r had proclaimed a
thanksgiving because, as young Patem Onderdonk declared, "he had
gotten well rid of Dominie Curtius and would have no more
schoolmasters in the colony."

"And so, lads," cried the exuberant young Knickerbocker, "let us
wisely celebrate the Thanksgiving. I will even ask the mother to make
for me a rare salmagundi which we lads, who were so rated by the Heer
Governor, will ourselves give to him as our Thanksgiving offering, for
the Heer Governor, so folk do say, doth rarely like the salmagundi."

Now the salmagundi was (to some palates) a most appetizing mixture,
compounded of salted mackerel, or sometimes of chopped meat, seasoned
with oil and vinegar, pepper and raw onions--not an altogether
attractive dish to read of, but welcome to and dearly loved by many an
old Knickerbocker even up to a recent date. Its name, too, as most of
you bright boys and girls doubtless know, furnished the title for one
of the works of Washington Irving, best loved of all the
Knickerbockers.

Thanksgiving Day came around, and so did Patem's salmagundi, as highly
seasoned and appetizing a one as the Goode Vrouw Onderdonk could make.

The lengthy prayers and lengthier sermon of good Dominie Megapolensis
in the Fort Church were over and the Thanksgiving dinners were very
nearly ready when up to the Heer Governor's house came a half-dozen
boys, with Patem Onderdonk at their head bearing a neatly covered
dish.

Patem had well considered and formed in his mind what he deemed just
the speech of presentation to please the Heer Governor, but when the
time came to face that awful personage his valour and his eloquence
alike began to ooze away.

And, it must be confessed, the Heer Governor Stuyvesant did not
understand boys, nor did he particularly favour them. He was hasty and
overbearing though high-minded, loyal, and brave, but he never could
"get on" with the ways and pranks of boys.

And as for the boys themselves, when once they stood in the presence
of the greatest dignitary in the province, Patem's ready tongue seemed
to cleave to the roof of his mouth, and he hummed and hawed and
hesitated until the worthy Heer Governor lost patience and broke in:

"Well, well, boys; what is the stir? Speak quick if at all, for when a
man's dinner waiteth he hath scant time for stammering boys."

Then Patem spoke up.

"Heer Governor," he said, "the boys hereabout, remembering your
goodness in sending away our most pestilential m