Part 6 (1/2)

”It is so, Dagaeoga. I spoke in terms of approval, not of criticism. Are you satisfied with yourself?”

”As much as possible under the circ.u.mstances. If I could achieve the change merely by making a wish I'd have the coat and breeches of a somewhat richer hue, and the buckles on the shoes considerably larger, but they'll do. Shall we sit here and rest until Caterina calls us for supper?”

”I think so, Dagaeoga.”

But it was not long until the summons came, and they went into the great dining-room, where the elder company was already gathered. Besides Mr.

Huysman, Benjamin Hardy, Jonathan Pillsbury, and Alexander McLean, there were Nicholas Ten Broeck and Oliver Suydam, two of Albany's most solid burghers, and Alan Hervey, another visitor from New York, a thin man of middle years and shrewd looks, whom Robert took to be a figure in finance and trade. All the elders seemed to know one another well, and to be on the best of terms.

Robert and Tayoga were presented duly, and made their modest acknowledgments, sitting together near the end of the table.

”These lads, young as they are,” said Master Jacobus Huysman, ”have had much experience of the present war. One of them was a prisoner of the French at Ticonderoga and saw the whole battle, while the other fought in it. Before that they were in innumerable encounters and other perils, usually with the great hunter, David Willet, of whom you all know, and who, I regret, is not here.”

”It is no more than thousands of others have done,” said Robert, blus.h.i.+ng under his tan.

Hervey regarded him and Tayoga with interest. The Onondaga was in full Indian dress, but Albany was used to the Iroquois, and that fact was not at all exceptional.

”War is a terrible thing,” he said, ”and whether a nation is or is not to endure depends very much upon its youth.”

”We always think that present youth is inferior to what our own youth was,” said Mr. Hardy. ”That, I believe, is a common human failing. But Master McLean ought to know. Forty years of youth, year after year have pa.s.sed through his hands. What say you, Alexander?”

”Youth is youth,” replied the schoolmaster, weighing his sentences, ”and by those words I mean exactly what I say. I think it changes but little through all the ages, and it is probably the same to-day that it was in old Babylon. I find in my schoolroom that the youth of this year is just like the youth of ten years ago, just as the youth of ten years ago was exactly like the youth of twenty, thirty and forty years ago.”

”And what are the cardinal points of this formative age, Alexander?”

asked Master Jacobus.

”Speaking mildly, I would call it concentration upon self. The horizon of youth is bounded by its own eye. It looks no farther. As it sees and feels it, the world exists for youth. We elders, parents, uncles, guardians and such, live for its benefit. We are merely accessories to the great and main fact, which is youth.”

”Do you believe that to be true, Robert?” asked Master Benjamin Hardy, a twinkle in his eye.

”I hope it's not, sir,” replied Robert, reddening again under his tan.

”But it's true and it will remain true,” continued the schoolmaster judicially. ”It was equally true of all of us who pa.s.sed our youth long ago. I do not quarrel with it. I merely state a fact of life. Perhaps if I could I would not strip youth of this unconscious absorption in self, because in doing so we might deprive it of the simplicity and directness, the artless beliefs that make youth so attractive.”

”I hold,” said Mr. Hervey, ”that age is really a state of mind. We believe certain things at twenty, others at thirty, others at forty, and so on. The beliefs of twenty are true at twenty, we must not try them by the tests of thirty, nor must we try those of thirty by the tests of forty or fifty. So how are we to say which age is the wiser, when every age accepts as true what it believes, and, so makes it true? I agree, too, with Mr. McLean, that I would not change the character of youth if I could. Looking back upon my own youth I find much in it to laugh at, but I did not laugh at it at the time. It was very real to me then, and so must its feelings be to the youth of to-day.”

”We wade into deep waters,” said Mynheer Jacobus, ”and we may go over our heads. Ah, here are the oysters! I hope that all of you will find them to your liking.”

A dozen were served for every guest--it was the day of plenty, the fields and woods and waters of America furnis.h.i.+ng more food than its people could consume--and they approached them with the keen appet.i.tes of strong and healthy men.

”Perhaps we do not have the sea food here that you have in New York, Alan,” said Master Jacobus with mock humility, ”but we give you of our best.”

”We've the finest oysters in the world, unless those of Baltimore be excepted,” said Hervey, ”but yours are, in truth, most excellent.

Perhaps you can't expect to equal us in a specialty of ours. You'll recall old Tom Cotton's inn, out by the East River, and how unapproachably he serves oyster, crab, lobster and every kind of fish.”

”I recall it full well, Alan. I rode out the Bowery road when I was last in New York, but I did not get a chance to go to old Tom's. You and I and Benjamin have seen some lively times there, when we were a bit younger, eh, Alan?”

”Aye, Jacobus, you speak truly. We were just as much concentrated upon self as the youth of to-day. And in our elderly hearts we're proud of the little frivolities and dissipations that were committed then. Else we would never talk of 'em and chuckle over 'em to one another.”

”And what is more, we're not too old yet for a little taste of pleasure, now and then, eh, Alexander?”