"Now many memories make solicitous

The delicate love lines of her mouth, till, lit

With quivering fire, the words take wing from it;

As here between our kisses we sit thus

Speaking of things remembered, and so sit

Speechless while things forgotten call to us."

Joanna's wedding occurred at the beginning of the winter and the winter

festivities. But, amid all the dining and dancing and skating, there was

a political anxiety and excitement that leavened strongly every social

and domestic event. The first Colonial Congress had passed the three

resolutions which proved to be the key-note of resistance and of

liberty. Joris had emphatically indorsed its action. The odious Stamp

Act was to be met by the refusal of American merchants either to import

English goods, or to sell them upon commission, until it was repealed.

Homespun became fashionable. During the first three months of the year,

it was a kind of disgrace to wear silk or satin or broadcloth; and a

great fair was opened for the sale of articles of home manufacture. The

Government kept its hand upon the sword. The people were divided into

two parties, bitterly antagonistic to each other. The "Sons of Liberty"

were keeping guard over the pole which symbolized their determination;

the British soldiery were swaggering and boasting and openly insulting

patriots on the streets; and the "New York Gazette," in flaming

articles, was stimulating to the utmost the spirit of resistance to

tyranny.

And these great public interests had in every family their special

modifications. Joris was among the two hundred New York merchants who

put their names to the resolutions of the October Congress; Bram was a

conspicuous member of the "Sons of Liberty;" but Batavius, though

conscientiously with the people's party, was very sensible of the

annoyance and expense it put him to. Only a part of his house was

finished, but the building of the rest was in progress; and many things

were needed for its elegant completion, which were only to be bought

from Tory importers, and which had been therefore nearly doubled in

value. When liberty interfered with the private interests of Batavius,

he had his doubts as to whether it was liberty. Often Bram's overt

disloyalty irritated him beyond endurance. For, since he had joined the

ranks of married men and householders, Batavius felt that unmarried men

ought to wait for the opinions and leadership of those who had

responsibilities.

Joanna talked precisely as Batavius talked. All of his enunciations met

with her "Amen." There are women who are incapable of but one

affection,--that one which affects them in especial,--and Joanna was of

this order. "My husband" was perpetually on her tongue. She looked upon

her position as a wife and housekeeper as unique. Other woman might

have, during the past six thousand years, held these positions in an

indifferent kind of way; but only she had ever comprehended and properly

fulfilled the duties they involved. Madam Van Heemskirk smiled a little

when Joanna gave her advices about her house and her duties, when she

disapproved of her father's political attitude, when she looked injured

by Bram's imprudence.




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