THE WENDY HUT

Taranaki Daily News, 9 August 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE WENDY HUT

0 -- — GIRLS OF LONG AGO. ALES. The story of Ales is a strange one. In the year 1.650, when Oliver Cromwell ruled with a hand of iron, Ales was left an orphan. Her father, a gallant soldier, had been killed in the King’s service, and her mother had died. Her land and fortune were confiscated, and, because the girl was of noble birth and likely to give trouble, she was sold as a slave to a party of colonists going out to America. Of course, she was not called a slave, but a prisoner. All the same, she knew she would be obliged to work in the cotton fields, and servo in the house like any slave. She was only fifteen at the time, but, young as she was, she went with her head high and her step proud. A lovely girl was Ales! Her new master and mistress, Puritan pioneers, looked with distaste upon her gown of silk and lace, hoping it would soon wear out. During the terrible journey in a sailing ship to New Amsterdam—later called New York—Ales never grumbled, but she kept her eyes open. She saw the Dutch ships upon the ocean, and she never lost hope. When they set foot in ths new land, she beheld strings of other prisoners, mostly young men ■'who had fought for King Charles the First.' They shouted to her, waving their ragged hats, and she answered back with right good will, till her mistress took her by the shoulders and-loaded her up with packages. A long tramp it was to the settlement. Once there, Ales helped to build the house, and cook, and dig. Her gown hung in tatters, and she slept in the rough stable with the cow. After a year, when summer came, Ales determined to escape. She took a suit of her master’s clothes which she considered just payment for her services. She stored some food, cut off Iter hair, and, disguised as a young man, she tramped back to New Amsterdam, doing odd jobs by the way. There she found a Dutch ship, worked her passage to Holland, and arrived at the court of Prince Charles still wearing her master’s clothes. Oh, what a welcome was hers; The Prince himself begged gowns for her, and she threw in her lot with that poverty stricken little band of loyalists who eventually returned to England with King Charles the Second on the 29th of May, 1660.