as breathing vengeance on all the inhabitants of New Amster- 
 dam, the discomfited Sir Ralph vanished in the darkness. 
 
 But where was Franz during this exciting interview under 
 the willow ? 
 
 Not far distant you may be certain ; but when Rychie 
 sprang to the aid of her unconscious sister, an innate deli- 
 cacy held him back, while longing to be of assistance he con- 
 cluded to give chase to the phantom, which he proceeded to 
 do, with a courage that would have made many an older 
 youth open his eyes in admiring astonishment. 
 
THE WHITE LADY 101 
 
 The lad, in spite of his bringing up, was peculiarly free 
 from superstition, and he had long been curiously anxious to 
 solve the mystery of the White Lady. Now an opportunity 
 presented itself, and he seized upon it. 
 
 Away then he scampered after the pallid form as it sud- 
 denly turned and beat a retreat ; nor did it " dissolve into 
 thin air '' as might have been expected of a conventional, 
 well-bred spirit, even if that spirit was once a Manhattoe 
 squaw. On the contrary, discovering that it was pursued, it 
 broke into a positive run, and bounded over the ground with 
 a solidity that savored far more of this world than of the 
 sphere celestial. 
 
 This only helped to increase Franz's curiosity, and, being 
 on his mettle as well as very lithe and fleet of foot, he with 
 a slight exertion soon succeeded in overtaking the fleeing 
 figure, grasped at its fluttering white draperies and actually 
 tore them from off the wraith. 
 
 " Bless me, do phantom ladies vear boots and braid their 
 hair in a queue," was his first amused thought. 
 
 The next instant a rough hand was on his throat, and hoarse, 
 strangely familiar tones hissed in his ear, "Silence! One 
 word, and I will kill you as I would a red wolf ! " While 
 far more frightened and aghast than if he had indeed en- 
 countered a being from the " Land of Shadows," the boy 
 staggered back to rejoin his friends feeling as though 
 his small world had been suddenly turned topsy-turvy, 
 and it was his sorry fate to always play the detective un- 
 awares. 
 
 Amazed and bewildered enough were the honest Schepen 
 and his wife when Nicholas Bayard, with a stern, set coun- 
 tenance, strode into the cheerful kitchen and laid pale droop- 
 ing Grietje on the wooden settle, and astonished beyond 
 measure were they at the story he had to relate. 
 
102 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAMS 
 
 It was, too, a very depressed and mortified young woman, 
 who, an hour later, listened to Nicholas's discoveries regarding 
 the soi-disant Sir Ralph, and sobbed out her shame and sor- 
 row on Wolfert Van Couwenhoven's fatherly shoulder. 
 
 " Oh, mijn vader, I am indeed miserable," she cried. " For 
 this bad, untrustworthy pirate has deceived and robbed me 
 as well as the seamen of the Spanish main. All mine 
 gold beads, the porringer of silver and my kirstydt and birth- 
 day guilders he persuaded me to pack in the strong box and 
 hide under the evergreens, and every one of those has he 
 taken." 
 
 "What! Your beautiful neck beads. O, alackaday ! " 
 groaned her mother. 
 
 "Chut, chut! That is no matter, no matter whatever," 
 said Mynheer soothingly. " Since I have my first-born, my 
 white lambkin, safe from the sea-wolf, I care for nothing 
 else. Do not weep for thy trinkets and gew-gaws, mijn 
 kleintje, but thank the good Lord and thine sister that thou 
 hast been protected from a worse fate than a green grave in 
 the burying-ground. Rychie seems to be the guardian 
 angel of our roof-tree." 
 
 " That is the truth," murmured Dame Van Couwenhoven, 
 and drawing her second daughter to her side she lovingly 
 stroked her flaxen braids. --^ 
 
 " Yes," stammered Greitje, " it makes-^e tremble to think 
 of my so narrow escape. The little one was truly kind and 
 sisterly to brave the White Lady in order to stop my folly, 
 and I shall ever remember it. Oh, that dreadful pale 
 woman ! I can see her yet ! and I shall always dread the 
 Maiden Lane hereafter. Still more, though, do I dread the 
 talking there will be in the town. The birds and bats carry 
 such news very fast, and the old vrouws will knit so much 
 gossip into their winter hose that Grietje Van Couwenhoven 
 
THE WHITE LADY 1 03 
 
 ■will be ashamed to show her face at the huskings and the 
 iea-drinkings." 
 
 " Mayhap Greitje Bayard might braver be," whispered 
 Nicholas. But ere the blushing girl could reply save by a 
 grateful glance from her violet eyes, the door was burst 
 ■open and Flip came tumbling head over heels into the 
 center of the room. 
 
 For months the negro had not looked so happy. His 
 mouth was stretched in an almost grotesque grin, his ebony 
 ■countenance shone and his whole frame seemed quivering 
 with pleasurable excitement. Waving something above his 
 head, he gleefully shouted, " O, baas, baas ! De Spotted 
 ■Cow from Holland hab jist weighed anchor in Coentie's 
 Slip, and to me de schipper gabe dis letter and packet to 
 fotch to you. He say dey am from Baas Hendrick. My 
 ■own leetle Baas Hendrick." 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE FLIGHT 
 
 To the wood ! to the wood ! a life of enjoyment, 
 With spirits and beasts was my sole employment 
 The fairies and stags with their antlers tall, 
 Without any fear, approach'd me all. 
 
 — H. Heine. 
 
 Flip's abrupt announcement was glatd tidings indeed to 
 the whole household, every member of which had sadly- 
 missed the merry, young scapegrace of a son, brother and 
 master ; while, in those primitive, slow-going days the 
 arrival of a letter was of such rare and vast importance as to 
 make conversation for weeks. Rychie and Blandina fairly 
 danced in glee ; Grietje forgot her troubles for the nonce, 
 and the colored servants gazed at the closely written sheets 
 with positive awe expressed upon their dusky faces. Little 
 time, too, did the Herr Schepen lose before breaking the 
 red wax seals and reading aloud to his attentive hearers the 
 boyish epistle which Hendrick had exerted himself to make 
 worthy of its long journey across the billows, although he 
 by no means wielded " the pen of a ready writer." 
 
 The first part was taken up with an account of his voyage, 
 
 during which he fancied he had sounded the heights and 
 
 depths of a seaman's life. Then came a description of his 
 
 arrival, the welcome accorded him by his Holland relatives, 
 
 and his first impressions of the funny little watery land of 
 104 
 
THE FLIGHT 105 
 
 dykes and ditches, canals and ponds, white storks and flap- 
 ping wind-mills. At length, however, he wrote : "Now 
 something very queer I have to tell you, and, Rychie, I am 
 sure, will open her eyes wide with surprise when she hears it. 
 Know then I have run across our New Year thief. I have 
 seen the deserter from Fort Orange. I have shaken the 
 hand that pulled me out of the Salt River. In short, I have 
 talked and interchanged much knowledge with Charles 
 Morrow, and from him learned many strange things. But 
 there, I must commence at the beginning and set all down 
 in order with the quill, if I would have you understand. 
 This letter has been writ by degrees, a few lines at a time, 
 and one day when it was about half completed, I went down 
 to the haven to ask when the Spotted Cow was to sail for 
 New Amsterdam, as I wished to send my first epistle home 
 by her schipper, Hans Hansen. There is a very fine quay 
 here, bordered by linden trees, and as I walked along it 
 scanning the ships anchored in the Maas, and wondering if 
 it be true, as my uncle says, that the city of Rotterdam is 
 built on ninety islands, out from one of the merchants' tall 
 houses which overlook the river stepped a handsome, 
 heavily bearded man, clad in very rich apparel. I vouch- 
 safed him but a glance, and was passing on when he darted 
 forward and, with a sort of a shake in his voice and in rare 
 bad Dutch, said, ' I crave your pardon, young Mynheer, but 
 will you have the kindness to tell me if you were born a 
 twin, and, if so, whether your other half be in the New 
 Netherland colony ? ' 
 
 " It was so funny that I laughed outright, but seeing he 
 was an Old England man answered him in his own tongue, 
 ' No. That I was not, and to my knowing had no double 
 anywhere.' 
 
 " 'Then, by St. George, never was there such a likeness ! 
 
lo5 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 quoth he. At which I thought it only civil to inform him 
 who I was and whence I came. 
 
 " Had he been mine brother he could not have shown more 
 pleasure, while he fairly shouted, 'And I am Charles Mor- 
 row, the fugitive and stowaway ! ' 
 
 " 'This chance meeting seems like a miracle,' he continued, 
 ' for I have a dozen questions to ask of you. Come with 
 me, I pray, to mine inn, where we can converse without 
 interruption.' 
 
 " I hesitated, but he insisted, and was so urgent that I finally 
 yielded, and accompanied him to the comfortable little 
 tavern where he is stopping. There, over a mug of beer 
 and plate of bread and cheese, he told me all his story. 
 Some of it you have already heard from Rychie. How, 
 against his parents' will, he married, then left his wife and 
 child to seek a fortune, and the sore plight that befell him in 
 America. But there is more, much more. The Golden 
 Unicorn was at sea five days before he was discovered in 
 the hold. Then, sputtering with rage, the sailors dragged 
 him out and carried him before the schipper, who was mad 
 as a hornet and threatened to pitch him into the waves. 
 However, as Charles Morrow offered to work his passage 
 and set to like a beaver, he cooled down, and ere the shore 
 of England loomed up they were the best of friends. In 
 that country our fine soldier only lingered long enough to 
 see his father and mother and ask their forgiveness, which 
 they cordially gave, welcoming him like the prodigal son, 
 killing the fatted calf and lining his pockets with gold. 
 Then off he posted again in hot haste to France. For it 
 was in France he parted from his wife and child, and there 
 hoped to find them. But, alack ! It was not to be. They, 
 were gone. Every trace of them had vanished. Frantically 
 he questioned the neighbors, but they knew little. ' It is six 
 
THE FLIGHT 10/ 
 
 years since Madame and the boy departed, and she never 
 talked of her affairs,' they said. ' We think they were 
 bound either for the Low Countries or the New World, but 
 could not say which.' 
 
 " Half crazed then he hastened to Holland, and hither, 
 thither, everywhere, but could find not a single clue. It was 
 as though they had been whisked off the earth. So at last, 
 giving them up for dead, he was about returning when he 
 met me. 
 
 "Just as Charles Morrow reached this sad conclusion to his 
 tale, he dropped his head on the table and began to groan 
 and weep and berate himself. ' Oh, Le'onie ! oh Cherie ! 
 oh, my little Franz,' he suddenly cried. 
 
 " ' Who ? Who did you say ?' I screamed, jumping up, 
 for the names, so different from our Holland names, struck 
 both odd and familiar upon my ear. 
 
 " 'My son Franz and my wife, Le'onie de Milt Morrow, 
 though I never called her aught but "Cherie," ' he sobbed. 
 
 "Then, in a twinkling, I saw it all, understood it all. For 
 do you not recall last St. Nicholas Eve, when with us Dirck 
 Van Boot's boy Franz spent the night ? In my room he 
 slept and was very restless. In the early morning then, as he 
 tossed on his pillow, a locket I saw hung about his neck. A 
 gold locket, and on it the word ' Le'onie ' was plainly cut. 
 I remembered it well, for I thought it such a strange, pretty 
 name." 
 
 "Well, you must imagine the explanations that took place. 
 It is too much to write down, for our tongues wagged for 
 hours. 
 
 "But this is the truth beyond a doubt. Franz de Milt is 
 Franz Morrow. Through a mistake he has been known by 
 the name of his French mother. But he has an English 
 father, a very high-born English father, who has sown plenty 
 
I08 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 of wild oats, but now longs to settle down to a staid old age, 
 with a son beside him. He was full of grief when I told 
 him all I knew of the woman who died in Vrouw Van Boot's 
 best bed, and the hard life Franz leads with Dirck. 
 
 " ' To think I was so near and knew it not,' he moaned. 
 ' But my son must come to me, must come without delay.' 
 
 " Indeed he would return to the colony to bring him, him- 
 self, but fears being shot as a deserter, by the Prince's men, 
 should he again set foot on New Netherland soil. 
 
 "Therefore, within the packet that goes with this, you will 
 find a note and money for Franz. Charles Morrow sends 
 the gold to pay his way to Fatherland, and begs you will at 
 once start him over the sea. Is it not wonderful news and 
 like the end of the tales old Elsje used to tell to us ? 
 
 "Within the packet you will also discover Grietje's ring. 
 The stowaway nearly swallowed it while munching a kruller, 
 and now desires to return it to its rightful owner. 
 
 " Uncle Diedrich has just called out that the Spotted Cow is 
 to sail in two hours, so I must close with love and respect 
 to one and all. Tell Flip I miss him every day, and it seems 
 rarely lonesome without a black face, 
 
 " Your son, 
 
 " Hendrick." 
 
 " Tank de Lord, de gold ring hab got home agen ! Now, 
 mebbe all de criss-crosses will come right ! " ejaculated old 
 Elsje, and Nicholas devoutly prayed her words might prove 
 prophetic as he slipped the recovered gift on Grietje's finger. 
 
 " Oh, but it is of Franz I think ! " cried Rychie. " How 
 happy he will be and how that cruel Dirck will j anker ! Pray 
 let me be the one to carry this grand news to him, and I 
 will be off to Broad Street the first thing in the morning." 
 
 The dear little maid had her way, but, alas ! when glowing 
 
THE FLIGHT 109 
 
 with her delightful revelations, she reached the tobacconist's, 
 on the following day, the bird had flown. Franz was gone» 
 and it was long, very long, ere he received the wondrous 
 announcement from over the sea. 
 
 When Nicholas Bayard left the Maiden Path, bearing his 
 unconscious burden, and closely followed by pale anxious 
 Rychie, Franz only accompanied them as far as the garden gate. 
 There he turned aside, saying to the Indian lad, who trotted 
 after him like a faithful dog, — " Come, Owano, let us go 
 home. They need us not now, and I fain vould get some 
 vinks of sleep." For he felt strangely wearied and bewil- 
 dered by the night's adventures and discoveries. With an 
 assenting grunt, the Manhattoe boy went with him to the 
 canal, though he said he should not, that night, return to the 
 Indian settlement outside the town, but curl up in some 
 corner and there seek repose. 
 
 " But you vill be cold, my poor Owano ! " protested Franz 
 
 " No, Owano got blanket. Blood warm. Sleep like dor- 
 mouse." 
 
 " So ! Veil, then, good night and do not let the rattle-vatch 
 take you into custody." So great was the fear of a con- 
 flagration in little New Amsterdam, that leather buckets, 
 hooks and ladders were always kept in readiness, and a 
 watchman, known as the "rattle-watch," traversed the streets 
 from nine o'clock until Drum-Beat at the Fort. 
 
 Nodding cheerfully, then, Franz entered the house, and 
 was proceeding to his own apartment, when his footsteps 
 were arrested by the sound of loud angry voices in the room 
 behind the shop. He recognized them as those of the pirate 
 captain and his master, Dirck Van Boot. 
 
 " Confound you, you numbskull of a Dutchman !" roared 
 the former. " How dare you come flaunting your play-act- 
 
no A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 ing tricks down the Maiden Lane, without my permission \. 
 You have upset the very finest kettle of fish it was ever 
 my good luck to catch, and now that the boy has found you 
 out, it is likely all our transactions will come to light. 
 Therefore, I shall take French leave and you may settle 
 things with the testy Director as best you can." 
 
 " But — but — indeed, sirrah, I did not know ! " stammered 
 Dirck, in almost cringing tones. 
 
 " Then, forsooth, you should inquire ! The ghost business 
 was well enough to put the townsfolk off the track and keep 
 them clear of our evening resort, but gad ! you needn't prank 
 round there for sheer sport ! I have a fine mind to — " 
 
 " O Sir Ralph ! I beg, I implore ! Speak not so loud. 
 If the walls have ears we are undone." 
 
 There was dire fear and agony in the tobacco-merchant's 
 appeal, and whether they were imparted to the captain, or he 
 himself saw the wisdom of less strident tones, he certainly 
 dropped his voice and Franz heard no more. 
 
 A dull presentiment of coming evil, however, oppressed 
 the boy's young spirit, as he sought his couch, and nestled 
 under the light feather-bed that served as a coverlid. 
 
 The violent conversation had driven sleep from his eyes, 
 and he was lying awake thinking, with some apprehension, of 
 the bad half hour he would surely have with Dirck on the 
 morrow, when the light of a candle reflected upon the ceiling 
 announced that some onewasascendingthe stairs. A moment 
 later Dinorah stumbled in, and, falling on her knees by the 
 low bed, overwhelmed him with^tears, embraces and half- 
 sad, half-angry ejaculations. 
 
 " Vat is it, Dinorah? Vat has happened?" he gasped in 
 alarm. 
 
 " Hush-h ! Speak not above a whisper. For oh, my 
 lamb, dat I took from your pore mudder's arms, dere be 
 
THE FLIGHT III 
 
 danger hangin' ober you— dreadful danger, from which you 
 must flee ; flee dis berry night." 
 
 ' Flee, Dinorah ! Are you mad ? Surely yoti do not 
 mean that you want me to run away ? " 
 
 " Ja, I do, at once. But first, Franz, tell me what it was 
 you found out in de Maiden Path." 
 
 "Veil, I discovered who the pale vrouw is," and the lad 
 chuckled at the remembrance. 
 
 " Yes, yes ! And it was " 
 
 " Dirck. Snuffy old Dirck. Is not that droll ? " 
 
 " No. It is terrible, not droll ; and so will you think, my 
 sugar lump, when you know all dat eavesdroppin' Dinorah 
 hab overheard. De baas is now afraid of you. His black 
 deeds make him afraid. He has made up his mind to get 
 rid ob you, and wid dat dare-debil Sir Ralph he hab hatched 
 a vile, wicked plot. It 'pears dat oily-tongued nobleman am 
 a smuggler and a bad sea-robber, and wid him on his horrid 
 vessel you are to be shipped." 
 
 " Oh, no, no ! Not to be a pirate ! Never could Dirck 
 be so cruel as that ! " 
 
 " It is the truf. I heard him swear it wid mine own ears. 
 And worse dere is. For if you prove not mild and meek, 
 and mind all de' captain says, ouf! off from de mast-head 
 yon are to swing. For, as de baas says, ' Dead folks tell no 
 tales.' " 
 
 "But that would be murder ! " 
 
 " And tink you a pirate and slave-trader would stop at 
 murder ? No, no. So do not trust a sea-wolf dough he do 
 walk in a fine sheep's doublet, but run away at once. I hab 
 come to warn you, and you must be leagues off before de 
 drum beats." 
 
 " But vhere, vhere can I go ?" asked the poor boy, over- 
 come by the predicament into which he was so suddenly 
 
112 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 plunged. " No money have I, and no friends outside of 
 New Amsterdam." 
 
 "True, but Dinorah hab sabed a few fathoms ob seawant. 
 Dey shall be yours, and I thought mebbe you could make 
 your way to New Amstel on de South River." 
 
 "To the Valdenses?" 
 
 " Aye. To your moeder's people. Dey might remember 
 her and take you in." 
 
 " I do not think they vere her people. It vas only that 
 vith them ve came in the Prince Maurice." 
 
 " No matter. Dey all know her name and dey were ship- 
 wrecked togeder. So try and find them, dearie, and may de 
 marciful Lord and your gun defend you from de savages 
 and de wild beasts ob de forest ! " 
 
 The affectionate old soul's words had the solemnity of a 
 benediction, while she nearly broke down at the thought of 
 parting from the only being she had to love. She never 
 paused, however, in her task of hurrying Franz into his 
 thickest garments, concealing 'the string of wampum beneath 
 his jacket, wrapping his woolen scarf about his neck, and 
 lastly thrusting into his hands Nicholas Bayard's .discarded 
 fowling-piece, which was now likely to prove of rare service 
 to the desolate orphan. 
 
 "Good-bye, dear, dear Dinorah, and pray give my love 
 and adieux to Rychie Van Couwenhoven." 
 
 " Some day I will, but not now. For a time nobody must 
 know aught about you." 
 
 Then with a parting hug and blessing from the devoted 
 negress, Franz found himself shut out into the midnight, 
 standing on the edge of the sluggish canal, homeless, friend- 
 less, looking up at the stars, and wondering if it would be 
 very wicked for him to bury himself and all his troubles in 
 the deep, dark water that flowed at his feet. 
 
THE FLIGHT 113 
 
 " For there seems no place for me in all this big world," 
 he thought. But his guardian angel held him back, and at 
 last, as a remembrance of Dirck, the apprenticeship to the 
 pirate and the gibbet mast-head surged in all their horrors 
 upon his mind, he almost ran down Broad Street, and in- 
 stinctively slunk into the shadows when the rattle-watch 
 passed on his monotonous round. 
 
 Where Trinity Church now lifts its graceful spire above 
 New York's busiest thoroughfare, with its steadfast stone 
 finger ever pointing to the peaceful heavens above, lay the 
 burying-ground of the ancient Knickerbockers. Here the 
 early colonists were laid to a dreamless sleep in the bosom 
 of our great Mother Earth, and here beneath a luxuriant 
 locust tree nestled the grave of a stranger. A grave whose 
 wooden slab bore merely a name — " Le'onie De Milt." It 
 was a pleasant green corner in summer, but now covered 
 with red and brown leaves that rustled beneath the form of 
 the boy who lay upon them, his arms spread over the low 
 mound, and great, convulsive sobs shaking his whole slender 
 frame. 
 
 ' For hither had Franz finally turned his footsteps, to the 
 only spot in which he felt he had some real claim, and 
 there, with his head pillowed on the cold ground, he longed 
 and prayed that " Maman," his own " Maman," would come 
 and bear him away to that blissful Paradise of which the 
 Dominie spoke so eloquently, where " the wicked cease 
 from troubling and the weary are at rest." 
 
 How long he lay there he never knew, but he was grow- 
 ing numb and a curious drowsiness was stealing over him, a 
 rather agreeable drowsiness, in which he seemed to hear the 
 flutter of celestial wings, when a hand upon his shoulder 
 and a vigorous shake brought him back with a start to the 
 grim realities of life. 
 
ii4 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 " Dirck ! Sir Ralph ! Sir Ralph come to carry him off to 
 Coney Island and his black-flagged ship." That was his 
 first thought, and setting his teeth, determined to resist to 
 the bitter end, he looked up to see Owano's grave, dafk 
 face bending above him. In the far East, too, a streak of 
 silver outhned the horizon, and a distant clarion cock 
 announced the advent of another morn. 
 
 " Why sleeps the white Franz on the cold bed of the 
 stranger squaw?" asked the Indian boy. "Does he, too, 
 wish to go to the great King ? " 
 
 " Yes, Owano. I vish that from mine heart. For I have 
 no longer a home here." 
 
 " Ugh ! Has bad Swannekin* pushed the stray bird out 
 of the nest ?" 
 
 "Aye. Sit down and I will tell thee about it," and there, 
 resting on his mother's grave, beneath the bare branches of 
 the wind-stripped locust, in the chill dawn of an autumnal 
 day, Franz related to his humble friend, as briefly and 
 simply as possible, the discoveries he had unwittingly made 
 of Dirck Van Boot's underhand transactions. He told him 
 of the plot Dinorah had overheard, and how almost hopeless 
 it seemed to try to cross alone and unguarded the track- 
 less wilds which lay betwixt New Amsterdam and the 
 South River, and there seek his unfortunate parent's fellow- 
 voyagers. 
 
 The dusky child of nature scarce comprehended it all, 
 but his untutored brain understood enough to make him 
 sympathize warmly, in his quiet, undemonstrative manner. 
 
 At the close he held out a brown palm, saying, — " Come 
 with Owano. Me and the Pale Face be brothers. On 
 Yengees and Swannekins turn our backs. Go, straight as 
 
 * Indians called the Dutch " Swannekins." 
 
THE FLIGHT 115 
 
 the swallow flies, to the Red Men of the North. Mohawks and 
 Manhattoes good friends. Mohawks open wide their arms. 
 The moon of falling leaves is at hand. Then much bear, 
 much moose come down to the Great River. We hunt, slay, 
 sell peltries. Fine life ! Will the white Franz come ? " 
 
 And gazing into his companion's earnest countenance, the 
 homeless waif, then and there, decided to adopt the free, un- 
 trammeled life of the native American. Yes, he would go to 
 the fierce Indian tribes of the upper Hudson. They could 
 certainly be no more treacherous and cruel than his late 
 master had proven, and the fur trade offered some means of 
 subsistence. 
 
 So, grasping the friendly, bronze-hued hand, he cried, 
 " Yes, yes, Owano ! I vill cast in my lot vith you ; ve vill 
 be as brothers, and your people shall be my people.'' 
 
 Ah, if at that moment there had only been some beneficent 
 fairy to whisper in the unhappy outcast's ear the contents of 
 Hendrick's letter, and hint of the father longing to strain 
 him to his breast and make amends for the hardships of the 
 past few years. 
 
 But, there was no one, and so, after one long, half-regret- 
 ful look at the sleeping town, the dumpy little fort and block- 
 houses, the towering wind-mill and heaving bay beyond, and 
 pausing to drop a tear on the alien grave under the locust, 
 and on that of kind Vrouw Van Boot, the two strangely 
 united lads of such different races resolutely turned their 
 faces to the North and sped away over the hills and dales, 
 rolling plains and rippling hills of Manhattan Island, past 
 New Harlaem, past Spuyten Duyvel, past the Great Flats, 
 into the heart of the very forest primeval, but ever following 
 the course of the noble stream, up which Hendrick Hudson 
 had sailed his Half Moon fifty -two years before. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 BETWEEN THE ACTS 
 
 Down shadowy lanes, across strange streams, 
 Bridged over by our broken dreams ; 
 Behind the misty caps of years. 
 Beyond the great salt font of tears, 
 The garden lies. 
 
 E. W. Wilcox. 
 
 " The Moon of Falling Leaves," as the Indians poetically 
 called November, was, by these events, treading so closely 
 on each other's heels, turned into a veritable feast of gossip 
 and flow of tongues in the tiny Dutch City. Cut off, as it 
 was from the world at large, without' regular mails or news- 
 papers, trifles became of stupendous importance and a fresh 
 topic of conversation was a choice tid-bit, to be tasted again 
 and again. 
 
 Never, then, had there been so many tea-drinkings and 
 corn-huskings, and the "Oh, dears !" "Achs," and "Alacks," 
 that were knit into the woolen hose and mittens, or dropped 
 deep in the yellow maize, would have filled a whole diction- 
 ary of interjections. 
 
 Even the boys at the Latin school and the girls on the 
 bleaching-ground had their opinions of Sir Ralph Hastings, 
 whose real identity Nicholas Bayard took no pains to con- 
 ceal. 
 
 But, by the time every one was talking of " Captain Evan 
 ii6 
 
BETWEEN THE ACTS 117 
 
 Jones, whose name had long been a terror to the merchant- 
 men of the sea, the outlaw's bark was many and many a mile 
 away, while never again did that brilliant miscreant cheat 
 the City Fathers, or dazzle and turn the heads of the fair 
 jufvrouws of Manhattan Island. Only Rip Van Clomp and 
 youths of his kidney, fascinated by the tales told of the gay 
 corsair, who had been entertained all unawares, wished that 
 they might have gone with him to perform doughty and ex- 
 citing (even if unlawful) deeds, on the romantic Spanish 
 main. 
 
 " Ach, now, I wonder if Franz de Milt can have sailed 
 away under the black pennant ! " remarked Rem Hock- 
 strasser one morning on the Parade. 
 
 " No, no ; indeed he has not. Franz hated Sir Ralph, 
 and besides he would never go into such a bad, wicked busi- 
 ness," cried Rychie, bravely defending her absent friend. 
 
 Nevertheless, the suggestion troubled her, and that very 
 afternoon she tripped off to Broad Street to interview Din- 
 orah for the fifth time since Franz's disappearance, now a 
 fortnight back. 
 
 Hitherto, the old woman had sedulously kept her own 
 counsel, but, to-day, seeing the little maiden's fresh distress, 
 pity opened her lips and she confided to her the lad's in- 
 tended destination, as she understood it, and gave her his 
 parting message, though without revealing her master's part 
 in the affair. That she dared not do. 
 
 " Oh, thank you, Dinorah. You have lifted a load off my 
 heart," sobbed the girl. " For I would rather know Franz 
 was devoured by wild beasts, than that he was in the clutches 
 of that evil Sir Ralph. I do not quite understand why he 
 should thus go away, but fancy you do, and do not wish to 
 tell, so I will bother you with no more questions. I do 
 believe, though, that wherever he is, Owano is with him." 
 
Il8 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 " What ! De Injun lad ! Why do you tink dat ?" asked 
 the negress eagerly. 
 
 " Because he, too, has not been seen for two weeks. Not 
 once has he come to the house to fetch stick- wood or oysters 
 from Gouanes, or clippers from the shore, and they were 
 together when we parted at our gate." 
 
 " Oh, I pray de Lord you speak de truf ! For day an' 
 night I is haunted by de thought of dat pore chile a-wanderin 
 all by hese'f in de big, lonely forest." 
 
 " If he had only waited one more day ! " sighed Rychie, 
 and having left her wee grain of comfort with the disconso- 
 late slave, she went home to write Hendrick the letter which 
 was to blast all Charles Morrow's glad parental hopes by in- 
 forming him of his son's second disappearance, seemingly 
 far more mysterious than the first. 
 
 And how did Dirck Van Boot take the flight of the boy he 
 so disliked and dreaded ? No one could say ; for, after a 
 stormy interview with Dinorah, in which he learned noth- 
 ing, and after a few days of unwonted nervousness, he 
 wrapped himself in a mantle of surly reserve that none of 
 his curious customers ventured to penetrate. 
 
 He, however, made no effort to find Franz, and, probably, 
 drew a long breath of relief w;hen Evan Jones, alias Sir 
 Ralph Hastings, was far out at sea. 
 
 Thanked his lucky stars, too, for each day that passed 
 without his name being connected with the bold pirates, who 
 had brought their rich spoils into New Amsterdam right 
 under the Governor's very nose, sending some thence to the 
 Virginia colony, in the crafts which came North laden with 
 tobacco ; and disposing of others " under the rose " to one 
 or two shopkeepers of the town, who were not sufficiently 
 principled to decline a tempting, if evidently illicit, bargain. 
 
 In all this hubbub, it was not to be expected that Grietje 
 
■■«■> i 
 
 'SHE WENT HOME TO WRITE HENDRICK."— Pfl^e- Il8 
 
BETWEEN THE ACTS 1 19 
 
 Van Couwenhoven could escape criticism. True, the story 
 of the frustrated elopement never really leaked out, but her 
 liking for the fictitious nobleman was no secret, and girlish 
 tongues wagged just as freely and sharply two hundred years 
 ago, as they do to-day. 
 
 " Mayhap, now the Heer Schepen's daughter will not carry 
 her head quite so high, nor turn up her nose at the Manhat- 
 tan boys," sneered Anneken Vanderen. 
 
 " You'll see she will not," responded Lena Van Cortland. 
 " For I warrant that one good lesson she has learned. That 
 is, that Holland queues may be more trustworthy than 
 British love-locks. But I know, if I were a beau, not an- 
 other reel would I tread with a pirate's sweetheart." 
 
 This unkind chatter, however, was silenced or changed 
 into fresh channels, when, on three consecutive Sabbaths, the 
 banns of marriage for Nicholas Bayard and Grietje Cornelia 
 Van Couwenhoven were read by Dominie Megapolensis, in St. 
 Nicholas church. And early in the New Year, a jolly, rol- 
 licking wedding was celebrated with whole-souled hospi- 
 tality in the Pearl Street house, after which the bonny bride 
 was borne off in blissful triumph to the great fertile farm, 
 known as the Bayard Bouwerie, leaving winsome Rychie to 
 fill the place of eldest daughter in the pleasant home. 
 
 Gradually, too, the interest in the pirate captain, Franz's 
 disappearance and Hendrick's meeting with the contrite 
 soldier of Fort Orange, wore away, and the worthy Knicker- 
 bockers settled down to enjoy the unwonted peace and pros- 
 perity of 1662. 
 
 A good and abundant year was that throughout all the 
 New Netherlands. Treaties had been entered into with the 
 Esopus Indians and others, so that sudden outbreaks of the 
 native savages — a constant terror always dreaded in those 
 early days — appeared at an end. . 
 
120 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 If, too, occasionally some pessimistic burgher ventured tO' 
 wonder if Governor Stuyvesant was quite wise and politic 
 when he banished certain Mohawk and Mohegan captives 
 to toil as slaves in the West India Company's Island of 
 Curacoa, he was pooh-poohed and laughed at, and the flour- 
 ishing grain fields and peach orchards betwixt Fort Amster- 
 dam and Fort Orange, pointed to as mute witnesses of the 
 Director's sagacity. Nor did the colonists concern them- 
 selves with the changes taking place in the Mother Country. 
 That Charles II. had ascended the British throne they knew^ 
 but that the relatives and followers of the Merry Monarch 
 were casting covetous eyes upon the rich " dirty acres " of 
 the New World they never dreamed, or, if they did, felt well 
 able to defend their own. 
 
 Indeed, the chief consideration of the Burgomasters and 
 Schepens, who met every Monday morning in the City Hall, 
 was how to induce more people to come over and settle on the 
 opposite side of the " Groat Rivier." It was with, this end in 
 view, that they concocted a glowing proclamation, describing 
 this wild tract of country as a veritable Garden of Eden, and 
 despatched it broadcast over Europe, — Ay, directly into the 
 " right little, tight little island " of England itself. 
 
 " The land," they declared, " is fertile in the extreme. 
 The climate, serene and temperate, is the best in the world. 
 The soil is ready for the plough, and the seed can be com- 
 mitted to it with scarcely any preparation. The most valuable 
 timber is abundant. The forest presents in profusion nuts 
 and wild fruit of every description. The richest furs can be 
 obtained without trouble. Deer, turkeys, pigeons and 
 almost every variety of wild game are found in the woods. 
 And there is every encouragement for the establishment of 
 fisheries." 
 
 Religious freedom was also offered, although not long after 
 
BETWEEN THE ACTS 121 
 
 a Quaker was so shamefully persecuted, that womanly hearts 
 were wrung, and one of Governor Stuyvesant's own family 
 interceded in his behalf. 
 
 On the whole, the paper presented a most attractive picture. 
 Alas, that it should only have increased the cupidity of the 
 English, and that 1662 should have been but the calm before 
 the storm, the peace and homely comfort before the so-called 
 " Disastrous Year," of 166^- 
 
CHAPTER Xiy 
 
 RYCHIE VISITS DIRCK. 
 
 " O cursed love of gold I When for thy sake, 
 The fool throws up his interest in both worlds." 
 
 Young. 
 
 It was nearly a twelvemonth after the young mischief- 
 makers of the town had, as was their custom, erected a 
 Maypole adorned with ragged hose in front of the Bayard 
 Bouwerie in fantastic honor of the newly-made bride and 
 groom. 
 
 It was also a year or more since the mysterious vanishing 
 of the soi-disant Sir Ralph and of Franz De Milt set the 
 wonder-ball rolling among the gossips, when one winter 
 evening, as the Van Couwenhovens sat around the cheery, 
 glowing hearth — which seemed doubly attractive when the 
 wind howled like a banshee in the chimney — they were 
 startled by a feeble tap at the portal, and a shrill voice beg- 
 ging for admittance. 
 
 " Bless me ! I did not think a dog would be abroad on 
 such a night ! " shrieked the mother, while Elsje, opening 
 the door, dragged in something that resembled a drift of 
 snow, and which sank, apparently exhausted, on the floor. 
 
 Gradually, however, a yellow, wrinkled countenance was 
 discernible, and Blandina cried, "Why, it is Dinorah ! Heer 
 Van Boot's old Dinorah ! " 
 
 122 
 
RYCHIE VISITS DIRCK 123 
 
 "Ja, leetle missy, it am, dough I thought dat neber, neber 
 should I get here ahve," gasped the weather-beaten woman 
 struggHng to her feet. " Like a raven, too, do I come with 
 bad news." 
 
 " Franz ! " The name was only whispered by Rychie un- 
 der her breath, but Dinorah caught it. 
 
 " No, no, tank de Lord ! Dat pore chile I hope am safe 
 somewhar. It is my master who is in trouble. He hab had 
 a stroke an' is berry ill, ill unto death." 
 
 " What ! strong, sturdy Dirck Van Boot ? " chorussed old 
 and young. 
 
 " Aye, it come like a thief in de night, an' he got his 
 come-up dis time for sure. When de leech tole me dat, 
 away at once I wanted to run to fetch de dominie. But, 
 no ! no ! Ob dat Dirck would not hear. . ' Nopody do I 
 want,' cried he. ' Nopody but the Jufvrouw Martije, Schepen 
 Van Couwenhoven's second daughter, Martije. Go, pring 
 her to me.' " 
 
 "Me!" screamed Rychie. "Surely Mynheer could not 
 want me ! " 
 
 " Ja, he do. It is pecause you were a friend to Franz, and 
 even now de thought of de boy seems to bodder him. I 
 tried to put him off. ' To-morrow she shall come,' I said, 
 but he began to toss and to groan. ' Oh, no, do not wait ! 
 fetch her now, to-night.' So, pecause he gabe me no peace 
 and pecause one likes to please those who are nigh to de 
 dead-chamber, I am here — here to ask if kind little missy 
 will go to de sick man, dough de storm am terrible, and dat 
 is de truf." 
 
 At this amazing request Rychie hesitated, flushing and 
 paling by turns, while her mother remonstrated at her ven- 
 turing out on such a night. 
 
 But the head of the house spoke up decidedly. " Dinorah 
 
124 ^ LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 is right. Ever should a dying wish be respected. There is 
 no choice in the matter, no choice whatever. Our child 
 must go, and I with her. So run, sweetheart, and wrap up 
 well, while for this poor creature I mix a mug of hot stuff. 
 It may ward off a chill." 
 
 Reluctantly enough Rychie obeyed, for never had she 
 faced an interview with such dread. She wondered, too, if 
 the sick whim of an invalid could be worth such exposure, 
 when she found herself ploughing through the heavy snow, 
 the sleet stinging her face and the fierce wind forcing her to 
 cling tightly to her father's arm, lest she be swept off her feet. 
 
 It was certainly a wild night, and as Dinorah ushered 
 them-into the musty old house on the canal, over which the 
 shadow of death seemed already brooding, she was seized 
 with a nervous trembling and never could have summoned 
 sufficient courage to follow the venerable negress into the 
 back room, had not Heer Van Couwenhoven whispered, 
 " Cheer up, little one, and do not fear. Naught is there to 
 harm thee, and I shall be waiting just without and within 
 call." 
 
 Nevertheless, that gloomy chamber was calculated to 
 daunt a far stouter heart than that of a girl of fourteen. The 
 fire burnt low, and one bayberry candle only served to 
 "make darkness visible" in the wainscotted apartment, 
 while black shadows lurking in the corners seemed like 
 weird forms slinking from view. Dirck, with white, drawn 
 features, lay on the bed built into the wall, and glared with 
 a feverish light in his haggard, deep-set eyes ; startling her 
 by exclaiming, " Heaven and hell ! Is this another one 
 come to torment me before the time ? " 
 
 Rychie recoiled, but Dinorah drew her forward, saying, 
 " Lor', baas ! Don't be frighted. Dis is only Maritje Van 
 Couwenhoven whom you wanted so to see." 
 
RYCHIE VISITS DIRCK 1 25 
 
 " Oh, ja, ja, now I remember," and a relieved look over- 
 spread the distorted countenance. " Pardon, jufvrouw. I 
 took you for another phantom. For ever and anon I see 
 them, and, above all, that cursed French woman with her 
 pallid lips questioning, ever questioning, and her black eyes 
 that prick like needles." 
 
 "Heed you not his senseless chatter. De fever makes 
 him flighty," said Dinorah, and, pity overcoming her fear, 
 Rychie advanced and laid a cool, little hand on the man's 
 burning brow. 
 
 " Is it of Franz's mother that you speak, mynheer ? " she 
 ■asked softly, for she had heard that the fancies of the sick 
 should be humored. 
 
 " Yes. Constantly does she come and go. The moeder 
 of that donder-headed splutterkin, who looked with her look 
 ;and spoke with her voice. Ach ! what an eyesore and 
 trouble he was to me ! But then I will make full amends. 
 Ah — don't glance at me so ! I will make glorious amends." 
 
 He was growing excited again, panting for breath, while 
 :great beads of moisture stood upon his forehead. Dinorah 
 flew to administer a soothing draught left by the physician, 
 and Rychie cried imploringly, " Oh, Mynheer, do not toss 
 .and twist so ! You may do yourself an injury. Lie still, I 
 pray, and tell me why you sent for me to-night." 
 
 For a moment Dirck remained quiet. Then looking up 
 -with a more sane expression than before, gasped, " It was to 
 ask after Franz. Say, where is it he has gone ?" 
 
 " I do not know, mynheer. I wish I did." 
 
 "He did not tell you ? " 
 
 "No, never." 
 
 The man turned his head aside. His left «im and leg 
 were powerless, but the right twitched convulsively. After a 
 •while he stammered slowly, " Do you think he can be dead ?" 
 
126 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 " Oh, 1 hope not. L beUeve not. Dinorah says he started 
 for the South River, but if anything had befallen him, surely 
 Owano— who, we believe, was his companion — would have 
 returned to bring the sad tidings. In truth, I know nothing 
 whatever. But, Heer Van Boot, I feel that some time, 
 somehow, the dear Franz will come back to us and to his 
 father over the sea." 
 
 " Then, listen ! " And five yellow, snuff-stained fingers 
 grasped the girl's wrist. " If the lad does return, he will be 
 rich, very rich. For every blow I gave him a gold guilder 
 shall cure the smart. For every jewel and coin I cut from 
 his mother's neck fourfold shall be restored. Is it not four- 
 fold the Good Book says ? Well, he shall have that and 
 more, much more ! I swear it to you — to you who was his 
 friend. 
 
 " Ah, ha, black eyes ! Now your pricking must cease ! I 
 will not be dragged to perdition without a struggle ! I have 
 made the amends, royal amends ! Now go, wench, go ! At 
 your prayers remember poor Dirck Van Boot, and at cock- 
 crow send your father and the lawyer Van Schelluyne to my 
 bedside." 
 
 But Rychie, frightened and aghast as she was, would not 
 quit her post until the anodyne had taken effect and the 
 sick man relapsed into an uneasy slumber. Then, tip-toeing 
 from the room, she fell, sobbing as if her heart would break, 
 into the Heer Schepen's loving arms. 
 
 " So Dirck the miser has been gathered to his forefathers 
 and left all his precious wampum and guilders behind him," 
 remarked a little burgher to a great burgher, as they met, 
 three days later, on the Beaverway. 
 
 " Ja. And into whose breeches' pockets do they go 
 now?" asked the other. 
 
RYCHIE VISITS DIRCK 12/ 
 
 " That nobody knows except the lawyer and Van Couwen- 
 hoven, who witnessed the will. It seems, too, they got his 
 mark only just in the nick of time, for five minutes later he 
 dropped back on the feather-pillow and was gone. I have 
 heard it whispered, though, that not nearly so much money 
 as the gossips thought can be found. That, so far, only three 
 purses of gold under the bed and ten fathoms of Suckanhock 
 Sucki,* have been discovered." 
 
 " So ? Well now, that is strange, for our lost brother had 
 a fine trade in Virginia, and, I strongly suspect, very pro- 
 fitable, underhand dealings besides. Ach ! But Dirck 
 was a queer branch to spring from the good old Van Boot 
 stock!" 
 
 " It is true. The old vrouw was a saint on earth and his 
 vader of the salt of the province. For their sakes rather 
 than for his shall I go to the burying." 
 
 Thus too, felt many others, and, because virtues as well as 
 sins of parents are often visited upon their children, Dirck 
 Van Boot, cross-grained, niggardly and unpopular though he 
 was, had a funeral that tested the tumble-down old house to 
 its full capacity. Burnt wine circulated freely, and a respect- 
 ful, if dry-eyed, procession followed him to his last resting- 
 place beneath the locusts. 
 
 Then, however, it proved a nine days' talk to find that 
 relatives in Holland were cut off by the will, in favor of the 
 boy Franz Morrow — known as Franz De Milt— should he still 
 be in the flesh and return within five years. 
 
 But after all, this promised to be rather a slim inheritance, 
 greatly to Rychie's disappointment, her busy little brain 
 having been rife with wonderful castle-building dreams of 
 which her boy-friend was the hero. She had to run into 
 the garden to hide her tears, when Blandina asked of their 
 
 • Purple Seawant. 
 
128 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 father , " Is it that Franz will be a great burgher if he ever 
 comes back ? and she heard his reply : " Hardly, my 
 silly-pate, nor a little burgher either. Fifty and twenty 
 guilders respectively, must be given for those honors, and 
 Dirck appears to have been poor rather than miserly. When 
 the cost of the burying is paid, the tobacco shop and the 
 slave Dinorah will be pretty much all Franz's fortune." 
 
 " Then how, I would like to know, is that to pay him for 
 all those hard knocks and his poor mother's jewels as well ! " 
 grumbled Rychie to a leafless lilac bush. "It is all very 
 strange, yet I can scarce believe that HeerVan Boot spoke an 
 untruth with almost his last breath." 
 
 She came in from her angry trot around the lawn looking 
 so worn and pale, that her mother noticed it, and that night 
 remarked to her husband — 
 
 " I do not like the appearance of our Rychie. She is losing 
 flesh and seems to pine for Hendrick and her friend — the 
 young French boy. What say you ? Shall we not keep our 
 long-standing promise to Dorigeman Jansen of Esopus, and 
 let her go to stop with his girls for a few weeks ? The change 
 might bring back her roses." 
 
 " Now, a wise thought is that, gude vrouw. Her white 
 cheeks have troubled me likewise. Mayhap, too, Jannekm 
 Bergen would bear her company." 
 
 " She might, and to-morrow I will cross the passage-place 
 to Breucklyn and have a word on the subject with mme 
 sister." 
 
 This she accordingly did, and the result was that two 
 young things were speedily transported into the seventh 
 heaven of blissful anticipation. 
 
 It seemed almost too good to be true, to think they were 
 actually to sail up that mysterious river and see the glorious 
 Kattskills, beneath whose shadow the pretty farming settle- 
 
RYCHIE VISITS DIRCK 1 29 
 
 ment of Esopus (the forerunner of the town of Kingston) 
 so cozily nestled. 
 
 One bright, fresh morning in early spring, then, saw the 
 two little maidens setting forth, as merry as grigs, under the 
 care of rough, hearty Schipper Hardenbroeck, in whom Heer 
 Van Couwenhoven had the deepest confidence. 
 9 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 IN THE PLEASANT VALLEY. 
 
 " Midst greens and shades the Cauterskill leaps, 
 From cliffs where the wood-fiower clings ; 
 All summer he moistens his verdant steps 
 
 With the sweet light spray of the mountain spring.. 
 And he shakes the woods on the mountain side, 
 When they drip with the rain of autumn-tide." 
 
 W. C. Bryant. 
 
 A JOLLY, rotund little gentleman was Dorigemen Jansenof 
 Esopus. His neighbors laughingly declared that, like the 
 former Governor, Wouter Van Twiller, he was " five feet six 
 inches in height and six feet five inches in circumference." 
 
 Nor was this description so very far out of the way, while 
 if his barrel figure was not exactly a vision of grace, it was a 
 most delightful picture of good nature. A very merry Myn- 
 heer it was, then, that waddled over one of the finest farms 
 on the Hudson river, and that puffed cheery clouds of smoke 
 in the " ingle-nook," while, Santa-Claus-wise, he " shook 
 when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly." Indeed, in spite 
 of the hardships always to be mev with in a new country, 
 there was no more contented colonist in all the New Nether- 
 lands, and the heart - sunshine beaming from his kindly 
 countenance was reflected in the faces of his apple-cheeked 
 daughters, Elspeth and Christina, sturdy young damsels in 
 their early teens, who were overflowing with animal spirits 
 130 
 
IN THE PLEASANT VALLEY 131 
 
 and as frolicsome and light of foot as their plurnpness would 
 allow. 
 
 It was this gay trio, then, who, one blustery March day — 
 when the mountain-peaks still wore their caps of snow, though 
 glints of green peeped out here and there— stood on the tiny 
 wharf at Esopus, eagerly watching the Blue Beaver as it 
 made its way up stream, with all sails spread — deftly avoiding 
 the stray cakes of ice floating in the cold azure water. They 
 were there to meet and greet Rychie Van Couwenhoven and 
 her cousin, Jannekin Bergen, after their long, ten days' journey 
 from New Amsterdam. 
 
 "Welcome, welcome to Sopus and to the Cat River Moun- 
 tains ! " shouted Dorigeman heartily, offering a fat pudgy 
 hand to each as they lightly leaped ashore! "And come now 
 let me take one good look at you poth. Pless mine soul ! 
 If I wouldn't pelieve it was the comely Vanderbeck sisters 
 of Dordrecht stepped out of the past ! You favor your 
 moeders, jufvrouws, and how goes it with them, now ? " 
 
 " Fine, fine. Mynheer " responded the girls, " And they 
 sent a whole budget of greetings and messages to you and 
 yours." 
 
 " Thanks. Put see ! Here are mine Elspeth and Tina 
 waiting to pestow the hug and kiss of friendship ! They will 
 take you home to the gude vrouw, while I stop to crack a 
 few words with Schipper Hardenbroeck, and to look after 
 your poxes. For I warrant there would be weeping and 
 gnashing of teeth were your petticoats and gew-gaws carried 
 on to Fort Orange." 
 
 " That there would, good host " laughed Jannekin, showing 
 a set of strong white teeth, as the quartette started up the 
 pleasant valley toward the cozy farm ; Elspeth and Christina 
 being eager to introduce their guests to the quaint, rambling 
 house of many gables, stoopes and latticed windows, to their 
 
132 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 feathered pets of the barnyard, to Penuckle the faithful, old 
 yellow dog, and above all to their mother, the warm-hearted 
 if grave-faced Geetje, who was always " on hospitable thoughts 
 intent." 
 
 Somewhat to their surprise, Rychie and Jannekin found 
 Esopus to be merely a small farming hamlet, clustered about 
 a "rondout," or fort, and surrounded by palisades. But its 
 situation was most picturesque, and at a stone's-throw dis- 
 tant another embryo village called Wildwyck had been 
 started. 
 
 " In reality, they are both one," explained Elspeth. "The 
 same fort guards both, and at the same church on the Sab- 
 bath the people of Esopus and the people of WildAvyck meet 
 together. Dominie Blom is the pastor of both places. There 
 is no difference, no difference whatever." 
 
 The welcome accorded the young visitors was most cordial, 
 and at the evening meal awaiting them the Dutchest of 
 Dutch dishes, such as hoof kaas, kool slaa and hokkies 
 en poetyes, figured in lavish abundance, and was constantly 
 pressed upon them by their hostess. 
 
 "Now, Jannekin," she would say, "take up the wing of 
 that chicken and send it with the rest. Come, Maritje, eat 
 till you burst. I must have no thin, peaked folk at my 
 board. You must grow as plump and rosy as my girls while 
 you are here, and there is nothing likf good hearty victuals 
 for that." 
 
 "Why is it that these mountains are named the Kaats- 
 kills ? " asked Rychie, at last, laying down her knife and fork. 
 
 "It is pecause of the catamounts, which are plenty as 
 plackperries in September," replied Heer Jansen ; " and pe- 
 cause, too, there are so many little kills. Waterfalls, also, 
 are there, many of them. Oh, you will like to see the water- 
 falls, when the snow melts. They are grand, and that is the 
 
IN THE PLEASANT VALLEY 133 
 
 truth. Were it not for the savages this would be the very 
 pest land in all the world." 
 
 "A Mohegan brave was over at the Dubois's this morn- 
 ing," said Christina. " He asked for seed corn." 
 
 "And did he get it?" 
 
 "Ja, to be sure," put in the vrouw. "The saintly Cath- 
 erine would never refuse a crust or a few grains of maize to 
 any one, be he red, black or white. I think, too, she is 
 right." 
 
 " Then I would not be such a saint ! " cried Jannekin, " and 
 mine father and I think alike. The only gift we have for a 
 Redskin is a leaden pellet." 
 
 " Louis, the Walloon, sometimes talks that way, likewise," 
 replied Mynheer. "But his wife and children never agree 
 with him. The little Lois is fine friends with an old squaw, 
 who stuffs her pate with foolish stories. She can reel off 
 Indian yarns by the hour." 
 
 "That would suit me rarely. But who are these Du- 
 boises? " whispered Rychie to Elspeth." 
 
 " They are our Huguenot neighbors, who live on the next 
 bouwerie, and we are dearly fond of Lois and Leon. There 
 is a baby, too. The comeliest darling, as fat as a partridge, 
 and with eyes like twin huckleberries. You will see plenty 
 of them when we can take rambles up onto the berg."* 
 
 But these hilly excursions were deferred far longer than 
 the girls anticipated. First, by an earthquake, which put all 
 their nerves, as well as all the New Netherlands, in a quiver, 
 (an account of which can be read in any history of New York 
 State) ; and then by a heavy freshet that submerged the low- 
 lands and played sad havoc with the early crops. 
 
 The jolly Jansens, however, only turned this last into what 
 they termed a "vrolique," contriving a rude raft on which 
 
 * Mountain. 
 
134 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 they set sail and had no end of sport ; while their neighDot; 
 Leon, like a young Diogenes, paddled over in a tub half-a- 
 dozen times a day. In fact, the whole settlement was afloat 
 in hastily-fashioned crafts, and poor Penuckle's life was 
 made miserable by frequent shipwrecks, when he felt it his 
 bounden duty to plunge to the rescue and drag the wet and 
 laughing youngsters to terra firma. This watery fellowship, 
 however, served to make the new-comers almost intimate 
 with all the small community, and when at length the freshet 
 subsided, nothing would do but they must prolong their visit 
 beyond the date first set for its close, in order to make up for 
 lost time. So the end of May still found them beneath 
 Farmer Jansen's hospitable roof. 
 
 And how supremely lovely was the Spring in that quiet, 
 pleasant valley ! The earth shone as green and bright as an 
 emerald after its unwonted bath ; never had the brooks been 
 so full, nor the waterfalls so grand, as they gaily leaped from 
 rock to rock, from ledge to ledge, sending up a shower of 
 glittering spray. The bracing air was like new wine, and 
 the woods were transformed into a roseate glory by the 
 mountain laurel and the luxuriant pink racemes of the rhodo- 
 dendron. Deer were plentiful, and the men and boys, gun 
 in hand, spent many hours in quest of game, while the girls 
 ventured as far from home as they dared to seek the modest, 
 bewitching wild flowers in their shady haunts. 
 
 Madame Dubois often accompanied the young people on 
 their trips up the hill-side. Rychie quite lost her heart to 
 the gentle woman with the angel face, who somehow re- 
 minded her of Franz. She felt strangely drawn, also, to 
 pensive, dreamy little Lois, who had all the myths and 
 legends of the mountains at her tongue's end. 
 
 " See yonder peak, the very highest of them all," Lois re- 
 marked one day as they were finishing their al fresco lunch 
 
IN THE PLEASANT VALLEY 135 
 
 in a cool nook within the sound of a baby cataract foaming 
 joyously near at hand. "Indian Natto told me that it is 
 ■there the aged squaw dwells who makes all the weather." 
 
 " God makes the weather, my child," corrected the mother, 
 patting the olive-hued cheek that rested on her shoulder. 
 
 "Yes, maman, I know. God is Natto's great Manitou ; 
 but he employs the old squaw to weave the clouds out of 
 ■cobwebs, gossamers and morning dew. Then she sends 
 them off, flake by flake, to float in the air and fall to earth 
 in soft, summer showers Sometimes, too, she is moved to 
 trew black and terrible thunder-storms." 
 
 " That is a very pretty fancy," said Rychie. 
 
 " But too silly for anyone except Indian papooses," sneered 
 Jannekin. 
 
 "So say we !" shouted Leon and his chum Guysbert Van 
 Imbroeck, who were of the party. " Therefore, Jan and Tina, 
 if you have swallowed your bread and sausage, let us leave 
 these dreamers to their mooning and go to hunt for birds' 
 nests." 
 
 " Yes, we will do so," and the active matter-of-facts were 
 •soon clambering the slippery rocks, leaving only Rychie 
 and Elspeth to listen to Lois' tale, Madame Dubois having 
 also withdrawn a short distance to croon baby Marie to 
 sleep. 
 
 At first, the small narrator looked hurt and seemed disin- 
 clined to proceed, but as Elspeth took out her knitting and 
 Rychie stretched herself comfortably on a bed of laurel, 
 ready to drink in every word, she finally continued. 
 
 "There is not a great deal more to tell,'' she said, "only 
 -that in her wigwam the weather-squaw keeps both Night 
 and Day. closely shut up, and lets them out one at a time. 
 Every month, too, she makes a brand-new moon and hangs it 
 in the sky." 
 
136 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 "What, men, becomes of the old ones?" asked Elspeth, 
 who was no more of an astronomer than her imaginative 
 friend." 
 
 " Oh, those she cuts up into stars. Little stars and big 
 stars are all just bits of worn-out moons." 
 
 " Made over, as the mother makes over the vader's ten- 
 broecks for little black Tobee," laughed Elspeth. 
 
 " Just so." 
 
 " Truly, a good and thrifty way ! Well, I shall often think 
 of that when I look up in the heavens at eventide," mur- 
 mured Rychie, dreamily, for the air made her drowsy. 
 Soon, too, she fell asleep and lay on her leafy couch until 
 the noisy nest-hunters returned, and the setting sun warned 
 them to turn their footsteps homeward. 
 
 On another excursion they had a remarkable experience, 
 the blue Kaatskills treating them to the very rarest sight 
 they have to offer — one which many inhabitants of that 
 region live and die without beholding. It was that curious 
 phenomenon of mountain heights called by the learned 
 men the Fata Morgana. 
 
 Blithesome May had given place to Jocund June, and Schip- 
 per Hardenbroeck, sailing his chunky little craft up the 
 broad river, had brought word that Rychie and Jannekin 
 must be ready to accompany him on his return trip. So 
 they were malting the most of the short halcyon time that 
 remained. The morning of the sixth dawned damp and 
 ^misty, but weather-wise Louis Dubois, or "Louis the Wal- 
 loon," as he was dubbed, declared that the wind was in the 
 right quarter to blow away the fog, and that the noon hour 
 would see as fine a day as one could wish. 
 
 So, trusting to his wisdom, the picnic party started early 
 for High Rock, merrily scrambling up the steep paths, and 
 Leon and Guysbert carrying their firelocks, in case of en- 
 
IN THE PLEASANT VALLEY 13 7 
 
 countering some of the wild beasts of the mountains, 
 although there was slight danger of this in broad daylight. 
 
 Louis Dubois proved a true prophet, and when they at 
 last reached the elevated plateau that was their objective 
 point, a most glorious view met their eyes, and was seen 
 gradually, piece by piece, as the dark curtain of cloud was 
 lifted and rolled back by the strong breath of the North 
 Wind. 
 
 "Why, it is like being above the sky," remarked Janne- 
 kin in wonder. 
 
 " Yes, and mark how lovely the valley appears, enshrouded 
 in yonder soft mist," said Madame Dubois. " It is like look- 
 ing through a veil," and she pointed toward various wreaths 
 and strata of vapor rising and hovering like snowy phantoms 
 in the air. 
 
 Rychie was in ecstasies, and was endeavoring to dis- 
 tinguish the Jansen homestead from the cluster of buildings 
 at the foot of the hills when she was startled by a low cry 
 from Leon, who clutched his mother's gown, gasping, " O, 
 Maman ! See ! Whatever can it be?" 
 
 " What is it ? Why, why ! It — is— ourselves, or — or — our 
 geests I " * It was Christina who answered, turning white 
 to the very lips. 
 
 And sure enough, passing before them, as in a panorama, 
 appeared themselves and their surroundings, reflected upon 
 the sheets of vapor, as in a mirror. They beheld the gay 
 petticoats of the girls, Guysbert's saucy, handsome face, baby 
 Marie cooing and laughing in a snug crevice of the rock, 
 the slim, brunette Frenchwoman, and even old Penuckle, 
 who had insisted on coming with them, wagging his tawny, 
 feathery tail. All were there, faithfully portrayed, and they 
 saw them as travelers crossing the desert sometimes see a 
 
 * Ghosts. 
 
138 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 mirage of far-away springs and stately palms, only it is much 
 more weird to gaze upon a vision of oneself than of some 
 distant scene. All were hushed to awe-struck silence. 
 
 " It is the geest walk waren, the spirit of the mist," said 
 Madame Dubois, at length. "Often have I heard the hunt- 
 ers speak of it, Ijut never did I hope actually to behold it. 
 We are greatly favored, my children." 
 
 But cloud-pictures are of short duration, and in less time 
 than it takes to tell the Fata Morgana had faded and van- 
 ished, leaving the little group paler and somewhat more sub- 
 dued than usual, not one being wise enough to explain the 
 mystery. 
 
 " Much I hope that it bodes no evil," remarked Elspeth, 
 with a slight shiver. 
 
 " Of course it does not." 
 
 " Foolish art thou to think of such a thing !" 
 
 " Old mountaineers think it a rare fine sight." 
 
 So shouted some of the young folks. Only Rychie was 
 silent. She had stood at the extreme end of the ledge and 
 caught the final glimpse of the curious phenomenon. Just 
 then, as the vision disappeared, she thought she saw re- 
 flected above her head, and peering from a tree that grew 
 high up on the hillside, a dark-hued , gaudily-painted face, 
 the face, she was sure, of an Indian warrior, and she fancied 
 that there was a scowl upon his brow and an angry flash in 
 his eye. But when she turned to look for this intruder, 
 naught was to be seen but a graceful maple " clapping its 
 little leafy hands " as though stirred by a passing breeze. 
 At length she persuaded herself that some fresh, fantastic 
 trick of the clouds had deceived her, and yet, for an instant, 
 how real, how very real, that grim, dusky countenance had 
 seemed. 
 
 " But to the others I will not speak of it," she concluded. 
 
IN THE PLEASANT VALLEY 139 
 
 " For at me Jan and Guysbert would be sure to laugh and 
 poke fun, while, after all, it may have been just my own 
 fancy." 
 
 So she kept her own counsel and soon forgot the fleeting 
 picture as she joined in the frolics of her companions. For, 
 after the momentary depression cast by the strange caprice 
 of Nature had passed, this proved the jolliest, happiest 
 picnic they had yet enjoyed. Jannekin was in the best of 
 humors and the life of the company, as she could be when 
 she pleased ; Leon shot a hawk, which filled him with proud 
 delight ; they discovered a few early strawberries trying to 
 blush a faint rosy red in a sheltered nook ; while Catherine 
 Dubois, who had a deliciously clear, sweet soprano voice, 
 sang them all their favorite songs. 
 
 Just as a gay little French chanson died away, a rus- 
 tling sounded in a pine grove behind them. 
 
 " What was that ?" asked the singer with a start. 
 
 "A garter-snake or a chipmunk, most likely," replied Chris- 
 tina, while Penuckle pricked up his ears, uttering a low 
 growl, and the boys dashed off to investigate. They re- 
 turned, however, declaring they could find nothing what- 
 ever, and soon after Elspeth, pointing to a wee silver crescent 
 glimmering in the azure sky, said : " See ! Lois's squaw has 
 hung out a brand-new moon, and will soon call in the Day and 
 send forth the Night. It is time for us to be going down 
 the mountain." 
 
 " In the highest spirits they descended, their arms filled 
 with wild roses, and their tongues overflowing with light- 
 hearted nonsense. 
 
 " Such a dear, delightful day as it has been ! " sighed Lois, 
 when the valley was reached. " I wish it was all to be done 
 over again." 
 
 "And why not ?" cried Tina. " It will be a full week, at 
 
I40 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 least, ere the Blue Beaver can be back ; so, on Saturday, xet us 
 go up onto the Berg once more. The strawberries will be 
 riper then, and we can take with us sugar, and cream from 
 the brindle cow, to make them sweeter and richer." 
 
 " O yes, yes ; that is a fine thought ! We will surely do 
 it. On Saturday we will go again." 
 
 Alas, alas, poor children ! They never dreamed what a 
 day was to bring forth ! But we must turn back for a short 
 time to certain events taking place in New Amsterdam. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 PIETER AND BLANDINA MAKE A DISCOVERY 
 
 " Come to me, O ye children, 
 
 And whisper in my ear 
 What the birds and the winds are singing. 
 
 In your sunny atmosphere. 
 
 "For what are all our contrivings. 
 
 And the wisdom of our books. 
 When compared with your caresses. 
 
 And the gladness of your looks." 
 
 Longfellow. 
 
 " Well, I must say that I never remember such warm 
 weather so early in the season ! " exclaimed the blithe young 
 matron, Grietje Bayard, as, knitting-pins in hand, she entered 
 her mother's kitchen one Spring afternoon, some weeks 
 after Rychie's departure for Esopus, and sank wearily into 
 a seat. "It is so close and sultry that scarce can I draw 
 my breath." 
 
 " It may be that we are to have a thunder-shower," re- 
 sponded Vrouw Van Couwenhoven. " Often does that make 
 thee uneasy for hours before. If, too, it looks like one, I 
 must at once despatch the children to Broad Street, for I 
 want them to take black Dinorah a loaf of wheaten bread 
 and a bowl of the good succotash made from my dried sweet 
 corn and beans." 
 
 " Is the old woman all alone in Dirck Van Boot's house ? " 
 
 141 
 
/42 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 ^^Ja. There she is to stay and take care of it." 
 
 " But how does she Uve ? For Nicholas tells me that 
 scarce enough money was found to cover the cost of the 
 funeral." 
 
 " That is true. But she washes clothes and knits hose for 
 some of the neighbors, and they keep her pretty well sup- 
 plied with food. You know that at the coffee house she 
 cannot be sold for five years, or until positively it is known 
 whether the boy Franz be on earth or in heaven." 
 
 " Yes, more's the pity. Well, truly that was a queer will, 
 and not enough property behind it to be worth such a to- 
 do ; for I hear they have ransacked the house from garret 
 to cellar, and found little beside the stock in the shop. But 
 if you want the youngsters, here they come now, down the 
 garden-path." 
 
 A moment later, then, Blandina and Pieter dashed in 
 flushed and panting, and full of an important scrap of child- 
 ish news. They were, therefore, none too well pleased with 
 the commission awaiting them. " For moeder," they panted, 
 " The very first blue violets and yellow dandelions are out 
 in the Clover Waytie, and we want to pull them before Jacob 
 and Mima Kip find them likewise." 
 
 " So, for your own pleasuring, you would let the poor old 
 Dinorah go to bed without her supper. Fie, fie, mijn kin- 
 deren. I thought better things of you than that ! " 
 
 Low drooped the flaxen heads and red grew the chubby 
 cheeks at this gentle, motherly reproof. Without further 
 objection the sturdy little pair were soon on their way, Pieter 
 carefully bearing the covered pewter bowl, and Blandina 
 trotting beside him with the crusty loaf. In the meantime, 
 dusky clouds overspread the sky like a dense gray awning, 
 and the atmosphere became more and more oppressive. 
 Even the active children drooped listlessly and dragged 
 
PJETER AND BLANDINA MAKE A DISCOVERY 143 
 
 their feet wearily, ere the tobacco shop was reached, the 
 door of which they were dismayed to find tightly closed and 
 barred. 
 
 " Dinorah must have gone out," decided Pieter, after 
 pounding for some time with the iron dog's head that served 
 for a knocker. 
 
 " It may be, though, we can get in at the back," suggested , 
 his sister. So, round to the rear they scampered where 
 they finally effected an entrance and placed their mother's 
 bounty on the kitchen-table. 
 
 " Let us give up the Clover Waytie and the wild blumies 
 for to-day, and sit here to rest and cool off," sighed Blan- 
 dina, dropping on to a wooden cricket and fanning herself 
 with her apron. 
 
 " But not here by the fire," said Pieter. " Much cooler 
 will it be in the other part of the house." So saying he 
 went to the door of the bedroom, pushed it open and peered 
 cautiously in. " See, Blandy, yonder is the kermiss bed on 
 which Dirck Van Boot died, and under which they found a 
 fine purse of gold." For, like other " little pitchers," this 
 small Hollander of eleven had the proverbially long ears, 
 and kept them well open to the chit-chat of his elders. 
 
 " Oh, don't go in there, Pieter ! It is so black and 
 gloomy, it makes me shake with the fear," whispered Blan- 
 dina. 
 
 " Nonsense, you scare-rabbit ! But, ach ! always are girls 
 silly cats. Now, I think it would be grand sport to hunt 
 and see if we could not find another purse of gold. Why, 
 who knows, there may be one in the fireplace, or behind 
 the wardrobe, or anywhere. Wouldn't it be better fun to 
 pick up yellow guilders than yellow posies ? " 
 
 "Ja, ja, it would," cried the tiny maid, forgetting all her 
 tremors in the excitement of such a delightful suggestion. 
 
144 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 It Was she, too, who opened a shutter to admit some light, 
 and led the way, as this fanciful little Paul and Paulina Pry 
 went tip-toeing about the dark, wainscotted apartment, prying 
 into every corner and crevice, as though a dozen people had 
 not done the same before them, and the ancient building 
 had not been turned nearly inside out, in the vain search for 
 the miser's supposed wealth. So thorough, too, were they, 
 that they even examined the andirons and peeped into the 
 cups and jugs in the corner cupboard. 
 
 It was like a novel game of hide-and-seek. A brightly 
 polished pipkin had just passed under their laughing in- 
 spection when, glancing upward, Blandina exclaimed : '' Oh, 
 brother, look ! What a queer brown thing stands on the 
 topmost shelf. It is for all the world like an ugly grinning 
 dwarf." 
 
 Sure enough, a grotesque, distorted countenance leered 
 down upon them. In reality, it was only a queer heathen 
 idol, brought by Dinorah from her native land and kept until 
 now, although she had long since been converted to the 
 faith of her captors and masters. Never, however, had 
 these young folks beheld such an object, and nothing would 
 do but Pieter must drag in a high three-legged stool from 
 the shop and mount upon it, in order to satisfy his curi- 
 osity by a nearer view. 
 
 " It has a big, wide mouth ; goggle eyes and ears like a 
 chipmunk's. It is part like a man, part like a beast, and part 
 like a fish," he reported to Blandina from his lofty perch, 
 while she pleaded that he would lift it down for her to see 
 also. 
 
 "Ach, but you do not know how heavy it is." 
 
 Nevertheless, the good-natured lad attempted to move the 
 quaint little " josh," and had it tightly clasped in his arms 
 when a strange, terrifying rumble and roar suddenly sounded 
 
WHAT DO YOU CALL THAT f ''—Page 145. 
 
PIETER AND BLANDINA MAKE A DISCOVERY 145 
 
 beneath their feet, making both children gaze at each other 
 with blanched cheeks and startled eyes. 
 
 "What made that?" 
 
 But, before either could reply, the very foundations of the 
 house seemed to shake; the floor heaved like the deck 
 of a tempest-tossed ship, mugs and platters came clattering 
 down from their places, and over toppled the high stool, 
 Pieter, idol and all, falling with considerable force against 
 the wainscotted wall. Against the wall I say, but in reality, 
 and greatly to the alarm of the badly-scared urchin, he went 
 crashing through it, for, as though by magic, at his touch a 
 portion of the paneling gave way and he was precipitated 
 into a narrow aperture or closet, where he lay for a few mo- 
 ments half stunned, while the diabolical clay god was 
 shattered into a score of pieces, the hideous head rolling off 
 into a corner and reposing there with the sardonic grin still 
 uppermost. 
 
 "O wee! O wee ! O wee!" shrieked Blandina, who first 
 recovered her voice and strength, and laying hold of her 
 brother's wooden shoes (all of him that was visible), she went 
 to tugging and pulling, in the hope of extricating him from 
 liis contracted quarters. "Get up, Pieter! Speak to me! 
 Look at me!" she sobbed, "for I am that frightened, my 
 heart seems jumping out of my throat." 
 
 She was overjoyed, then, when the dazed lad at length sat 
 up and gazed around. At first he appeared to hardly com- 
 prehend where he was. Then, as his senses returned, he 
 uttered a shout of glee, made a dive into the dusky depths 
 beyond, and, seizing something, cried, " By St. Anthony 
 and the pigs, here's a jolly go! Verily I believe I have 
 tumbled, head-over-heels, into just such a secret place as St. 
 Nicholas hid John Calvin in! See! What do you call 
 
 that?" 
 10 
 
146 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 "It is a bag of canvas," stammered Blandina in open- 
 mouthed wonder. 
 
 "/a, it is, and something that jingles inside. Look! 
 what do you call those?" shaking out the contents, 
 
 " Wampum and stivers and golden guineas!" 
 
 "Ay, lots of golden guineas, and which I warrant is the 
 good Franz's fortune," 
 
 " Oh, do you think so ? Then it will fill our Sister Rychie 
 brimful of gladness." 
 
 The wee lassie was herself in ecstasies and danced a gay 
 little 'pas seul, although the rocking of the mansion was still 
 a mystery, and her brown orbs were still big and round with 
 alarm as well as wonder. 
 
 "But the funny brown dwarf is broken all to bits!" she 
 suddenly paused to exclaim, somewhat ruefully. 
 
 " And so is my cocoanut cracked, but that is no matter. 
 Nothing is any matter, since the coins and beads are dis- 
 covered. But hark! I hear a door shut. Is someone com- 
 ing?" 
 
 It proved to be Dinorah, who, having just learned that the 
 young Van Couwenhovens were there, came rushing in, her 
 kinky wool fairly standing upon end, the terror at her heart 
 revealed in the ashy gray pallor of her face. She dreaded to 
 find them injured by some of the falling objects, but at the 
 unwonted sight of the gap in the wall and the merry Pieter 
 waving the money-sacks, all that it meant came over her like a 
 flash, and, dropping on her knees, she went off into a fit of 
 hysterics, laughing and crying wildly, while between long- 
 drawn breaths she hugged Blandina to her breast, gasping, — 
 " Tank de Lord! Tank de Lord! dat out ob all dis drefful 
 scare and rumpus He done fotch some good after all ! Dat 
 was an earfquake, my sweetmeats, an earfquake, what so 
 made de house to shake, and I see hab toted Dirck's miserly 
 
PIETER AND BLANDINA MAKE A DISCOVERY 147 
 
 scrapin's up to de light ob day! An' am de smirky ole 
 Josh gone too? Well Fse mighty glad he's broke, dough I 
 neber dared gib him his death crack. But tell me, my 
 pretty ones, how came it all?" 
 
 Eagerly, though half-shamefacedly, the small folk told 
 how they had called with their mother's gift of food, of their 
 search for a purse of gold, and of their curiosity regarding 
 the idol. 
 
 A close examination, too, showed that, as the tall stool 
 tipped over, the image, in striking against the wall, must have 
 touched a cleverly-concealed spring in one of the panels, 
 thus causing it to swing back and land the boy, with his 
 burden, directly within the tiny secret chamber known only 
 to Dirck, by whom it was probably built. When, then, the 
 miser's treasure was counted, it proved to be between four 
 and five thousand dollars — an amount that seems small to-day, 
 but which ,was considered a large fortune in that plain, 
 unostentatious age. As though shod with wings, the excited 
 children hurried home to relate their curious adventure, 
 while great, indeed, was the sensation in the little town, 
 when its good citizens, having recovered from the shock of 
 the earthquake, learned of the marvel it had wrought and 
 of the strange manner in which the miser's savings had been 
 brought to light. 
 
 The following morning, Pieter and Blandina awoke to 
 find themselves the most talked of youngsters in New 
 Amsterdam, and were quite abashed thereby. Even the 
 Herr Director came to shake their dimpled hands and pat 
 their curly pates, and the dominie alluded to them in his 
 sermon on the next Sabbath day. 
 
 Meanwhile, Schepen Van Couwenhoven and Lawyer Van 
 Schelluyne took quiet possession of the tobacconist's gold 
 and stored it safely away for the poor lad who had been such 
 
148 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 a shuttlecock of destiny, and whom some mysterious fate had 
 whisked away, just at the dawn of happier days, to seek his 
 sustenance in woodland wilds among the Red People of the 
 North Country. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE CAPTURE. 
 
 " There through the grove their flaming fires arise, 
 And loud resound the tortured pris'ner's cries; 
 Still as their pangs are more or less extreme, 
 The bitter groan is heard, or sudden scream." 
 
 " Elspeth, step thou into the milk-house and skim a Jug of 
 cream from yesternight's milking," directed Mistress Jansen, 
 the day after the gay picnic to High Rock. " Always does 
 thy father like it with his boiled pudding, and soon now will 
 he be coming in from the fields to his dinne:r." 
 
 "Ay, mother, he will ; for the hand of the garden dial 
 points close to the noon-mark, so I'll go at once." 
 
 " I will bear you company," said Rychie, springing up 
 from her seat on the doorstep, where she had been resting, 
 and throwing spoonsful of oatmeal mush to a brood of 
 downy, yellow chicks proudly paraded forth that morning 
 by a matronly speckled hen, who continually clucked about 
 her offspring, an anxious, excitable bunch of fuss and 
 feathers. " Pray, too, let me blow the big dinner- horn, for 
 I think that is fine fun." 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! Ach, then, you are more than welcome to 
 all such sport," laughed Tina, who, with Jannekin, was 
 lazily lounging on the settle, knitting-pins in hand, but chat- 
 ting and yawning far more than she worked, both being 
 
 somewhat weary after their mountain climb. 
 
 149 
 
ISO A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 A cool, delightful place on a warm summer day was 
 Dame Jansen's snug little dairy, built of rough stone, with a 
 bubbling spring in the center and clean whitewashed 
 shelves. One could see his face in the shining pewter 
 pans, and the pails and churns were as spotless as soap and 
 sand could make them. 
 
 It was a positive pleasure, too, to watch Elspeth deftly 
 remove the creamy surface from the rich milk, for she was 
 a neat-handed little maiden, and promised to develop into 
 as famous a housewife as her mother. 
 
 "It is almost as thick as butter, isn't it ?" she exclaimed, 
 as she lifted the dripping skimmer. " I warrant it was the 
 brindle cow gave this ; for her cream is always better than 
 that of any of the others. But there, the pitcher is full ; so 
 hasten, Rychie, and blow the great horn for the men." 
 
 " Toot— te—te— toot ! toot! toot!" Merrily the sum- 
 moning blast rang out over the sunny, fertile meadows, 
 while the graceful, girlish trumpeter lingered at the portal, 
 shading her eyes with one hand, as she watched to see if it 
 was promptly responded to. 
 
 " Do you see the vader on his way, or any of the slaves ?" 
 called Elspeth from within. 
 
 " No ; — yes — I don't know. There is some one coming in 
 this direction ; — but — but, — Oh Elspeth, it is a Redskin ! " 
 
 " Well, what of that ! They often come round to sell 
 things or to beg," and, joining her friend, both girls stood 
 in the dairy-house door, when the Indian approached, 
 and, humbly holding out a basket of birch-bark, stammered : 
 
 " Will white squaws buy corn ? Buy beans ? Big, good ! 
 Make fine succotash." 
 
 " No, not to-day. We raise all that we can use," replied 
 Elspeth gently. 
 
 But scarce had the words- left her lips, when a confused 
 
THE CAPTURE 151 
 
 hubbub in the distance fell upon their ears, and before they 
 could comprehend its meaning, two horsemen dashed 
 madly through the mill-gate and down the road, shouting, 
 " Flee ! Flee for your lives ! The savages are upon us, 
 and Wildwyck is destroyed ! " 
 
 In a twinkling, the mild vender of cereals was transformed 
 into a fierce, relentless enemy, with hatred beaming from 
 every feature and murder in his heart. 
 
 Tossing away his basket, he suddenly caught Rychie and 
 Elspeth around their waists. With a grip of iron he held 
 them and bore them, screaming and struggling, toward the 
 village, which was already a scene of massacre and wildest 
 confusion. 
 
 " Ugh ! The great sachem at Manhattan turn our 
 brothers into slaves," he hissed. " He send them to the 
 Isle of Death. Red men lie quiet, they wait, but they no 
 forget. Now the time is ripe. The word has gone forth. 
 This moon, they make the lodges of the Swannekins dark, 
 dark ! They show the pale chief that the wrongs of their 
 brothers they will revenge." 
 
 The poor lassies, who knew no more of the Governor's 
 imprudent action than the blithe, little robins lilting and 
 tilting in the tree-tops overhead, only half understood, and 
 could only plead and shriek and pray ; until, for Rychie, at 
 least, a merciful swoon brought temporary oblivion. 
 
 On that dreadful Seventh of June, which transformed the 
 pleasant, peaceful valley into a field of horror and desola- 
 tion, we need not linger. He who wishes may read its har- 
 rowing details in the History of Ulster County. Suffice it 
 to say, that when next the silver crescent hung over High 
 Rock, those fortunate enough to escape the hands of the 
 savages counted up their loss, to find twenty-one killed, nine 
 wounded, and forty-five, mostly women and children, carried 
 
152 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 off into captivity, possibly to meet greater horrors than those 
 who encountei^ed death at their own hearthstones. 
 
 Among the last, were several of our friends, as Rychie 
 discovered when, after some hours, her senses returned suf- 
 ficiently for her to realize her situation and to glance about 
 the narrow, stony notch between towering rocks, where 
 they were encamped and most carefully guarded. Her 
 head lay upon Elspeth's lap and warm salt tears from 
 Elspeth's eyes dropped upon her brow. Jannekin sat be- 
 side her, while not far off was Catherine Dubois, apparently 
 more composed than any of them, as she rocked baby Marie 
 in her arms and tried to comfort and cheer poor, frightened 
 Lois and Leon. Guysbert Van Imbrdeck, too, was there, 
 standing near his mother, a tall, high-spirited woman, whose 
 black orbs seemed to snap fire upon her captors. 
 
 " Where is Tina ? Can it be that she was not taken ? '" 
 asked Rychie. 
 
 At this question, Jannekin covered her face, with a 
 shudder, and Elspeth's tears rained down harder than ever, 
 though she whispered : " It may be that mine sister is far 
 better off than any of us." 
 
 " But where is she? " 
 
 " In heaven, I do trust," sobbed Jannekin. Then in broken 
 accents she related how, just as she herself was being 
 dragged from the house, she had seen a plumed warrior 
 strike with his tomahawk at Vrouw Jansen. Christina, 
 mad with anger and terror, rushed forward and made 
 a futile attempt to protect her parent, but both fell, 
 clasped in each other's arms. " Oh, these bloodthirsty 
 savages! Like bad, wicked devils are they, every one of 
 them, and so have I always said." 
 
 And this time, no one contradicted her. 
 
 Who can ever know the fluctuating hopes and fears of the 
 
THE CAPTURE 153 
 
 days and weeks which followed, as the unhappy prisoners, 
 ever surrounded by Argus eyes, were led a long, wearisome 
 march over rugged paths and mountain heights, until they 
 came to a rude fort of palisades enclosing several block 
 houses, which showed that the natives had not been back- 
 ward in learnmg a few lessons in building from the Dutch 
 and English? Round about, too, many fertile acres were 
 sown with Indian corn, that waved its nodding green heads 
 in the June sunshine and promised a bountiful harvest for 
 the fierce old Chieftain Papequanchen and his Mohawk apd 
 Mohegan braves. 
 
 Wrinkled old squaws brought the captives food and drink, 
 and graceful lithe-footed maidens often crept up to gaze at 
 them with wondering, half-pitying eyes. Every night they 
 lay down upon the pile of skins that formed their beds, 
 expecting it to be their last, and every morning they looked 
 into each other's faces, surprised that they were still alive. 
 
 On the third day of the march, baby Marie began to 
 droop. Like a fragile little flower she faded from sight, and 
 one sultry evening Catherine Dubois laid down the light 
 burden she had borne so willingly, beneath a protecting 
 willow, and left it there on the loving bosom of our great 
 Mother Earth. 
 
 " Better so, far better so," she said, with a resigned smile 
 that was sadder than tears, as Lois and Leon sobbed beside 
 the tiny green mound. From that moment, too, she was the 
 consoling angel of all the rest. 
 
 " Never, never, could we have lived through that awful 
 summer, had it not been for the good Huguenot," was 
 reported by many in after years. The Indians called her 
 the " Swan," from her long neck and gliding walk, and 
 paid her more deference than they accorded any of the 
 others. 
 
1 54 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 More than any one, unless it was Jannekin, Mistress Van 
 Imbroeck chafed at the wearing confinement. 
 
 " What do these copper skitimylinks mean to do with us? 
 Will they, at last, let us go, or will they put us to the torture? 
 Can it be that our husbands and fathers and brothers dare 
 not come to our rescue?" she asked twenty times a day; 
 and when nobody could answer she paced restlessly up and 
 down, like a panther in a cage. 
 
 " I think, dear moeder, that mine vader does not know 
 where the Redskins have carried us, or he would have been 
 here with his musket, long ere this," suggested Guysbert, 
 one morning. 
 
 " I think so, likewise mijn soon, and word ought to be 
 sent him. There rnust be some way it could be done and 
 that way shall I find out. For you, my darling boy, and for 
 our good friends here I mean to try and get news back to 
 the village. Yes, though I have to brave untold dangers 
 myself, and though an Indian arrow it puts through my 
 heart." Verily, too, the intrepid woman was as good as her 
 word. 
 
 Feigning illness and extreme weakness she was often left 
 guarded only by an ancient crone who, happily, was blessed 
 with the gift of sleep. Watching her chance, then, she 
 crawled, on hands and knees, without the palisades and 
 made off into the trackless forest, while one early dawn, 
 the word was passed from mouth to mouth, — "Rachel 
 Van Imbroeck is gone. She escaped under the shadow of 
 night." 
 
 " May the Lord protect and speed her on her way," said 
 Catherine devoutly, while a wee ray of hope sprung up in 
 the breasts of our three girls. Alas, though, this hope was 
 quickly crushed by an order from Papequanchen to move 
 further on. The Indians hastily pulled up stakes, and 
 
■she paced restlessly up and down '•—Page 134. 
 
THE CAPTURE 155 
 
 away the captives were borne, into deeper and denser 
 wilds. 
 
 "Alack, alack! no chance is there of the men finding us 
 now! No chance whatever! As sly and cruel as wolves 
 are our enemies, and we shall all be buried in the lonely 
 wilderness," moaned Jannekin. 
 
 "At New Amsterdam, they will wait and watch in vain for 
 the girls never to return and our kindred will be broken- 
 hearted," added Rychie. 
 
 " And my poor vader!" sobbed Elspeth. " No vrouw, no 
 kinderen left! Oh, surely he will die of the black grief!" 
 
 It was the middle of the forenoon in New Amsterdam, and 
 Governor Stuyvesant, seated in a snug little office within the 
 Fort, his wooden leg stretched out on a chair before him, 
 was examining a pile of documents sent in from the City 
 Hall, when two fleet couriers, travel-stained and spent, 
 dashed up, demanding an immediate audience with his 
 Excellency. 
 
 Scowling angrily at being disturbed, the Director turned 
 reluctantly to receive them; but he soon pricked up his ears 
 at the dire tidings they brought. After, too, being closeted 
 with them for some ten minutes, he flung wide the door and 
 shouted excitedly, " Crygier! Crygier! Where de duyvel 
 is Crygier?" 
 
 As it chanced, the day being sultry, the gallant Captain 
 was at that moment about to refresh the " inner man " with 
 a cool tankard of foaming beer at Metje Wessers Inn, but 
 an orderly flying to summon him, he waited for naught, but 
 scuttled off post-haste and soon appeared before his superior, 
 steaming and panting like a race-horse. 
 
 " So, leaden heels, you have seen fit to come hither al 
 last ! " growled the testy Governor, the veins on his temples 
 
IS6 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 standing out like purple whip-cords, and his arched eye- 
 brows peaking more than ever. 
 
 " In truth, my Lord Director, not one instant did I linger, 
 after your message reached me," stammered the officer, sigh- 
 ing as he remembered the creamy bead wasting its sparkle 
 and life on that interrupted nut-brown glass. 
 
 " Well, no matter. Tie up thine tongue now, for we have 
 rare bad news from Esopus. The red devils have broken out 
 again and made a fine bloodthirsty coil up yonder." 
 
 " The Indians ! " and Captain Crygier paled as much as 
 his bronzed skin would permit, though not from fear. 
 
 "/a, the rascally, untrustworthy, old Papequanchen and 
 his braves. They have burned houses, tomahawked and 
 scalped men and women, and carried off more than two 
 score prisoners, which they are holding for a ransom. They 
 declare that only for a ruinous amount of rum and tobacco, 
 and a treaty of peace without compensation, will they return 
 them. Bonder and blitzen ! Who would have thought that 
 for the miserable dozen sent to the Caribbean, they would 
 have kicked up such a rumpus." 
 
 "And what, your Highness, am I to do ?" 
 
 " Do, do ! "roared the Governor. " Why, get together a 
 company, you splutterkin. Get together a company, and 
 put off for the Cat mountains, as fast as you can say ' Hans 
 Van Dondespiegel." Those copper fiends must be treated 
 to a fine blast of leaden pellets and the vrouws and kinderen 
 fetched back to their homes." 
 
 "Ay, that is best, and not one single hour will I 
 lose," saying which the captain withdrew to carry out his 
 orders. 
 
 Meanwhile, throughout the town the news spread like 
 wildfire, creating a positive panic. The narrow streets were 
 quickly filled with an excited throng. Heer Van Couwen- 
 
THE CAPTURE 157 
 
 fioven, however, with a white set face, sought the director 
 at White Hall. 
 
 " Well, Schepen, what can I do for you ? " inquired that 
 worthy, who had just sat down to a belated dinner. " For 
 I warrant you don't want to go to Esopus." 
 
 " Ay, but honored Mynheer, you have struck the nail on 
 "the head at the first crack. I wish, indeed, to be one of 
 Crygier's company, for my heart is torn into rags with 
 anxiety. Last March there went to Esopus the niece of 
 mine vrouw, and — and — my own little Maritje." He could 
 say no more, but the suppressed emotion in the strong 
 man's voice and the tear in his honest eye touched the Gov- 
 -ernor strangely. 
 
 " By my soul. Van Couwenhoven," he cried, jumping up 
 and slapping his friend on the shoulder. " Sorry enough 
 am I to hear this. Go, of course you shall go, and bid 
 'Crygier not to let the clover grow under his feet. But 
 cheer up, man, cheer up! Mayhap it will prove that things 
 are not so black as we fear." 
 
 So, leaving a mourning household in Pearl Street, the 
 Schepen was one of the small force which journeyed up the 
 ■Goot Rivier, to lend a helping hand to their unfortunate 
 •compatriots. Followed by many tear-dimmed eyes and 
 iervent prayers they set forth, forty-three able-bodied Hol- 
 landers, armed to the teeth ; while they were accompanied 
 "by forty-six friendly Indians, from the \.ov% Island tribe 
 of Marespincks, seven negroes, and a motley collection of 
 xaw recruits hastily gathered together. 
 
 That they were enthusiastically welcomed in the valley of 
 •desolation, may well be believed. Heer Van Couwenhoven 
 lost no time in seeking out Mynneer Jansen." He found 
 "that once jovial worthy suffering from a severe wound in the 
 leg, inflicted by an Indian battle-axe, and looking the pic- 
 
1S8 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 ture of misery. His usual genial countenance seemed but 
 a caricature of its former self, and his flesh hung in loose, 
 flabby folds upon his inert limbs. 
 
 " O Wolfert," he groaned, at sight of his friend, " Thou 
 hast come hither to ask for thine poor little one ; put she 
 is gone — gone like all the rest." 
 
 " Not— not— dead ? " The Schepen could hardly gasp out 
 the dreaded word which kills all hope. 
 
 " No, no, I do trust not. Put my gude vrouw has joined 
 her forefathers and mine. Tinalikewise. O wee ! O wee ! 
 The hand of the Lord has been very heavy upon us all." 
 
 " It has, old comrade ; it has, in truth. But, tell me, 
 what it is you know of Rychie." 
 
 " Only that, together with my Elspeth and Jannekin Ber- 
 gen, she was taken captive and carried off into the moun- 
 tains, while here, helpless as a trapped rabbit, was I left, 
 and even now cannot stir one finger to aid in the search 
 for them. Was there ever such cursed luck ? " 
 
 " There, there, Dorigeman, fret not thyself on that score. 
 Whatever can be done Crygier will do," cried the new- 
 comer, recovering his spirits on learning that his daughter 
 had, at least, not been slain in the first massacre. "We 
 would soon have them back if only there was a guide to 
 give us some inkling as to the sly rascals, hidden lair." 
 
 " Maype the merciful God will send us one." 
 
 And, verily, it appeared like a miracle when, a few hours 
 later, a ragged and haggard-eyed woman staggered into the 
 wrecked village,* and fell exhausted into the arms of Sur- 
 geon Van Imbroeck, who, with Dominie Blom, had for 
 weeks put his private woes aside and performed a hero's 
 work among the wounded, the dying and the sorrow- 
 stricken. 
 
 •A fact. 
 
THE CAPTURE 159 
 
 " Guysbert, dost thou not know me ?" she wailed. 
 
 " Ja, sweetheart, always and forever." For this bedraggled 
 creature was no other than his deeply-mourned wife who, 
 through a thousand perils, had at length succeeded in reach- 
 ing her home. The handful of neighbors that remained 
 gave her almost an ovation, and the good doctor's face fairly 
 scintillated with joyful pride as he declared : " Well, I might 
 have known that out of any scrape my Rachel could find a 
 way. Plucky, indeed, is she, and, verily, I do believe there 
 never was such a woman since Heer Adam and Vrouw Eve 
 did the apple share in the Garden of Eden." 
 
 He then hastened to compound a reviving potion, after 
 partaking of which Mevrouw Van Imbroeck was soon able 
 to stand upon her feet, and was feverishly eager to lead the 
 rescuing party to the retreat of the savages. 
 
 " For our boy is there, Guysbert," she urged, when her 
 husband would have restrained her. " Many, too, of our 
 good friends, and time is precious." 
 
 Preparations then were hurried forward, and on an after- 
 noon in late July the little band started out ; the most 
 impatient one among them being Louis the Walloon, who 
 was half crazed by the loss of his family. Never for an 
 instant did he flag. He hastened the others on with so 
 much persistence and vigor, over the rugged mountain 
 paths, high hills and turbulent streams, that the second sun- 
 set saw them nearing the rude fortress in the wilderness. 
 Sore and bitter, then, was the disappointment to find it 
 deserted. 
 
 Poor Mistress Van Imbroeck broke down and sobbed out- 
 right, and, but for their manhood, Louis Dubois and Heer 
 Van Couwenhoven would fain have mingled their tears with 
 hers. Hope slightly revived when, next morning, a Mohegan 
 squaw, who had ventured back for some cherished trifle 
 
l6o A LITTLE COLONIAL CAME 
 
 left behind in the hurried departure, was captured and 
 forced to point out the road by which her people had fled. 
 
 Following her directions, they pursued the new trail for 
 a few days, but all in vain, and, at length, disheartened and 
 furious at being baffled, they took a somewhat unworthy 
 but natural revenge. Returning to the Indian fort and 
 block-houses they took possession of a goodly supply of pro- 
 visions there stored away, and wantonly trampled down the 
 flourishing fields of ripening grain. 
 
 " If nothing more, we can, at least, destroy their harvest. 
 Starvation, then, may rid the earth of a few of the murder- 
 ous fiends," quoth Captain Crygier. . 
 
 In truth, it was a loss which would be severely felt by the 
 Indians at the approach of winter, and, as the white men 
 were reveling in their labor of destruction, four dark- 
 hued figures suddenly appeared upon a neighboring hill. 
 Threateningly, too, they raised their stone hatchets and 
 shouted : " To-morrow we will come and fight you, for 
 now must we all die of hunger." 
 
 The first of August found all the colonists back at Esopus, 
 sad and despairing, and feeling that the unhappy captives 
 must be resigned to their cruel fate. Bereft parents, like 
 Rachel, bowed themselves and would not be comforted : 
 " mourning for their children because they were not." 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 DEERFOOT 
 
 " Too gentle of mien he seemed, and f^r, 
 
 For a child of those rugged steeps. 
 His home lay down in the valley, where 
 
 The kingly Hudson rolls to the deeps ; 
 But he wore the hunter's frock that day, 
 
 And a slender gun on his shoulder lay." 
 
 W. C. Bryant. 
 
 " Rychie, have you marked how one of the Mohawk lads 
 stares at you ? " asked one white, wan maiden of another 
 white wan maiden, as they sat in the shade of a green-wood 
 tree. " I think he is a stranger lately come hither ; and for 
 two days has he watched us, seemingly as fascinated by 
 your aspect, as a bird is fascinated by a snake." 
 
 " No, Lois, I have not observed it, and believe it is but a 
 fancy of your imaginative little brain," replied Rychie lan- 
 guidly. " Why, pray, should he gaze at me ? Unless, indeed, 
 he can feel a spark of compassion for our sorry fates. Verily, 
 though, I begin to agree with Jannekin that in the savage 
 breast there is no soft spot whatever." 
 
 More than two months had now elapsed since the out- 
 break at Esopus, and the helpless prisoners, hurried from 
 place to place, harassed by home-sickness and the dread of 
 what the near future might have in store for them, appeared 
 but shadows of their former selves. Over thirty-six miles 
 of the roughest, wildest country had they traversed on 
 II i6i 
 
1 62 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 foot. Then they reached another half-finished fortress of 
 paHsades on the Shawangunk Kill, where a final halt was 
 called, and where, being so far from civilization of any sort, 
 they were permitted rather more liberty than before, for 
 even should any one succeed in effecting an escape, without 
 guide, compass or firearms, he would certainly fall a prey to 
 the beasts of the trackless forest. They, therefore, frequentlj' 
 wandered through the wood or by the sparkling stream, 
 within sight of the camp. 
 
 A favorite haunt of our girls was a frolicsome little cas- 
 cade called the Fawn's Leap. It was, indeed, a picturesque 
 spot, and there they loved to lie on the grass, dabbling their 
 hands in the bubbling water and talking in hushed tones of 
 bygone childish joys and the chance of their ever seeing 
 home and friends again, — a chance, alas ! that grew less and 
 less probable every day. Meanwhile, some of the older 
 women succumbed completely to the " hope deferred " and 
 the hardships they were forced to endure ; and there were 
 whisperings abroad that the native warriors were waxing 
 weary of their white charge, and were impatient to come to 
 some treaty with the Dutch Governor, which would give 
 them a rich ransom, beside ridding them of this burden of 
 war. 
 
 It was of this that Rychie and Lois were chiefly thinking, 
 as they sat beneath the wide-spreading tree, on an emerald 
 bank below the baby waterfall. 
 
 Suddenly, the former turned ashy pale and crying out : 
 " O Lois ! so very, very ill do I feel ! " sank back upon the 
 moss. 
 
 Much alarmed, her companion flew to fetch her mother, 
 but when the two hastened back to the brookside, they 
 were astonished to see a slim, dark figure, in the dress of an 
 Indian hunter, bending over the swooning girl with tender 
 
DEERFOOT 163 
 
 solicitude, gently sprinkling her face with water from his 
 " hock hack" or drinking bottle, formed of a yellow gourd. 
 When, however, she began to revive, he abruptly dis- 
 appeared. 
 
 " Oh, how I wish you had stolen a peep at him from 
 under your lashes," said Lois, when her friend was able to 
 sit up and talk. " Just brimming over with curiosity am I 
 to know why he shows such un- Indian like interest; for it is 
 the same Redskin who gazes at you from behind the 
 palings." 
 
 "The Mohawk women call him Deerfoot," spoke up 
 Mistress Dubois. " Very handy and kindly, too, does he 
 seem. Not at all like a child of the forest. Surely he must 
 have a white nature, if a dusky skin." 
 
 "A half-breed most likely," answered Rychie, but the 
 subject scarcely interested her, so weak and indifferent had 
 she grown, as well as given to the long fainting-fits — which 
 annoyed her excessively. " For never had I such foolish, 
 fine lady airs, at home," she often declared apologetically. 
 
 " It is because of the shock, that you received at the cap- 
 ture," the good Catherine assured her, while she helped the 
 pale, drooping lassie back to the camp and to the low wig- 
 wam, fashioned of small trees and boughs tied together, 
 which she shared with Jannekin and a sharp-eyed, cross- 
 grained, old squaw, and where she was glad to lie down on 
 a shaggy bearskin and drop into a doze, a doze that lasted 
 until Twilight was wrapping the hill country in his soft gray 
 mantle. Then, all at once, she awoke with the vague im- 
 pression that she was not alone. 
 
 Yes, truly, a figure which was neither that of her cousin 
 nor of the ancient Powanee, stood in the opening of the hut, 
 between her and the fading light. The form, apparently, of 
 a young Mohawk " buck," in skirt, shirt, and moccasins of 
 
1 64 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 decorated doe-skin. " Itah !" he grunted, giving the Indian 
 salutation, " Good be with you," to show that he came in 
 peace. 
 
 But the nervous girl started up with a frightened shriek, 
 exclaiming, " Oh, who are you and what is it you want?" 
 
 " Hist! Red men have long ears!" Then, darting forward 
 and falling on his knees, the youth clasped her hands, and 
 whispered in a suppressed vibrating tone, " Rychie, Rychie 
 Van Couwenhoven! Can it be that thou hast forgotten 
 Franz!" 
 
 " Franz ! Franz De Milt ! " The trembling maid thought 
 she must still be dreaming, but no! now she looked more 
 closely, those features, swarthy and sun-burned though they 
 were, were not those of any of the Iroquois tribes, and 
 certainly, there was something familiar in the mild, dark 
 eyes, and gravely smiling lips. ~ 
 
 " Can it be ? Can it really be so? " Then drawing back, 
 " But what brings Franz De Milt hither? Clad, too, in the 
 garb of our bitter foes ? " 
 
 "Why ? Because the Red people are now my people. A 
 Frenchman was I born, but an Indian the Great Spirit has 
 decreed I am to die." 
 
 " Never, mine friend ! And oh, how glad I am to behold 
 you again, in any dress ! It is a gleam of sunshine in the 
 Egyptian darkness. But, tell me, are you not grieved to 
 find us in so sore a plight ?" 
 
 "Ay, that I am, and mourn it as the mother bird mourns 
 over her slain fledgling." 
 
 Franz had entirely lost his slight, foreign accent, but had 
 acquired somewhat of the lofty metaphorical language of 
 those among whom he had dwelt for nearly two years. 
 "Still, Rychie, the same question you ask, must I put to you. 
 How comes it you are here so far from Manhattan ? Scarce 
 
DEERFOOT 165 
 
 could I believe my eyes when, three sunrises back, they fell 
 upon you among the white captives. How, pray, came the 
 Hear Schepen's ewe lamb in the clutches of the red wolf ? " 
 
 As briefly as possible the girl told, in the ever dark- 
 ling gloaming, of her bright, happy sojourn in the fileasant 
 .valley, and of its terrible ending, while, during the recital, the 
 lad sat with bowed head, and downcast, thoughtful mien. 
 
 " A bad, sad business," he said, when she paused. "All, 
 too, because the white man will never understand the nature 
 of the forest savage. ' An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a 
 tooth ' is as much the Indian's creed as it was of the ancient 
 Jews. His revenge will follow a wrong as surely as the 
 night follows the day. But you, at least, must not remain 
 here. Every hour, Papequanchen waxeth more and more 
 wroth with the Dutch Director, and, in a moment of anger, 
 may snuff you all out as Dinorah used to snuff the candles. 
 I will consult with Owano, and try to plan some way for you 
 to escape." 
 
 " Oh, you blessed Franz ! But is Owano here too ? " 
 
 "Yes, and would brave even the Sachem's displeasure, for 
 the ' sunny-haired Swannekin squaw,' we both loved at 
 Manhattan, But hark ! I hear footsteps without, and must 
 away. It would not do for us to be seen talking together." 
 
 "But, dear Franz, I have so much to say to you." 
 
 " And I to you. Wait ! Can you not slip awayto-morrdw, 
 to the rocks above the Fawn's Leap ? " 
 
 " I will try." 
 
 "Then, I will meet you there. Mind, though, come alone ! 
 " And with these parting words, the boy vanished, almost 
 brushing past old half-blind Powanee, who came hobbling 
 in with a calabash of yoekey — a mixture of pounded corn, 
 and cider, and grumbling in her own tongue at the " bother- 
 some pale-faces." 
 
l66 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 " If I were the Great Chief, you would all be tossed into 
 the fire, like dry brushwood," she snarled as she pushed the 
 food toward Rychie, — a remark not calculated to increase 
 the girl's appetite. But nothing could quite crush the feel- 
 ing of renewed hope and protection which the knowledge 
 of her quondam friend's presence had inspired. She slept 
 better than usual that night, and awoke stronger, and more 
 refreshed. 
 
 Youth is ever impatient, and scarcely had the morning 
 sun kissed the dewdrops from the grass, when Franz came 
 springing up the rocks from which the " Fawn " took its 
 wild leap into a rough, stony bed below. He came with 
 an agile lightness that plainly showed why his adopted 
 people bestowed upon him the name of Deerfoot, while, 
 with an ejaculation of satisfaction, he flung himself upon 
 the ground above the water-fall. For, afar off, in the 
 direction of the rude rondout, his keen sight caught 
 glimpses of a golden head and blue petticoat threading 
 the bushes, and he felt sure they belonged to his little 
 friend of other days. 
 
 In fact Rychie was as eager for the meeting as he, and, 
 eluding her companions, she stole away at the earliest possi- 
 ble opportunity. 
 
 The boy appeared older than his sixteen summers, and 
 was possessed of a gravity beyond his years. He was far 
 sturdier, however, than formerly, the free, natural life of the 
 woods and hills having not only dyed his cheek to almost 
 the same hue as Owano's, but had overcome a delicacy of 
 constitution, inherited from his unfortunate mother. He, 
 therefore, gave promise of developing into a stronger and 
 more perfect manhood than would, otherwise, have probably 
 been his. 
 
 " So, here you are before me ! " gasped Rychie when, 
 
DEERFOOT 167 
 
 having slowly clambered up the cliff, she stopped breathless 
 on the high rocks. " Ach, what a tiresome tug that is ! But 
 can we not be seen from the camp, in this exposed place ? " 
 
 " Not if you sit down behind this projecting ledge. Be- 
 sides, of matters of deep import are the Mohawks and 
 Mohegans thinking to-day, and will hardly pay much heed 
 to the movements of a little white squaw." 
 
 The youth spoke significantly, and, taking off a mantle he 
 •wore, he folded it into a cushion for his companion's back. 
 
 "There, is not that easy ?" 
 
 "Ja, it is fine ! And oh, dear Franz, how good it is to see 
 you once more ! though not at all do you seem like your- 
 self, in that barbarous attire." 
 
 " Nor you, with that face like unto a snow-drift. If the 
 poor, captive bird be not soon restored to the home-nest, I 
 fear she will spread her white wings, and fly off to the Sum- 
 mer Land of the Great King ! That, too, without the aid of 
 Papequanchen and his braves." 
 
 " You mean I shall die ? Well, sometimes I think so 
 myself, and am not so very sorry. Only, I do so long to see 
 mine vader, and mine moeder first." And the soft eyes of 
 forget-me-not blue grew misty with unshed tears. 
 
 " So you shall, too; cheer up, little sad-heart ! And now 
 tell me of those I left behind me on the bay. How goes it 
 ■with Dirck, and Dinorah, and all the rest? Did the gay 
 pirate captain grind his teeth when he discovered I had 
 ■eluded him ? " 
 
 " That I do not know, for he sailed away the very night 
 you went, and we never saw him again. As for Dirck — do 
 you not know ? — Dirck Van Boot is dead." 
 
 ' ' What . Dead ! Is it possible ? " 
 
 " Ay, and what is more, to ease his conscience he left all 
 'his belongings to you. Those, however, proved to be just 
 
»f>8 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 nothing at all except the tumble-down old shop on the 
 canal, and the slave Dinorah. But wait,"— As Franz was 
 about to interrupt her with wondering ejaculations,—" I 
 have stranger things yet to recount. Dost thou recall the 
 deserting soldier from Fort Orange, to whom I gave the 
 New Year krullers ? " 
 
 " Yes, indeed." " 
 
 " Well, Hendrick has met him in Holland, and they have 
 "held much converse together. He is a very well-born Old 
 England man, and — now open your eyes. He turns out to 
 be your very own father, who wearies sorely to embrace his 
 long-lost son." 
 
 Almost speechless with astonishment, the lad hearkened 
 to these unexpected revelations, but — a shuttlecock of fate 
 almost from infancy— he quickly fitted into the new niche, 
 , and, with something of the self-control of his adopted race, 
 presently began to review the events calmly, and to ask 
 many questions which showed he was revolving his future 
 destiny in his mind. He was questioning whether to return 
 to civilization, and claim his own, or to live and die among 
 the heathen natives who had received him in his hour of 
 need. 
 
 As for Rychie, her nimble tongue ran gAiIy as she spun 
 her little newsy yarns, and answered interrogations, while a 
 faint, wild-rose pink flushed her pale cheeks, making her 
 look more like the happy Knickerbocker girl of yore. 
 
 " A great burgher will you be, "^ranz," she said, " And a 
 great artist as well. Such big, grand pictures as you will 
 paint ! " 
 
 " Instead of the warrior's noses, and chins," he laughed, 
 " Oh, Rychie, you do not know what a face painter the red 
 men consider me already! 
 
 " Really ? But the canv.as portraits will be altogether 
 
DEERFOOT 169 
 
 difFerent from .the frightful red and yellow war daubs. 
 Ach, I do not see how you could bear to do it ! I shall be 
 proud as a peacock of my famous friend, — but no — I for- 
 got — " and a shadow clouded the animated countenance. 
 " I forgot that I am a prisoner, and will likely never, never 
 see dear New Amsterdam again." 
 
 " Tut, tut ! Do not speak such despairing words," cried 
 Franz, springing up. " For even now, the moment of 
 release is at hand. When the sun touches the zenith, it will 
 be here, I would not tell you before for fear your heart 
 might fail you. But only a little courage is needed, and 
 you will be free as yon squirrel frisking among the pine 
 boughs. Owano has secreted food for the journey, and at 
 noontide will await our coming in the mountain notch, 
 one mile to the east. That mile is the only risk; for beyond 
 that you shall ride like a princess, on a chair formed of our 
 joined hands. We will bear you safely to Esopus, for 
 swift indeed must be the Indian arrow that can catch Deer- 
 foot, and his Manhattoe brother. Come, let us start with- 
 out delay." 
 
 "Now, Franz? This very moment? Oh, surely you 
 mean not now ? " 
 
 "Ay, upon the instant. There is no time to lose. Black 
 clouds threaten, and ere they break you must be leagues and 
 leagues away. Have no fear, Owano knows the path well, 
 and see ! the gun which the good Heer Bayard set beside 
 my St, Nicholas stocking so long ago, will prove your trusty 
 friend, as it has oft proved mine." 
 
 " I am not afraid, but — but — " 
 
 " 'Tis not an hour to speak of buts. Owano must not be 
 kept longer in suspense. Come," and catching her hand in 
 his, he would have dragged her down the hill, had not, at 
 that moment, a neighboring clump of elder bushes been 
 
lyo A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 violently ren. asunder, and Jannekin, with torn frock and 
 disheveled locks, almost tumbled at their feet. 
 
 " No, no, you shall not go ! You shall not go without 
 me," she screamed. " I have heard every word of your fine 
 plans and implore you to take me with you ? " 
 
 " Oh, may I ? " Rychie turned beseechingly to Franz, 
 who was scowling angrily. 
 
 He shook his head. "We could not carry both, and to 
 crawl at a girl's pace would be to endanger all our lives. 
 Besides, at sight of Jufvrouw Bergen, Owano would be turned 
 to stone. Not one step would he stir." 
 
 "And pray, why not ?" demanded Jannekin fiercely. 
 
 " Because, mistress, he cannot forget that it was across 
 the back of his kinswoman your father once broke his oaken 
 stick. He remembers, too, the contemptuous glances you 
 once cast at him yourself. Often have I heard him say : 
 ' Like to the old bear is the young cub, and both do I hate 
 to the death.' " 
 
 " But those are not right words, Franz," interposed Rychie 
 softly. 
 
 " To Owano they are right, and we would be like ships 
 without a compass if he did not guide us across- the moun- 
 tains. No, you alone can I take, and I beg, Jufvrouw Bergen, 
 that you will detain us no longer." 
 
 But at this decision Jannekin became hysterical and 
 shrieked wildly : " O Rychie, Rychie ! surely you would not 
 be so cruel as to leave me alone in the power of these 
 dreadful savages. If you do, I shall kill myself. Yes, 
 unless you promise to remain where you are, I will straight- 
 way jump into the waterfall below and be dashed to pieces 
 before your very eyes." 
 
 In truth, the girl was half-distracted and, running to the 
 edge of the precipice, might, indeed, have carried out her 
 
DEER FOOT IJI 
 
 mad threat, had not her cousin pulled her back and held 
 her fast. 
 
 " Hush, Jan. You talk like one of the silly wenches," 
 chided Rychie severely, while a determined expression, 
 such as she had worn when she made up her mind to brave 
 the phantom of the Maiden Lane, crept about her pale 
 lips. " But, Franz, in truth, I fear she is right. It was 
 selfish in me to think of leaving her and poor Elspeth. 
 Together were we taken and together should we cling, 
 unless all can be saved." 
 
 " Ugh ! That is the rarest foolishness. Because two 
 lambs are devoured by the fox, a third must walk up and 
 pop her head into his jaws ! Surely, Mistress Jannekin, 
 you will not let your cousin thus sacrifice herself ? " 
 
 " Ay, that I will ; and fancy she will be as well off here as 
 with you and your Indian dog of a companion. What is more, 
 too ; if you do succeed in conjuring her away, I will at once 
 shout out your treachery to the whole camp. Then, for- 
 sooth, I warrant you will soon be brought back and put to 
 the torture." 
 
 " Little viper ! " muttered Franz, " Could a heathen squaw 
 do more ? " 
 
 Rychie, deeply distressed, cried : " O Jan, hush, hush ! 
 Do not heed her, Franz. Our troubles have made her beside 
 herself. But you see how it is. I cannot escape. Mayhap, 
 though, Papequanchen will relent, or his High Mightiness, 
 the Lord Director, send and ransom us all." 
 
 " Trust not in panthers and beer barrels." 
 
 "Alack, now thou art cross, dear Franz ! Dost thou not 
 believe that I appreciate thy kindness and realize all thou 
 art willing to risk for my sake ? Verily, I do ; and fain 
 would fly with thee to Esopus. But since I cannot, one 
 promise would I have of thee. Give me thy word, I beg, 
 
172 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 that should we all perish here in the lonely wilderness, thou 
 wilt return to Manhattan, bear my dear love to the mother 
 and all the other so loved ones ; give up this savage life ; 
 claim the little fortune left thee by Dirck, and go to rejoin 
 thy father over the sea. Wilt thou promise me this, good, 
 faithful friend ? " 
 
 And looking into her sweet, imploring eyes, the youth 
 could not refuse. " Yes, Rychie, I promise." 
 
 But, as he watched the two girls descending the rugged 
 path in the direction of the Indian fort, Jannekin tightly 
 clutching her cousin's gown, as though she feared a sudden 
 vanishing, he clenched his fists and stamped with rage. 
 " Foiled by a miserable little sharp-tongued wench. By 
 the Great Rabbit, I wish she were a boy, that I might knock 
 her down ! " he exclaimed. Then, turning, he disappeared 
 the opposite way and sought Owano, patiently waiting at 
 the appointed rendezvous. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE SWAN'S SONG 
 
 " The low Dutch captive boy amid the forest wild, 
 With hunger, grief and sorrow, when a little child. 
 The Indian Minnisink and settler's tale is told. 
 
 In which the pangs of war, of love, and deep distress, 
 Shall thrill the reader's heart amid a wilderness." 
 
 JosiAH Priest, 
 
 Puff, puff, puff ! Three circling wreaths of smoke floated 
 upward from three short, fat pipes, and three honest Dutch, 
 worthies tipped back their chairs on Dominie Blom's snug 
 little stoop, smoking and staring gloomily at the lovely 
 purple shadows creeping over the mountain tops. Just so, 
 the shadow of despair was creeping over their souls. 
 
 They were Captain Crygier, Mynheer Jansen and the 
 Schepen Van Couwenhoven, the last two having been lodged 
 for some weeks under the minister's roof. 
 
 For a time no one spoke. Then the Captain broke the 
 silence : 
 
 " Shiver my skull-cap, if I don't believe that sly old fox 
 of a Papequanchen has given us the slip for good and all ! 
 Here for a full month have we been idle as the sails of Har- 
 denbroeck's yacht in a dead calm, and are no nearer accom- 
 plishing our object than when first we set foot on 'Sopus 
 soil." 
 
 173 
 
174 ^ LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 " By St. Anthony and his pigs, man, thou has put all our 
 thoughts into words," sighed the schepen. " Naught, I 
 fear, is left us but to bow to the will of Heaven as best we 
 can. Soon, too, must I be turning my feet toward New 
 Amsterdam. But O, mijn Maritje ! mine little yellow-haired 
 wench ! It wrings my heart-strings to leave her behind, 
 under the sod or in the power of those red devils." 
 
 " So, so ! " crooned Dorigeman Jansen, who was just able 
 to hobble on two sticks. " Pad is it, mine friend, very pad ! 
 Put my case is worse. For no vrouw and not one child 
 have I left. Sometimes I think I shall become as crazy as 
 Louis the Walloon, who walks the fields half the night and 
 handfuls of hair pulls out of his head." 
 
 " Heer Captain, an Indian boy at the back door begs a 
 few words with you." It was the Dominie's buxom hand- 
 maiden who spoke, bobbing out from the kitchen in a flutter 
 of excitement. 
 
 " An Indian dog, say you ? What is his business ? " 
 
 " Honored baas, I know not ; but he looks a friendly red- 
 skin." 
 
 "Well, if that be so, bid him step hither. Three are 
 better than one to deal with these treacherous rascals." 
 
 A moment later, the trim Katchen ushered Owano into 
 their midst. 
 
 "//a/^/" he grunted. 
 
 Captain Crygier eyed him sternly. " Well, sirrah, from 
 whence do you come ? " 
 
 " From many Ifeagues toward the setting sun, and me 
 come ,as friend, not foe. Me come to lead the white man 
 to the pale captives. To where fire and tomahawk hang 
 over their heads." 
 
 At this announcement, all three listeners sprang to their 
 feet and gathered about the travel-stained messenger. 
 
'where fire and tomahawk ilA.ttG."—rige Ifi. 
 
THE SWAN'S SONG 175 
 
 " Think you they be true words he speaks, or is it some 
 fresh trick of the old sachem to catch us, also, like rats in 
 a trap ? " asked Heer Van Couwenhoven. 
 ' " Swannekins can trust Owano," said the lad, with a grave 
 dignity that gave weight to his assurance, turning his dark, 
 half-scornful eyes reproachfully upon the speaker. " Owano 
 is a Manhattoe. He sent by the white Franz. He has sat 
 in the Dutch Father's lodge. He has eaten of the Dutch 
 Father's corn, and milk and honey. He scorn to betray the 
 Dutch Father." 
 
 A sudden light seemed to break upon the schepen, and 
 he cried excitedly : " Can you mean that you are the boy 
 who once to us fetched clippers from Coney Island and 
 stick-wood from the forest ? Are you the one whom folks 
 say disappeared with the French youth, De Milt ? " 
 
 " It is so. 
 
 " Astounding ! Then where now is that same Franz ? " 
 
 " He — Deerfoot — hovers with open eyes and ears near to 
 the little pale squaw, Rychie. He watch, watch ever, till 
 Owano brings the Swannekin warriors to the Mohawk's fort." 
 
 "Then the prisoners are still alive ?" 
 
 " Two suns back they were. To-night, only the Great 
 Spirit knows." 
 
 "Merciful powers! Why? "asked the captain. 
 
 " White men burn the East rondout ; trample the green 
 maize ; steal from the Iroquois. Papequanchen hear it. 
 He bristle like the hedgehog. He fling away the calumet ; 
 call for the war-paint, the fire-brand. Wise Indian say : 
 ' Wait ! For these prisoners the big sachem at Manhattan 
 will send much guns, much powder, much rum.' He wait 
 one moon. Now, Mohawks and Mohegans go near Yengie 
 village. No want pale-faces. Papequanchen say, ' All must 
 die ! ' " 
 
176 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 "Then, by Johannes de Douper, no longer must our toe- 
 nails grow in this spot ! " shouted the captain. " So, my 
 fine fellow, reel off, without delay, the trail we are to 
 follow." 
 
 " By one, two, three waters, by the rondout creek, by the 
 Walkill and one more. On the sunrise side of the Shawan- 
 gunk stands the Indian fort. But Owano go. He show 
 the path." 
 
 " Thanks ! Now I will be off to summon my men, and I 
 warrant the very first to shoulder his firelock will be Louis 
 the Walloon." 
 
 " Happy splutterkin ! While I must stop behind here, 
 like a sick, puling puppy ! " groaned Mynheer Jansen, thump- 
 ing his injured limb angrily ; and he fairly howled whjsn, in 
 the noontide glare of a bright September day, he watched 
 his friends march away, with newly-revived hope in their 
 hearts and shining in/ their determined faces. 
 
 Patient resignation had given place to dire horror and 
 grief among the unhappy captives in the wilderness. The 
 girls crouched together with affrighted countenances, and 
 even merry, irrepressible Guysbert lay on the ground, his 
 face hidden in the long grass. 
 
 The threatening doom was about to fall. As Owano said, 
 Papequanchen's long-simmering wrath had at length boiled 
 over. He vowed that a million schepels of corn and fifty 
 butts of " Dutch dare-devil " would restrain him no longer. 
 His braves should have the orgie for which they thirsted, 
 and the first victim should be the best beloved of all the 
 white squaws, the sweet, angelic " Swan." 
 
 Hastily, then, a funeral pyre of dry wood was prepared 
 within the circle of palisades, and night had hardly brought 
 
THE SWAN'S SONG 
 
 177 
 
 out her stars when Catherine Dubois was roughly torn from 
 the clinging arms of her screaming little ones, borne thence 
 and bound to a stake. Then, dozens of fantastically-attired 
 and tattooed savages, with flaming torches in their hands, 
 performed a fiendish, blood-curdling dance around her, 
 while grim old chieftains, women and children squatted 
 near by, to view the thrilling spectacle. The other Christian 
 captives were, likewise, forced to be unwilling witnesses. 
 That was part of the heathen code of torture. 
 
 " Too dreadful is this ; too dreadful to bear ! " sobbed 
 Rychie, cowering and shuddering beside one of the block- 
 houses. " Ach, but our turn may come next, while even 
 Franz has left us to our fate ! " 
 
 " No, he has not ; he is here. But call him Deerfoot, it 
 is safer," breathed a low voice out of the shadows behind 
 her, for that faithful young soul had no thought of deserting 
 his unfortunate friend, in spite of her refusal to flee. He 
 kept ever near her, ever on the alert, ready, should a general 
 outbreak occur, to rescue her at all hazards. " He is close at 
 hand, but alas ! naught whatever can he do to save the poor 
 vrouw." 
 
 " Then she must perish ? " 
 
 " Unless help come very speedily, as I did hope it might. 
 Bend low your head, and hearken! It is now five days since 
 Owano started for Esopus. He went to guide the Director's 
 men hither. They must come soon. If only the burning 
 could be delayed ! " 
 
 " Oh, let us pray it may ! See, too, Deerfoot, see ! They 
 have not yet fired the wood. They ston the dance, and a 
 tall brave speaks." 
 
 " It is Snake-in -the-grass." 
 
 " Yes, and surely I have seen his scowling countenance 
 before ! It was shown me by the Spirit of the Mist ! It is 
 
178 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 the very warrior I saw reflected on the clouds at High Rock ! 
 But what does he say ! " For the Indian spoke in his own 
 tongue. 
 
 " He says always does a swan die to the sound of her own 
 voice. He says this swan warbles like the bright-winged 
 birds which fly over the happy hunting grounds of the 
 blessed. He asks that she be made to sing now." 
 
 " Oh, the miserable Catherine ! Never can she do it ! " 
 
 But the ancient chief bowed assent. An interpreter con- 
 veyed his command to the doomed woman, who, with 
 clasped hands, marble-like features, and long, black hair 
 streaming upon her shoulders, calmly awaited her fate. To 
 the surprise of her friends, she readily obeyed. The dusky 
 executioners stepped back, and presently, a sweet sad 
 melody rose, and fell upon the balmy September air, hush- 
 ing even Lois's long-drawn, gasping sighs. 
 
 They were familiar words to the white listeners, a psalm 
 often sunig in the old Dutch kerct. 
 
 " By Babel's stream the captives sate, 
 
 And wept for Zion's hapless fate : 
 Useless their harps on willows hung, 
 
 While foes required a sacred song ! " * 
 
 Truly " music hath charms to soothe the savage breast ! " 
 Torches, and battle-axes fell to the ground ; stern, set 
 features softened, and Papequanchen, eagerly cried. 
 "More! more!" when the plaintive dirge, finally, died 
 away. 
 
 Again, then, the courageous Huguenot burst forth into 
 her " swan's song " and not only twice, but thrice, in response 
 to her strange, barbaric encore. 
 
 Not for long, though, would the warriors be cheated of 
 their sport. The ghoulish dance, wild whoops, and mad 
 
 * This incident of Catherine Dubois is an old tradition of Ulster County. 
 
THE SWAN'S SONG 179 
 
 leaps recommenced, and the firebrands had actually been 
 applied to the dry, crackling wood, when a sound without 
 brought every alert, keen-eared Indian to his feet, just as 
 three big, baying creatures dashed through the palisades, 
 and right into the flame-lighted circle. 
 
 " White man's dogs ! white-man's dogs ! " squealed a 
 Mohegan squaw. 
 
 " Ach, it is Penuckle ! dear, darling old Penuckle ! " 
 shrieked Elspeth, in a transport of delight, as a shaggy 
 yellow monster bounced upon her, and the skin of her 
 cheek was almost lapped off by a warm, moist, affectionate 
 tongue. 
 
 " Ho, ho, ho, ye brown duyvels ! That's right ! Run for 
 your lives ! " 
 
 In a twinkling, the fortress was changed into a veritable 
 pandemonium, while the rattle of firearms sent the startled 
 savages, thus taken unawares, flying pell-mell to the woods 
 and creek. Many, also, of the frightened prisoners joined 
 in the stampede, not knowing whether this was a rescuing 
 party or another warlike heathen tribe that had made a 
 descent upon them. 
 
 But Franz bade Rychie keep perfectly still, and ere 
 long she was clasped in her father's arms. Meanwhile, 
 Louis Dubois, uttering a volley of execrations, sprang for- 
 ward, and cut the thongs which bound his wife, just as wee 
 tongues of flame twisted, and curled upward, licking at her 
 loose garments, and flowing hair. 
 
 Oh, the mingled joy, terror, and confusion of that Sep- 
 tember night ! Many recalled it afterward as a distracted 
 dream. But when day dawned, happiness dawned with it, 
 for twenty-two pale, emaciated women and children looked 
 once more into the loving faces of kindred and friends, and 
 knew that their long three months of captivity were at an 
 
l8o A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 end, Papequanchen, and fourteen of his followers had been 
 sent to the happy hunting grounds of Indian braves, and 
 several squaws had perished. Among the last was old 
 Powanee who, crazed with terror, precipitated herself into 
 the swiftly flowing stream, and was washed away. 
 
 Captain Crygier inspected the handful of warriors who 
 had been taken prisoners, and was the proudest man in all 
 the New Netherlands that sunshiny morn. He held his 
 head high, and walked like a drum major. 
 
 " Help yourselves, my fine fellows," he shouted. " Help 
 yourselves to the spoils of war — the elk hides, and deer 
 skins, and other peltries, the wampum, and the gunpowder 
 here stored in the block-houses, for they have all been 
 hardly won." 
 
 Richly laden, then, was the party which gaily took up its 
 homeward march. Rychie " rode like a princess," borne by 
 Deerfoot and Owano, while her father walked beside her, 
 keeping his hand on her shoulder, as though to assure him- 
 self that she was, indeed, safe. 
 
 " Oh, sweetheart, it seems almost too good to be true ! " 
 he exclaimed many times a day. 
 
 " But for the dear Franz, it would not be," she replied. 
 " Always is he at hand in time of danger, and does it not 
 appear as though he had been sent among the savages, like 
 Joseph into Egypt, on purpose to be the savior of us all?" 
 
 " It was Owano, however, who came to warn and guide us." 
 
 " Ay, the good lad ! But it was to please and satisfy his 
 brother, Deerfoot, that he went, and now both must return 
 with us to New Amsterdam." 
 
 " Ja, that they must, and Franz will find a pretty nice for- 
 tune awaiting him — a pretty nice fortune, indeed." 
 
 " An old house and an old slave ? " asked the boy, with one 
 of his rare quizzical smiles. 
 
THE SWAN'S SONG l8l 
 
 "Those and a considerable bit more into the bargain. 
 What do you say to bags of golden guineas, and enough 
 seawant to make you a great burgher and a burgomaster as 
 well ? " And the jolly schepen related with great gusto the 
 story of the earthquake and the treasure that convulsion of 
 nature shook out of Dirck Van Boot's secret chamber. 
 
 " It sounds like one of old Natto's fables," said Lois, who 
 had drawn near to listen to the tale, " Only this is better, 
 because we know it is true. Oh, Deerfoot, aren't you glad ?" 
 
 " Not so glad as I am, that I warrant," shouted Louis the 
 Walloon, whose volatile spirits had rebounded like a rubber 
 ball. " I have my Catherine once again, and more is she to 
 me than all the gold and silver that the Indians say lie 
 buried under the Cat Mountains." Mistress Dubois, also, 
 quietly receiving her husband's kiss, felt thankful and con- 
 tent, though she could not forget " la petite Marie," left in 
 the depths of the green, waving forest. 
 
 " Elspeth, dear, you will leave this place of sad memories 
 and go with us for a visit to Manhattan ; will you not ?" asked 
 Rychie of her friend, when, for some days, they had rested 
 and recuperated at Esopus, rehearsing again and again the 
 trials and adventures of that eventful summer. 
 
 But Elspeth shook her head. " No, I think not. Hardly 
 can my poor vader bear me out of his sight, and I am sure 
 it is mine duty to stop by his side. Nor do I feel much 
 fear, for a strong guard is now to be stationed at the rondout, 
 and the new houses are to be built close together. So, you 
 see, there cannot be so great peril as formerly." 
 
 " I do hope that is so." 
 
 Nevertheless, neither Rychie nor her cousin drew a free 
 breath until they had turned their backs on the picturesque 
 valley and, with Heer Van Couwenhoven, Franz, Owano, 
 and several others, were sailing down the fair, blue Hudson. 
 
l82 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 " Never, never, do we wish to see the Cat Mountains 
 again ! " they declared, as they watched the violet-hued 
 peaks fade in the distance. 
 
 During the trip, all observed a change in quick-tempered, 
 pert-tongued Jannekin. Rarely had she ever been so affable, 
 so gentle, so agreeable, while she often sat apart by herself, 
 gazing soberly and thoughtfully into the rippling water. The 
 fact was, she was trying to make up her mind to an unpleas- 
 ant task, " humble pie " being a most distasteful dish to the 
 proud young Knickerbocker. 
 
 At length, however, when within about twenty hours of 
 home, she sought the boy who had done them such good 
 service, as he was standing alone in the stern of the small 
 vessel. 
 
 " Deerfoot — Franz de Milt— Morrow, — whatever it is you 
 are now to be called," she said, somewhat diffidently. " I 
 want, before we part, to beg your pardon and to tell you that 
 I realize now how cruelly selfish I was to my cousin, and 
 how insulting to you, both in Pearl Street and at the Fawn's 
 Leap. It fills me with real sorrow to remember it, but may- 
 hap you can find it in your heart to forgive me, and will, 
 sometime, be my friend, as you are Rychie's." 
 
 " That I will, right willingly," cried Franz, taking the girl's 
 proffered hand, while he had never liked her so well before. 
 " An apology, like charity, covers a multitude of sins, and 
 you need not now fret over the wrong done to your kins- 
 woman, since good has come out of evil, and you are all 
 saved instead of one." 
 
 " Thou art gracious to say so," sighed Jannekin, turning 
 away to hold out an olive branch of peace to Owano as well, 
 but it must be confessed that stolid youth received it some- 
 what charily.- 
 
 Quite a crowd met the party at the small quay jutting out 
 
THE SWAN'S SONG 183 
 
 into the bay, and Franz, his uncouth deerskin garments cast 
 aside with his Indian name, and decently arrayed in regula- 
 tion jerkin and ten-broecks, soon hunted up old Dinorah, 
 who welcomed him as one returned from the dead. 
 
 " Now, Lord, dis chile am ready to depart out ob dis 
 troublesome world," she sobbed, wiping the tears of joy 
 from her eyes. 
 
 " Tut, tut, do not talk so ! " cried the happy boy. " Now 
 is the time to live. Now, when your papers of freedom are 
 to be writ out at once, and when, for the string of wampum 
 given poor Franz De Milt, you are to dwell like a lady in the 
 house of rich Franz Morrow." 
 
 Nor were these idle words ; for the faithful negress was 
 made easy and comfortable for the rest of her days, in the 
 old shop on the canal. Ere, too, the lad went to join his 
 long lost father across the sea, he endeavored to induce 
 Owano to renounce his barbaric life and accompany him. 
 
 But this was too severe a test of the Indian's devotion. 
 " No, no, Deerfoot," he said. " Me love pale brother, but 
 me no love white man's ways. Owano die in those," — point- 
 to his companion's jacket and trousers. " Owano stay with 
 his own people, hunt, fish, wear his blanket." 
 
 So Franz had to content himself with showering the gifts 
 he liked best upon this child of nature. But in a few weeks 
 he bade farewell to the good colonists of the New World and 
 started to meet the fresh changes that were to take place, in 
 his odd, shifting, panoramic career. 
 
 Not only in Broad Street, however, was there rare rejoic- 
 ing. Beneath the Bergen, and Van Couwenhoven roof- 
 trees, kinsfolk gathered from far and near, and the most 
 fervent and heartfelt thanksgivings went up for the return 
 of the fair young daughters of the house and hearthstone. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 RYCHIE TO HENDRICK. 
 
 •' Hail, mighty City — ^high must be his fame 
 
 Who round thy bounds at sunrise now shall walk, 
 
 Still wert thou lovely — whatsoe'er thy name, 
 New Amsterdam, New Orange or New York, 
 
 Whether in cradle sleep, on sea-weed laid, 
 Or on thy island throne, in queenly power array' d." 
 
 Mrs. L. H. Sigourney. 
 
 New York. 
 
 In The New Netherlands. 
 
 Mine Brother Hendrick, 
 
 It is a long, long time since I have writ thee a letter, but 
 thine heart, which knows me so well, will speak, and say 
 that it was from no lack of affection. For, dear Hendrick, 
 very ill was I for many weeks after our so wonderful deliver- 
 ance from the cruel savages of the upper Hudson, and too 
 weak to hold the quill in my hand. Then, since I have 
 again waxed stronger, the events have been so stirring in 
 our little town that one could do nothing but talk, and 
 janker, and exchange bits of public news. 
 
 Alack, mine brother ! As thou may'st know, no longer do 
 
 we live in dear Dutch New Amsterdam, but in the English 
 
 City of New York. No more, from my dormer window, can 
 
 I see the Prince's flag floating from the rondout's outermost 
 
 bastion, but the British banner waving over Fort James. 
 
 Everything now, forsooth, is named for James, the Duke of 
 184 
 
RYCHIE TO HENDRICK 185 
 
 York, and through the streets his men continually do roll 
 and swagger, with their fine uniforms, and blustering airs 
 quite turning the heads of the Holland boys. But not so 
 fast ! A whole year must I go back. Before this reaches you, 
 you will have seen Franz, and heard news of us all, for 
 when he sent word of his safe arrival in Old England, and 
 his cordial meeting with his father and grandparents, who 
 welcomed him with open arms and tears of joy, he men- 
 tioned that he should soon go to Rotterdam. He said it 
 was for the book learning and picture- painting he was go- 
 ing there, and hoped to enter the same school with you. 
 He will have told you, then, of his Indian life, of our rescue, 
 and the blissful return to Manhattan. Of the grand fortune, 
 too, which came like a Godsend, and was revealed by the 
 earthquake that gave the New Netherlands such a churning 
 up. I trust he has informed you, likewise, how comfortable 
 and happy he has made old Dinorah, of the vendue at 
 which Dirck Van Boot's stock of tobacco and snuff, as well 
 as some very rich stuffs left behind by the pirates, was sold 
 at excellent advantage; and of the fine gifts he gave to us 
 all, especially to Pieter, and the little Blandina, who dis- 
 covered the gold. 
 
 And oh. Rick ! what wonders money does work ! I 
 never so realized it before ; but, though wrong, it is a stub- 
 born fact. Franz was just the same good, kind Franz, when 
 he wore his leather apron, and weighed out the brown 
 Virginia as when he walked to the kerck, dressed in the silk 
 coat with silver buttons, and the new trousers made for him by 
 the tailor, Cornelis Andriessen Hoogland. Quite differently, 
 however, the girls seemed to think, and I could not repress 
 a smile at the way they treated him. Why, Metje De Groot 
 really seemed proud to be seen chattering with him, and 
 even Katrinka invited him to her birthday fete. It was all 
 
l86 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 SO beautiful ! But, before Kerstydt, he had to go, and many 
 tears of regret did we shed at the parting. He, too, 
 showed much sorrow when he set sail. 
 
 Then came the long months when on the settle I had to 
 lie from drum-beat to curfew-bell, and Deborah was almost 
 my hands and my feet. Three times a week, too, Jannekin 
 would come across the passage-place to fetch me nice 
 nourishing dishes concocted by Aunt Bergen, while so 
 sweet and sympathizing was she, that I learned to love her 
 better than ever I did. 
 
 Indeed, Hendrick, you would scarce know our cousin, so 
 changed is she from the peppery Jan of old. Esopus 
 transformed her into another girl, and pretty as a peach 
 does she grow. 
 
 The lilacs were in bloom in the garden ere my strength 
 began to return, but, by my sixteenth birthday, I was almost 
 as well and gay as ever I was. This was lucky, for other- 
 wise I could ill have borne the late excitement. 
 
 It commenced some time back with one John Scott, who 
 declared that he had been made Governor of Long Island 
 by the English king. Like a Grand Mogul, then, he marched 
 his followers from New Utrecht to Oyster Bay, and at last 
 had the rare impudence to claim Breucklyn for his own. 
 When this occurred, little Hans Crygier— the son of the 
 brave captain sent to rescue us from the Iroquois — was 
 standing near by, and Mynheer Scott, turning to him, bade 
 him take off his wool hat to the British flag. 
 
 " No, that I will not," retorted Hans, bristling with indig- 
 nation ; at which the Englishman up with his gun and hit 
 him a crack with the butt end. 
 
 To all this our Cousin Teunis Van der Grist was an eye- 
 witness, and scornfully cried out : " Ach, then, if you have 
 blows to give, you should strike men, not boys ! " 
 
RYCHIE TO HENDRICK 187 
 
 Instantly, Scott's soldiers waxed very wroth, and four flew 
 at Teunis like snarling wolves. Surely, too, would he have 
 been killed had he not had an axe with which to defend 
 himself ; while, finally, he slipped round a tree and made 
 off. Meantime, there stood the upstart Governor, jabbering 
 in English, like a mountebank. 
 
 The New England colonists, who had removed thither, 
 all sided with him, and they kicked up such a hubbub that, 
 at last, for peace sake, the Heer Director granted to the 
 rebels. Flushing, Jamaica, Hempstead and Gravesend, which 
 we all think was a great pity. For if to such folks you give 
 one inch, they are sure to take a whole ell. 
 
 See, now, what really happened ! King Charles said to 
 his brother, the Duke of York : " Look you, James, all the 
 land and the streams of water from the west side of the 
 Connecticut River, to the east side of the Delaware Bay, will 
 I bestow upon you. Go you over to the New World and 
 take it." Which was just as though I should say to you : 
 " Rick, I will give you all Franz's gold guilders and fathoms 
 of seawant. Step up, and fill your trousers' pockets." 
 
 " Thank you, I will do so," answered the duke. But he 
 took precious fine care not to come himself ; only despatched 
 four frigates and a ranting, seize-all Colonel NichoUs to do 
 the work for him. 
 
 It was about two months ago, one very hot August noon- 
 time, that the father came in to dinner with a cloud on his 
 brow. •' What ails ye, Wolfert ? " asked the moeder, as she 
 set the succotash on the table. 
 
 " That which ails the whole West India Company," he 
 sighed ; " and may soon ail all Manhattan. A British 
 squadron is anchored down in the Narrows, and much I 
 fear they mean mischief." 
 
 Bless you, they were too true words he spoke, for the 
 
1 88 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME. 
 
 very next day — which was Saturday — up comes a delegation 
 demanding that New Amsterdam be surrendered, and on 
 Monday, the Jaker Governor, Winthrop, follows, with a let- 
 ter of terms for the Heer Director. 
 
 When Headstrong Peter, as the people call him, read this 
 epistle, he almost stood on his bald pate with rage. He 
 s'tormed, and he stamped, and, tearing the paper into bits, 
 trampled it under his feet. 
 
 This pleased not the burghers at all, and they swarmed 
 round Whitehall, and the Fort, insisting that they must see 
 the letter, while many dreadful threats and swear words 
 sounded on all sides. At length, then, the scraps of paper 
 had to be fitted together and a copy made from it. It prom- 
 ised protection to every one. But Petrus Stuyvesant was 
 for war, not peace, and a message to that efEect was returned 
 to the saucy English colonel. 
 
 Oh, what a week that was ! One morning, as I was braid- 
 ing my hair, I saw the vessels sailing up Buttermilk Chan- 
 nel, and in rushed Elsje, screeching : " Dey's a-comin'; de 
 Britishers is a-comin', wid deir big guns, to blow us all into 
 smithereens ! " 
 
 Debby and Clytie hid under the bed ; Blandina began to 
 cry, and even the father looked white and stern, as he hur- 
 ried out of the house. 
 
 The loyal j'at/er would have held out to the last, but many 
 of the citizens — even Hollanders — ^were for yielding, because 
 they were tired of our governor. They liked not his. strait- 
 laced ways, the stopping of the Pinxter and Shrovetide 
 sports, and his mistakes in dealing with the natives. 
 
 Some bad, grasping splutterkins even cared not which 
 side won, if only they could have an opportunity to plunder 
 and fill their wallets. Such a one was Rip Van Clomp, for 
 I, myself, overheard him say : " Now we hope for a chance 
 
M ^'^^'-^ 
 
 ■'i:'^<<:r:rr 
 
 'as I WAS BRAIDING MY HAIR,"— Prt^f l8S. 
 
RYCHIE TO HENDRICK 189 
 
 \o pepper those devilish Dutch traders. They have salted 
 us long enough. We know where their booty is stored, 
 and we know, also, where the young girls live who wear the 
 ^old chains," 
 
 Was not that a mean, contemptible speech for a Manhat- 
 "tan lad ? But always was Rip rough and untrustworthy. 
 
 Forsooth, every one was considerably frightened, and 
 X)ominie Megapolensis went to Heer Stuyvesant and advised 
 Jiim to submit rather than risk a bombardment of the town. 
 But no ; Headstrong Peter held out, though from the lon- 
 .gel we could see the British gunners, burning matches in 
 hand, waiting for the order to send a rain of shot and shell 
 down upon us. 
 
 Then the women besieged the Director, imploring him to 
 yield, and save them and their children ; while the men 
 drew up a petition, signed by many burghers, even by his 
 son, Balthazar. Poor man, what could he do ? While in 
 his heart he must have known we stood but a slim chance, 
 -with only qne little, mud fort, and scarce one hundred sol- 
 diers, against that nlighty force of intruders. 
 
 So, at last, the white flag, which means " surrender," was 
 run up, and dropping into a chair, he cried: "Have your 
 way ! Though I would rather be carried a corpse to my 
 grave, than to give up the city ! " 
 
 The next Lord's day was the saddest, and the solemnest, 
 that ever I knew. The Dominie preached a sermon an 
 hour and a half in length, and Governor Stuyvesant sat 
 throughout with his head bowed upon his hands. Much 
 jammer did I feel for him, for 'tis whispered that he will 
 likely be summoned back to Fatherland, and that much 
 fault will there be found with his action. But the truth is, 
 he would have held out to the bitter end, had the people let 
 him have his own way. 
 
igo A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 So, mine brother, now you know these ups and downs, 
 you must pardon my not writing, and before closing, I will 
 turn to pleasanter subjects. The very pleasantest of all, then, 
 is the roly-poly, little Nicholas, at the Bayard bouwerie. J a, 
 Hendrick, you and I have now a small nephew: and oh, such 
 dimples, such chubby arms and legs, such a perfect baby alto- 
 gether, was never seen in the colony before ! Grietje re- 
 minds me of poor Elspeth Jansen's speckled hen clucking 
 around her brood of chicks, she is so very proud of " mijn 
 zoon" So, likewise, is our worthy brother-in-law, though 
 he does not fancy being dubbed " Old Nick." He declares it 
 does not " sound seemly for the clerk of the Common Council," 
 an honor to which he has just been appointed. Still, as 
 Elsje says, "Baas Bayard must always have his little joke." 
 
 Schipper Hardentjroeck brings news from Esopus that 
 the Jansens and Duboises have finished their new houses, 
 and that Elspeth is as famous a home-maker as her so un- 
 happy mother, and is her father's veritable right hand. She 
 cannot leave him, but, when order and quiet are here once 
 more restored, I hope for a visit from Lois and Leon. 
 
 Pieter has taken thy place at the Latin School, and is 
 turning out a fine scholar. His Heidelberg, too, can he 
 rattle off, like the Dominie himself. 
 
 Already is Blandina looking forward to St. Nicholas Eve, 
 and counting the coins and beads in her strong-box which, 
 thanks to Franz, has more in it than usual. 
 
 You must give our friend -many fond remembrances from 
 us, one and all, as well as my respects to Uncle Diedrich 
 and Aunt Marta. Across the sea I embrace thee. So do the 
 vader and the moeder, Pieter and Blandina. 
 lip kisses thy hand. 
 
 Thine Sister, 
 Maritje. 
 
 October, 30, 1664, O. S. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 AFTER THREE YEARS. 
 
 " Oh patience, Sister. Did you see 
 
 A young man tall and strong. 
 Swift-footed to uphold the right 
 
 And to uproot the wrong, 
 Come home across the desolate sea 
 
 To woo me for his wife ? 
 And in his heart my heart is locked, 
 
 And in his life my life. 
 
 Christina G. Rossetti. 
 
 Three years and a half have rolled away, since the 
 cosmopolitan little town, standing where two rivers meet, 
 changed its name to the one by which it was destined to be 
 known to all future generations. But not so readily can it 
 change its fashions and manners, and the May Day of 1668 
 still sees a real Dutch May Pole raised upon the Bowling 
 Green and many jocund men and maidens, in the pictur- 
 esque Holland dress, joyously dancing about it, on the 
 emerald sward. 
 
 The only difference from Springs of yore seems, that now 
 there are British officers and English gallants with love-locks 
 sweeping their shoulders, as well as Manhattan Mynheers, 
 joining in the holiday frolic, and, verily, they appear as 
 welcome to the fresh-faced jufvrouws, as do the more 
 stolid youths with braided queues. 
 
 191 
 
192 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME. 
 
 Merrily a blithe, tripping air is scraped out from a quartette 
 of fiddles by a score of skilful black fingers, and nimbly 
 little buckled shoes flash hither and yon, while gold and 
 silver chains keep up a cheerful tintinnabulation, and gay- 
 hued ribbons and short silken skirts mingle in a fantastic, 
 rainbow confusion, pleasing to the color-loving eye. 
 
 It is an exhilarating sight, and so even thinks the ex- 
 Director, who has .wonderfully modified his views of late, 
 and who, from his great bouwerie on the East river, has 
 hobbled down to sit under the trees, and applaud some 
 particularly agile dancer. 
 
 " Verily, now, your gude vader makes a far better burgher 
 than he did a Governor," saucily remarks Maria Beeckman 
 to her /zflMce' Nicholas Stuyvesant, as they circle round the 
 festal pole. " See how he playfully pinches Jannekin 
 Bergen's rosy cheek, and stoops to kiss Grietje Bayard's little 
 Nick! Everyone now, too, loves the 'tap tap,' of his 
 wooden leg, while once they were wont to almost tremble 
 at the sound. It is a goodly transformation, and that is the 
 truth." 
 
 Meanwhile, unperceived by the absorbed merrymakers, a 
 small vessel had entered the channel and was making her 
 way up the bay. Just, too, as the fun became more fast and 
 furious, a tiny, elfish creature, in green linsey-woolsey, sud- 
 denly darted in and out of the spectators and sought a flaxen - 
 haired little damsel standing on the outskirts of the crowd. 
 
 " O missy, mine dear missy," she ejaculated, in short, broken 
 gasps : " I tink de Angel Gabriel be come. He almos' in de 
 slip, and nobody but sailors dar to see. 
 
 " Ach, Clytie, is that- so? Well, then, tie up thy tongue 
 and lisp never a word to any of the others. It will make for 
 them such a fine surprise, and then I want to be the very 
 first one to give our brother Hendrick the home greeting." 
 
AFTER THREE YEARS 193 
 
 So saying, off sped the little roguish girl down to Coentie's 
 Slip, her light braids flying out behind her in the wind. But 
 she paused in some embarrassment at sight of the elegant ' 
 young gentleman who came stepping briskly across the 
 gang-plank. Could this be the long-expected brother Hen- 
 drick, — the one whom she faintly remembered as a rollicking, 
 rather clumsy boy ? This seemed a dandified maccaroni, in 
 blue coat and long silk hose, extending above the knee out- 
 side his breeches ; a fashionable, low-crowned black hat 
 covering his fair head, and his white shirt-sleeves turned 
 back in laced cuffs about his wrists. 
 
 But she was not long left in doubt, for with a shout the 
 gay youth sprang forward and caught the small waiting 
 figure in his arms. 
 
 " Ho, ho, mine Rychie ! Here thou art ! Well did I 
 know that the earliest of them all wouldst thou be to bid me 
 welcome, and glad, so glad, am I to be at home once again." 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! What sport ! He does not know me at all. 
 For this is not Rychie ; it is Blandina," cried the laughing 
 sprite, highly diverted at his mistake. 
 
 " What is that ? This tall wench, the baby Blandina ! 
 Bless mine soul ! But, tut, I forget that it is seven years 
 since I went away. Thou art, however, very like what 
 Maritje was then, though, now I look more closely, I see 
 thine eyes are brown and not the himmel blue." 
 
 " A big jufvrouw is Rychie now. Two twelvemonths back 
 
 she made her first communion and wears a fine kerck girdle. 
 
 At this moment she is treading the May dance, with Gerrit 
 
 Rooseveldt. For, my brother, we did not look for you quite 
 
 "so soon." 
 
 " So ? Well, we did have a rarely short voyage, with wind 
 and waves all in our favor. But now let us hasten to find 
 the mother." 
 
194- A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 Ere this, however, the news of the Angel Gabriel's arrival 
 had spread from mouth to mouth, and sent all the Van Cou- 
 wenhovens quickly speeding homeward from the green, 
 yearning to embrace the long absent one. Joyous and 
 enthusiastic, then, was the reunion in the old Pearl Street 
 house, even the jolly little weathercock on the roof, gleefully 
 flapping his wings, as the southern breeze careered about 
 him. 
 
 " And now, if you have not squandered all your kisses 
 and bear's hugs on me," laughed Hendrick, when the affec- 
 tionate confusion had somewhat subsided. "There is a 
 ship-mate of mine, who would also like to claim a welcome." 
 
 Then, stepping outside, he presently ushered in a tall, 
 slim young man, who had lingered modestly in the garden. 
 A young man with a dark, curioiisly-striking countenance. 
 " Let me present to you my old schoolfellow and best friend, 
 the artist. Morrow." 
 
 •' Franz ! " burst from every lip. Pieter and Blandina 
 made a wild rush for the newcomer, and the schepen and 
 his vrouw, as well as Mynheer and Mistress Bayard, accorded 
 him as cordial a reception as though he had been another 
 son of the house. 
 
 Only Rychie held somewhat aloof, gave her hand coyly 
 and turned away with a blush when she caught the soft, 
 black eyes, strange and yet familiar, often bent in wondering 
 admiration upon her graceful figure and bright, intelligent 
 face. 
 
 " I trust, sweet mistress, that the duke's conquest of New 
 Amsterdam has not caused you to look with disfavor upon 
 all who chance to have some drops of British blood in their 
 veins," This Franz finally ventured to observe to the girl 
 when, in the evening, all sat in the best parlor, to do honor 
 to the occasion, and he leaned carelessly against the em- 
 
AFTER THREE YEARS 19S 
 
 broidered chair-back, over which Rychie had pricked her 
 fingers so long ago. 
 
 " Oh, no, do not think that," said the candid maiden 
 earnestly. Then, with more warmth of manner and a half- 
 coquettish smile, which inade her companion's heart beat a 
 gay little jubilate. " In fact, because of one half-English 
 boy, I believe I like the whole nation better than I otherwise 
 should." 
 
 " Ah ? " 
 
 " Yes, though it is odd how very well nearly all the Hol- 
 landers and the British agree. Like milk and water do they 
 mingle. Why, Geertruyd Vanderen is to wed one of Colo- 
 nel Nicholl's own officers, and the banns have been read for 
 my cousin, Teunis Bergen, and an English girl dwelling at 
 Gravesend." 
 
 " That is as it should be, for both are good Protestant 
 folk ! And there, that reminds me of a little book sent to 
 you by my father — my kind, loving father ! who, in spite of 
 his wild early days, is now one of the best men that I ever 
 knew. He is only too generous to me, and not long can I 
 be absent from him." 
 
 " A book ! Oh, that will be a prize indeed ! So few 
 books have we, and those have I read, until, almost, do I 
 know them by heart." 
 
 "This one has made some stir in the Mother Country, 
 because 'tis said to be aimed at the evil surrounding 
 King Charles's Court. 'Twas writ by a low-born fellow, 
 one John Bunyan, a tinker who, for preaching dissenting 
 doctrines, was persecuted, much as the Quakers have 
 been persecuted here, and was thrown into prison. In the 
 jail, then, he writ this book, and so much does it please the 
 common people, that it is like to go to a second edition. 
 'Tis a sort of story or romance, with a moral interwoven 
 
196 A LITTLE COLONIAL DAME 
 
 But wait ! I will show it you." Thereupon, Franz produced 
 a small volume of Pilgrim's Progress, above which the whole 
 family was soon bending, the children crying out with terror 
 and delight, over the execrable copperplates depicting the 
 stanch, and heroic Christian thrusting his sword into 
 ApoUyon or writhing in the grasp of Giant Despair. 
 
 To these simple, young folks, brought up on the most 
 practical realities, ignorant of all theatrical effects, novels, or 
 even fairy tales — except as they took the form of, Indian 
 legends or Negro superstitions — this volume came like a 
 revelation, a glimpse into an ideal world, and, for days they 
 reveled in the House Beautiful, the Delectable Mountains, 
 and the Enchanted Ground. 
 
 "A rare treat, forsooth, has the reading of this been," said 
 Rychie to Franz, a week or two later, when each had be- 
 come somewhat accustomed to the changes four years had 
 wrought in the other. " I am most grateful, too, to the 
 " Kruller man," — as Blandina dubs your father — for making 
 me acquainted with the brave Christian, Hopeful, Faithful, 
 and Great Heart. I wish that Lois Dubois could, also, peruse 
 the pretty tale ; for I believe she would enjoy it even more 
 than her favorite Book of Martyrs." 
 
 " Do you think so ? Well, I have another copy in my box, 
 and that I will send to her by Guysbert Van Imbroeck, 
 whom I met to day at the Coffee House, but who starts for 
 Esopus on the morrow." 
 
 "Ah, I see thou art just the same thoughtful, generous 
 Franz as of old," whispered Rychie gratefully. 
 
 "Tut, tut ! You rate me above my deserts. This is noth- 
 ing, whatever. Though, indeed, were it a great thing, who 
 should be so ready to confer a favor as I ? — I, the once poor, 
 homeless waif, who received so much good from kindly 
 hearts and hands, that he has been delivered from the 
 
' COME, SWEETHEART."— Pa^e 197. 
 
AFTER THREE YEARS 
 
 197 
 
 Giant Despair; led out of the Valley of Humiliation, and can 
 almost feel his feet on the Delectable Mountains ? See, this 
 has been my talisman ! " and, throwing back his coat, Franz 
 revealed a faded orange bow, pinned over his heart. 
 
 " Ach, but surely it is an old St. Nicholas ribbon ! " ex- 
 claimed Rychie. 
 
 " Ay, it is, a St. Nicholas ribbon which dropped from a 
 little girl's braid of hair, more than seven long years ago." 
 
 Softly, a rich, rose pink dyed the maiden's cheeks, as she 
 said — "And you have kept it ever since ?" 
 
 " Ever since, — in forest wild, at English Castle, and 
 Holland school. Always and everywhere, by sea and by 
 land. Look too, Rychie ! The sunset clouds are, again, 
 glowing with the selfsame tint. Let us walk down past the 
 Fort, as far as the locust trees by the water's edge, just as 
 we did on that happy festival when first I told you my 
 sorrowful, childish history, i There I wish to choose a view 
 for the great picture I am to paint. I shall paint it for thee, 
 dear one; for thee alone. Come, sweetheart ! " 
 
 Thus then, slowly sauntering through the violet-hued, 
 
 blossom-scented May gloaming, they fade from sight, the 
 
 sweet, little Colonial dame, and her gallant young lover, 
 
 ■ while streaming pennants of orange light flash and blaze in 
 
 the darkling westeirn sky. 
 
 THE END. 
 
IB WW -iL '■ -J,l,V"^/imn.;, 
 
 Ji Littley 9 
 COLONML 
 
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