uel grew cold and
keen again. "You are not one of us, yet I have seen you before. Who is
your father and what is his trade?"

"I am Samuel, the son of Jacob Barsimon," answered Samuel, and
suddenly all his shyness left him and he gazed fearlessly into the
governor's face. "And my father is an honest merchant of New
Amsterdam."

"Yes--and of the tribe of Israel," muttered the old man, his brow
darkening. "I wish my little one might have been indebted to another
this day; but I am as honest a man as your father and what I promise,
I keep. So name what reward you will for the favor you have rendered
me--and be off."

Samuel rose, his face flushing with anger at the man's insolence, yet
glowing with a hope he hardly dared to utter even to himself. For the
time had come, he believed, when he might play the hero, as he had
done so many times before in his dreams. "I want no reward," he
answered quietly, "but if you would render me favor for favor, I would
ask you to withdraw the restriction you have placed upon my
brethren--those Jews who sought these shores on the 'St. Catarina' and
who desire to make their homes here."

The governor smiled grimly. "A true Jew," he muttered, with a sort of
grudging admiration for the boy's boldness, "ever ready with his
bargain! But I have no longer the power to grant you or refuse you
your request." He picked up from the table a long, bulky envelope,
from which dangled a red seal. "This came this morning from Holland.
Tomorrow I must tell the burghers that the gentlemen of the Board of
Directors of the Dutch West India Company have over-ridden my
suggestions; they write that I must admit these Jews, provided that
the poor among them shall not become a burden to our community, as
they at first seemed likely to be, but be supported by their own
nation." Again his grim smile. "No fear of that, when even a boy like
you thinks of his people before gifts for himself. I wish," he half
mused, "I wish that we had at least that virtue of your stiff-necked
race."

Little Katrina, grown weary of all this, slipped from her uncle's
knees and took Samuel's hand in hers. "Come into the garden," she
commanded, "I want you to see my rose bushes and my new kittens and
the swing, before supper."

Samuel's eyes sought the governor's face, half-he told her, gently.

Her eager face clouded. "Then you will come and play with me
tomorrow?" she asked.

Samuel's eyes sought the governor's face, half-defia