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These words quite destroyed the hope that of late had been glowing within her. "Are you awake, Raff?" she faltered. "Yes, Meitje, and I feel much better. Our money was well saved, vrouw, I was saying. Did it last through all those ten years?"
"Treat you WHAT way, Meitje?" "What way," said Dame Brinker, mimicking his voice and manner. "What way? Why, just as every woman in the world is treated after she's stood by a man through the worst, like a " "Meitje!" Raff was leaning forward with outstretched arms. His eyes were full of tears. In an instant Dame Brinker was at his feet, clasping his hands in hers. "Oh, what have I done!
But what with working and studying, Hans has been busy enough without seeking comrades." "Working and studying," echoed Raff, in a musing tone. "Can the youngsters read and cipher, Meitje?" "You should hear them!" she answered proudly. "They can run through a book while I mop the floor. Hans there is as happy over a page of big words as a rabbit in a cabbage patch; as for ciphering "
She seized his hands and, leaning over him, cried, "Raff! Raff, boy, speak to me!" "Is it you, Meitje?" he asked faintly. "I have been asleep, hurt, I think. Where is little Hans?" "Here I am, Father!" shouted Hans, half mad with joy. But the doctor held him back. "He knows us!" screamed Dame Brinker. "Great God! He knows us! Gretel! Gretel! Come, see your father!" In vain Dr.
Boekman commanded "Silence!" and tried to force them from the bedside. He could not keep them off. Hans and the mother laughed and cried together as they hung over the newly awakened man. Gretel made no sound but gazed at them all with glad, startled eyes. Her father was speaking in a faint voice. "Is the baby asleep, Meitje?" "The baby!" echoed Dame Brinker. "Oh, Gretel, that is you!
"Wist!" exclaimed the dame, lifting her hands. "Not to Amsterdam tonight, and you've owned your legs were aching under you. Nay, nay it'll be soon enough to go at early daylight." "Daylight, indeed!" echoed Raff. "That would never do. Nay, Meitje, he must go this hour."
Not until moon and stars faded away and streaks of daylight began to appear did Meitje Brinker and Hans look hopelessly into each other's faces. They had searched the ground thoroughly, desperately, all round the tree; south, north, east, west. Glimpses Annie Bouman had a healthy distaste for Janzoon Kolp. Janzoon Kolp, in his own rough way, adored Annie.
"But nay," she would exclaim, "Meitje Brinker is not one to forget her man's last bidding, come what may." "Take good care of this, mine vrouw," he had said as he handed it to her that was all. No explanation followed, for the words were scarcely spoken when one of his fellow workmen rushed into the cottage, crying, "Come, man! The waters are rising! You're wanted on the dikes."
It will brighten the children, she thought to herself, and she was not mistaken. This festival dress had been worn very seldom during the past ten years; before that time it had done good service and had flourished at many a dance and kermis, when she was known, far and wide, as the pretty Meitje Klenck.
"The baby" was over four feet long and was demurely brushing up the hearth with a bundle of willow wisps. Meitje, the vrouw, winsome and fair as ever, had gained at least fifty pounds in what seemed to him a few hours. She also had some new lines in her face that puzzled him.
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