Page:Augusta Seaman--Jacqueline of the carrier pigeons.djvu/33

Rh a time, came and settled himself at her side.

“’Tis a strange hill, this, is it not, Jacqueline, to be rising right in the middle of a city like Leyden? Why, there is nothing like it for miles upon miles in this flat country! How came it here, I wonder?”

“Father used to tell me,” said the girl, “that some think it was the work of the Romans when they occupied the land many centuries ago, while more declare that it was raised by the Anglo-Saxon conqueror Hengist. That is why it is called ‘Hengist Hill.’”

“How different it would have been for us if father had lived!” exclaimed Gysbert, suddenly changing the subject. “It seems so long ago, and I was so young that I do not  remember much about him. Tell me what thou knowest, Jacqueline. Thou art older and must remember him better.”

“Yes, I was eleven,” said Jacqueline with a dreamy look in her eyes, “and thou wast  only eight, when he went away and we never