“Elder!”

“Ah, weel, there’s excepts!  I hae mind o’ them.  But Neil won’t be long daunted.  I looked in on him as I cam’ upstairs.  He was sitting wi’ a law treatise, trying to read his trouble awa’.  He’s a brave soul.  He’ll hae honours and charges in plenty; and there’s vera few women that are worth a gude office—­if you hae to choose atween them.”

“You go back on your ain words, Elder.  Tak’ a sleep to yoursel’.  Your pillow may gie you wisdom.”

And, while this conversation was taking place, they heard the pleasant voices of Van Heemskirk’s departing guests, as, with snatches of song and merry laughter, they convoyed Batavius and his bride to their own home.  And, when they got there, Batavius lifted up his lantern and showed them the motto he had chosen for its lintel; and it passed from lip to lip, till it was lifted altogether, and the young couple crossed their threshold to his ringing good-will,—­

“Poverty—­always a day’s sail behind us!”

[Illustration:  Tail-piece]

[Illustration:  Chapter heading]

IX.

“Now many memories make solicitous The delicate love lines of her mouth, till, lit With quivering fire, the words take wing from it; As here between our kisses we sit thus Speaking of things remembered, and so sit Speechless while things forgotten call to us.”

Joanna’s wedding occurred at the beginning of the winter and the winter festivities.  But, amid all the dining and dancing and skating, there was a political anxiety and excitement that leavened strongly every social and domestic event.  The first Colonial Congress had passed the three resolutions which proved to be the key-note of resistance and of liberty.  Joris had emphatically indorsed its action.  The odious Stamp Act was to be met by the refusal of American merchants either to import English goods, or to sell them upon commission, until it was repealed.  Homespun became fashionable.  During the first three months of the year, it was a kind of disgrace to wear silk or satin or broadcloth; and a great fair was opened for the sale of articles of home manufacture.  The Government kept its hand upon the sword.  The people were divided into two parties, bitterly antagonistic to each other.  The “Sons of Liberty” were keeping guard over the pole which symbolized their determination; the British soldiery were swaggering and boasting and openly insulting patriots on the streets; and the “New York Gazette,” in flaming articles, was stimulating to the utmost the spirit of resistance to tyranny.