New York - The Novel

he loved to look at the ships. And the thing that really excited him was to see them unfurl their sails so they would make a great slap and a bang in the wind.
    One day, when Mr. Master was visiting, he asked Hudson what heliked to do. And Hudson piped up and told him that he wanted to be a sailor.
    “Ha,” said Mr. Master to the Boss. “Maybe he should come to work for me.” And the Boss laughed. But when I thought of all the cargoes of slaves that Mr. Master was carrying up to New York, I didn’t want my son to sail in any ship like that.
    As for Martha, she was a most affectionate child. She would throw herself into my arms if I’d been out for a while, and cling on to me round the neck, and say she wouldn’t let go unless I told her a story. And I didn’t know any stories, so I had to make them up. It wasn’t long before I was telling her stories about a great hunter called Hudson, who lived up the river of that name, who was free, and who had a sister Martha who was very loving and wise. It was amazing the adventures they had with the animals up in that wilderness.

    During this time, the Boss also found a good husband for Miss Clara. I think he and the Mistress were both glad to get her out of the house. Once again the Boss pleased the Mistress very much by finding a good Dutch family, so that she was married by the dominie in the Dutch church just like her brother Jan. Her husband did not live in town, but out on Long Island, so we did not see her often. But the Mistress would go out to stay at Clara’s house from time to time, and from all accounts they got on much better now that Clara was married.
    As for the Boss and the Mistress, they lived together, but without any quarreling they seemed to go their separate ways.
    The Boss and Mr. Master became very close. Mr. Master was one of those men who never seem to look any older. With his narrow face, and his shock of yellow hair, those hard, blue eyes he had, and the stringy build of his body, he hardly changed at all apart from some lines on his face. He had a pleasant manner, and he was always busy with something. Whenever he came by, he’d say, “Good day, Quash,” and when he left, “You’re a good man, Quash,” and he’d give me a quick look with those blue eyes of his. Sometimes he’d say to the Boss, “Quash here is my friend. Is that right, Quash?” And I’d say, “Yessir.”
    In these years, wishing to keep the rich Dutch families on their side, and to profit by their friendship, the English governors were giving outhuge grants of land to them. And English merchants did well too. And Mr. Master was eager that the Boss should get himself some land. Because in England, he said, you couldn’t be considered a gentleman unless you had plenty of land. And the important men like Meinheer Philipse and the van Cortlandts, who had a big place north of the city, were all becoming gentlemen as fast as they could. And their women were piling up their hair and dressing in fine dresses that pulled in their bellies and pushed out their breasts.
    Well, I could see the Boss was taking to this idea. Jan was liking it as well, and sometimes Jan would say they should buy some land. But not the Mistress. She went on wearing a plain round cap on her head and a loose Dutch gown, like the other Dutchwomen. But those Dutchwomen loved jewelry even more than the English. She liked having big jewels hanging from her ears, and I reckon she had a jeweled ring on every finger. And most of the time she would be sucking on her clay pipe.
    As for being impressed with anything that was English, she was further from that than ever.
    “That is a contemptible nation,” she used to say. “They let themselves be ruled by the papists.”
    For it turned out that our owner the Duke of York had been a secret Catholic all along. People reckoned King Charles II might be a secret Catholic too, but he denied it. The Duke of York didn’t hide it though. He was all for the Catholics, and he even sent a Catholic governor to New York. You can follow almost any religion in New York, or none. For they say half the people here don’t believe in any religion at all. But almost everyone is afraid of the Catholics.
    That Catholic governor made a charter giving free elections in the province and promising there should be no taxes raised without the men who were elected having a say. So even some of the religious Dutch said he wasn’t so bad. But the Mistress wasn’t