"No, not in the play; but we had plenty of girls as spectators and at the feast and dancing."
"And did you ever make a play out of any other historical incident?" asked Anna Fleming.
"Yes, several; and I think that is the reason why historical events became so fixed in my mind, and I got so interested in reading history. It began by accident, as you might say,—that is, by Schuyler's delight in the Van der Berg story, and insisting on playing it. It's the best way in the world, let me tell you, to play history like this,—it teaches you more than any ordinary study possibly can, and you find that through it you get events and epochs perfectly clear in your mind, and everything by and by spreads out before you like reality."
"I wish Miss Marr would let us have history lessons this way," said Myra.
"Perhaps she will, some time, if Kate tells her what she has told us," said Anna, hopefully; "and you will tell her some time, won't you, Kate?"
"Yes, I'll tell her, but I don't think it is the thing to do in school days; you ought to get it up in the summer, during vacations. It would interfere with other studies to go into all the preparation and work of such performances in school."
"Did you ever like any other of your plays as well as the Siege?" asked Hope.
"No, never; but what made you ask that, Hope?"
"Because it was so stirring and out-door-sy, and the boatman was so jolly and brave, I thought it wasn't possible that there could have been another story quite so playable as that."
"I said the Van der Bergs were proud of only one thing,—this performance of the boatman; but there was another of our ancestors of a later day who is very interesting, I think, and just as plucky and brave in another way."