"Katherine! 'Tis our own little Katherine!" I exclaimed, while Walter stared in amazement. I had her in my arms in a moment, while my lady looked on smiling. "Did I not tell you 'twas a precious treasure," she asked when our rapture had a little subsided. "And have I not played the honest merchant with you?" "Precious, indeed!" said I. "But I am all amazed! How did it happen?" "Nay I do not understand the matter well enough to tell you," answered my lady. "But no doubt our marmoset can give a good account of herself, so I will leave you together till dinner, for you must dine with us." I began to say something about preparing for the school feast, but my lady cut me short. "Never mind the feast. I have brought over comfits and gilt gingerbread enough to satisfy every child in Coombe Ashton, not to mention ribbons and scissors and all sorts of prizes. Do you stay and dine here, and to-morrow we will all attend the school feast." So we were fain to sit down, and taking the darling between us, to hear all she had to say. She was grown a little, but not changed in her looks, which were her mother's over again, and she had the same sweet serious way with her. The story, disentangled from all our questions and remarks, was this: Arthur and Katherine had begun to find their position in Middleburg both uneasy and insecure. Their congregation, always small, had been almost broken up by deaths and removals, and they were doubting which way to turn next, when Arthur received a call from an English colony in Wesel, one of the German towns belonging to the famous Hanse League. They had gathered together a congregation, but had not yet found a pastor, when some one from Amsterdam who knew Arthur told them of him. The call was too clearly Providential not to be heeded. Katherine's oldest boy had already been placed with Garrett Van Alstine to be made a merchant of, and an opportunity occurring to send Katherine directly to Biddeford in the care of a merchant well-known to my uncle and cousin, they had taken advantage thereof, wishing, as Arthur wrote, to know that at least one of their children was in security. Little did they or we know of the storm that was about to burst upon England. [Illustration] CHAPTER XVI. THE GREAT STORM. WELL, the school feast was held with great success, and was all the more enjoyed that we had my lady with us, for she was one of those who carry sunshine wherever they go.