"I have decided not to join it, yet very slowly and I may almost say,
with penitence. I am greatly relieved by learning that your coadjutors
are now so many that you will no longer attach that importance to the
defection of individuals which you hinted in your letter to me or others
might possess--I mean the painful power of defeating the plan."
CHAPTER III
A STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND
Racial prejudice was cherished as a virtue in the Old Colonie and the
real, solid Dutch families found it anything but creditable that Van Der
Zee children--we had the honor of being regarded as Van Der Zees in
Beaver street--should be sent to an English school in far off Boston
town. Massachusetts was, to them, an English colony, and the people
there were English, that is to say, foreigners, strangers, and not to be
trusted. However, when it was learned that we were actually going, and
mother set about making the elaborate preparations considered necessary
for so formidable an undertaking, kind friends came in bringing gifts
deemed suitable for the occasion, knitted mittens and mufflers, pies and
cakes, apples and cider, and choice stores of the cellar and pantry
enough to provision a ship for a long cruise.
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