nd, the vague
Narrows that seemed to lead to some unknown world. And there was the
great round Castle Garden, the Castle Clinton of earlier times, where a
few years later the little girl was to hear some of the world's most
famous singers. And when she looked out of that weird, narrow waterway
and wondered just where Europe was, and how foreign countries must look,
she could not by the most vivid stretch of imagination fancy herself
sailing out to that unknown country.

The short grass was so lovely and green, and the waves came lapping up
with a silvery melody. There were people lounging on the seats, ladies
with sunshades in their hands, mothers with some little children,
fathers with a son or two, or a little girl like herself in pantalets
and white stockings and low shoes. The clothes she thought were
beautiful. The hats were full of flowers. She had a new straw gypsy with
a wreath of buttercups, and soft yellow strings tied under her chin. Her
_challi de laine_ had small blue flowers on a white ground, with
yellow-brown centres, and there was a blue ribbon tied about her waist,
with a bow at the back. She had a white cape of some soft cotton goods
with a satiny finish, warranted to wash as good as new. She would have
liked a sunshade, but she had so many new things.

She thought quite a good deal about her pretty clothes, and how glad she
should be to learn more geography. Stephen was talking about Hudson's
expedition up the river to which he gave his name, and a few months
later when some hovels were built to shelter the sailors, the beginning
of a settlement. And how in 1614 the Dutch erected a rude fort and gave
the place the name of New Amsterdam. Then the Dutch West India Company
bought Manhattoes Island from the natives for goods of various kinds,
amounting to sixty guilders.

"You see the Dutch were thrifty traders even then, more than two hundred
years ago," says Stephen with a pleasant laugh.

"How much are sixty guilders?" asks the little girl. It sounds an
immense sum to her. And to buy a whole city!

"It was about twenty-four dollars at that time," replies Stephen.

The little girl's face is amusing in its surprise.

"Only twenty-four dollars! And father had three hundred a few days ago.
Why, he could have bought"--well, the limitless area takes away her
breath.

"I don't believe we should have wanted to live in such a wilderness as
it was then."

"But when Walter the Testy came--he was reall