I detest him myself, but I fear him not. What harm can he do us?”
“I do not know,” replied his sister, “but there is that in his look that makes me think he would harm us if he could!”
“Poof!” exclaimed Gyshert. “Did I not tell thee that he stopped me in the street one day, and asked me who we were, and where we lived, and who took care of us? I reminded him that it was naught of his affairs, as far as I could see, and left him to scowl his ugly scowl as I walked away whistling.”
But the crowd had swept Dirk Willumhoog from their sight, and in a few moments they found themselves in the great square surging with people, and as fortune would have it, almost directly in front of the imposing statehouse, from whose high, carved steps the proclamations were to he read. They were not a moment too soon, and had but just pushed their way to the front, near a convenient wall against which Jan might lean, when
