I anything was happening in distant Virginia which could possibly cause grief in Rhode Island, that I became suddenly abashed with a vague sense that it was a little absurd to be so different from one's neighbors as to put crape on one's door when nobody else did. hesitated somewhat and made my answer brief, as if I wished to close conversation on that subject. It must, however, be recorded that my explanation was received respectfully, and it may be that my little friends had in their turn a moment of surprise and mortification because they were different from us, and had no sign of lamentation on their own doors. When the Southern troops fired upon Fort Sumter, childhood ceased in many a Northern home rather prematurely. During the following four years some strong emotion was felt every day, which was caused by something quite outside the trivial events of home life; and such experience could not fail to leave lasting marks on the characters of the boys and girls of that generation. They were never quite careless and light-hearted, like the youths who are nurtured in peace. Their most mirthful meetings were "circles," where the maidens sewed and knit for the soldiers. Their jests often savored of tragic and historic passions, as when my young brother vowed he would not cut his hair till Richmond was taken. My father was over sixty when the war broke out and threatened him with financial ruin, but he said that he did not care if poverty awaited him in his age, "if only the slaves got free." He was a reserved man, shy of expressing feeling or thought, and the effort of speech on such a matter made his lips tremble. He had a very beautiful face, and it is still easy to fancy the glow upon it when, one September morning, he came eagerly into the house, and shouted up the staircase to the mother and chil dren above the good news that the President had issued the first Emancipation Proclamation. After that day the Abolitionists were possessed of an assured hope that the country would be saved, and that "after freedom" her bells would "ring peace." That hope, though sometimes obscured, was never wholly darkened again, even on that later April day when once more the father came sadly home, bearing the tidings that Abraham Lincoln had been murdered. Lillie B. Chace Wyman. 66 Ei?" Already the war is begun, then?" "N-not yet." "But Vrouw Litschoe, good woman, keeps up the courage till you go, ei?" "Th-the church is out early to-today," said the disconcerted sergeant, with a puerile attempt to change the subject. "A great, great soldier!" repeated the vrouw, with a withering survey of her spouse. Finding his muddled wits quite unequal to the occasion, and having from long experience a well-grounded dread as to the result of the dispute, Rip forbore to answer, but with a tipsy assumption of dignity beckoned his wife to a private parley. "C-come here, my treasure! Co-come to me! I would hic talk to ye. Here, I say!" He repeated the invitation in tones ranging through the whole gamut of expression, from rotund command to faltering entreaty, his pleading enforced by insinuating signals of a fat forefinger. But his inflexible helpmeet disdaining to budge from her position, Mahomet must needs go to the mountain. Edging up to her, therefore, with a very unmartial bearing, he entered upon an undertoned, deprecating explanation, to which the listener, scorning all subterfuge, replied by loud sniffs of disgust. Meantime, the prisoners looked on with differing emotions. Steenie, too much outraged at the indignity offered them to heed anything else, was impatient at the interruption, but Hester, rec "These P-Papists, say ye?" "Do ye take for Papists honest people coming from church? Church, mind ye! "'T is better than Vrouw Litschoe's. A soldier! Ugh! go home to bed!" The crest-fallen sergeant stood helplessly staring. "If these be n-not Papists, wh-where be the P-Papists?" "Go ask the captain; 't is he talks of Papists. Go, I say, and take to him. his own child for a Papist: what then comes about?" "Ei?" "The sergeant is whipped at the cart's tail and drummed out of town for a drunken fool." "Wh-where be the Papists, then?" repeated Rip, with tipsy persistence. "Set these free, and go look for them at the pot-house." "Set 'em free! - let 'em go free! hear ye?" hiccoughed the sergeant, turning angrily to his men. "My vrouw says these be not P-Papists, 'n' she knows. Wh-what are ye doin' wi-with these, ei? Ye 've made a bl-blunder, see? Let 'em g-go, I say!" It was only after several emphatic repetitions of the order that the guard, who were all more or less deeply indebted to Vrouw Litschoe's, reluctantly obeyed. Hardly had the liberated pair thanked Tryntie for her good offices, when Hester, recognizing among a group of people just issuing from the gates some members of her own family, whispered aside to her companion :— "Go-quick! Let them not see us together!" "And you you will go son, then?" "There is no help." "Where when shall we meet again?" 66 more favorable time for carrying it into effect than now, while her father's whole mind was intent upon the crisis in public affairs. Despite his sanguine mood, however, a whole crop of little doubts sprang up in his path like the weeds by the wayside. Would Hester's courage uphold her at the ripe moment? Would his kinswoman receive her, under the circumstances? Could he keep the matter from his own family? Might not Leisler raise a hue and cry which would make any hiding-place impossible? Would Dominie Selyns approve? Last, but first in present interest, would Hester be able to find a pretext for keeping her appointment at the bouwerie? Absorbed with these riddles, he heedback to pri- ed not, until close upon them, some persons in the highway, evidently engaged in an altercation. Something unusual in the character of the group drew his attention a number of Indians per end of the island was still swarming with them seemed to be barring the way of a traveler, whose escort of slaves made loud and vehement protestation. 'Go, go! They come this way." "The bouwerie." Hester looked quickly at Tryntie, who nodded emphatically. "Find some pretext to go there soon-to-morrow!" whispered Steenie hurriedly. In a moment more he was lost in the crowd. Next day the junker set out betimes to keep his tryst with Hester. On account of the shorter distance, he chose to go by way of the Landpoort. It was a bright June morning; a fresh wind blew up from the water, the lilacs and apple blossoms in the gardens along the road filled the air with sweetness, and the young man's spirits, buoyed up by so many cheering associations, rose to the pitch of confidence. With youth, health, vigor, an ardent love, a soaring hope, as allies, what could avail against him? Walking briskly forward, he thought out in detail his scheme for Hester's relief. It seemed there could never be a the up Drawing nearer, Steenie recognized a well-known and striking object, and a moment's attention made him master of the situation. In the midst of the road stood the begum's palanquin, a light, graceful kind of litter which Dr. Staats had imported from India for his wife's use, as she could by no means be persuaded to trust herself in the saddle, after the fashion of the Dutch ladies. The Indians, a strolling band of Najacks, accustomed to look upon the blacks with contempt on account of their servile condition, meeting, as they supposed, one of that despised race riding in such state upon the highway, had stopped the little cavalcade to satisfy their curiosity, greatly to the terror and disgust of the lady. But regardless of her fear and repugnance, they coolly persisted in examining her jewels and fingering her garments, with many grunts of perplexity and admiration. It was while she was undergoing this ordeal that Steenie approached. Directly she caught sight of him the lady called loudly for aid. Having heard her complaint, the junker turned upon the savages with an air of authority, announced himself a son of the mayor, reproved them sharply for interfering with the lady, whose rank he duly described, and concluded by warning them, upon pain of bringing their people into disfavor with his townsmen, against repeating the rudeness. Impressed by the stature and bearing of the new-comer, the Indians, disclaiming all evil intent, went their way. In view of the daily familiar intercourse then existing between the Indians and the colonists, the whole affair was quite commonplace. The begum, however, chose to look upon it otherwise. It was her first encounter with the red men, and she could not be persuaded they intended anything less than assassination. Regarding her deliverance as a true feat of knight-errantry, she was eloquent in thanks; more eloquent, indeed, than intelligible to Steenie, who stared at such tropical fervor. In her Oriental zeal nothing would do but to make her gratitude concrete. It must needs have a symbol. Drawing from her finger, therefore, a ring of value, she pressed it upon her benefactor. By no means clear that the ring was not proffered by way of reward, he indignantly declined it. Thereupon she would know the name of one to whom she was under such an eternal obligation. Intent only upon keeping his appointment, Steenie muttered his name and strode away, leaving the lady peering after him from between the parted draperies of her palanquin with a new and quite particular interest. Rip found himself very heavy, that same Monday morning. It was with much difficulty that his thrifty little wife routed him out of bed in time for break fast at sunrise. Although coming off sound in limb and wind, he had nevertheless found his campaigning somewhat exhausting. Nerves so long strained to repel the attack of oncoming hosts needed unbending. He felt himself listless. He was in no mood for work. As laws are silent among arms, so, too, for the most part, the arts of peace languish. The ploughshare grows rusty while the sabre gleams. It need scarcely be said that things at the bouwerie were sadly neglected. Tryntie, well aware of this, had not failed to hint more than once that things were going to rack and ruin. Moreover, with a woman's insensibility to argument, she could not be brought to understand how impossible it is for one to be a warrior to-day and a farmer tomorrow, how painfully the smock cramps the chest high swollen from the shining cuirass, and how ill it consorts with human blood and nature to come back enthusiastically to the half-finished furrow with the clang of cymbals still ringing in the ears. But by every hero and patriot of his own sex, it will be readily understood why, after the cattle were fed and a few necessary chores done, Rip showed no disposition to go afield. Meantime, the expected visitors, either or both, might arrive at any moment. Once let Rip see them together or suspect the cause of their coming, and all hope of secrecy was at an end. In doubt as to his purposes, Tryntie indulged in a little skirmishing. ""T is three hours after sunrise." "You will be late yonder." "The war is over, then?" war?" ""Tis time for that when the enemy comes." "He stays a long time away, this enemy." "Never fear but he comes quick enough when I am killed, and you have till the bouwerie by yourself!" "I tremble not for that till it comes." "Zoo! " Time was flying; the sun was now nearly four hours high. Tryntie became agitated, although not yet barren of expedients. Having watched Rip pack his pipe for a long smoke and settle himself with a grunt of comfort in the doorway, she began again in some precipitancy. "There be many down there? "At the fort?" "Mm-m." 66 A great crowd." "Where comes the food from?" "Who knows?" It was, to be sure, a ridiculously early hour for such high, tragic, grave, and tender business as Steenie had in hand, and so he had sense enough to see for himself when he came to the door of the cottage, and found Tryntie still busy over her breakfast pots and pans. He lost nothing in the vrouw's eyes by excess of ardor, it would appear, for she received him with the most respectful deference, brought him a glass of cool buttermilk as he sat in the shaded stoop mopping his forehead, and listened with a flush of pleasure to his praises and thanks for her aid the day before. "Sh-h! sh-h! in with ye, Mynheer! called the little dame warningly in the midst of their talk. "Here they come ; "They must needs buy a great store." she, and her brother with her. In with "Cartloads." "We sold not any yet." "Ei?" "We have hoof-kaas and rolliches to spare; then there be our apples rotting in the cellar." Slowly but surely the suggestion did its work. The smoker's eyes kindled with a speculative gleam, his lips contracted into a pucker of resolution. The instinct of the chapman was aroused. Starting up at last, he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and declared energetically, "Tis a good thought! I go there." "Tis late for to-day," suggested Tryntie conservatively. "Damn! No; it is plenty of time. Get ready the basket. I go now." Tryntie showed no exultation at the success of her tactics. She quietly packed the basket, and from the doorway watched her swaggering spouse out of sight, as he went striding away on his errand to town. It was well that Rip took a short cut across the fields, that morning, or he would have met the incautious Steenie plunging along the highway, and thus all Tryntie's trouble would have gone for nothing. ye, quick, or the cat's out of the bag." Hardly had Steenie vanished through the door when Jacob Leisler, Jr., came riding up, with his sister on a pillion. "Here's Hester come to stay with ye, huysvrouw, while I go to Sapokanican in search of forage. She is to be home, mind ye, by noon, in case I come not back this way, and you may send Rip with her." Tryntie received this blunt message with a scant courtesy and not a word of comment. Hester, waiting only until her brother was out of sight, turned with inquiring eye to Tryntie, who answered only by a nod. 66 And Rip?" "Yonder!" with thumb pointing townwards. Thereupon, without wasting further time in empty compliments, the thoughtful vrouw caught up her offspring, who came creeping to the door, leaving a long wake on the sanded floor behind him, and went back to her pots and pans. Although the watcher within lost no time in taking her place, it was not until a full half hour had been wasted in preliminaries and incoherent talk that he suddenly bethought him of the object of their meeting. |