“I have read of such attachments,” returned Mary dryly,—“but in my limited experience they invariably end in something deeper than friendship. No, Eletheer, you may deceive yourself but not others.”
What could Eletheer say? Experience had taught her the folly of argument with this sweet little blue-eyed, Dutch-French friend, so she said coaxingly,—“Never mind that now, dear. Tell me of your proposed trip abroad next fall.”
“There is little to tell. I hope, of course, to visit France and Holland as most of us in this valley are either French, Dutch, or a mixture of both.”
“Strange! that two nations of such widely different characteristics should have so assimilated.”
The vexed expression had disappeared from Mary’s countenance; she loved to discuss the early history, and particularly religious, of this valley, and Eletheer’s interest pleased her.
“Not necessarily so,” she returned. “They were thrown together by a common persecution. The first settlements of the town of Wawarsing were made by Huguenots and Hollanders at Nootwyck and ‘The Corners.’ The ancestors of the persons who made them had passed through fiery persecutions for conscience’s sake and had the principles of the early reformers thoroughly ingrained in their constitutions. In France, these reformers were called Huguenots, but all the early Protestants of France and Holland organized churches on similar principles, which generally were called Reformed Churches. The French have always been a people of ardent temperament and decided opinions, and religion expresses the extreme characteristic of a people.
“Discouraged by fruitless efforts to obtain religious liberty at home, the Huguenots fled from their native country in great numbers, estimated at one million of the most industrious, the most intelligent and the most moral of the French nation, who sought safety in England, Holland, Prussia, Switzerland and America, taking with them their skill in the arts and as much of their wealth as could be snatched from the destroyer, thus impoverishing France and enriching the countries to which they fled, where they found a most welcome reception.
“In Holland, the Protestants suffered a continued series of persecutions under Charles V and Philip II of Spain, beginning in 1523 and lasting to the time when religious liberty was secured under William of Orange, during which time thousands of the best citizens of Holland were cruelly murdered and tormented for conscience’s sake. The Huguenots and Hollanders, thus brought into intimate relationship by common fate and a like persecution, maintained the closest and most intimate friendship with one another, worshipping together and intermarrying.”
So utterly absorbed were the girls, that neither of them was aware of a pair of listeners, Tim Watson and Elisha, who were seated just a few feet distant on a shelving rock that overhung the creek, and they also had become oblivious of their surroundings. No one noticed the increasing murkiness of the atmosphere, nor the baleful, ominous stillness as though nature was in a vindictive mood and preparing to spring upon her victim. The dull, yellow sun was fast becoming obscured by a cloud of inky blackness and a gentle sough of the wind through the tree-tops had increased to a threatening howl. But as Mary raised her eyes and glanced toward the creek, a roar like the infernal regions let loose, followed by a vivid flash of lightning, brought the four into a realization of their danger. Like a deer, Elisha leaped toward the girls and grasping an arm of each shouted,—“Out of the woods!” Another terrific flash from the zenith to the horizon was followed by a distinctly sulphurous glow. The bolt shivered the tree under which they stood. A blazing ball plowed up the ground at their feet and all three fell in an insensible heap.
Watson’s sinewy arms carried the girls tenderly to an adjoining field and laid them on the soft grass. Returning quickly to Elisha’s assistance,—“I’ll be doggoned, if they don’t have northers here,” froze on his lips as he looked at the still form at his feet; for his practiced eye told him that no human help could avail here. However, this was no place for examination, so Elisha, too, was carried to a place beside the girls.