“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.
Rolf had a matter of his own to settle. At the bookseller's he asked for and actually secured a copy of the great book—“Robinson Crusoe.” It was with a thrilling feeling of triumph that he wrote Annette's name in it and stowed it in his bag.