burden one's self with much
luggage," laughed Sydney.

"So there will be no time consumed in packing trunks," remarked
Lucilla.

"I never have any trouble about that. Papa always does it for me,"
said Grace, giving him a loving look and smile.

"Will we go on shore at Kingston, papa?" asked Elsie.

"Probably," he replied.

"And see the tree the silver bullet man was hung on?" asked Neddie.

"I do not know whether it is still standing or not, my son," replied
his father; "and, if so, it probably looks much like other apple
trees. It was not at Kingston he was hanged, however, but at Hurley--a
few miles from there."

"Kingston is a very old place, is it not?" asked Violet.

"Yes," said her mother; "it was settled by the Dutch as early as 1663,
Lossing tells us, and at first called Wiltwyck--which means wild witch
or Indian Witch--on account of the troubles between the settlers and
the Indians. A redoubt was built by the Dutch on the bank of the creek
near the old landing place, and they called the creek Redoubt Kill, or
Creek. Now it is called Rondout--a corruption of Redoubt. Years later,
near the close of the century, the population of the town was
increased by a valuable addition from Europe--a colony of French
Huguenots, who fled from that dreadful persecution begun in 1685 by
Louis XIV.'s revocation of the Edict of Nantes."

"What does that mean, grandma?" asked Neddie.

"I will tell you sometime; perhaps while we are going up the river
to-day," she answered in kindly tones. "I cannot do it now, for there
is the breakfast bell."

They were all seated upon the _Dolphin's_ deck very shortly after
leaving the table, and in a few moments the yacht was steaming rapidly
up the river. Then Neddie, going to his grandmother's side, claimed
her promise to explain to him what was meant by an edict--particularly
the one of which she had spoken.

"An edict," she said, "is a public decree that things shall be so and
so. The Edict of Nantes said that the persecution of the Protestants
must stop and they be allowed to worship God as they deemed right; the
revocation of that edict gave permission to the Romanists to begin
persecution again. Therefore, to save their lives, the Protestants had
to flee to other lands."

"Where did they go, grandma?" asked Eric, who was listening with as
keen an interest as Neddie himself.

"A great many to England and Germany and some to this country. It was
really a great loss to Fr