“We’re Pioneers, Girl Pioneers!
We’re Pioneers, Girl Pioneers!
We will be brave, and kind and true;
We’re Pioneers, Girl Pioneers!
Hear! Hear! Hear!
Girl Pioneer!
Come, give a cheer!
Girl Pi-o-neer!!!”
One bright morning two weeks after the fagot party, Helen with wondering surprise mingled with pleasure read the following:
“Madame Van Vorst presents her compliments to Mistress Helen Dame, and begs the pleasure of her company on the afternoon of the sixth of July, at a Kraeg, to meet her daughter, Mistress Anita Van Vorst, in the celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the building of the Van Vorst homestead. Mistress Helen is requested to appear in the costume of a ‘goede vrouw’ of Mana-ha-ta.”
“A Kraeg—what does that mean?” queried the girl, as with puzzled brows she eyed the tiny picture of the “Homestead” surmounting the invitation, with the dates, 1664-1914. “Ah, Nathalie will know!” The next moment the girl was hurrying across the lawn to her neighbor’s veranda, where she had spied her cosily ensconced in the hammock screened from observant eyes by a bower of green leaves.
Nathalie looked up as she heard her step and trilled a soft tru-al-lee in recognition, as Helen gave the brownish envelope in her hand a flourish.
“I knew you would be wanting to know what that meant.” Nathalie smiled happily at her friend as she pointed to the envelope.
“I understand the invitation all right,” was the quick retort, “and congratulate you on your success in winning the madame to your views that it was a shame to allow little Anita to bloom behind those high walls. But—can you tell me what kind of a thing a Kraeg is?”
“It means a Dutch house-warming! But there, I am not going to tell you any more, wait until the sixth.”
“‘In the costume of a goede vrouw of Mana-ha-ta,’” read Helen slowly. “May I deign to ask your Dutch Majesty to explain what this means?”
“You may,” nodded the occupant of the hammock, “for her Dutch Majesty has spent many weary hours with Miss Anita studying just that part of the program. You see, we want to have the real Dutch atmosphere of the early period, so we decided to have each girl impersonate some woman pioneer, and then tell who she was and what she did.”