The girls, laughing and talking about the pleasure of the Kraeg, of the joys and the future held in store for them at camp, now returned to the sitting room. Here they were greeted with another surprise in the shape of a huge, unwieldy figure in baggy knee-breeches, full skirted coat, wide-brimmed hat and long white beard and locks, whom Mrs. Van Vorst presented as Father Knickerbocker, although several declared that he was the exact counterpart of the famous pictures of Rip Van Winkle.
Whomever he personated was a matter of indifference to the girls as long as his identity was concealed, which was ably done behind a red-checked mask, through the eye-holes of which two eyes glinted humorously in merry jest or pleasantry as he joined the girls in a game of quoits or a game of nine-pins which Peter had arranged on an old billiard table.
As Nathalie and Helen were doing their best to beat this strange antagonist, and at the same time to provoke him to speech—as he would persist in playing he was deaf and dumb—Peter led in an old darkey who, with fiddle in hand, was soon squeaking away to the delight of the girls. In a few moments old-time melodies were heard, and they went flying over the floor in waltz, schottische, polka, and in many of the long-forgotten dances.
When the dancing began the mysterious guest was seen to edge towards the door, but Nathalie and Helen were too quick for him, and in a moment he was surrounded by a bevy of girls, each one begging him to dance the Virginia reel with her. Even these many honors failed to loosen the strings of his tongue, but Nathalie did not despair.
Presently, as he had made this young lady his honored choice in the dance, she was led up and down the room, or twirled about like a pin-wheel. That he was nimble of foot was soon perceived as they all spun round like a merry-go-round.
Suddenly Annetje was seen to whisper to her neighbor. The whisper spread like a whirlwind, and all eyes were soon fastened on the whirling Father as he chasséed to the right and left of the merry girls. Suddenly there was a stampede to his side, and the next minute he was surrounded by a cordon of slim young hands, while one of his assailants made a spring towards him. Just another moment, and nose, beard, and locks were on the floor, while his tormentors laughed and danced merrily around their prisoner, a good friend who had eased many of their aches and pains, for it was no other but Dr. Morrow!
Four weeks later Nathalie stood on the veranda with her arms around her mother. “Oh, Mumsie,” she wailed, “I hate to go and leave you!” She winked hard, she was determined not to get lachrymose. “I just wish I wasn’t going, it does seem so mean to leave you here in this heat.”
“But, Daughter, I have Dick with me, and it is lovely and cool here on the veranda. We shall not mind it at all, and then you know the nights are generally comfortable in August,” Mrs. Page ended with a cheery smile.
“Mumsie, you’re a dear—” rejoined Nathalie with another suppressed sniffle. “You’re just trying to make the best of it, but—”
“There is no but about it,” answered her mother quickly, “for I am afraid I am very selfish, but I shall have to confess that there has been so much going on these last days, well, I shall enjoy the rest and quiet. Felia is here, too, and I shall have nothing to do but to be—”