II.

SIX MONTHS AT ANCHOR.


Setting out thus by whole families and with brothers' and sisters'
families on the right and on the left, we may safely say that, once the
last kisses were given to those left behind and the last look taken of
childhood's scenes, they pressed forward brightly, filled with courage and
hope. They were poor, but they were bound for a land where no soldier was
going to snatch the beads and cross from the neck of a little child, as
one of Napoleon's had attempted to do to one of the Thomas children. They
were on their way to golden America; through Philadelphia to the virgin
lands of the great West. Early in August they reached Amsterdam. There
they paid their passage in advance, and were carried out to the Helder,
where, having laid in their provisions, they embarked and were ready to
set sail.

But no sail was set. Word came instead that the person who had sold the
ship had not been paid its price and had seized the vessel; the delays of
the law threatened, when time was a matter of fortune or of ruin.

And soon came far worse tidings. The emigrants refused to believe them as
long as there was room for doubt. Henry and Daniel Müller--for locksmith
Müller, said Wagner twenty-seven years afterwards on the witness-stand,
"was a brave man and was foremost in doing everything necessary to be
done for the passengers"--went back to Amsterdam to see if such news could
be true, and returned only to confirm despair. The man to whom the passage