They drifted back
to the house now. Tomas met them shouting out a mixture of Dutch
and English and holding by the cover Annette's book of the "Good
Girl." But its rightful owner rescued the precious volume and put
it on the shelf.
"Have you read it through, Annette?"
"Yes," was the reply, for she had learned to read before they
left Schuylerville.
"How do you like it?"
"Didn't like it a bit; I like 'Robinson Crusoe'," was the candid
reply.
The noon hour came, still the white rollers were pounding the
shore.
"If it does not calm by one o'clock I'll go on afoot."
So off he went with the packet, leaving Quonab to follow and
await his return at Fort George. In Schuyler settlement he spent
the night and at noon next day was in Albany.
How it stirred his soul to see the busy interest, the marching of
men, the sailing of vessels, and above all to hear of more
victories on the high seas. What mattered a few frontier defeats
in the north, when the arrogant foe that had spurned and insulted
them before the world had now been humbled again and again.
Young Van Cortlandt was away, but the governor's reception of him
reflected the electric atmosphere -- the country's pride in her sons.
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