Blue Robin, the Girl Pioneer Part 34

Then Nathalie was off, running swiftly over the lawn, peering first on one side and then the other as she gave a Bob White whistle, then a Tru-al-lee, ending with the shout, "Girls! Girls! where are you?" then the Bob White whistle again.

Her cry was heard, and one by one the Pioneers sheepishly crawled from their places of safety and joined Nathalie on the lawn. They listened with shamed faces as she told them who and what it was that had caused their sudden departure. They were reluctant to show themselves at first, especially when they learned that Mrs. Morrow was there and had heard all about their foolish flight. But with a bit of coaxing on Nathalie's part they returned, and in a few minutes were again in their cheer-fire circle, with two additional guests, Mrs. Van Vorst and Nita, besides Mrs. Morrow, who had thought when the girls first began to tell their stories to slip in and thank Mrs. Van Vorst for her kindness, with the result that she had been a witness to their lack of bravery, as she termed it.

The rest of the evening pa.s.sed quickly after one or two had told their thrillers, to the great satisfaction of Nita, who enjoyed them immensely. After the stories were told, there was a marshmallow roast, which was entered into with zest, and then came the burning send-off to Louise Gaynor, who, when her name was called, came shyly forward to receive an enormous pie, from which hung streamers of gay colored ribbons, each streamer being tied to a keepsake from one of the Pioneers.

Mrs. Morrow now expressed the regret of the Pioneers at losing so good a comrade and friend, with the added wish that she would always remember them with love, and the a.s.surance that they would carry her on their hearts with devout wishes for her health and happiness. The streamers were pulled one by one and the loving gifts were brought forth as a tribute to the sweetest songster of the band.

The last streamer brought to light a Round Robin letter, which Louise faithfully promised not to open until the dates set, as for each day in the year of absence she would find a few words of cheer and love from her comrades, the Girl Pioneers of America.

After a few songs from the girls, Louise sang one or two of her old English songs, Lillie accompanying her on the mandolin, and then Mrs.

Morrow, in a neat little speech, commended Nathalie for her courage in holding her ground when the others had taken to flight. As she ended there was a moment's silence and then each and every girl was shouting as loud as she could:

"Hear! hear! a brave Pioneer!

Three cheers for Nathalie dear!"

This cheer was most embarra.s.sing to Nathalie, who wiggled uneasily with flushed cheeks as she tried to make the girls hear that she was not brave at all. But her protests were drowned by the merry voices, as after three cheers they broke into their Pioneer song of good-by to Louise. This was followed by the song that every Pioneer loves to sing and that was:

"We're Pioneers, Girl Pioneers!

We're Pioneers, Girl Pioneers!

We will be brave, and kind and true; We're Pioneers, Girl Pioneers!

Hear! Hear! Hear!

Girl Pioneer!

Come, give a cheer!

Girl Pi-o-neer!!!"

One bright morning two weeks after the f.a.got party, Helen with wondering surprise mingled with pleasure read the following:

"Madame Van Vorst presents her compliments to Mistress Helen Dame, and begs the pleasure of her company on the afternoon of the sixth of July, at a _Kraeg_, to meet her daughter, Mistress Anita Van Vorst, in the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the building of the Van Vorst homestead. Mistress Helen is requested to appear in the costume of a 'goede vrouw' of Mana-ha-ta."

"A _Kraeg_-what does that mean?" queried the girl, as with puzzled brows she eyed the tiny picture of the "Homestead" surmounting the invitation, with the dates, 1664-1914. "Ah, Nathalie will know!" The next moment the girl was hurrying across the lawn to her neighbor's veranda, where she had spied her cosily ensconced in the hammock screened from observant eyes by a bower of green leaves.

Nathalie looked up as she heard her step and trilled a soft tru-al-lee in recognition, as Helen gave the brownish envelope in her hand a flourish.

"I knew you would be wanting to know what that meant." Nathalie smiled happily at her friend as she pointed to the envelope.

"I understand the invitation all right," was the quick retort, "and congratulate you on your success in winning the madame to your views that it was a shame to allow little Anita to bloom behind those high walls. But-can you tell me what kind of a thing a _Kraeg_ is?"

"It means a Dutch house-warming! But there, I am not going to tell you any more, wait until the sixth."

"'In the costume of a goede vrouw of Mana-ha-ta,'" read Helen slowly.

"May I deign to ask your Dutch Majesty to explain what this means?"

"You may," nodded the occupant of the hammock, "for her Dutch Majesty has spent many weary hours with Miss Anita studying just that part of the program. You see, we want to have the real Dutch atmosphere of the early period, so we decided to have each girl impersonate some woman pioneer, and then tell who she was and what she did."

"Well, I don't imagine that the girls will care to get themselves up like those old Dutch vrouws, as they were so terribly stolid and uninteresting."

"Oh, Helen," exclaimed Nathalie sitting suddenly up in the hammock, "those Dutch vrouws were anything but uninteresting. Nita and I have read all about them in a book Mrs. Van Vorst bought for us in New York, it has just been published and is very interesting. As a matter of fact, the women who settled New York were the most efficient, the most industrious, and the most capable of any of the early pioneer women of that period."

"I did not know that," said Helen, raising her eyebrows; "I thought they were just stolid Dutch peasant women with little ability to do anything but knit, tend the cows, and so on."

"A great many people seem to have that idea," returned her friend, "but the Dutch housewives were not mere stoical drudges. Holland at that time, you know, was the only country that gave as good an education to her girls as to her boys. They were not only educated to fill responsible positions, but to have a love for literature as well as for painting, music, and the arts. So these Dutch peasants, as you call them, were better educated, better protected by the laws of the colony, and held more important positions than any of their Southern or Northern sisters.

"It is claimed," she went on, warming to her subject, "that the Dutch housewife was the manufacturer of the day, producing under her own roof nearly all the necessities for the family use. Besides being proficient in the art of cooking, she made perfumes from the flowers in her garden, planted, gathered, dried, and brewed the hops. She culled simples and herbs for medicine, thus becoming the physician of the household. She taught her maids to card and weave wool for clothes; she spun the fine thread of the flax, grown in her yard, for the linen, knit the socks, oh, I could not begin to tell you her many industries!

"But besides all that," continued the girl, "the goede vrouws had such good sense and judgment, and such a fine eye for commercial values that they not only owned real estate, but ofttimes carried on their own business. The burgomasters of the town paid great deference to the Dutch women's shrewdness, judgment, and independence, so that they exerted no little influence in the state affairs of New Amsterdam."

"Well, I never!" laughed Helen teasingly. "If you haven't become a regular schoolma'am since you have been teaching the princess. Pray, how much am I to pay you per word?"

Nathalie laughed merrily. "Yes, isn't it funny? I started reading about the Pioneer women to get Nita interested in something that would be instructive as well as entertaining. And lo, she has not only become absorbed in anything that pertains to the pioneers, but in many other historical subjects as well. As for me, why, I have learned a great deal, too, and that is how, when Mrs. Van Vorst said she would like to entertain the Pioneers in return for amusing Nita by the drill and the f.a.got party, we decided to have a _Kraeg_."

"How will the girls know what characters they are to take, what they did, and so on?"

"Oh, Mrs. Morrow and I arranged all that. Notices were sent-you'll get yours-telling the girls that all information would be furnished by Annetje Jans-that's I-gratis. I will arrange with each girl as to her character and so on. Oh, there's Grace! I'll warrant you she has her notice and is in a hurry for news. But, Helen, here is the book that tells all about these Dutch women. I wish you would take it and look it over, for I know I shall need lots of help."

CHAPTER XX-THE DUTCH KRAEG

The sixth of July had arrived, and little Miss New York was fidgeting nervously in her chair-draped with the Star Spangled Banner and the flaunting colors of the Dutch Republic-placed in line with the hostess and the receiving party of the day. She was a rather startling Miss New York, arrayed as a G.o.ddess of Liberty-she had claimed she was too modern to be a vrouw-with her chair as well as her small person hung with placards of well-known places, streets, and buildings of the metropolis.

By her side stood Madame New Amsterdam-Mrs. Van Vorst-whose mult.i.tudinous skirts stood out from her figure with such amplitude that she resembled the quaint little green pincushion that dangled from her waist. Her neat white cap was tied under her chin with formal stiffness, while a large silk ap.r.o.n completed a make-up that transformed the slender, dignified Mrs. Van Vorst into a typical Dutch matron. She too, like her daughter, was hung with tiny white signs from bodice to skirt, which excited curiosity if not admiration.

"Oh, Mother, I do wish they would hurry and come!" cried Miss New York impatiently, craning her neck to see if some one had not yet appeared on the broad stairway leading to the main sitting-room. "Oh, somebody's coming!" and the little lady, with the weight of a city on her shoulders, drew back as she clapped her hands with delight.

"Ah, here comes the Governor's lady," exclaimed Madame New Amsterdam as Madame Stuyvesant-Mrs. Morrow-announced her coming by stopping on the threshold of the low-ceiled room, and bowed with such stately formality that Miss New York's eyes suddenly stilled, as she stiffened with similar dignity to receive the first guest.

The Governor's lady was followed by Annetje Jans, her comely little person looking like a blooming Dutch posy, arrayed in a bright green petticoat and a blue waistcoat with yellow sleeves. The brown eyes, ready smile, and brilliant cheeks of Miss Nathalie made her a fitting representative of the little lady who formed so large a part of the history of New Amsterdam, coming over in 1630 in the ship _Endracht_ with her husband and three children from Holland. After the death of her husband, who left her a _bouwerie_ (farm) of sixty acres, a good part of New York, she married Dominie Bogardus, thus becoming with her wealth and influence a dominant character in the colony.

Annetje came a few steps forward, and then bobbed such a low curtsy that the wings of her lace cap flapped out like the sails of a windmill in a greeting to her hostesses. But in a second her old-time pose was forgotten, as her eyes fell on the much "be-signed" person of the lady of the house, and she flew to her aid, declaring that she was losing some of her signs.

"This will never do," she commented as she hurriedly pinned the sign "Bouwerie" in its place. "Oh, and here's another old place that's gone astray!" poking "Der Halle" on a straight line with its neighbor, "De claver Waytie."

"Will you please inform me why New Amsterdam is thus placarded?" It was the voice of the Governor's lady, who was curiously watching this adjustment of signs.

"Why, these signs are the Dutch names of the different localities and streets as named in the days of New Amsterdam," explained Annetje quickly. "See. Broad street means Broad way; _Kloch-Hoeck_ was the site of the first village, as it was all covered with bits of clam and oyster sh.e.l.ls, the word means Sh.e.l.l Point. _De claver Waytie_ was a hill leading to a spring covered with gra.s.s, where the young maidens used to bleach their linen. The path they wore up the hill came to be known as _Maadje-Paatje_, Maiden Lane. _Der Halle_ was the name of a tavern near a big tree on the corner of Broad and Wall Street. It took the arms of six men to go round _der groot_ tree.

"Here is _Cowfoot Hill_, the old cow-path up the hill, _Canoe Place_, where the Indians used to tie their canoes, and _Catiemuts_ is the hill where the Indians had built their castle. _Collect_ means a dear little lake near-by, yes, and here's the Boston Highway, here's the _Stadt-Huys_, the town hall. _Graft_ was a ditch crossed by a bridge; _De Smits Vlye_ was an old blacksmith shop near the ferry to Long Island. _Vlacke_ was the grazing ground for the cows, now the City Hall Park. _De Schaape Waytie_ was the sheep pasture-"

"Annetje Jans," exclaimed Madame Van Stuyvesant at this point, with a solemn face, "do you expect me to remember all those Dutch names?

Verily, child, you have improved your time and twisted your tongue." But Annetje was off, for at that moment she spied another arrival, one of the Orioles, and as the sprightly dominie's widow was to act as mistress of ceremonies, she was soon by her side, as she stood hesitatingly in the doorway.

"How do you do, _Mutter_. Oh, but you do look fine!" cried Nathalie as her keen eyes noted the broad appearing figure with hair pushed straight back under a close fitting cap, short petticoat and gown displaying her wooden sabots. The _mutter_ was knitting industriously, like a typical Dutch vrouw, as she talked to Annetje and told of the woes that attended the getting up of her make-up.

Annetje now led the new arrival to the line waiting to welcome her.

"Allow me to present to you Catalina de Trice, the _mutter_ of New York, having been the first woman to land on that famous little isle."