"He seems like our last friend," mourned Margareta. "Everything before us is strange."
"We thought George Reimer was our last friend," said John Conrad. "Perhaps we shall find other friends as good."
For four days, the Germans watched for a ship. When at last two English vessels came into the harbor and they were taken aboard, the Weisers had little food and less money. When John Conrad heard that no passage was to be charged, he breathed another sigh of relief.
"The good Queen will keep her promises," said he to his children. "The worst of our troubles are over."
But within an hour it seemed that the worst of their troubles had only begun. The channel crossing was rough. From their fellow travelers there was rising already a cry, which was to grow louder and louder as the weeks and months went by—"Would that we had suffered those miseries which we knew rather than tempt those which we did not know!"
When the ship entered the smooth waters of the Thames River, the Germans began to smile once more. About them were green fields. They saw pleasant villages and broad stretches of cultivated land and deer browsing under mighty trees.
"If we might only stay here!" they sighed.
John Conrad shook his head.
"Here we should not find rest."