Then the warming-pan was filled with hot coals, and thrust warily between the ice-cold sheets of the children’s beds, and perhaps they were given a drink of mulled cider or simmering beer; and scarcely were they sleeping in their warm flannel _cosyntjes_, or night-caps with long capes, when the curfew rang out from the church belfry. It was eight o’clock,--_’t Is tijdt te bedde te gaen_. The housewife carefully covered “the dull red brands with ashes over” for the fire of the morrow, and went to bed. The “tap-toes” sounded from the fort, and every house was silent. And as the honest _mynheer_ and his good _vrouw_ slept warmly in their fireside alcove, and softly between their great feather-beds, so they also slept serenely; for they were not left unprotected from marauding Indian or Christian, nor unwatched by the ever-thoughtful town authorities. Through the little town marched boldly every night a sturdy _kloppermann_, or rattle-watch, with strong staff and brass-bound hourglass and lighted lanthorn; and, best of all, he bore a large _klopper_, or rattle, which he shook loudly and reassuringly at each door all through the dark hours of the night, “from nine o’clock to break of the day,” to warn both housekeepers and thieves that he was near at hand; and as was bidden by the worshipful _schepens_, he called out what o’clock, and what weather;--and thus guarded, let us leave them sleeping, these honest Dutch home-folk, as they have now slept for centuries in death, waiting to hear called out to them with clear voice “at break of the day” from another world, “A fair morning, and all’s well.” CHAPTER II EDUCATION AND CHILD-LIFE As soon as the little American baby was born in New Netherland, he was taken to the church by his Dutch papa, and with due array of sponsors was christened by the domine from the _doop-becken_, or dipping-bowl, in the Dutch Reformed Church. New Yorkers had a beautiful silver _doop-becken_ in 1695, and the church on the corner of Thirty-Eighth Street and Madison Avenue has it still. It was made in Amsterdam from silver coin and ornaments brought by the good folk of the Garden Street Church as offerings. For it Domine Henricus Selyns, “of nimble faculty,” then minister of that church, and formerly of Breuckelen, and the first poet of Brooklyn, wrote these pious and graceful verses, which were inscribed on the bowl: “Op’t blote water stelt geen hoot ’Twas beter noyt gebooren. Maer, ziet iets meerder in de Dorp Zo’ gaet nien noÿt verlooren. Hoe Christús met sÿn dierbaer Bloedt Mÿ reÿniglt van myn Zonden. En door syn Geest mÿ leven doet En wast mÿn Vuÿle Wonden.” Which translated reads:--