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BOOK OF THE HUDSON 
 
(•3- 
 
 BOOK OF THE HUDSON 
 
 COLLECTED FROM THE VARIOUS WORKS OF 
 
 EDITED BY GEOFFREY CRAYON. 
 
 ^S^^^, 
 
 '^riTU^^^ 
 
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 NEW YORK: 
 G. p. PUTNAM, 155 BROADWAY, 
 
 1849. 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by 
 
 GEORGE P. PUTNAM, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of 
 New York. 
 
 R. CRAIOHEAD, PRINTER AND STKRKOTYPKR, 
 112 FULTON STREET, NEW YORK. 
 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 7 
 
 communipaw 11 
 
 Guests from Gibbet Island 15 
 
 Peter Stuyvesant's Voyage up the Hudson ... 28 
 
 The Chronicle of Bearn Island 35 
 
 The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 43 
 
 DoLPn Hey-liger 77 
 
 Rip Van Winkle 142 
 
 Wolfert Webber 161 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 I THANK God that I was born on the banks of the Hudson. I 
 fancy I can trace much of what is good and pleasant in my own 
 heterogeneous compound to my early companionship with this glorious 
 river. In the warmth of youthful enthusiasm, I used to clothe it with 
 moral attributes, and, as it were, give it a soul. I delighted in its frank, 
 bold, honest character; its noble sincerity, and perfect truth. Here was 
 no specious, smiling surface, covering the shifting sand-bar and per- 
 fidious rock, but a stream deep as it was broad, and bearing with honora- 
 ble faith the bark that trusted to its waves. I gloried in its simple, 
 quiet, majestic, epic flow, ever straight forward, or, if forced aside for 
 once by opposing mountains, struggling bravely through them, and re- 
 suming its onward march. Behold, thought I, an emblem of a good 
 man's course though life, ever simple, open, and direct, or if, overpowered 
 by adverse circumstances, he deviate into error, it is but momentary ; 
 he soon resumes his onward and honorable career, and continues it to 
 the end of his pilgrimage. 
 
 The foregoing rhapsody formed part of a paper addressed some years 
 since to the editor of a periodical work, introducing certain legends and 
 traditions concerning the Hudson river, found among the papers of the 
 late Diedrich Knickerbocker. That worthy and truthful historian was one 
 of my earliest and most revered friends, and I owe many of the pleasant 
 associations in my mind with this river, to information derived in my 
 youth from that venerable sage. The legends and traditions in existence 
 have hitherto been published in a scattered state, in various miscel- 
 laneous works, and mixed up with other writings. It has recently oc- 
 curred to me that it would be an acceptable homage to his venerated 
 shade, to collect in one volume all that he has written concerning the 
 river which he loved so well. It occurred to me also that such a volume 
 
viii Introtiiictfon. 
 
 might form an agreeable and instructive handboolc to all intelligent and 
 inquiring travellers about to explore the wonders and beauties of the 
 Hudson. To all such I heartily recommend it, with my best wishes for 
 a pleasant voyage, whether by steamboat or railroad. 
 
 GEOFFREY CRAYON. 
 
B®®i{ ®j ®ji« ^n^Q(s>^, 
 
 COMMUNIPAW. 
 
 It used to be a favorite assertion of the venerable Diedrich 
 Knickerbocker, that there was no region more rich in themes 
 for the writer of historic novels, heroic melodramas, and 
 rough-sho# epics, than the ancient province of the New 
 Netherlands, and its quondam capital, at the Manhaltoes. 
 " We live," he used to say, " in the midst of history, mystery, 
 and romance ; he who would find these elements, however, 
 must not seek them among the modem improvements and 
 monied people of the monied metropolis ; he must dig for 
 them, as for Kidd the pirate's treasures, in out of the way 
 places, and among the ruins of the past." Never did sage 
 speak more truly. Poetry and romance received a fatal blow 
 at the overthrow of the ancient Dutch dynasty, and have ever 
 since been gradually withering under the growing domination 
 of the Yankees. They abandoned our hearths when the old 
 Dutch tiles were superseded by marble chimney pieces ; when 
 brass andirons made way for polished grates, and the crack- 
 ling and blazing fire of nut wood gave place to the smoke and 
 stench of Liverpool coal ; and on the downfall of the last 
 crow-step gables, their requiem was tolled from the tower of 
 the Dutch Church in Nassau street, by the old bell that came 
 from Holland. But poetry and romance still lurk unseen 
 among us, or seen only by the enlightened few who are able 
 to contemplate the common-place scenes and objects of the 
 
12 «l JJooft of tt)« ?^utjaon. 
 
 metropolis, through the medium of tradition, and clothed with 
 the associations of foregone ages. 
 
 He who would seek these elements in the country, must 
 avoid all turnpikes, railroads, steamboats, and other abomina- 
 ble inventions, by which the usurping Yankees are strengthen- 
 ing themselves in the land, and subduing everything to utility 
 and common-place. He must avoid all towns and cities ot 
 white clapboard palaces, and Grecian temples, studded with 
 " academies," " seminaries," and " institutes," which glisten 
 along our bays and rivers ; these are the strongholds of Yankee 
 usurpation ; but should he haply light upon some rough, ram- 
 bling road, wmding between stone fences, grey with moss, and 
 overgrown with elder, poke berry, mullein, and sweet brier, 
 and here and there a low, red-roofed, whitewashed farm- 
 house, cowering among apple and cherry trees ; an old stone 
 church, with elms, willows, and button-wood, as aid looking 
 as itself, and tombstones almost buried in their own graves, 
 and peradventure a small log-built school-house, at a cross- 
 road, where the English language is still taught, with a thick- 
 ness of the tongue instead of a twang of the nose, he may thank 
 his stars that he has found one of the lingering haimts of 
 poetry and romance. 
 
 Among these favored places, the renowned village of Com- 
 munipaw was ever held by the historian of New Amsterdam 
 in especial veneration. Here the intrepid crew of the Goede 
 Vrouw first cast the seeds of empire. Hence proceeded the 
 expedition under Oloffe, the Dreamer, to found the city of New 
 Amsterdam, vulgarly called New York, which, inheriting the 
 genius of its founder, has ever been a city of dreams and 
 speculations. Communipaw, therefore, may truly be called 
 the parent of New York, though, on comparing the lowly vil- 
 lage Vv^ith the great flaunting city which it has engendered, one 
 is forcibly reminded of a squat little hen that has unwit- 
 tingly hatched out' a long-legged turkey. 
 
 It is a mirror also of New Amsterdam, as it was before the 
 conquest. Everything bears the stamp of the days of Oloffe, 
 
(CDmmuntpafc 13 
 
 the Dreamer, Walter, the Doubter, and the other worthies 
 of the golden age ; the same gable-fronted houses, sur- 
 mounted with weathercocks, the same knee-buckles and 
 shoe-buckles, and close quilled caps, and linsey woolsey petti- 
 coats, and multifarious breeches. In a word, Communipaw is 
 a little Dutch Herculaneum or Pompeii, where the reliques of 
 the classic days of the New Netherlands are preserved in their 
 pristine state, with the exception that they have never been 
 buried. 
 
 The secret of all this wonderful conservation is simple. At 
 the time that New Amsterdam was subjugated by the Yankees 
 and their British allies, as Spain was, in ancient days, by the 
 Saracens, a great dispersion took place among the inhabitants. 
 One resolute band determined never to bend their necks to the 
 yoke of the invaders, and, led by Garret Van Home, a gigantic 
 Dutchman, the Pelaye of the New Netherlands, crossed the 
 bay, and buried themselves among the marshes of Communi- 
 paw, as did the Spaniards of yore among the Asturian moun- 
 tains. Here they cut off all communication with the captured 
 city, forbade the English language to be spoken in their com- 
 munity, kept themselves free from foreign marriage and inter- 
 mixture, and have thus remained the pure Dutch seed of the 
 Manhattoes, with which the city may be repeopled, whenever 
 it is effectually delivered from the Yankees, 
 
 The citadel erected by Garret Van Home exists to this day 
 in possession of his descendants, and is known by the lordly 
 appellation of The House of the four Chimneys, from having a 
 chimney perched like a turret at every comer. Here are to be 
 seen articles of furniture wliich came over with the first settlers 
 from Holland ; ancient chests of drawers, and massive clothes 
 presses, quaintly carved, and waxed and polished until they shine 
 like mirrors. Here are old black letter volumes with brass 
 clasps, printed of yore in Leyden, and handed down from 
 generation to generation, but never read. Also old parchment 
 deeds in Dutch and English, bearing the seals of the early 
 governors of the province. 
 
14 S JSnoft of ti)e J^uliaon. 
 
 In this house the primitive Dutch Holy Days of Paas and 
 Pinxter, are faithfully kept up, and New Year celebrated with 
 cookies and cherry bounce ; nor is the festival of the good St. 
 Nicholas forgotten ; when all the children are sure to hang up 
 their stockings, and to have them filled according to their 
 deserts ; though it is said the good Saint is occasionally per- 
 plexed in his nocturnal visits, which chimney to descend. A 
 tradition exists concerning this mansion, which, however 
 dubious it may seem, is treasured up with good faith by the 
 inhabitants. It is said that at the founding of it St. Nicholas 
 took it luider his protection, and the Dutch Dominie of the 
 place, who was a kind of soothsayer, predicted that as long 
 as these four chimneys stood Communipaw would flourish. 
 Now it came to pass that some years since, during the great 
 mania for land speculation, a Yankee speculator found his way 
 into the Communipaw ; bewildered the old burghers with a 
 project to erect their village into a great sea-port ; made a 
 lithographic map, in which their oyster beds were transformed 
 into docks and quays, their cabbage gardens laid out in town 
 lots and squares, and the House of the Four Chimneys meta- 
 morphosed into a great bank, with granite pillars, which was 
 to enrich the whole neighborhood with paper money. 
 
 Fortunately at this juncture there rose a high wind, which 
 shook the venerable pile to its foundation, toppled down one of 
 the chimneys, and blew off" a weathercock, the lord knows 
 whither. The community took the alarm, they drove the land 
 speculator from their shores, and since that day not a Yankee 
 has dared to show his face in Communipaw. 
 
 The following legend concerning this venerable place waa 
 found among the papers of the authentic Diedrich. 
 
«!3ooftofttefftulr«on. 15 
 
 GUESTS FROM GIBBET ISLAND. 
 
 A LEGEND OF COMMUNIPAW. 
 
 Whoever has visited the ancient and renowned village of 
 Communipaw, may have noticed an old stone building, of most 
 ruinous and sinister appearance. The doors and window- 
 shutters are ready to drop from their hinges ; old clothes are 
 stuffed in the broken panes of glass, while legions of half- 
 starved dogs prowl about the premises, and rush out and bark 
 at every passer by ; for your beggarly house in a village is 
 most apt to swarm with profligate and ill-conditioned dogs. 
 What adds to the sinister appearance of this mansion, is a tall 
 frame in front, not a little resembling a gallows, and which 
 looks as il waiting to accommodate some of the inhabitants with 
 a well-merited airing. It is not a gallows, however, but an 
 ancient sign-post ; for this dwelling, in the golden days of 
 Communipaw, was one of the most orderly and peacefiil of 
 village taverns, where all the public affairs of Communipaw 
 were talked and smoked over. In fact, it was in this very 
 building that Oloffe the Dreamer, and his companions, con- 
 certed that great voyage of discovery and colonization, in 
 which they explored Buttermilk Channel, were nearly ship- 
 wrecked in the strait of Hell-gate, and finally landed on the Isl- 
 and of Manhattan, and founded the great city of New Amsterdam. 
 
 Even after the province had been cruelly wrested from the 
 sway of their High Mightinesses, by the combined forces of 
 the British and the Yankees, this tavern continued its ancient 
 loyalty. It is true, the head of the Prince of Orange dis- 
 appeared from the sign ; a strange bird being painted over it, 
 with the explanatory legend of " Die Wilde Gans," or The 
 Wild Goose ; but this all the world knew to be a sly riddle of 
 
X6 a 13ook of t^e l^ubgon. 
 
 the landlord, the worthy Teunis Van Gieson, a knowing man 
 in a small way, who laid his finger beside his nose and winked, 
 when any one studied the signification of his sign, and observed 
 that his goose was hatching, but would join the flock when- 
 ever they flew over the water ; an enigma which was the 
 perpetual recreation and delight of the loyal but fat-headed 
 burghers of Communipaw. 
 
 Under the sway of this patriotic, though discreet and quiet 
 publican, the tavern continued to flourish in primeval tran- 
 quillity, and was the resort of all true-hearted Nederlanders, 
 from all parts of Pavonia ; who met here quietly and secretly, 
 to smoke and drink the downfall of Briton and Yankee, and 
 success to Admiral Von Tromp. 
 
 The only drawback on the comfort of the establishment, 
 was a nephew of mine host, a sister's son, Yan Yost Vander- 
 scamp by name, and a real scamp by nature. It is an old 
 Spanish proverb, worthy of all acceptation, that " where God 
 denies sons the devil sends nephews," and such was the case 
 in the present instance. This unlucky whipster showed an 
 early propensity to mischief, which he gratified in a small 
 way, by playing tricks upon the frequenters of the Wild 
 Goose ; putting gunpowder in their pipes or squibs in their 
 pockets, and astonishing them with an explosion, while they 
 sat nodding round the fire-place in the bar-room ; and if 
 perchance a worthy burgher from some distant part of Pa- 
 vonia lingered until dark over his potation, it was odds but 
 that yoxmg Vanderscamp would slip a brier under his horse's 
 tail, as he mounted, and send him clattering along the road, in 
 neck-or-nothing style, to his infinite astonishment and dis- 
 comfiture. 
 
 It may be wondered at, that mine host of the Wild Goose 
 did not turn such a graceless varlet out of doors ; but Teunis 
 Van Gieson was an easy-tempered man, and, having no child 
 of his own, looked upon his nephew with almost parental in- 
 dulgence. His patience and good nature were doomed to be 
 tried by another inmate of his mansion. This was a cross- 
 
(GtuegtafromfiStbfietlslant). 17 
 
 grained cunnudgeon of a negro, named Pluto, who was a kind 
 of enigma in Communipaw. Where he came from, nobody 
 knew. He was found one morning, after a storm, cast like a 
 sea-monster on the strand, in front of the Wild Goose, and lay 
 there, more dead than alive. The neighbors gathered round, 
 and speculated on this production of the deep ; whether it were 
 iish or flesh, or a compound of both, commonly yclept a 
 merman. The kind-hearted Tennis Van Gieson, seeing that 
 he wore the human form, took him into his house, and warmed 
 him into life. By degrees, he showed signs of intelligence, and 
 even uttered sounds very much like language, but which no 
 one in Communipaw could understand. Some thought him a 
 negro just from Guinea, who had either fallen overboard, or 
 escaped from a slave-ship. Nothmg, however, could ever 
 draw from him any account of his origin. When questioned 
 on the subject, he merely pointed to Gibbet Island, a small 
 rocky islet, which lies in the open bay just opposite to Com- 
 munipaw, as if that were his native place, though eveiybody 
 knew it had never been inhabited. 
 
 In the process of time, he acquired something of the Dutch 
 language, that is to say, he learnt all its vocabulary of oaths 
 and maledictions, with just words sufficient to string them 
 together. " Donder en blicksem !' (thunder and lightning) was 
 the gentlest of his ejaculations. For years he kept about the 
 Wild Goose, more like one of those familiar spirits, or house- 
 hold goblins, that we read of, than like a human being. He 
 acknowledged allegiance to no one, but performed various 
 domestic offices, when it suited his humor ; waiting occasion- 
 ally on the guests ; grooming the horses, cutting wood, drawing 
 water ; and all this without being ordered. Lay any command 
 on him, and the stubborn sea-urchin was sure to rebel. He was 
 never so much at home, however, as when on the water, plsdng 
 about in skiff or canoe, entirely alone, fishing, crabbing, or 
 grabbing for oysters, and would bring home quantities for the 
 larder of the Wild Goose, which he would throw down at the 
 kitchen door with a growl. No wind nor weather deterred 
 
18 a J3ooft of tf)t ^utjson. 
 
 him from launching forth on his favorite element : indeed, thft 
 wilder the weather, the more he seemed to enjoy it. If a 
 storm was brewing, he was sure to put off from shore ; and 
 would be seen far out in the bay, his light skiff dancing like a 
 feather on the waves, when sea and sky were all in a turmoil, 
 and the stoutest ships were fain to lower their sails. Some- 
 times, on such occasions, he would be absent for days together. 
 How he weathered the tempests, and how and where he 
 subsisted, no one could divine, nor did any one venture to ask, 
 for all had an almost superstitious awe of him. Some of the 
 Communipaw oystermen declared that they had more than 
 once seen him suddenly disappear, canoe and all, as if they 
 plunged beneath the waves, and after a while come up again, 
 in quite a different part of the bay ; whence they concluded that 
 he could live under water like that notable species of wild 
 duck, commonly called the Hell-diver. All began to consider 
 him in the light of a foul-weather bird, like the Mother Carey's 
 Chicken, or stormy Petrel ; and whenever they saw him putting 
 far out in his skiff, in cloudy weather, made up their minds for 
 a storm. 
 
 The only being for whom he seemed to have any lildng, was 
 Yan Yost Vanderscamp, and him he liked for his very 
 wickedness. He in a manner took the boy under his tutelage, 
 prompted him to all kinds of mischief, aided him in every wild 
 harum-scarum freak, until the lad became the complete scape- 
 grace of the village ; a pest to his uncle, and to every one else. 
 Nor were his pranks confined to the land ; he soon learned to 
 accompany old Pluto on the water. Together these worthies 
 would cnaise about the broad bay, and all the neighboring 
 straits and rivers ; poking around in skiffs and canoes ; robbing 
 the set nets of the fishermen ; landing on remote coasts, and 
 laying waste orchards and water-melon patches ; in short, 
 carrying on a complete system of piracy, on a small scale. 
 Piloted by Pluto, the youthful Vanderscamp soon became 
 acquainted with all the bays, rivers, creeks, and inlets of the 
 watery world around him ; could navigate from the Hook to 
 
aScVLCSta from CiJjfirt Cslanti. 19 
 
 Spitiiig-devil on the darkest night, and learned to set even the 
 terrors of Hell-gate at defiance. 
 
 , At length, negro and boy suddenly disappeared, and days 
 and weeks elapsed, but \vithout tidings of them. Some said 
 they must have run away and gone to sea ; others jocosely 
 hinted, that old Pluto, being no other than a namesake in dis- 
 guise, had spirited away the boy to the nether regions. All, how- 
 ever, agreed in one thing, that the village was well rid of them. 
 
 In the process of tmie, the good Tennis Van Gieson slept 
 with his fathers, and the tavern remained shut up, waiting for a 
 claimant, for the next heir was Yan Yost Vanderscamp, and 
 he had not been heard of for years. At length, one day, a 
 boat was seen pulling for shore, from a long, black, rakish- 
 looking schooner, which lay at anchor in the bay. The boat's 
 crew seemed worthy of the craft from which they debarked. 
 Never had such a set of noisy, roistering, swaggering varlets 
 landed in peaceful Communipaw. They were outlandish in 
 garb and demeanor, and were headed by a rough, burly, bully 
 ruffian, with fiery whiskers, a copper nose, a scar across his 
 face, and a great Flaunderish beaver slouched on one side of his 
 head, in whom, to their dismay, the quiet inhabitants were 
 made to recognise their early pest, Yan Yost Vanderscamp. 
 The rear of this hopeful gang was brought up by old Pluto, 
 who had lost an eye, groM^n grizzly-headed, and looked more 
 like the devil than ever. Vanderscamp renewed his acquaintance 
 with the old burghers, much against their will, and in a 
 manner not at all to their taste. He slapped them familiarly 
 on the back, gave them an iron grip of the hand, and was hail 
 fellow well met. According to his own account, he had been 
 all the world over ; had made money by bags full ; had ships 
 in every sea, and now meant to turn the Wild Goose into a 
 country-seat, where he and his comrades, all rich merchants 
 from foreign parts, might enjoy themselves in the interval of 
 their voyages. 
 
 Sure enough, in a little while there was a. complete meta- 
 morphose of the Wild Goose. From being a quiet, peaceful 
 
20 a iU k f t f) c ?L1 u tJ s n . 
 
 Dutch public house, it became a most riotous, uproarioua 
 private dwelling ; a complete rendezvous for boisterous men 
 of the seas, w^ho came here to have what they call a " blow 
 out" on dry land, and might be seen at all hours lounging 
 about the door, or lolling out of the windows ; swearing 
 among themselves, and cracking rough jokes on every passer 
 by. The house was fitted up, too, in so strange a manner : 
 hammocks slung to the walls, instead of bedsteads ; odd 
 kinds of furniture, of foreign fashion ; bamboo couches, 
 Spanish chairs ; pistols, cutlasses, and blunderbusses, sus- 
 pended on every peg ; silver crucifixes on the mantel-pieces, 
 silver candlesticks and porringers on the tables, contrasting 
 oddly with the pewter and Delf ware of the original establish- 
 ment. And then the strange amusements of these sea- 
 monsters ! Pitching Spanish dollars, instead of quoits ; firing 
 blunderbusses out of the window ; shooting at a mark, or at 
 any unhappy dog, or cat, or pig, or barn-door fowl, that 
 might happen to come within reach. 
 
 The only being who seemed to relish their rough waggery, 
 was old Pluto ; and yet he led but a dog's life of it ; for they 
 practised all kinds of manual jokes upon him ; kicked him 
 about like a foot-ball ; shook him by his grizzly mop of wool, 
 and never spoke to him without coupling a curse by way of 
 adjective to his name, and consigning him to the infernal 
 regions. The old fellow, however, seemed to like them the 
 better, the more they cursed him, though his utmost ex- 
 pression of pleasure never amounted to more than the growl 
 of a petted bear, when his ears are rubbed. 
 
 Old Pluto was the ministering spirit at the orgies of the 
 Wild Goose ; and such orgies as took place there ! Such 
 drinking, singing, whooping, swearing ; with an occasional in- 
 terlude of quarrelling and fighting. The noisier grew the 
 revel, the more old Pluto plied the potations, until the 
 guests would become frantic in their merriment, smashing 
 everything to pieces, and throwing the house out of the 
 windows. Sometimes, after a drmking bout, they sallied 
 
Guests from diljbftJiglan to. 21 
 
 forth and scoured the village, to the dismay 'of the worthy 
 burghers, who gathered their women within doors, and would 
 have shut up the house. Vanderscamp, however, was not to 
 be rebuffed. He ijisisted on renewing acquaintance with his 
 old neighbors, and on introducing his friends, the merchants, 
 to their families ; swore he was on the look-out for a wife, 
 and meant, before he stopped, to find husbands for all their 
 daughters. So, will-ye, nill-ye, sociable he was ; swaggered 
 about their best parlors, with his hat on one side of his head ; 
 sat on the good wife's nicely-waxed mahogany table, kickmg 
 his heels against the carved and polished legs ; kissed and 
 tousled the young vrouws ; and, if they frowned and pouted, 
 gave them a gold roL-ary, or a sparkling cross, to put them in 
 good humor again. 
 
 Sometimes nothing would satisfy him, but he must have 
 some of his old neighbors to dinner at the Wild Goose. 
 There was no refusing him, for he had got the complete 
 upper hand of the community, and the peaceful burghers all 
 stood in awe of him. But what a time would the quiet, 
 worthy men have, among the.e rake-hells, who would delight 
 to astound them with the most extravagant gunpowder tales, 
 embroidered with all kinds of foreign oaths ; clink the can 
 with them ; pledge, them in deep potations ; bawl drinking 
 songs in their ears ; and occasionally fire pistols over their 
 head,^, or under the table, and then laugh in their faces, and 
 ask them how they liked the smell of gunpowder. 
 
 Thus was the little village of Communipaw for a time like 
 the unfortunate v»-ight possessed with devils ; until Vander- 
 scamp and his brother m.erchants would sail on another trading 
 voyage, when the Wild Goo.-e would be shut up, and everything 
 relapse into quiet, only to be disturbed by his next visitation. 
 
 The mystery of all these proceedings gradually dawned 
 upon the tardy intellects of Communipaw. These were the 
 times of the notorious Captain Kidd, when the American 
 harbors were the resorts of piratical adventurers of all kinds, 
 who, under pretext of mercantile voyages, scoured the West 
 
SL 33ooft of ti)£ f^ubson 
 
 Indies, made plundering descents upon the Spanish Main, 
 visited even the remote Indian Seas, and then came to dispose 
 of their booty, have their revels, and fit out new expeditions, in 
 the English colonies. 
 
 Vanderscamp had served in this hopeful school, and having 
 risen to importance among the buccaneers, had pitched upon 
 his native village and early home, as a quiet, out-of-the way, 
 unsuspected place, where he and his comrades, while an- 
 chored at New York, might have their feasts, and concert 
 their plans, without molestation. 
 
 At length the attention of the British government was called 
 to these piratical enterprises, that were becoming so frequent 
 and outrageous. Vigorous measures were taken to check and 
 punish them. Several of the most noted freebooters were caught 
 and executed, and three of Vanderscamp's chosen comrades, the 
 most riotous swash-bucklers of the Wild Goose, were hanged 
 in chains on Gibbet Island, in full sight of their favorite 
 resort. As to Vanderscamp himself, he and his man Pluto 
 again disappeared, and it was hoped by the people of Com- 
 munipaw that he had fallen in some foreign brawl, or been 
 swung on some foreign gallows. 
 
 For a time, therefore, the tranquillity of the village was re- 
 stored ; the worthy Dutchmen once more smoked their pipes in 
 peace, eyeing, with peculiar complacency, their old pests 
 and terrors, the pirates, dangling and drying in the sun, on 
 Gibbet Island. 
 
 This perfect calm was doomed at length to be ruffled. The 
 fiery persecution of the pirates gradually subsided. Justice 
 was satisfied with the examples that had been made, and there 
 was no more talk of Kidd, and the other heroes of like kidney. 
 On a calm summer evening, a boat, somewhat heavily laden, 
 was seen pulling into Communipaw. What was the surprise 
 and disquiet of the inhabitants, to see Yan Yost Vanderscamp 
 seated at the helm, and his man Pluto tugging at the oar. 
 Vanderscamp, however, was apparently an altered man. He 
 prought home with him a wife, who seemed to be a shrew, and 
 
Cu£2t3 from Gibbet Islanti. 23 
 
 to have the upper hand of him. He no longer was the swag- 
 gering, bully ruffian, but affected the regular merchant, and 
 talked of retiring from business, and settling down quietly, to 
 pass the rest of his days in his native place. 
 
 The Wild Goose mansion was again opened, but with 
 diminished splendor, and no riot. It is true, Vanderscamp had 
 frequent nautical visitors, and the sound of revelry was occa- 
 sionally overheard in his house ; but everything seemed to be 
 done under the rose ; and old Pluto was the only servant that 
 officiated at these orgies. The visitors, indeed, were by no 
 means of the turbulent stamp of their predecessors ; but quiet, 
 mysterious traders, full of nods, and winks, and hieroglyphic 
 signs, with whom, to use their cant phrase, " everything was« 
 smug." Their ships came to anchor at night, in the lower 
 bay ; and, on a private signal, Vanderscamp would launch his 
 boat, and, accompanied solely by his man Pluto, would make 
 them mysterious visits. Sometimes boats pulled in at night, in 
 front of the Wild Goose, and various articles of merchandise 
 were landed in the dark, and spirited away, nobody knew whither- 
 One of the more curious of the inhabitants kept watch, and 
 caught a glimpse of the features of some of these night visi- 
 tors, by the casual glance of a lantern, and declared that he 
 recognised more than oife of the freebooting frequenters of the 
 Wild Goose, in former times ; from whence he concluded that 
 Vanderscamp was at his old game, and that this mysterious 
 merchandise was nothing more nor less than piratical plunder. 
 The more charitable opinion, however, was, that Vanderscamp 
 and his comrades, having been driven from their old line of 
 business, by the " oppressions of government," had resorted to 
 smuggling to make both ends meet. 
 
 Be that as it may : I come now to the extraordinary fact, 
 which is the butt-end of this story. It happened late one 
 night, than Yan Yost Vanderscamp was returning across the 
 broad bay, in his light skiff, rowed by his man Pluto. He had 
 been carousing on board of a vessel, newly arrived, and was 
 somewhat obfuscated in intellect, by the liquid he had imbibed. 
 
24 S 33o«ft of tf)c ?^utison. 
 
 It was a still, sultry night ; a heavy mass of lurid clouds was 
 rising in the west, with the low muttering of distant thunder. 
 Vanderscamp called on Pluto to pull lustily, that they might 
 get home before the gathering storm. The old negro made no 
 reply, but shaped his course so as to skirt the rocky shores of 
 Gibbet Island. A faint creaking overhead caused Vanderscamp 
 to cast up his eyes, when, to his horror, he beheld the bodies of 
 his three pot companions and brothers in iniquity, dangling in 
 the moonlight, their rags fluttering, and their chains creaking, 
 as they were slowly swung backward and forward by the rising 
 breeze. 
 
 " What do you mean, you blockhead," cried Vanderscamp, 
 " by pulling so close to the island V 
 
 " I thought you'd be glad to see your old friends once more," 
 growled the negro ; " you were never afraid of a living man, 
 what do you fear from the dead V 
 
 " Who's afraid V hiccupped Vanderscamp, partly heated by 
 liquor, partly nettled by the jeer of the negro ; " who's afraid ? 
 Hang me, but I would be glad to see them once more, alive or 
 dead, at the Wild Goose. Come, my lads in the wind," con- 
 tinued he, taking a draught, and flourishing the bottle above 
 his head, " here's fair weather to you in the other world ; and 
 if you should be walking the rounds* to-night, odds* fish, but 
 I'll be happy if you will drop in to supper." 
 
 A dismal creaking was the only reply. The wind blew 
 loud and shrill, and as it whistled round the gallows, and 
 among the bones, sounded as if there were laughing and gib- 
 bering in the air. Old Pluto chuckled to himself, and now 
 pulled for homo. The storm burst over the voyagers, while 
 they were yet far from shore. The rain fell in torrents, tho 
 thunder crashed and pealed, and the lightning kept up an in- 
 cessant blaze. It was stark midnight before they landed at 
 Communipaw. 
 
 Dripping and shivering, Vanderscamp crawled homeward. 
 He was completely sobered by the storm ; the water soaked 
 *rom without having diluted and cooled the liquor within. 
 
(KucgtB from (Kifibet Cslanti. 25 
 
 Arrived at the Wild Goose, he knocked timidly and dubiously 
 at the door, for he dreaded the reception he was to experience 
 from his wife. He had reason to do so. She met liim at the 
 threshold, in a precious ill-humor. 
 
 " Is this a time," said she, " to keep people out of their beds, 
 and to bring home company, to turn the house upside down V 
 
 " Company 1" said Vanderscamp meekly, " I have brought 
 no company with me, wife." 
 
 " No, indeed ! they have got here before you, but by your 
 invitation ; and a blessed looking company they are, tmly." 
 
 Vanderscamp's knees smote together. " For the love of 
 heaven, where are they, wife 1" 
 
 " Where ? — why in the blue room, up stairs, making them- 
 selves as much at home as if the house were their own." 
 
 Vanderscamp made a desperate effort, scrambled up to the 
 room, and threw open the door. Sure enough, there at a table 
 on which burned a light as blue as brimstone, sat the three 
 guests from Gibbet Island, with halters round their necks, and 
 bobbing their cups together, as if they were hob-or-nobbing, 
 and trolling the old Dutch freebooter's glee, since translated 
 into English : 
 
 " For three merry lads be we, 
 And three merry lads be we ; 
 I on the land, and thou on the sand, 
 And Jack on the gallows tree." 
 
 Vanderscamp saw and heard no more. Starting back wdth 
 horror, he missed his footing on the landing place, and fell 
 from the top of the stairs to the bottom. He was taken up 
 speechless, and, either from the fall or the fright, was buried in 
 the yard of the little Dutch Church at Bergen, on the follow- 
 ing Sunday. 
 
 From that day forward, the fate of the Wild Goose was 
 sealed. It was pronounced a haunted house, and avoided ac- 
 cordingly. No one inhabited it but Vanderscamp's shrew of a 
 widow, and old Pluto, and they were considered but little bet- 
 
26 fl!3oofeoft5e?^ul3son. 
 
 ter than its hobgoblin visitors. Pluto grew more and mora 
 haggard and morose, and looked more like an imp of darkness 
 than a human being. He spoke to no one, but went about 
 muttering to hunself ; or, as some hinted, talking with the devil, 
 who, though unseen, was ever at his elbow. Now and then 
 he was seen pulling about the bay alone, in his skiff, in dark 
 weather, or at the approach of night-fall ; nobody could tell 
 why, unless on an errand to invite more guests from the gal- 
 lows. Indeed it was affirmed that the Wild Goose still con- 
 tinued to be a house of entertainment for such guests, and that 
 on stormy nights the blue chamber was occasionally illuminated, 
 and sounds of diabolical merriment were overheard, mingling with 
 the howling of the tempest. Some treated these as idle stories, 
 until on one such night — it was about the time of the equinox — 
 there was a horrible uproar in the Wild Goose, that could not 
 be mistaken. It was not so much the sound of revelry, how- 
 ever, as strife, with two or three piercing shrieks, that per- 
 vaded every part of the village. Nevertheless, no one thought 
 of hastening to the spot. On the contrary', the honest burghers 
 of Communipaw drew their nightcaps over their ears, and 
 buried their heads under the bed-clothes, at the thoughts of 
 Vanderscamp and his gallows companions. 
 
 The next morning, some of the bolder and more curious 
 undertook to reconnoitre. All was quiet and lifeless at the 
 Wild Goose. The door yawned wide open, and had evidently 
 been open all night, for the storm had beaten into the house. 
 Gathering more courage from the silence and apparent deser- 
 tion, they gradually ventured over the threshold. The house 
 had indeed the air of having been possessed by devils. Every- 
 thing was topsy turvy ; trunks had been broken open, and 
 chests of drawers and corner cupboards turned inside out, aa 
 in a time of general sack and pillage ; but the most woful 
 sight was the widow of Yan Yost Vanderscamp, extended a 
 corpse on the floor of the blue chamber, with the marks of a 
 deadly gripe on the windpipe. 
 
 All now was conjecture and dismay at Communipaw ; and 
 
©uests from <5ibl)et Islani. 27 
 
 the disappearance of old Pluto, who was nowhere .to be found, 
 gave rise to all kinds of wild surmises. Some suggested that 
 the negro had betrayed the house to some of Vanderscamp's 
 buccaneering associates, and that they had decamped together 
 with the booty ; others sui-mised that the negro was nothing 
 more nor less than a devil incarnate, who had now accom- 
 plished his ends, and made off with his dues. 
 
 Events, however, vindicated the negro from this last imputa- 
 tion. His skiff was picked up, drifting about the bay, bottom 
 upwards, as if wrecked in a tempest ; and his body was found, 
 shortly afterwards, by some Communipaw fishermen, stranded 
 among the rocks of Gibbet Island, near the foot of the pirates' 
 gallows. The fishermen shook their heads, and observed that 
 old Pluto had ventured once too often to invito Guests from 
 Gibbet Island. 
 
a 33ooft of tt)e ?^uti»on, 
 
 PETER STUYVESANT'S VOYAGE UP THE HUDSON. 
 
 FROM THE HISTORY OF NEW YORK. 
 
 Now did the soft breezes of the south steal sweetly over the 
 face of nature, tempering the panting heats of summer into 
 genial and prolific warmth ; when that miracle of hardihood 
 and chivalric virtue, the dauntless Peter Stuyvesant, spread his 
 canvas to the wind, and departed from the fair Island 
 of Manna-hata. The galley in which he embarked was 
 sumptuously adorned with pendants and streamers of gorgeous 
 dyes, which fluttered gayly in the wind, or drooped their ends 
 into the bosom of the stream. The bow and poop of this 
 majestic vessel were gallantly bedight, after the rarest Dutch 
 fashion, with figures of little pursy Cupids with periwigs on 
 their heads, and bearing in their hands garlands of flowers, the 
 like of which are not to be found in any book of botany ; 
 being the matchless flowers which flourished in the golden age, 
 and exist no longer, unless it be in the imaginations of inge- 
 nious carvers of wood and discolorers of canvas. JL 
 
 Thus rarely decorated, in style befitting the puissant potentate 
 of the Manhattoes, did the galley of Peter Stuyvesant launch 
 forth upon the bosom of the lordly Hudson, which, as it rolled 
 its broad waves to the ocean, seemed to pause for a while and 
 swell with pride, as if conscious of the illustrious burden it 
 sustained. 
 
 But trust me, gentlefolk, far other was the scene presented to 
 the contemplation of the crew from that which may be 
 witnessed at this degenerate day. Wildness and savage 
 majesty reigned on the borders of this mighty rivei- — the hand 
 of cultivation had not as yet laid low the dark forest, and 
 tamed the features of the landscape — nor had the frequent sail 
 of commerce broken in upon the profound and awful solitude 
 
^ctcr StU2&f isant'g Fojjagc up tfje f^utjson. 29 
 
 of ages. Here and there might be seen a rude wigwam perched 
 among the cliffs of the mountains with its curling column of 
 smoke mounting in the transparent atmosphere — but so loftily 
 situated that the whoopings of the savage children, gambolling 
 on the margin of the dizzy heights, fell almost as faintly on 
 the ear as do the notes of the lark, when lost in the azure vault 
 of heaven. Now and then, from the beetling brow of some 
 precipice, the wild deer would look timidly down upon the 
 splendid pageant as it passed below ; and then, tossing his 
 antlers in the air, would bound away into the thickets of the 
 forest. 
 
 Through such scenes did the stately vessel of Peter Stuyve- 
 sant pass. Now did they skirt the bases of the rocky heights 
 of Jersey, which spring up like everlasting walls, reaching from 
 the waves unto the heavens, and were fashioned, if tradition 
 may be believed, in times long past, by the mighty spirit 
 Manetho, to protect his favoftte abodes from the unhallowed 
 eyes of mortals. Now did they career it gayly across the vast 
 expanse of Tappan Bay, whose wide-extended shores present a 
 variety of delectable scenery — here the bold promontory, 
 crowned with embowering trees, advancing into the bay — there 
 the long woodland slope, sweeping up from the shore in rich 
 luxuriance, and terminating in the upland precipice — ^while at a 
 distance a long waving line of rocky heights threw their 
 gigantic shades across the water. Now would they pas3 
 where some modest little interval, opening among these stu- 
 pendous scenes, yet retreating as it were for protection into the 
 embraces of the neighboiing mountains, displayed a mral para- 
 dise, fraught with sweet and pastoral beauties ; the velvet-tufted 
 lawn — the bushy copse — the twinkling rivulet, stealing through 
 the fresh and vivid verdure — on whose banks was situated 
 some little Indian village, or, peradventure, the rude cabin of 
 some solitary hunter. 
 
 The different periods of the revolving day seemed each, with 
 cunning magic, to diffuse a different chaiTn to the scene. 
 Now would the jovial sun break gloriously from the east. 
 
30 a 13ook of tfje J^ulijson. 
 
 blazing from the summits of the hills, and sparkling the land- 
 scape with a thousand dewy gems ; while along the borders of 
 the river were seen heavy masses of mist, which, like midnight 
 caitiffs, disturbed at his approach, made a sluggish retreat, 
 rolling in sullen reluctance up the mountains. At such times 
 all was brightness, and life, and gayety — the atmosphere was 
 of an indescribable pureness and transparency — the birds broke 
 forth in wanton madrigals, and the freshening breezes wafted 
 the vessel merrily on her course. But when the sun sank 
 amid a flood of glory in the west, mantling the heavens and the 
 earth with a thousand gorgeous dyes — then all was calm, and 
 silent, and magnificent. The late swelling sail hung lifelessly 
 against the mast — the seaman, with folded arms, leaned against 
 the shrouds, lost in that involuntary musing which the sober 
 grandeur of nature commands in the rudest of her children. 
 The vast bosom of the Hudson was like an unruffled mirror, 
 reflecting the golden splendor of fhe heavens ; excepting that 
 now and then a bark canoe would steal across its surface, 
 filled with painted savages, whose gay feathers glared brightly, 
 as perchance a lingering ray of the setting sun gleamed upon 
 them from the western mountains. 
 
 But when the hour of twilight spread its majestic mists 
 around, then did the face of nature assume a thousand fugitive 
 charms, which to the worthy heart that seeks enjoyment in the 
 glorious works of its Maker are inexpressibly captivating. 
 The mellow dubious light that prevailed just served to tinge 
 with illusive colors the softened features of the scenery. 
 The deceived but delighted eye sought vainly to discern in the 
 broad masses of shade, the separating line between the land 
 and water ; or to distinguish the fading objects that seemed 
 sinking into chaos. Now did the busy fancy supply tho 
 feebleness of vision, producing with industrious craft a fairy 
 creation of her own. Under her plastic wand the barren rocks 
 frowned upon the watery waste, in the semblance of lofty 
 towers and high embattled castles — trees assumed the direful 
 forms of mighty giants, and the inaccessible summits of the 
 
IP^ter 5tua&«2ant's FogaSf ^9 tf)« ^Bjutson. 31 
 
 mountains seemed peopled with a thousand shadowy be- 
 ings. 
 
 Now broke forth from the shores the notes of an innume- 
 rable variety of insects, which filled the air with a strange but 
 not inharmonious concert — while ever and anon was heard the 
 melancholy plaint of the Whip-poor-will, who, perched on 
 some lone tree, wearied the ear of night with his incessant 
 meanings. The mind, soothed into a hallowed melancholy, 
 listened with pensive stillness, to catch and distinguish each 
 sound that vaguely echoed from the shore — no\v and then 
 startled perchance by the™'hoop of some straggling savage, or 
 by the dreary howl of a wolf, stealing forth upon his nightly 
 prowlings. 
 
 Thus happily did they pursue their course, until they entered 
 upon those awful defiles denominated the Highlands, where it 
 would seem that the gigantic Titans had erst waged their 
 impious war with heaven, piling up cliffs on cliffs, and hurling 
 vast masses of rock in wild confusion. But in sooth very 
 different is the history of these cloud-capt mountains. These, 
 in ancient days, before the Hudson poured its waters from the 
 lakes, formed one vast prison, within whose rocky bosom the 
 omnipotent Manetho confined the rebellious spirits who repined 
 at his control. Here, bound in adamantine chains, or jammed 
 in rifted pines, or crushed by ponderous rocks, they groaned 
 for many an age. At length, the conquering Hudson, in its 
 career towards the ocean, bm'st open their prison-house, rolling 
 its tide triumphantly through the stupendous ruins. 
 
 Still, however, do many of them lurk about their old abodes ; 
 and these it is, according to venerable legends, that cause the 
 echoes which resound throughout these awful solitudes ; which 
 are nothing but their angry clamors when any noise disturbs 
 the profoundness of their repose. For when the elements are 
 agitated by tempest, when the winds are up and the thunder 
 rolls, then horrible is the yelling and howling of these troubled 
 spirits, making the mountains to rebellow with their hideous 
 uproar ; for at such times it is said that they think the great 
 
32 ^ 13ook cf lf)£ ?^utJ2on. 
 
 Manetho is returning once more to plunge them in gloomy 
 caverns, and renew their intolerable captivity. 
 
 But all these fair and glorious scenes we^e lost upon the 
 gallant Stuyvesant ; naught occupied his mind but thoughts of 
 iron M^ar, and proud anticipations of hardy deeds of anns. 
 Neither did his honest crew trouble their heads with any 
 romantic speculations of the kind. The pilot at the helm 
 quietly smoked his pipe, thinking of nothing either past, present, 
 or to come ; those of his comrades who were not industriously 
 smoking ur^der the hatches were listening with open mouths to 
 Antony Van Corlear ; who, seatM on the windlass, was 
 relating to them the marvellous history of those myriads of 
 fireflies, that sparkled like gems and spangles upon the dusky 
 robe of night. These, according to tradition, were originally 
 a race of pestilent sempiternous beldames, who peopled these 
 parts long before the memory of man ; being of that abominated 
 race emphatically called brimstones; and who, for their in- 
 numerable sins against the children of men, and to furnish an 
 awful warning to the beauteous sex, were doomed to infest the 
 earth in the shape of these threatening and terrible little bugs ; 
 enduring the internal torments of that fire, which they formerly 
 carried in their hearts and breathed forth in their words ; but 
 now are sentenced to bear about for ever — in their tails ! 
 
 And now I am going to tell a fact, which I doubt much my 
 readers will hesitate to believe ; but if they do, they are wel- 
 come not to believe a word in this whole history — for nothing 
 which it contains is more true. It must be knovra then that 
 the nose of Anthony the Trumpeter was of a very lusty size, 
 stratting boldly from his countenance like a mountain of Gol- 
 conda ; being sumptuously bedecked with nibies and other pre- 
 cious stones — the true regalia of a king of good fellows, which 
 jolly Bacchus grants to all who bouse it heartily at the flagon. 
 Now thus it happened, that bright and early in the morning, 
 the good Antony, having washed his burly visage, was leaning 
 over the quarter railing of the galley, contemplating it in the 
 glassy wave below. Just at this moment the illustrious son. 
 
^cttx $tU2b«aaut'g Fogagt up Uje |Liu>J8on. 33 
 
 breaking in all his splendor from behind a high bluff of" the 
 highlands, did dart one of his most potent beams full upon the 
 refulgent nose of the sounder of brass — the reflection of which 
 shot straightway down hissing hot, into the water, and killed a 
 mighty sturgeon that was sporting beside the vessel ! This 
 huge monster, being with infinite labor hoisted on board, 
 furnished a luxurious repast to all the crew, being accounted of 
 excellent flavor, excepting about the wound, where it smacked 
 a little of brimstone — and this, on my veracity, was the first 
 time that ever sturgeon was eaten in these parts by Christian 
 people.* 
 
 When this astonishing miracle came to be made known to 
 Peter Stuyvesant, and that he tasted of the unknown fish, he, 
 as may well be supposed, marvelled exceedingly : and as a 
 monument thereof, he gave the name of Antony's Nose to a 
 stout promontory in the neighborhood — and it has continued to 
 be called Anthony's Nose ever since that time. 
 
 But hold : whither am I wandering ? By the mass, if I 
 attempt to accompany the good Peter Stuyvesant on this 
 voyage, I shall never make an end ; for never was there a 
 voyage so fraught with marvellous incidents, nor a river so 
 abounding with transcendent beauties, worthy of being severally 
 recorded. Even now I have it on the point of my pen to 
 relate how his crew were most horribly frightened, on going 
 on shore above the highlands, by a gang of merry roistering 
 devils, frisking ^d curvetting on a flat rock, which projected 
 into the river — and which is called the DuyveVs Dans-Kamer 
 to this very day. But no ! Diedrich Knickerbocker — it be- 
 comes thee not to idle thus in thy historic wayfarhig. 
 
 Recollect that while dwelling with the fond garrulity of age 
 over these fairy scenes, endeared to thee by the recollections of 
 thy youth, and the charms of a thousand legendary tales, 
 
 * The learned H:ins Mcgapolonsis, treating of the country about 
 Albany, in a letter which was written some time after the settlement 
 thereof, says, "There is in the river great plenty of sturgeon which we 
 Christians do not make use of, but the Indians eat them greedily." 
 
34 a3iJookoftf)c?t^uUBon. 
 
 which beguiled the simple ear of thy childhood ; recollect tha 
 thou art trifling with those fleeting moments which should be 
 devoted to loftier themes. Is not Time — relentless Time ! 
 shaking, with palsied hand, his almost exhausted hour-glass 
 before thee 1 — hasten then to pursue thy weary task, lest the 
 last sands be run ere thou hast finished thy history of the 
 Manhattoes. 
 
"Sri&e Cfirontcle of iScarit Eslanto. 35 
 
 THE CHRONICLE OF BEARN ISLAND.* 
 
 SHOWING THE RISE OF THE GREAT VAN RENSELLAER DYNASTY, 
 AND THE FIRST SEEDS OF THE HELDERBERG WAR. Compiled 
 
 from Knickerbocker's Hist, of New York. 
 
 In the golden days of New Amsterdam, according to the 
 accounts of its venerable historian, the ambition of its burghers 
 contented itself ibr a while within the bounds of the fair island of 
 Mannahata, insomuch that Spiten Devil and Hell-gate were to 
 them the pillars of Hercules, the ne plus ultra of human enter- 
 prise. In process of time, however, the New Amsterdamers began 
 to cast wistful looks at the lands of their Indian neighbors ; for 
 somehow or other Indian land has a wild flavor to the taste 
 of a settler, and looks greener in Ms eyes than the land he 
 lawfully occupies. Oloffe the Dreamer, at that time protector 
 of New Amsterdam, encouraged these notions ; having the 
 inherent spirit of a land speculator, quickened and expanded by 
 his having become a landholder. Under his protectorship 
 certain exploring expeditions were sent forth " to sow the seeds 
 of empire in the wilderness." One of these ascended the Hudson 
 and established a frontier post, or trading house, called Fort 
 Aurania, on the site of the present venerable City of Albany ; 
 which, at that time, was considered the very end of the 
 habitable world. With this remote possession the mother city 
 of New Amsterdam for a long time held but little intercourse. 
 Now and then the company's yacht, as it was called (meaning 
 the yacht of the Honorable the East India Company), was sent 
 to carry supplies to the fort and to bring away the peltries 
 which had been purchased of the Indians. It was like an 
 expedition to the Indias, or the North Pole, and always made 
 great talk in the settlement. Sometimes an adventurous 
 
 * A rocky island on the Hudson a few miles below Albany. 
 
36 a 33ooft of tfj? ?i^ulison. 
 
 burgher would accompany the expedition, to the great uneasi- 
 ness of his friends ; but, on his return, had so many stories to 
 tell of stoiTiis and tempests on the Tappan Zee ; of hobgoblins 
 in the Highlands and at the Devils Dans Kammer, and of all 
 the other wonders and perils with which the river abounded in 
 those early days, that he deterred the less adventurous inhabit- 
 ants from following his example. 
 
 Matters remained in this state until the time of Walter the 
 Doubter, and Fort Aurania seemed as remote as Oregon in 
 modern days. Now so it happened that one day as that most 
 dubious of Governors and his burgermeesters were smoking and 
 pondering over the affairs of the province, they were roused by 
 the report of a cannon. Sallying forth, they beheld a strange 
 vessel at anchor in the bay. It was unqvie&tionably of Dutch 
 build ; broad bottomed and high pooped, and bore the flag of 
 their High Mightinesses at the mast-head. 
 
 After a while a boat put off for land, and a stranger stepped 
 on shore, a lofty, lordly kind of man, tall and diy, with a 
 meagre face, furnished with huge moustaches. He was clad in 
 Flemish doublet and hose, and an insufferably tall hat, with a 
 cocktail feather. Such was the patroon Killian Van Rensel- 
 laer, who had come out from Holland to found a colony or 
 patroonship on a great tract of wild land, granted to him by 
 their High Mightinesses, the Lords States General, in the upper 
 regions of the Hudson. 
 
 Killian Van Rensellaer was a nine days' wonder in New 
 Amsterdam ; for he carried a high head, looked down upon 
 the portly, short-legged burgomasters, and owned no allegiance 
 to the governor himself ; boasting that he held his patroonship 
 directly from the Lords States General. 
 
 He tarried but a short time in New Amsterdam ; merely to 
 beat up recruits for his colony. Few, however, ventured to 
 enlist for those remote and savage regions ; and when they em- 
 barked, their friends took leave of them as if they should never 
 see them more ; and stood gazing with tearhd eye as the stout, 
 round-sterned little vessel ploughed and splashed its way up the 
 
Et)e a^^x oniclt ot }3eKxn Jtslants. 37 
 
 Hudson, with great noise and little progress, taking nearly a 
 day to get out of sight of the city. 
 
 And now, from time to time, floated down tidings to the 
 Manhattoes of the growing importance of this new colony. 
 Every account represented Killian Van Rensellaer as rising in 
 importance, and becoming a mighty patroon in the land. He 
 had received more recruits from Holland. His patroonship of 
 Rensellaerwick lay immediately below Fort Aurania, and ex- 
 tended for several miles on each side of the Hudson, besides 
 embracing the mountainous region of the Helderberg. Over 
 all this he claimed to hold separate jurisdiction, independent of 
 the colonial authorities at New Amsterdam. 
 
 All these assumptions of authority were duly reported to 
 Governor Van Twiller and his council, by dispatches from 
 Fort Aurania ; at each new report the governor and his coun- 
 sellors looked at each other, raised their eyebrows, gave an 
 extra puff or two of smoke, and then relapsed into their usual 
 tranquillity. 
 
 At length tidings came that the patroon of Rensellaerwick 
 had extended his usuipations along the river, beyond the limits 
 granted him by their High Mightinesses ; and that he had even 
 seized upon a rocky island in the Hudson, commonly known 
 by the name of Beam or Bear's Island, where he was 
 erecting a fortress, to be called by the lordly name of Rensel- 
 laerstein. 
 
 Wouter Van Twiller was roused by this intelligence. After 
 consulting with his burgomasters, he dispatched a letter to the 
 patroon of Rensellaerwick, demanding by what right he had 
 seized upon this island, which lay beyond the bounds of his 
 patroonship. The'answei; of Killian Van Rensellaer was in 
 his own lordly style, " By wapen recht I" that is to say, by 
 the right of arms, or, in common parlance, by club-law. This 
 answer plunged the worthy Wouter into one of the deepest 
 doubts he encountered in the whole course of his administra- 
 tion ; but while he doubted, the lordly Killian went on to 
 complete his sturdy little castellum of Rensellaerstein. This 
 
38 ^ Booft of ti^e f^uUson. 
 
 done, he garrisoned it with a number of his tenants from the 
 Helderberg, a mountain region, famous for the hardest heads 
 and hardest fists in the province. Nicholas Koorn, his faith- 
 ful squire, accustomed to strut at his heels, wear his cast off 
 clothes, and miitate his lofty bearing, was established in this 
 post as wacht meester. His duty it was to keep an eye on the 
 river, and oblige every vessel that passed, unless on the service 
 of their High Mightinesses, the Lords States General of Hol- 
 land, to strike its flag, lower its peak, and pay toll to the lord 
 of Rensellaerstein. 
 
 Many were the complaints rendered in to Wouter Van 
 Twiller by the skippers of the Hudson of these wrongs in- 
 flicted on them by the little wart of a castle ; all which tended 
 marvellously to increase his doubts and perplexities, insomuch 
 that v/hen William the Testy succeeded him m office, he found 
 whole bundles of statements of these offences filed away in the 
 archives of government, with the dubious superscription " to be 
 considered." William the Testy was not a man to take 
 things so patiently. He wrote sharp remonstrances to Killian 
 Van Rensellaer, representing his assumption of sovereign 
 authority on the river as equal to the outrages of the Robber 
 Counts of Germany, from their castles on the Rhine. His re- 
 monstrances were treated with silent contempt, and thus a sore 
 place, or, in Hibernian phrase, a raw, was established in the 
 irritable soul of the little governor, insomuch that he winced 
 at the very name of Rensellaerstein. 
 
 Now it came to pass, that on a fine sunny day the Com- 
 pany's yacht, the Half- Moon, having been on one of its stated 
 visits to Fort Aurania, was quietly tiding it down the Hudson ; 
 the commander, Govert Lockermarv, a veteran Dutch skipper 
 of few words but great bottom, was seated on the high poop, 
 quietly smoking his pipe, under the shadow of the proud 
 flag of Orange when, on arriving abreast of Beam Island, he 
 was saluted by a stentorian voice from the shore, " Lower thy 
 flag, and be d — d to thee !" 
 
 Govei-* Loskerman, without taking his pipe out of h* 
 
Ei)e CJjroniclc of iiJearn Eslanb. 39 
 
 mouth, turned up his eye from under his broad-brimmed hat to 
 see who hailed him thus discourteously. There, on the ram- 
 parts of the fort, stood Nicholas Kooni, armed to the teeth, 
 flourishing a brass-hilted sword, while a steeple-crowned hat 
 and cock's tail-feather, formerly worn by Killian Van Ren- 
 sellaer himself, gave an inexpressible loftiness to his de- 
 meanor. 
 
 Govert Lockemian eyed the warrior from top to toe, but 
 was not to be dismayed. Taking the pipe slowly out of his 
 mouth, " To whom should I lower my flag ]" demanded he. 
 
 "To the high and mighty Kjllian Van Rensellaer, the lord 
 of Rensellaerstein !" was the reply. 
 
 " I lower it to none but the Prince of Orange, and my mas- 
 ters, the Lords States General." So saying, he resumed his 
 pipe, and smoked with an air of dogged determination. 
 
 Bang ! went a gun from the fortress ; the ball cut both sail 
 and rigging. Govert Lockerman said nothing, but smoked the 
 more doggedly. 
 
 Bang ! went another gun ; the shot whistling close astern. 
 
 " Fire, and be d — d," cried Govert Lockennan, cramming a 
 new charge of tobacco into his pipe, and smoking with still 
 increasing vehemence. 
 
 Bang! went a third gun. The shot passed over his head, 
 tearing a hole in the " princely flag of Orange." 
 
 This was the hardest trial of all for the pride and patience 
 of Govert Lockerman ; he mamtained a stubborn though swell- 
 ing silence, but his smothered rage might be perceived by the 
 short vehement puffs of smoke emitted from his pipe, by which 
 he might be tracked for miles, as he slowly floated out of shot 
 and out of sight of Beam Island. In fact he never gave vent 
 to his passion until he got fairly among the Highlands of the 
 Hudson ; when he let fly whole volleys of Dutch oaths, which 
 are said to linger to this very day among the echoes of the 
 Dunderberg, and to give particular effect to the thunder-storms 
 in that neighborhood. 
 
 William the Testy was shut up in his rural retreat of Dog's 
 
40 ® J3ooft of tfjf f^ulrgon. 
 
 Misery, planning an expedition against the marauding people 
 of Merryland, when Govert Lockerman burst in upon him, 
 bearing in his hand the tattered flag of Orange. I will not 
 pretend to describe the passion of the little man when he heard 
 of the outrage of Rensellaerstein. Suflice it to say, in the first 
 transports of his fury, he turned Dog's Misery topsy-turvy ; 
 kicked every cur out of doors, and threw the cats out of the 
 window ; after which, his spleen being in some measure re- 
 lieved, he went into a council of war with Govert Lockerman, 
 the skipper, assisted by Antony Van Corlear, the tinimpeter. 
 
 The eyes of all New Amsterdam were now turned to see 
 what would be the end of this direful feud between William the 
 Testy and the patroon of Rensellaerwick ; and some, obsei"v- 
 ing the consultations of the governor with the skipper and the 
 trumpeter, predicted warlike measures by sea and land. The 
 wrath of William Kieft, however, though quick to rise, was 
 quick to evaporate. He was a perfect bmsh-heap in a blaze, 
 snapping and crackling for a time, and then ending in smoke. 
 Like many other valiant potentates, his first thoughts were all 
 for war, his sober second thoughts for diplomacy. 
 
 Accordingly, Govert Lockerman was once more dispatched 
 up the river in the Company's yacht, the Goed Hoop, bearing 
 Antony the Trumpeter as ambassador, to treat with the bel- 
 ligerent powers of Rensellaerstein. In the fulness of time 
 the yacht arrived before Beam Island, and Antony the Trum- 
 peter, mounting the poop, sounded a parley to the fortress. In 
 a little while, the steeple-crowned hat of Nicholas Koorn, the 
 wacht-meester, rose above the battlements, followed by his 
 iron visage, and ultimately by his whole person, armed, as be- 
 fore, to the very teeth ; while one by one a whole row of Hel- 
 derbergers reared their round burly heads above the wall, and 
 beside each pumpkin-head peered the end of a nasty musket. 
 Nothing daunted by this formidable array, Antony Van Cor- 
 lear drew forth and read with audible voice a missive from 
 William the Testy, protesting against the usurpation of Beam 
 Island, and ordering the garrison to quit the premises, bag and 
 
€f)t Cf)ron(cIe of Beam Islanlr. 41 
 
 baggage, on pain of the vengeance of the potentate of the 
 Manhattoes. 
 
 In reply the wacht-meester applied the thumb of his right 
 hand to the end of his nose, and the thumb of the left hand to 
 the little finger of the right, and spreading each hand like a 
 fan, made an aerial flourish with his fingers. Antony Van 
 Corlear was sorely perplexed to understand this sign, which 
 seemed to him something mysterious and masonic. Not lUdng 
 to betray his ignorance, he again read with a loud voice the 
 missive of William the Testy, and again Nicholas Koom ap- 
 plied the thumb of his right hand to the end of his nose, and 
 the thumb of his left hand to the little finger of the right, and 
 repeated this kind of nasal weathercock. Antony Van Cor- 
 lear now persuaded himself that this was some short-hand sign 
 or symbol, current in diplomacy, which, though unintelligible to 
 a new diplomat like himself, would speak volumes to the 
 experienced intellect of William the Testy ; considering his 
 embassy therefore at an end, he sounded his trumpet with great 
 complacency, and set sail on his return down the river, every 
 now and then practising this mysterious sign of the wacht- 
 meester, to keep it accurately in mind. 
 
 Arrived at New Amsterdam, he made a faithful report of his 
 embassy to the governor, accompanied by a manual exhibition 
 of the response of Nicholas Koorn. The governor was 
 equally perplexed with his ambassador. He was deeply versed 
 in the mysteries of freemasonry ; but they threw no light on 
 the matter. He knew every variety of windmill and weather- 
 cock, but was not a whit the wiser, as to the aerial sign in 
 question. He had even dabbled in Egyptian hieroglyphics, and 
 the mystic symbols of the obelisks, but none furnished a key 
 to the reply of Nicholas Koom. He called a meeting of his 
 council. Antony Van Corlear stood forth in the midst, and 
 putting the thumb of his right hand to his nose, and the thumb 
 of his left hand to the little finger of the right, he gave a faithful 
 fac-simile of the portentous sign. Having a nose of unusual 
 dimensions, it was as if the reply had been put in capitals, but 
 
42 aJ3ookofttf?^ulrson. 
 
 all in vain ; the worthy burgomasters were equally perplexed 
 with the governor. Each one put his thumb to the end of his 
 nose, spread his fingers like a fan, imitated the motion of 
 Antony Van Corlear, and then smoked on in dubious silence. 
 Several times was Antony obliged to stand forth like a fugle- 
 man, and repeat the sign, and each time a circle of nasal 
 weathercocks might be seen in the council-chamber. 
 
 Perplexed in the extreme, William the Testy sent for all the 
 soothsayers, and fortunetellers, and wise men of the Manhat- 
 toes, but none could interpret the mysterious reply of Nicholas 
 Koorn. The council broke up in sore perplexity. The mat- 
 ter got abroad, Antony Van Corlear was stopped at every cor- 
 ner to repeat the signal to a knot of anxious newsmongers, 
 each of whom departed with his thumb to his nose, and his 
 fingers in the air, to carry the story home to his family. For 
 several days all business was neglected in New Amsterdam ; 
 nothing was talked of but the diplomatic mission of Antony 
 the Trumpeter, nothing was to be seen but knots of politicians 
 with their thumbs to their noses. In the meantime the fierce 
 feud between William the Testy and Killian Van Rensellaer, 
 which at first had menaced deadly warfare, gradually cooled off, 
 like many other war questions, in the prolonged delays of di- 
 plomacy. 
 
 Still to this early afiliir of Rensellaerstein may be traced 
 the remote origin of those windy wars in modern days which 
 rage in the bowels of the Helderberg, and have well nigh 
 shaken the great patroonship of the Van Rensellaers to its 
 foundation ; for we are told that the bully boys of the Helder- 
 berg, who served under Nicholas Koorn, the wacht-meester, 
 carried back to their mountains the hieroglyphic sign which 
 had so sorely puzzled Antony Van Corlear and the sages of the 
 Manhattoes ; so that to the present day the thumb to the nose 
 and the fingers in the air is apt to be the reply of the Helder- 
 bergers whenever called upon for long arrears of rent. 
 
ffil^E fLcgcnti of .Sleepii f^oUoto. 43 
 
 THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW. 
 
 A pleasing land of drowsy head it was, 
 Of dreams that wave before the half-shut eye ; 
 
 And of gay castles in the clouds that pass, 
 For ever flushing round a summer sky. 
 
 Castle of Indolence. 
 
 In the bosom of one of those spacious coves which indent 
 the eastern shore of the Hudson, at that broad expansion of 
 the river denominated by the ancient Dutch navigators the 
 Tappan Zee, and where they always prudently shortened sail, 
 and implored the protection of St. Nicholas when they cross- 
 ed, there lies a small market-town or rural port, which, by 
 some, is called Grecnsburgh, but which is more generally and 
 properly known by the name of Tarry Town. This name 
 was given, we are told, in former days, by the good house- 
 wives of the adjacent country, from the inveterate propensity 
 of their husbands to linger about the village tavern on market 
 days. Be that as it may, I do not vouch for the fact, but 
 merely advert to it for the sake of being precise and authentic. 
 Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a 
 little valley, or rather lap of land, among high hills, which is 
 one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook 
 glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to re- 
 pose ; and the occasional whistle of a quail, or tapping of a 
 woodpecker, is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon 
 the uniform tranquillity. 
 
 I recollect that, when a stripling, my first exploit in squirrel- 
 shooting was in a grove of tall walnut-trees that shades one 
 side of the valley. I had wandered into it at noontime, when 
 all nature is peculiarly quiet, and was startled by the roar of 
 my owp gun, as it broke the Sabbath stillness around, and 
 
44 ^ ]3ooft of tf)e f^utison. 
 
 was prolonged and reverberated by the angry echoes. If ever I 
 should wish for a retreat whither I might steal from the world 
 and its distractions, and dream quietly away the remnant of a 
 troubled life, I know of none more promising than this little 
 valley. 
 
 From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar cha- 
 racter of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original 
 Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by 
 the name of Sleepy Hollow, and its rustic lads are called 
 the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. 
 A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and 
 to pervade the very atmosphere. Some say that the place was 
 bewitched by a high German doctor, during the early days of 
 the settlement ; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or 
 wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country 
 was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, 
 the place still continues under the sway of some witching 
 power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, 
 causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given 
 to all kinds of marvellous beliefs ; are subject to trances and 
 visions ; and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and 
 voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with 
 local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions ; ^tars 
 shoot and meteors glare oftener aoross the valley than in any 
 other part of the country, and the night-mare with her whole 
 nine fold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols. 
 
 The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted 
 region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers 
 of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a 
 head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, 
 whose head had been carried away by a cannon-ball, in some 
 nameless battle during the revolutionary war, and who is ever 
 and anon seen by the country folk, hurrying along in the gloom 
 of night, as if on the wings of the wind. His haunts are not 
 confined to the valley, but extend at times to the adjacent 
 roads, and especially to the vicinity of a church at no great 
 
1!Li)e %eQents at Sleeps f^oUoin. 45 
 
 distance. Indeed, certain of the most authentic historians of 
 those parts, who have been careful in collecting and collating 
 the floating facts concerning this spectre, allege that the body 
 of the trooper having been buried in the church-yard, the 
 ghost rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his 
 head ; and that the rushing speed with which he someiimes 
 passes along the Hollow, liiie a midnight blast, is owing to his 
 being belated, and in a hurry to get back to the church-yard 
 before daybreak. 
 
 Such is the general purport of this legendary superstition, 
 which has furnished materials for many a wild story in that 
 region of shadows, and the spectre is known at all the country 
 firesides by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy 
 Hollow. 
 
 It is remarkable that the visionary propensity I have men- 
 tioned is not confined to the native inhabitants of the valley » 
 but is unconsciously imbibed by every one who resides there 
 for a time. However wide awake they may have been before 
 they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little time, 
 to inhale the witching influence of the air, afid begin to grow 
 imaginative — to dream dreams, and see apparitions. 
 
 I mention this peaceful spot with all possible iaud ; for it is 
 in such little retired Dutch valleys, found here and there, embo- 
 somed in the great state of New York, that population, man- 
 ners, and customs remain fixed, while the great torrent of 
 migration and improvement, which is making such incessant 
 changes in other parts of this restless country, sweeps by them 
 unobserved. They are like those little nooks of still water 
 which border a rapid stream ; where w^ may see the straw and 
 bubble riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving in their 
 mimic harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current. 
 Though many years have elapsed since I trod the drowsy 
 ehades of Sleepy Hollow, yet I question whether I should not 
 still find the same trees and the same families vegetating in its 
 sheltered bosom. 
 
 In this by-place of nature, there abode, in a remote period of 
 
46 ^ 33ooit of tf)c ^^uUson. 
 
 American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a 
 worthy wight, of the name of Ichabod Crane, who sojourned, 
 or, as he expressed it, " tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the 
 pin-pose of instructing the children of the vicinity. He was a 
 native of Connecticut, a state which supplies the Union with 
 pioneers for the mind as well as for the forest, and sends forth 
 yearly its legions of frontier woodmen and country schoolmas- 
 ters. The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his per- 
 son. He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoul- 
 ders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his 
 sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole 
 frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and 
 fiat at the top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a 
 long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weathercock, perched 
 upon his spindle neck, to tell which way the wind blew. To 
 see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, 
 with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might 
 have mistaken him for the genius of famind descending upon 
 the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield. 
 
 His school-hou?e was a low building of one large room, 
 rudely constructed of logs, the windows partly glazed and 
 partly patched with leaves of old copybooks. It was most 
 ingeniously secured at vacant hours, by a withe twisted in the 
 handle of the door, and stakes set against the window shut- 
 ters, so that, though a thief might get in with perfect ease, he 
 would find some embarrassment in getting out ; an idea most 
 probably borrowed by the architect, Yost Van Houten, from 
 the mystery of an eel-pot. The school-house stood in a rather 
 lonely but pleasant situation, just at the foot of a woody hill, 
 with a brook running close by, and a formidable birch tree 
 growing at one end of it. From hence the low murmur of his 
 pupils' voices, conning over their lessons, might be heard in a 
 drowsy summer's day, like the hum of a bee-hive, interrupted 
 now and then by the authoritative voice of the master, in the 
 tone of menace or command, or, peradventure, by the appal- 
 ling sound of the birch, as he urged some tardy loiterer along 
 
El)e ILcgcnti of Sleeps ^oMoio. 47 
 
 the flowery path of knowledge. Truth to say, he was a con- 
 scientious man, and ever bore in mind the golden maxim, 
 " Spare the rod and spoil the child." — Ichabod Crane's scholars 
 certainly were not spoiled. 
 
 I wo aid not have it imagined, however, that he was one of 
 those cruel potentates of the school, who joy in the smart of 
 their subjects ; on the contrary, he administered justice with 
 discrimination rather than severity, taking the burden off the 
 backs of the weak, and laying it on those of the strong. Your 
 mere puny stripling, that winced at the least flourish of the rod, 
 was passed by with indulgence, but the claims of justice were 
 satisfied by inflicting a double portion on some little, tough, 
 wrong-headed, broad-skirted Dutch urchin, who sulked, and 
 swelled, and grew dogged and sullen beneath the birch. All 
 this he called " doing his duty by their parents," and he never 
 inflicted a chastisement without following it by the assurance, 
 so consolatoiy to the smarting urchin, that " he would remem- 
 ber it and thank him for it the longest day he had to live." 
 
 When school hours were over, he was even the companion 
 and playmate of the larger boys, and on holiday alternoons 
 would convoy some of the smaller ones home, who happened 
 to have pretty sisters, or good housewives for mothers, noted 
 for the comforts of the cupboard. Indeed, it behoved him to 
 keep on good terms with his pupils. The revenue arising 
 from his school was small, and would have been scarcely suf- 
 ficient to furnish him with daily bread, for he was a huge, 
 feeder, and though lank, had the dilating powers of an ana- 
 conda ; but to help out his maintenance, he was, according to 
 country custom in those parts, boarded and lodged at the 
 houses of the farmers, whose children he instructed. With 
 these he lived successively a week at a time, thus going the 
 rounds of the neighborhood, with all his worldly effects tied 
 up in a cotton handkerchief. 
 
 That all this might not be too onerous on the purses of his 
 rustic patrons, who are apt to consider the costs of schooling a 
 grievous burden, and schoolmasters as mere drones, he had 
 
48 ® ISook of tfjf f^uUson. 
 
 various ways of rendering himself both useful and agreeable. 
 He assisted the farmers occasionally in the lighter labors of 
 their farms, helped to make hay, mended the fences, took the 
 horses to water, drove the cows from pasture, and cut wood for 
 the winter fire. He laid aside, too, all the dominant dignity 
 and absolute sway with which he lorded it in his little empire, 
 the school, and became wonderfully gentle and ingratiating. 
 He found favor in the eyes of the mothers, by petting the chil- 
 dren, particularly the youngest, and like the lion bold, which 
 whilom so magnanimously the lamb did hold, he would sit 
 with a child on one knee, and rock a cradle with his foot for 
 whole hours together. 
 
 In addition to his other vocations, he was the singing master 
 of the neighborhood, and picked up many bright shillings by 
 instructing the young folks in psalmody. It was a matter of 
 no little vanity to him, on Sundays, to take his station in front 
 of the church gallery, with a band of chosen singers ; where, 
 in his own mind, he completely carried away the palm from 
 the parson. Certain it is, his voice resounded far above all the 
 rest of the congregation ; and there are peculiar quavers still 
 to be heard in that church, and which may even be heard half 
 a mile off, quite to the opposite side of the mill-pond, on a still 
 Sunday morning, which are said to be legitimately descended 
 from the nose of Ichabod Crane. Thus, by divers little make- 
 shifts, in that ingenious way which is commonly denominated 
 " by hook and by crook," the worthy pedagogue got on tolera- 
 bly enough, and was thought, by all who understood nothing 
 of the labor of headwork, to have a wonderfully easy life of it. 
 
 The schoolmaster is generally a man of some importance in 
 the female circle of a rural neighborhood ; being considered a 
 kind of idle gentleman-like personage, of vastly superior taste 
 and accomplishments to the rough country swains, and, indeed, 
 inferior in learning only to the parson. His appearance, there- 
 fore, is apt to occasion some little stir at the tea-table of a farm- 
 house, and the addition of a supernumerary dish of cakes, or 
 sweetmeats, or, peradventure, the parade of a silver teapot. 
 
STi^e ILcQEiiU Df,SIfcpj} lilolloii). 49 
 
 Our man of letters, therefore, was peculiarly happy in the 
 smiles of all the country damsels. How he would figure 
 among them in the church-yard between services on Sundays, 
 gathering grapes for them from the wild vines that overrun the 
 surrounding trees ; reciting for their amusement all the epitaphs 
 on the tombstones, or sauntering, with a whole bevy of them, 
 along the banks of the adjacent mill-pond ; while the more 
 bashful country bumpkins hung sheepishly back, envying his 
 superior elegance and address. 
 
 From his half itinerant life, also, he was a kind of travelling 
 gazette, carrying the whole budget of local gossip from house 
 to house, so that his appearance was always greeted with satis- 
 faction. He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man 
 of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, 
 and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's History of New 
 England Witchcraft, in which, by the way, he most firmly and 
 potently believed. 
 
 .. He was, in fact, an odd mixture of small shrewdness and 
 fc^imple credulity. His appetite for the marvellous, and his 
 powers of digesting it, were equally extraordinary ; and both 
 had been increased by his residence in this spell-bound region. 
 No tale was too gross or monstrous for his capacious swallow. 
 It was often his delight, after his school was dismissed in the 
 afternoon, to stretch himself on tlie rich bed of clover, border- 
 ing the little brook' that whimpered by his school-house, and 
 there con over old Mather's direful tales, until the gathering 
 dusk of the evening made the printed page a mere mist before 
 his eyes. Then, as he wended his way, by swamp, and stream, 
 and awful woodland, to tb.e farmhouse where he happened to 
 be quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching hour, 
 fluttered his excited imagination ; the moan of the whip-poor- 
 will* from the hill side, the boding cry of the tree toad, that 
 harbinger of storm, the dreary hooting of the screech-owl, or 
 
 * The whip poor-will is a bird which is only heard at night. It re- 
 ceives its name from its note, whicli is thought to resemble those 
 word?. 
 
 3 
 
50 aJSooftoft^c l^utjson. 
 
 the sudden rustling in the thicket of birds frightened from their 
 roost. The fire-flies, too, which sparkled most vividly in the 
 darkest places, now and then startled him, as one of uncom- 
 mon brightness would stream across his path ; and if, by 
 chance, a huge blockhead of a beetle came winging his blun- 
 dering flight against him, the poor varlet was ready to give up 
 the ghost, with the idea that he was struck with a witch's 
 token. His only resource on such occasions, either to drown 
 .thought, or drive away evil spirits, was to sing psalm tunes, 
 and the good people of Sleepy Hollow, as they sat by their 
 doors of an evening, were often filled with awe, at hearing 
 his nasal melody, " in linked sweetness long drawn out," float- 
 ing from the distant hill, or along the dusky road. 
 
 Another of his sources of fearful pleasure was, to pass long 
 v/inter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they sat spinning 
 by the fire, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering 
 along the hearth, and listen to their marvellous tales of ghosts, 
 and goblins, and haunte^ fields, and haunted brooks, and 
 haunted bridges, and haunted houses, and particularly of the 
 headless horteman, or Galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as 
 they sometimes called him. He would delight them equally 
 by his anecdotes of witchcraft, and of the direful omens and 
 portentous sights and sounds in the air, which prevailed m the 
 earlier times of Connecticut, and would frighten them wofally 
 with speculations upon comets and shooting stars, and with the 
 alarming fact that the world did absolutely turn round, and 
 that they were half the time topsy-turvy. 
 
 But if there was a pleasure m all this, while snugly cuddling 
 . in the chimney corner of a chamber that was all of a ruddy 
 glow from the crackling wood fire, and where, of course, no 
 spectre dared to show its face, it was dearly purchased by the 
 terrors of his subsequent walk homewards. What fearful shapes 
 and shadows beset his path amidst the dim and ghastly glare of 
 a snowy night ! — With what wistful look did he eye every 
 trembling ray of light streaming across the waste fields from 
 some distant window. How often was he appalled by some 
 
STfjcILrsfuli of Sleeps flJoUolu. 51 
 
 shrub covered with snow, which, like a sheeted spectre, beset 
 his very path. How often did he shrink with curdling awe at 
 the sound of his own steps on .the frosty cnist beneath his feet, 
 and dread to look over his shoulder, lest he should behold 
 some uncouth being tramping close behind him ! — and how 
 oi'ten was he thrown into complete dismay by some rushing 
 blast, howling among the trees, in the idea that it was the 
 Gallopuig Hessian on one of his nightly scourings. 
 
 All these, however, were mere terrors of the night, phan- 
 toms of the riiind that walk in darkness ; and though he had 
 seen many spectres in his time, and been more than once be- 
 set by Satan in divers shapes, in his lonely perambulations, yet 
 daylight put an end to all these evils, and he would have pass- 
 ed a pleasant life of it, in despite of the devil and all his 
 works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that causes 
 more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the 
 whole race of witches put together, and that was — a woman. 
 
 Among the musical disciples who assembled, one evening in 
 each week, to receive his instruction in psalmody, was Katrina 
 Van Tassel, the daughter and only child of a substantial 
 Dutch farmer. She was a blooming lass of fresh eighteen ; 
 plump as a partridge, ripe and melting and rosy-cheeked as 
 one of her father's peaches, and universally famed, not mere- 
 ly for her beauty, but her vast expectations. She was withal a 
 little of a coquette, as might be perceived even in her dress, 
 which was a mixture of ancient and modern fashions, as most 
 suited to set off her channs. She wore the ornaments of pure 
 yellow gold, whieh her great-great-grandmother had brought 
 over from Saardam ; the tempting stomacher of the olden time, 
 and withal a provokingly short petticoat, to display the pret- 
 tiest foot and ankle in the country round. 
 
 Ichabod Crane had a soft and foolish heart towards the sex ; 
 and it is not to be wondered at, that so tempting a morsel 
 soon found favor in his eyes ; more especially after he had 
 visited her in her paternal mansion. Old Baltus Van Tassel 
 was a perfect picture of a thriving, contented, liberal-hearted 
 
52 a33ooktifHje?l?ul)son 
 
 farmer. He seldom, it is true, sent either his eyes or hia 
 thoughts beyond the boundaries of his own farm ; but within 
 those everything was snug, happy, and well-conditioned. He 
 was satisfied with his wealth, but not proud of it, and piqued 
 himself upon the hearty abundance, rather than the style hi 
 which he lived. His stronghold was situated on the banks of 
 the Hudson, in one of those green, sheltered, fertile nooks, in 
 which the Dutch farmers are so fond of nestling. A great elm 
 tree spread its broad branches over it, at the foot of which 
 bubbled up a spring of the softest and sweetest water, in a lit- 
 tle well, formed of a barrel ; and then stole sparkling away 
 through the grass, to a neighboring brook, that bubbled 
 along among alders and dwarf willows. Hard by the farm- 
 house was a vast barn, that might have served for a church ; 
 every window and crevice of which seemed bursting forth with 
 the treasures of the farm ; the flail was busily resounding Vv'ith- 
 in it from morning to night ; swallows and martins skimmed 
 twittering about the eaves, and rows of pigeons, some with one 
 eye turned up, as if watching the weather, some with their 
 heads under their wings, or buried in their bosoms, and others 
 swelling, and cooing, and bowing about their dames, were en- 
 joying the sunshine on the roof Sleek, unwieldy porkers 
 were grunting in the repose and abundance of their pens, 
 whence sallied forth, now and then, troops of sucking pigs, as 
 if to snuft' the air. A stately squadron of snowy geese were 
 riding in an adjoining pond, convoying whole fleets of ducks ; 
 regiments of turkeys were gobbling through the farm-yard, and 
 guinea fowls fretting about it, like ill-tempered housewives, 
 with their peevish, discontented cry. Before the barn door 
 » stmtted the gallant cock, that pattern of a husband, a war- 
 rior, and a fine gentleman, clapping his burnished wings, and 
 crowing in the pride and gladness of his heart — sometimes 
 tearing up the earth with his I'eet, and then generously calling 
 his ever-hungiy family of wives and children to enjoy the rich 
 morsel which he had discovered. 
 
 The pedagogue's mouth watered, as he looked upon this 
 
E^e ILefijiit) of bleeps ^olloto. 53 
 
 sumptuous promise of luxurious winter fare. In his devouring 
 mind's eye, ho pictured to himself every roasting-pig running 
 about M'ith a pudding in his belly, and an apple in his mouth ; 
 the pigeons were snugly put to bed in a comfortable pie, and 
 tucked in with a coverlet of cnist ; the geese were swim.ming 
 in their own gTavy, and the ducks pairing cosily in dishes, like 
 snug married couples, with a decent competency of onion 
 sauce. In the porkers he saw carved out the future sleek side 
 of bacon, and juicy relishing ham ; not a turkey but lie beheld 
 daintily tmssed up, with its gizzard under its wing, and, perad- 
 venture, a necklace of f-avory sausages, and even bright chan- 
 ticleer himself lay sprawling on his back, in a side dish, with 
 uplifted claws, as if craving that quarter which his chivalrous 
 spirit disdained to ask while living. 
 
 As the enraptured Ichabod fancied all this, and as he roiled 
 his great green eyes over the fat meadow lands, the rich fields 
 of wheat, of rye, of buckwheat, and Indian corn, and the or- 
 chards burdened with ruddy fruit, which surrounded the warm 
 tenement of Van Tassel, his heart yearned after the damsel 
 who was to inherit these domains, and his imagination expand- 
 ed with the idea, how they might be readily turned into cash, 
 and the money invested in immense tracts of wild land and 
 shingle palaces in the wilderness. Nay, his busy fancy already 
 realized his hopes, and presented to him the blooming Katrina, 
 with a whole family of children, mounted on the top of a 
 wagon, loaded with household trumpery, with pots and kettles 
 dangling beneath ; and he beheld himself bestriding a pacing 
 mare, with a colt at her heels, setting out for Kentucky, Ten- 
 nessee, or the Lord knows where. 
 
 When he entered the house, the conquest of his heart was 
 complete. It was one of those spacious fannhouses, with high 
 ridged, but lowly sloping roofs, built in the style handed down 
 from the first Dutch settlers ; the low projecting eaves forming 
 a piazza along the •front, capable of being closed up in bad 
 weather. Under this were hung flails, harness, various utensils 
 of husbandry, and nets for fishing in the neighboring river. 
 
54 «a Booft of tlje filuttaon. 
 
 Benches were built along the sides for summer use; and a 
 great spinning-wheel at one end, and a churn at the other, 
 showed the various uses to which this important porch might 
 be devoted. From this piazza the wondering Ichabod entered 
 the hall, which formed the centre of the mansion, and the 
 place of usual residence. Here, rows of resplendenj pewter 
 ranged on a long dresser, dazzled his eyes. In one corner 
 stood a huge bag of wool, ready to be spun ; in another a 
 quantity of linsey-woolsey just from the loom ; ears of Indian 
 corn, and strings of dried apples and peaches, hung in gay fes- 
 toons along the walls, mingled with the gaud of red peppers, 
 and a door left ajar gave him a peep into the best parlor, where 
 the claw-footed chairs, and dark mahogany tables, shone like 
 mirrors ; andirons, with their accompanying shovel and tongs, 
 glistened from their covert of asparagus tops ; mock oranges 
 and conch-shells decorated the mantel-piece ; strings of va- 
 rious colored birds' eggs were suspended above it ; a great 
 ostrich egg was hung from the centre of the room, and a cor- 
 ner cupboard, knowingly left open, displayed immense trea- 
 sures of old silver and well mended china. 
 
 From the moment Ichabod laid his eyes upon these regions 
 of delight, the peace of his mind was at an end, and his only 
 study was how to gain the affections of the peerless daughter 
 of Van Tassel. In this enterprise, however, he had more real 
 difficulties than generally fell to the lot of a knight-errant of 
 yore, who seldom had anything but giants, enchanters, fiery 
 dragons, and such like easily conquered adversaries to contend 
 with, and had to make his way merely through gates of iron 
 and brass, and walls of adamant, to the castle keep where the 
 lady of his heart was confined, all which he achieved as easily 
 as a man would carve his way to the centre of a Christmas 
 pie, and then the lady gave him her hand, as a matter of 
 course. Ichabod, on the contrary, had to win his way to the 
 heart of a country coquette, beset with a labyrinth of whims 
 and caprices, which were for ever presenting new difficulties 
 and impediments ; and he had to encounter a host of fearful 
 
^Tfje Hcficnli of <Slcfpii ft|oIloto. 55 
 
 adversaries of real flesh and blood, the numerous rustic ad- 
 mirers, who beset every portal to her heart, keeping a watchful 
 and angry eye upon each other, but ready to fly out m the 
 common cause against any new competitor. 
 
 Among these the most formidable was a burly, roaring, royster- 
 ing blade, of the name of Abraham, or, according to the Dutch 
 abbreviation. Brom Van Brunt, the hero of the country round, 
 which rang with his feats of strength and hardihood. He was 
 broad shouldered and double jointed, with short curly black 
 hair, and a bluff", but not unpleasant countenance, havmg a 
 mingled air of fun and arrogance. From his Herculean frame 
 and great powers of limb, he had received the nickname of 
 Brom Bones, by which he was universally known. He was 
 famed for great knowledge and skill in horsemanship, being as 
 dexterous on horseback as a Tartar. He was foremost in all 
 races and cock fights, and, with the ascendency which bodily 
 strength acquires in rustic life, was the umpire in all disputes, 
 setting his hat on one side, and giving his decisions with an air 
 and tone admitting of no gamsay or appeal. He was always 
 ready for either a fight or a frolic, but had more mischief than 
 ill-will in his composition, and, with all his overbearing rough- 
 ness, there was a strong dash of waggish good humor at bot- 
 tom. He had three or four boon companions, who regarded 
 him as their model, and at the head of whom he scoured the 
 country, attending every scene of feud or merriment for miles 
 round. In cold weather, he was distinguished by a fur cap, 
 surmounted with a flaunting fox's tail, and when the folks at a 
 country gathering descried this well-known crest at a distance, 
 whisking about among a squad of hard riders, they always stood 
 by for a squall. Sometimes his crew would be heard dashing 
 along past the farmhouses at midnight, with whoop and halloo, 
 like a troop of Don Cossacks, and the old dames, startled out 
 of their sleep, would listen for a moment, till the hurry-scurry 
 had clattered by, and then exclaim, " Ay, there goes Brom 
 Bones and his gang !" The neighbors looked upon him with 
 a mixture of awe, admiration, and good will, and when any 
 
56 S J3onft of tt)c l^uTigon. 
 
 madcap prank or rustic brawl occurred in the vicinity, always 
 shook their heads, and warranted Brom Bones was at the bot- 
 tom of it. 
 
 This rantipole hero had for some tune singled out the bloom- 
 ing Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries, and 
 though his amorous toyings were something like the gentle 
 caresses and endearments of a bear, yet it was whispered that 
 she did not altogether discourage his hopes. Certain it is, his 
 advances were signals for rival candidates to retire, who felt 
 no inclination to cross a lion in his amours ; insomuch, that 
 when his horse was seen tied to Van Tassel's paling on a 
 Sunday night, a sure sign that his master was courting, or as it 
 is termed, " sparking," within, all other suitors passed by in 
 despair, and carried the war into other quarters. 
 
 Such was the formidable rival with whom Ichabod Crane 
 had to contend, and, considering all things, a stouter man than 
 he would have shrunk from the competition, and a wiser man 
 would have despaired. He had, however, a happy mixture of 
 pliability and perseverance in his nature ; he was in form and 
 spirit like a supple-jack — yielding, but tough ; though he bent, 
 he never broke, and though he bowed beneath the slightest 
 pressure, yet the moment it was away — jerk ! he was as erect, 
 and carried his head as high as ever. 
 
 To have taken the field openly against his rival would have 
 been madness, for he was not a man to be thwarted in his 
 amours, any more than that storm-y lover, Achilles. Ichabod, 
 therefore, made his advances in a quiet and gently-insinuating 
 manner. Under cover of his character of singing master, he 
 made frequent visits at the farmhouse ; not that he had any- 
 thing to apprehend from the meddlesome interference of pa- 
 rents, which is so often a stumbling-block in the path of lovers. 
 Bait Van Tassel was an easy, indulgent soul ; he loved his 
 daughter better even than his pipe, and, like a reasonable man 
 and an excellent father, let her have her way in everything. 
 His notable little wife, too, had enough to do to attend to her 
 housekeepmg and manage her poultry, for, as she sagely ob- 
 
STfjf V^e^tnt} of^letpg ?^oIIo1d. 57 
 
 sei-ved, ducks and geese are foolish things, and must be looked 
 after, but girls can take care of themselves. Thus while 
 the busy dame bustled about the house, or plied her spinning- 
 wheel at one end of the piazza, honest Bait would sit 
 smoking his evening pipe at the other, watching the achieve- 
 ments of a little wooden warrior, who, armed with a sword in 
 each hand, was most valiantly fighting the wind on the pinnacle 
 of the barn. In the meantime, Ichabod would carry on his 
 suit with the daughter, by the side of the spring, under the 
 great elm, or sauntering along in the twilight, that hour so fa- 
 vorable to the lovei-'s eloquence. 
 
 I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and 
 won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and 
 admiration. Some seem to have but one vulnerable point, or 
 door of access, while others have a thousand avenues, and may 
 be captured in a thousand different ways. It is a great triumph 
 of skill to gain the former, but a still greater proof of general- 
 ship to maintain possession of the latter, for a man must bat- 
 tle for his fortress at every door and window. He who wins 
 a thousand common hearts is therefore entitled to some re- 
 nown, but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a 
 coquette, is indeed a hero. Certain it is, this was not the case 
 with the redoubtable Brom Bones, and from the moment 
 Ichabod Crane made his advances, the interests of the former 
 evidently declined ; his horse was no longer seen tied to the 
 palings on Sunday nights, and a deadly feud gradually arose 
 between him and the preceptor of Sleepy Hollow. 
 
 Brom, who had a degree of rough chivalry in his nature, 
 would fain have carried matters to open warfare, and have set- 
 tled their pretensions to the lady according to the mode of 
 those most concise and simple reasoners, the knight-enants of 
 yore — by single combat ; -but Ichabod was too conscious of 
 the superior might of his adversary, to enter the lists against 
 him ; he had overheard a boast of Bones, that he would 
 " double the schoolmaster up, and lay him on a shelf of his 
 own school-house," and he was too waiy to give him an oppor- 
 3* 
 
58" aJSoofeoftfiefJuUson. 
 
 tunity. There was something extremely provoking in this 
 obstinately pacific system ; it left Brom no alternative but to 
 draw upon the funds of rustic waggery in his disposition, and 
 to play off boorish practical jokes upon his rival. Ichabod 
 became the object of whimsical persecution to Bones and his 
 gang of rough riders. They harried his hitherto peaceful do- 
 mains ; smoked out his singing school, by stopping up the 
 chimney ; broke into the school-house at night, in spite of its 
 foiinidable fastenings of withe and window stakes, and turned 
 everything topsy-turvy, so that the poor schoolmaster began to 
 think all the witches in the country held their meetings there. 
 But what was still more annoying, Brom took all opportuni- 
 ties of turnmg him into ridicule in presence of his mistress, 
 and had a scoundrel dog, whom he taught to whine in the most 
 ludicrous manner, and introduced as a rival of Ichabod's, to 
 instmct her in psalmody. 
 
 In this way matters went on for some time, without producing 
 any material effect on the relative situation of the contending 
 powers. On a fine autumnal afternoon, Ichabod, in pensive 
 mood, sat enthroned on the lofty stool whence he usually 
 watched afl the concerns of his little literary realm. In his 
 hand hjB'^wayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power ; the 
 birck'of justice reposed on three nails, behind the throne, a 
 constant terror to evil doers ; while on a desk before him might 
 be seen sundry contraband articles and prohibited weapons, de- 
 tected upon the persons of idle urchins, such as half-munched 
 apples, popguns, whirligigs, fly-cages, and whole legions of 
 rampant little paper game-cocks. Apparently, there had been 
 some appalling act of justice recently inflicted, for his scholars 
 were all busily intent upon their books, or slily whispering be- 
 hind^ them, with one eye kept upon the master, and a kind of 
 buzzing stillness reigned throughout the school-room. It was 
 suddenly interrupted by the appearance of a negro, in tow- 
 cloth jacket and trowsers, a round crowned fragment of a hat, 
 like the cap of Mercury, and mounted on the back of a ragged, 
 wild, half-broken colt, which he managed with a rope, by way 
 
€i)t EcgcnU of JSIccpg l^oUofa. 59 
 
 of halter. He came clattering up to the school door with an in- 
 vitation to Ichabou to attend a merry making, or " quilting frolic," 
 to be held, that evening at Mynheer Van Tassel's, and having de- 
 livered his message with that air of importance, and effort at 
 fine language, which a negro is apt to display on petty embas- 
 sies of the kind, he dashed over the brook, and was seen 
 scampermg away up the hollow, full of the importance and 
 hurry of his mission. 
 
 All was now bustle and hubbub in the late quiet school- 
 room. The scholars were hurried through their lessons, with- 
 out stopping at trifles ; those who were nimble, skipped over 
 half with impunity, and those who were tardy, had a smart 
 application now and then in the rear, to quicken their speed, 
 or help them over a tall word. Books were flung aside with- 
 out being put away on the shelves, inkstands were overturned, 
 benches thrown down, and the whole school was turned loose 
 an hour before the usual time, bursting forth like a legion of 
 young imps, yelping and racketing about the green, in joy at 
 their early emancipation. 
 
 The gallant Ichabod now spent at least an extra half hour at 
 his toilet, brushing and furbishing up his best, and indeed only 
 suit of rusty black, and arranging his looks by a bit of broken 
 looking-glass, that hung up in the school house. That he 
 might make his appearance before his mistress in the true style 
 of a cavalier, he borrowed a horse from the farmer with whom 
 he was domiciliated, a choleric old Dutchman, of the name of 
 Hans Van Ripper, and, thus gallantly mounted, issued forth, 
 Hke a knight errant in quest of adventures. But it is meet 1 
 should, in the true spirit of romantic story, give some account 
 of the looks and equipments of my hero and his steed. The 
 animal he bestrode was a broken down plough horse, that had 
 outlived almost everything but his viciousness. He was gaunt 
 and shagged, with a ewe neck and a head like a hannner ; his 
 rusty mane and tail were tangled and knotted with burrs ; one 
 eye had lust its pupil, and was glaring and spectral, but the 
 other had the gleam of a genuine devil in it. Still he must 
 
60 «ll3ooftoftte?^uliBon. 
 
 have had fire and mettle in his day, if we may judge from the 
 name he bore of Gunpowder. He had, in fact, been a favorite 
 steed of his masters, the choleric Van Ripper, who was a furious 
 rider, and had infused, very probably, some of his own spirit 
 into the animal ; for, old and broken down as he looked, there 
 was more of the lurking devil in him than in any young filly 
 in the country. 
 
 Ichabod was a suitable figure for such a steed. He rode 
 with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the 
 pommel of the saddle ; his sharp elbows stuck out like grass- 
 hoppers' ; he carried his whip perpendicularly in his hand, like 
 a sceptre, and, as his horse jogged on, the motion of his arms 
 was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings. A small wool 
 hat rested on the top of his nose, for so his scanty strip of fore- 
 head might be called, and the skirts of his black coat fluttered 
 out almost to the horse's tail. Such was the appearance of 
 Ichabod and his steed, as they shambled out of the gate of 
 Hans Van Ripper, and it was altogether such an apparition 
 as is seldom to be met with in broad daylight. 
 
 It was, as I have said, a fine autumnal day ; the sky was 
 clear and serene, and nature wore that rich and golden livery 
 which we always associate with the idea of abundance. The 
 forests had put on their sober brown and yellow, while some 
 trees of the tenderer kind had been nipped by the frosts into 
 brilliant dyes of orange, purple, and scarlet. Streaming files 
 of wild ducks began to make their appearance high in the air ; 
 the bark of the squirrel might be heard from the groves of 
 beech and hickory nuts, and the pensive whistle of the quail at 
 intei-vals from the neighboring stubble field. 
 
 The small birds were taking their farewell banquets. In the 
 fulness of their revelry, they fluttered, chirping and frolicking, 
 from bush to bush, and tree to tree, capricious from the very 
 profusion and variety around them. There was the honest 
 cock-robin, the favorite game of stripling sportsmen, with its 
 loud querulous note, and the twittering blackbirds flying in 
 sable clouds, and the golden-winged woodpecker, with his 
 
Cfje iLcgculJ of Sleeps ?^ollo&). 61 
 
 crimson crest, his broad black gorget, and splendid plumage, 
 and the cedar bird, with its red-tipt wings and yellow-tipt tail, 
 and its little monteiro cap of feathers, and the blue jay, that 
 noisy coxcomb, in his gay light blue coat and white under 
 clothes, screaming and chattering, nodding, and bobbing, and 
 bowing, pretending to be on good terms with every songster 
 of the grove. 
 
 As Ichabod jogged slowly on his way, his eye, ever open to 
 every symptom of culinary abundance, ranged with delight 
 over the treasures of jolly autumn. On all sides he beheld 
 vast store of apples, some hanging in oppressive opulence on 
 the trees, some gathered into baskets and barrels for the mar- 
 ket, others heaped up in rich piles for the cider-press. Further 
 on he beheld great fields of Indian corn, with its golden ears 
 peeping from their leafy coverts, and holding out the promise of 
 cakes and hasty pudding, and the yellow pumpkins lying beneath 
 them, turning up their fair round bellies to the sun, and giving 
 ample prospects of the most luxurious of pies ; and anon he 
 passed the fragrant buckwheat fields, breathing the odor of the 
 bee-hive, and as he beheld them, soft anticipations stole over 
 his mind of dainty slapjacks, well buttered, and garnished with 
 honey or treacle, by the delicate little dimpled hand of 
 Katrina Van Tassel. 
 
 Thus feeding his mind with many sweet thoughts and 
 " sugared suppositions," he journeyed along the sides of a range 
 of hills which look out upon some of the goodliest scenes of 
 the mighty Hudson. The sun gradually wheeled his broad 
 disc down into the west. The wide bosom of the Tappan 
 Zee lay motionless and glassy, excepting that here and there a ' 
 gentle undulation waved and prolonged the blue shadow of the 
 distant mountain. A few amber clouds floated in the sky, 
 without a breath of air to move them. The horizon was of a 
 fine golden tint, changing gradually into a pure apple green, 
 and from that into the deep blue of the mid heaven. A slant- ' 
 ing ray lingered on the woody crests of the precipices that 
 overhung some parts of the river, giving greater depth to the 
 
62 ^ 33ooTt oF tTjc munson. 
 
 dark grey and purple of their rocky sides. A sloop was 
 loitering in the distance, dropping slowly down with the tide, 
 her sail hanging uselessly against the mast ; and as the reflec- 
 tion of the sky gleamed along the still water, it seemed as if 
 the vessel was suspended in the air. 
 
 It was towards evening that Ichabod arrived at the castle of 
 the Heer Van Tassel, which he found thronged with the pride 
 and flower of the adjacent country. Old farmers, a spare 
 leathem-faced race, in homespun coats and breeches, blue 
 stockings, huge shoes, and magnificent pewter buckles. Their 
 brisk withered little dames, in close crimped caps, long-waisted 
 shortgowns, homespun petticoats, with scissors and pincushions, 
 and gay calico pockets hanging on the outside. Buxom 
 lasses, almost as antiquated as their mothers, excepting where 
 a straw hat, a fine riband, or perhaps a white frock, gave 
 symptoms of city innovation. The sons, in short square- 
 skirted coats with rows of stupendous brass buttons, and 
 their hair generally queued in the fashion of the times, especially 
 if they could procure an eel-skin for the purpose, it being 
 esteemed, throughout the country, as a potent nourisher and 
 strcngthener of the hair. 
 
 Brom Bones, however, was the hero of the scene, having 
 come to the gathering on his favorite steed Daredevil, a crea- 
 ture, like himself, full of mettle and mischief, and which no one 
 but himself could manage. He was, in fact, noted for pre- 
 ferring vicious animals, given to all kinds of tricks, which kept 
 the rider in constant risk of his neck, for he held a tractable 
 well-broken horse as unworthy of a lad of spirit. 
 
 Fain would I pause to dwell upon the world of charms that 
 burst upon the enraptured gaze of my hero, as he entered the 
 state parlor of Van Tassel's mansion. Not those of the bevy 
 of buxom lasses, with their luxurious display of red and white ; 
 but the ample charms of a genuine Dutch country tea-table, in 
 the sumptuous time of autumn. Such heaped-up platters of 
 cakes of various and almost indescribable kinds, known only to 
 experienced Dutch housewives! There was the doughty 
 
Ef)e ILcscnti of^Icrpu lHolloii). 63 
 
 dough-nut, the tenderer oly kock, and the crisp and crumbhng 
 cruller ; sweet cakes and short cakes, ginger cakes and honey 
 cakes, and the whole family of cakes. And then there were 
 apple pies and peach pies and pumpkin pies ; besides slices of 
 ham and smoked beef; and moreover delectable dishes of pre- 
 served plums, and peaches, and pears, and quinces ; not to 
 mention broiled shad and roasted chickens ; together with 
 bowls of milk and cream, all mingled higgledy-piggledy, pretty 
 much as I have enumerated them, with the motherly tea-pot 
 sending up its clouds of vapor from the midst — Heaven bless 
 the mark ! I want breath and time to discuss this banquet as 
 it deserves, and am too eager to get on with my story. 
 Happily, Ichabod Crane was not in so great a hurry as his 
 historian, but did ample justice to every dainty. 
 
 He was a kind and thankful creature, whose heart dilated in 
 proportion as his skin was filled with good cheer ; and whose 
 spirits rose with eating as some men's do with drink. He could 
 not help, too, rolling his large eyes round him as he ate, and 
 chuckling with the possibility that he might one day be lord of 
 all this scene of almost unimaginable luxury and splendor. 
 Then, he thought, how soon he'd turn his back upon the old 
 school-house ; snap his fingers in the face of Hans Van Ripper, 
 and every other niggardly patron, and kick any itinerant 
 pedagogue out of doors that should dare to call him comrade ! 
 
 Old Baltus Van Tassel moved about among his guests with .; 
 a face dilated with content and good humor, round and jolly 
 as the harvest moon. His hospitable attentions were brief, but 
 expressive, being confined to a shake of the hand, a slap on the 
 shoulder, a loud laugh, and a pressing invitation to " fall to, 
 and help themselves." 
 
 And now the sound of the music from the common room, or 
 hall, summoned to the dance. The musician was an old 
 grey-headed negro, who had been the itinerant orchestra of the 
 neighborhood for more than half a century. His instmment 
 was as old and battered as himself. The greater part of the 
 time he scraped on two or three strings, accompanying every 
 
64 SLJUoohoftfjeil^ulJaon- 
 
 movement of the bow with a motion of the head ; bowing 
 almost to the ground, and stamping with his foot whenever a 
 fresh couple were to. start. 
 
 Ichabod prided himself upon his dancing as much as upon, 
 his vocal powers. Not a limb, not a fibre about him was idle ; 
 and to have seen his loosely hung frame in full motion, and 
 clattering about the room, you would have thought Saint Vitus 
 himself, that blessed patron of the dance, was figuring before 
 you in person. He was the admiration of all the negroes ; 
 who, having gathered, of all ages and sizes, from the farm and 
 the neighborhood, stood fomiing a pyramid of shining black 
 faces at every door and window, gazing with delight at the 
 scene, rolling their white eyeballs, and showing grinning rows 
 of ivory from ear to ear. How could the flogger of urchins be 
 otherwise than animated and joyous 1 The lady of his heart was 
 his partner in the dance, and smiling graciously in reply to all 
 his amorous oglings ; while Brom Bones, sorely smitten with 
 love and jealousy, sat brooding by himself in one corner. 
 
 When the dance was at an end, Ichabod was attracted to a 
 knot of the sager folks, who, with old Van Tassel, sat smoking 
 at one end ot the piazza, gossiping over former times, and 
 drawing out long stories about the war. 
 
 This neighborhood, at the time of which I am speaking, was 
 one of those highly favored places which abound with chronicle 
 and great men. The British and American line had run near 
 it during the war ; it had, therefore, been the scene of maraud- 
 ing, and infested with refugees, cow-boys, and all kinds of 
 border chivalry. Just sufficient time had elapsed to enable 
 each story-teller to dress up his tale with a little becoming 
 fiction, and, in the indistinctness of his recollection, to make 
 himself the hero of every exploit. 
 
 There was the story of Dufliie Martling, a large blue- 
 bearded Dutchman, who had nearly taken a British frigate with 
 an old iron nine-pounder from a mud breastwork, only that his 
 gun burst at the sixth discharge. And there was an old gentle- 
 man who shall be nameless, being too rich a mynheer to be 
 
CTfjE JLtQents of .Sleeps fllolIoiD. 65 
 
 lightly mentioned, who, in the battle of Whiteplains, being an 
 excellent master of defence, parried a musket ball with a small 
 sword, insomuch that he absolutely felt it whiz round the blade, 
 and glance off at the hilt : in proof of which, he was ready at 
 any tune to show the sword, with the hilt a little bent. There 
 were several more that had been equally great in the field, not, 
 one of whom but was persuaded that he had a considerable 
 hand in bringing the war to a happy termination. 
 
 But all these were nothing to the tales of ghosts and appari- 
 tions that succeeded. The neighborhood is rich in legendary 
 treasures of the kind. Local tales and superstitions thrive best 
 in these sheltered, long-settled retreats ; but are trampled under 
 foot by the shifting throng that forms the population of most 
 of our country places. Besides, there is no encouragement for 
 ghosts in most of our villages, for they have scarcely had time 
 to finish their first nap, and turn themselves in their graves, 
 before their surviving friends have travelled away from the 
 neighborhood ; so that when they turn out at night to walk 
 their rounds, they have no acquaintance left to call upon. 
 This is, perhaps, the reason why we so seldom hear- of ghosts 
 except in our long-established Dutch communities. 
 
 The immediate cause, however, of the prevalence of super- 
 natural stories in these parts, was doubtless owing to the 
 vicinity of Sleepy Hollow. There was a contagion in the 
 very air that blew from that haunted region ; it breathed forth 
 an atmosphere of dreams and fancies infecting all the land^ 
 Several of the Sleepy Hollow people were present at Van 
 Tassel's, and, as usual, were doling out their wild and won- 
 derful legends. Many dismal tales were told about funeral 
 trains, and mourning cries and wailings heard and seen about 
 the great tree where the unfortunate Major Andre was taken, 
 and which stood in the neighborhood. Some mention was 
 made also of the woman in white, that haunted the dark glen 
 at Raven Rock, and was often heard to shriek on winter 
 nights before a storm, having perished there in the snow. The 
 chief part of the stories, however, turned upon the favorite 
 
65 QlSookoftljef^uftson. 
 
 spectre of Sleepy Hollow, the headless horseman, who had 
 been heard several times of late, patrolling the country ; and, 
 it was said, tethered his horse nightly among the graves in the 
 church -yard. 
 
 The sequestered situation of this church seems always to 
 have made it a favorite haunt of troubled spirits. It stands on 
 a knoll, surrounded by locust-trees and lofty elms, from among 
 which its decent whitewashed walls shine modestly forth, lilie 
 Christian purity, beaming through the shades of retirement. A 
 gentle slope descends from it to a silver sheet of water, bor- 
 dered by high trees, between which peeps may be caught at 
 the blue hills of the Hudson. To look upon its grass-grown 
 yard, where the sunbeams seem to sleep so quietly, one would 
 think that there at least the dead might rest in peace. On one 
 side of the church extends a wide woody dell, along which 
 raves a large brook among broken rocks and trunks of fallen 
 trees. Over a deep black part of the stream, not far from the 
 church, was formerly thrown a wooden bridge ; the road that 
 led to it, and the bridge itself, were thickly shaded by over- 
 hanging »ti"ees, which cast a gloom about it, even in the 
 daytime ; but occasioned a fearful darkness at night. Such 
 was one of the favorite haunts ol" the headless horseman ; and 
 the place where he was most frequently encountered. The 
 tale was told of old Brouwer, a most heretical disbeliever in 
 ghosts, how he met the horseman returning from his foray into 
 Sleepy Hollow, and was obliged to get up behind him ; how 
 they galloped over bush and brake, over hill and swamp, until 
 they reached the bridge ; when the horseman suddenly turned 
 into a skeleton, threw old Brouwer into the brook, and sprang 
 away over the tree-tops with a clap of thunder. 
 
 This story was immediately matched by a thrice marvellous 
 adventure of Brom Bones, who made light of the galloping 
 Hessian as an arrant jockey. He affirmed that, on returning 
 one night from the neighboring village of Sing- Sing, he had 
 been overtaken by this midnight trooper ; that he had offered 
 to race with him for a bowl of punch, and should have won it 
 
€iit Heflcntj of .Sleepa ?^olUiD. 67 
 
 too, for Daredevil beat the goblin horse all hollow, but, just as 
 they came to the church bridge, the Hessian bolted, and 
 vanished in a flash of fire. 
 
 Ail these tales, told in that drowsy undertone with which 
 men talk in the dark, the countenances of the listeners only 
 now and then receiving a casual gleam from the glare of a 
 pipe, sank deep into the mind of Ichabod. He repaid them in 
 kind with large extracts from his invaluabl'e author, Cotton 
 Mather, and added many marvellous events that had taken 
 place in his native state of Connecticut, and fearful sights 
 which he had seen in his nightly walks about Sleepy Hollow. 
 
 The revel now gradually broke up. The old farmers 
 gathered together their families in their wagons, and were 
 heard for some time rattling along the hollow roads, and over 
 the distant hills. Some of the damsels mounted on pillions 
 behind their favorite swains, and their light-hearted laughter, 
 mingling with the clatter of hoofs, echoed along the silent 
 woodlands, sounding fainter and fainter until they gradually 
 died away — and the late scene of noise and frolic was all 
 silent and deserted. Ichabod only lingered behin(i^ according 
 to the custom of country lovers, to have a tete-a-tete with 
 the heiress, fully convinced that he was now on the high road 
 to success. What passed at this interview I will not pretend 
 to say, for in fact I do not know. Something, however, I fear 
 me, must have gone wrong, for he certainly sallied forth, after 
 no very great intei-val, with an air quite desolate and chop- 
 fallen — Oh these women! these women! Could that girl 
 have been playing off any of her coquettish tricks ? — Was her 
 encouragement of the poor pedagogue all a mere sham to 
 secure her conquest of his rival ? — Heaven only knows, not 
 I ! — Let it suffice to say, Ichabod stole forth with the air of 
 one who had been sacking a hen-roost, rather than a fair lady's 
 heart. Without looking to the right or left to notice the scene 
 of rural wealth, on which he had so often gloated, he went 
 straight to the stable, and with several hearty cuffs and kicks, * 
 roused his steed most uncourteoihsly from the comfortable 
 
68 ^ JSoofe of tf)c l^utjson. 
 
 quarters in which he was soundly sleeping, dreaming of 
 mountains of corn and oats, and whole valleys of timothy and 
 clover. 
 
 It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod, heavj''- 
 hearted and crest-fallen, pursued his travel homewards, along 
 the sides of the lofty hills which rise above Tarry Town, and 
 which he had traversed so cheerily in the afternoon. The 
 hour was as dismal as himself. Far below him, the Tappan 
 Zee spread its dusky and indistinct waste of waters, with here 
 and there the tall mast of a sloop, riding quietly at anchor 
 under the land. In the dead hush of midnight, he could even 
 hear the barking of the watch-dog from the opposite shore of 
 the Hudson ; but it was so vague and faint as only to give an 
 idea of his distance from this faithful companion of man. 
 Now and then, too, the long-drawn crowing of a cock, 
 accidentally awakened, would sound far, far off, from some 
 fannhouse away among the hills — but it was like a dreaming 
 sound in his ear. No signs of life occurred near him, but 
 occasionally the melancholy chkp of a cricket, or perhaps the 
 guttural twang of a bull-frog, from a neighboring marsh, as if 
 sleeping uncomfortably, and turning suddenly in his bed. 
 
 All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard in 
 the afternoon, now came crowding upon his recollection. The 
 night grew darker and darker ; the stars seemed to sink deeper 
 in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from his 
 sight. He had never felt so lonely and dismal. He was, 
 moreover, approaching the very place where many of the 
 scenes of the ghost stories had been laid. In the centre of the 
 ? road stood an enormous tulip-tj-ee, which towered like a giant 
 ^ above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a 
 kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled, and fantastic, 
 large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down 
 almost to the earth, and rising again into the air. It was 
 connected with the tragical story of the unfortunate Andre, 
 who had been taken prisoner hard by ; and was universally 
 known by the name of Major Andre's tree. The common 
 
STfjc ILcgcnti of bleeps f^olloto. 69 
 
 people regarded it with a mixture of respect and superstition, 
 partly out of sympathy for the fate of its ill-starred namesake, 
 and partly from the tales of strange sights and doleful lamen- 
 tations told concernhig it. 
 
 As Ichabod approached this fearful tree, he began to whistle : 
 he thought his whistle was answered — it was but a blast sweep- 
 ing sharply through the dry branches. As he approached a 
 little nearer, he thought he saw something white, hanging in 
 the midst of the tree — he paused and ceased whistling ; but on 
 looking more narrowly, perceived that it was a place where the 
 tree had been scathed by lightning, and the white wood laid 
 bare. Suddenly he heard a groan — his teeth chattered and his 
 knees smote against the saddle : it was but the rubbing of one 
 huge bough upon another, as they were swayed about by the 
 breeze. He passed the tree in safety, but new perils lay before 
 him. 
 
 About two hundred yards from the tree a small brook crossed 
 the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly-wooded glen, 
 known by the name of Wiley's swamp. A few rough logs, 
 laid side by side, served for a bridge over this stream. On that 
 side of the road where the brook entered the wood, a group of 
 oaks and chestnuts, matted thick vdth wild grape-vines, threw 
 a cavernous gloom over it. To pass this bridge was the 
 severest trial. It was at this identical spot that the unfortunate 
 Andre was captured, and under the covert of those chestnuts 
 and vines were the sturdy yeomen concealed who surprised 
 him. This has ever since been considered a haunted stream, 
 and fearful are the feeUngs of the schoolboy who has to pass it 
 alone after dark. 
 
 As he approached the stream, his heart began to thump ; he 
 summoned up, however, all his resolution, gave his horse half a 
 score of kicks in the ribs, and attempted to dash briskly across 
 the bridge ; but instead of starting forward, the pei-verse old 
 animal made a lateral movement, and ran broadside against 
 the fence. Ichabod, whose fears increased with the delay, 
 jerked the reins on the other side, and kicked lustily with the 
 
I'D S Book of tl)e fHutison. 
 
 contrary foot : it was all in vain ; his steed started, it is true, 
 but it was only to plunge to the opposite side of the road into 
 a thicket of brambles and alder bushes. The schoolmaster 
 now bestowed both whip and heel upon the stai-veling ribs of 
 old Gunpowder, who dashed forward, snuffling and snorting, 
 but came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that 
 had nearly sent his rider sprawling over his head. Just at this 
 moment a plashy tramp by the side of the bridge caught the 
 sensitive ear of Ichabod. In the dark shadow of the grove, on 
 the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, 
 black, and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in 
 the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the 
 traveller. 
 
 The hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon his head with 
 terror. What was to be done 1 To turn and fly was now too 
 late ; and besides, what chance was there of escaping ghost or 
 goblin, if such it was, which could ride upon the wings of the 
 wind? Summoning up, therefore, a show of courage, he 
 demanded in stammering accents — " Who are you V' He 
 received no reply. Ke repeated his demand in a still more 
 agitated voice. Still there was no answer. Once more he 
 cudgelled the sides of the inflexible Gunpowder, and, shutting 
 his eyes, broke forth with involuntary fei-vor into a psalm tune. 
 Just then the shadowy object of alarm put itself in motion, and, 
 with a scramble and a bound, stood at once in the middle of 
 the road. Though the night was dark and dismal, yet the 
 form of the unknown might now in some degree be ascertained. 
 He appeared to be a horseman of large dimensions, and 
 mounted on a black horse of powerful frame. He made no 
 offer of molestation or sociability, but kept aloof on one side of 
 the road, jogging along on the blind side of old Gunpowder, 
 who had now got over his fright and waywardness. 
 
 Ichabod, who had no relish for this strange midnight com- 
 panion, and bethought himself of the adventure of Brom Bones 
 with the Galloping Hessian, now quickened his steed, in hopes 
 of leaving him behind. The stranger, however, quickened his 
 
5i:i)C JLcflniticf bleeps ?llollofco. 71 
 
 horse to an equal pace. Ichabod pulled up, and fell into a 
 walk, thinking to lag behind — the other did the same. His 
 heart began to sink within him ; he endeavored to resume his 
 psalm tune, but his parched tongue clove to the roof of his 
 mouth, and he could not utter a stave. There was something 
 in the moody and dogged silence of this pertinacious com- 
 panion, that was mysterious and appalling. It was soon 
 learfully accounted for. On mounting a rising ground, which 
 brought the figure of his fellow traveller in relief against the sky, 
 gigantic, in height, and muffled in a cloak, Ichabod was 
 horror-struck, on perceiving that he was headless ! — but hia 
 horror was still more increased, on observing that the head, 
 which should have rested on his shoulders, was carried before 
 him on the pommel of the saddle : his terror rose to despera- 
 tion ; he rained a shower of kicks and blows upon Gunpowder, 
 hoping, by a sudden movement, to give his companion the slip 
 — but the upectre started full jump with him. Away then they 
 dashed, through thick and thin ; stones flying, and sparks 
 flashing, at every bound. Ichabod's flimsy garments fluttered 
 in the air, as he stretched his long lank body away over his 
 horse's head, in the eagerness of his flight. 
 
 They had now reached the road which turns ofl" to Sleepy 
 Hollow ; but Gunpowder, who seemed possessed with a demon, 
 instead of keeping up it, made an opposite turn, and plunged 
 headlong down hill to the left. This road leads through a 
 sandy hollow, shaded by trees for about a quarter of a mile, 
 where it crosses the bridge famous in goblin story, and just 
 beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the white- 
 washed church. 
 
 As yet the panic of the steed had given his unskilful rider 
 an apparent advantage in the chase ; but just as he had got half 
 way through the hollow, the girths of the saddle gave way, and 
 he felt it slipping from under him. He seized it by the pommel, 
 and endeavored to hold it firm, but in vain ; and had just time 
 to save himself by clasping old Gunpowder round the neck, 
 when the saddle fell to the earth, and he heard it trarApled 
 
72 a Uook of tf)c f^utison. 
 
 under foot by liis pursuer. For a moment the terror of Hans 
 Van Rippers wrath passed across his mind — for it was his 
 Sunday saddle ; but this was no time for petty fears ; the goblin 
 was hard on his haunches ; and (unskilful rider that he was !) 
 he had much ado to maintain his seat ; sometimes slipping on 
 one side, sometimes on another, and sometimes jolted on the 
 high ridge of his horse's back bone, with a violence that he 
 verily feared would cleave him asunder. 
 
 An opening in the trees now cheered him with the hopes that 
 the church bridge was at hand. The wavering reflection of a 
 silver star in the bosom of the brook told him that he was not 
 mistaken. He saw the walls of the church dimly glaring un- 
 der the trees beyond. He recollected the place where Brom 
 Bones' ghostly competitor had disappeared. " If I can but 
 reach that bridge," thought Ichabod, " I am safe." Just then 
 he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind 
 him ; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath. Another 
 convulsive kick in the ribs, and old Gunpowder sprang upon 
 the bridge ; he thundered over the resounding planks ; he 
 gained the opposite side, and now Ichabod cast a look behind 
 to see if his pursuer should vanish, according to rule, in a flash 
 of fire and brimstone. Just then he saw the goblin rising in 
 his stirrup, and in the very act of hurling his head at him. 
 Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. 
 It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash — he was 
 tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black 
 steed, and the goblin rider passed by like a whirlwind. 
 
 The next morning the old horse was found without his sad- 
 dle, and with the bridle under his feet, soberly cropping the 
 grass at his master's gate. Ichabod did not make his appear- 
 ance at breakfast — dinner hour came, but no Ichabod. The 
 boys assembled at the school-house, and strolled idly about the 
 banks of the brook, but no schoolmaster. Hans Van Ripper 
 now began to feel some uneasiness about the fate of poor 
 Ichabod and his saddle. An inquiry was set on foot, and after 
 diligtot investigation they came upon his traces. In one part 
 
(!rfjeiLcscnl3of,Slcfpa??olloin. 73 
 
 of the road leading to the church was found the saddle 
 trampled in the dirt ; the tracks of horses' hoofs deeply dented 
 in the road, and evidently at furious speed, were traced to the 
 bridge, beyond which, on the bank of a broad part of the 
 brook, where the water ran deep and black, was found the 
 hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a shattered 
 pumpkin. 
 
 The brook was searched, but the body of the schoolmaster 
 was not to be discovered. Hans Van Ripper, as executor of 
 his estate, examined the bundle which contained all his worldly 
 effects. They consisted of two shirts and a half, two stocks 
 for the neck, a pair or two of worsted stockings, an old pair 
 of corduroy small-clothes, a rusty razor, a book of psalm 
 tunes, full of dog's ears, and a broken pitch pipe. As to the 
 books and furniture of the school-house, they belonged to the 
 community, excepting Cotton Mathei-'s History of Witchcraft, 
 a New England Almanac, and a book of dreams and fortune- 
 telling, in which last was a sheet of foolscap, much scribbled 
 and blotted, in several fruitless attempts to make a copy of 
 verses in honor of the heiress of Van Tassel. These magio 
 books and the poetic scrawl were forthwith consigned to the 
 flames by Hans Van Ripper, who, from that time forward, de- 
 termined to send his children no more to school, observing, 
 that he never knew any good come of tliis same reading and 
 writing. Whatever money the schoolmaster possessed, and he 
 had received his quarter's pay but a day or two before, he must 
 have had about his person at the time of his disappearance. 
 
 The mysterious event caused much speculation at the 
 church on the following Sunday. Knots of gazers and gos- 
 sips were collected in the churchyard, at the bridge, and at the 
 spot where the hat and pumpkin had been found. The stories 
 of Brouwer, of Bones, and a whole budget of others, were 
 called to mind, and when they had diligently considered them 
 all, and compared them with the symptoms of the present case, 
 they shook their heads, and came to the conclusion that Ichabod 
 has been carried off by the galloping Hessian. As he was a 
 4 
 
74 SlJ3ookoftf)«1^utisort. 
 
 bachelor, and in nobody's debt, nobody troubled his head any 
 more about him ; the school was removed to a different quar- 
 ter of the hollow, and another pedagogue reigned in his 
 Btead. 
 
 It is true, an old farmer, who had been down to New York 
 on a visit several years after, and from whom this account of 
 the ghostly adventure was received, brought home the intelli- 
 gence that Ichabod Crane was still alive ; that he had left the 
 neighborhood, partly through fear of the goblin and Hans Van 
 Ripper, and partly in mortification at having been suddenly 
 dismissed by the heiress ; that he had changed his quarters to a 
 distant part of the country, had kept school and studied law 
 at the same time, had been admitted to the bar, turned politi- 
 cian, electioneered, written for the newspapers, and finally had 
 been made a justice of the Ten Pound Court. Brom Bones, 
 too, who shortly after his rival's disappearance conducted the 
 bloonaing Katrina in triumph to the altar, was obsei^ved to look 
 exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was re- 
 lated, and always burst into a hearty laugh at the mention of 
 «the pumpkin, which led some to suspect that he knew more 
 about the matter than he chose to tell. 
 
 The old country wives, however, who are the best judges of 
 these matters, maintain to this day that Ichabod was spirited 
 away by supernatural means, and it is a favorite story often 
 told about the neighborhood round the winter evening fire. 
 The bridge became more than ever an object of superstitious 
 awe, and that may be the reason why the road has been altered 
 of late years, so as to approach the church by the border of 
 the mill-pond. The school-house being deserted, soon fell to 
 decay, and was reported to be haunted by the ghost of the un- 
 fortunate pedagogue, and the ploughboy, loitering homeward 
 of a still summer evening, has often fancied his voice at a dis- 
 tance, chanting a melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil 
 solitudes of Sleepy Hollow. 
 
i^ojJtBcript. 75 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 FOtJXD IN THE HANDWRITING OF MR. KNICKERBOCKER. 
 
 The preceding Tale is given almost in the precise words in 
 which I heard it related at a Corporation meeting at the an- 
 cient city of Manhattoes, at which were present many of its 
 sagest and most illustrious burghers. The narrator was a 
 pleasant, shabby, gentlemanly old fellow, in pepper-and-salt 
 clothes, with a sadly humorous face, and one whom I strongly 
 suspected of being poor — he made such efforts to be enter- 
 taining. When his story was concluded, there was much 
 laughter and approbation, particularly from two or three 
 deputy aldenTien, who had been asleep the greater part of the 
 time. There was, however, one tall, dry looking old gentle- 
 man, with beetling eyebrows, who maintained a grave and 
 rather severe face throughout, now and then folding his arms, 
 inclining his head, and looking down upon the floor, as if turn- 
 ing a doubt over in his mind. Pie was one of your wary men, 
 who never laugh but upon good grounds — when they have 
 reason and law on their side. When the mirth of the rest of 
 the company had subsided, and silence was restored, he leaned 
 one arm on the elbow uf his chair, and, sticking the other 
 a-kimbo, demanded, with a slight, but exceedingly sage motion 
 of the head, and contraction of the brow, what was the 
 moral of the story, and what it went to prove ? 
 
 The story teller, who was just putting a glass of wine to his 
 lips, as a refreshment after his toils, paused for a moment, look- 
 ed at his inquirer with an air of infinite deference, and, lower- 
 ing the glass slowly to the table, obsei-ved, that the story was 
 intended most logically to prove — 
 
 " Thai there is no situation in life but has its advantages and 
 pleasures — provided we will but take a joke as we find it : 
 
76 ^ iSoofe of tfje ?^uDi5on. 
 
 " That, therefore, he that runs races with gobliii troopers is 
 likely to have rough riding of it. 
 
 " Ergo, for a country schoolmaster to be refused the hand 
 of a Dutch heiress, is a certain step to high preferment in the 
 state." 
 
 The cautious old gentleman knit his brows tenfold closer 
 after this explanation, being sorely puzzled by the ratiocination 
 of the syllogism, while, methought, the one in pepper-and-salt 
 eyed him with something of a triumphant leer. At length, ho 
 observed, that all this was very well, but still he thought the 
 story a little on the extravagant — there were one or two points 
 on which he had his doubts. 
 
 " Faith, sir," replied the story teller, " as to that matter, I 
 don't believe one half of it myself." 
 
 D. K. 
 
13 olpf) %]enUQCx . 77 
 
 DOLPH HEYLIGER. 
 
 "I take tlie town of concord, where I dwell, 
 All Kilborii be my witness, if I were not 
 Begot in bashfulness, brought up in shaniefacedness : 
 Let 'un bring a dog but to my vace that can 
 Zay I have beat 'un, and without a vault ; 
 Or but a cat will swear upon a book, 
 I have as much as zet a vire her tail, 
 And I'll give him or her a crown for 'mends." 
 
 Tale of a Tub. 
 
 In the early time of the province of New York, while it 
 groaned under the tyranny of the English governor. Lord 
 Conibury, who carried his cruelties towards the Dutch inha- 
 bitants so far as to allow no Dominie, or schoolmaster, to 
 officiate in their language, without his special license ; about 
 this time, there lived in the jolly little old city of the Man- 
 hattoes, a kind motherly dame, known by the name of Dame 
 Heyliger. She was the widow of a Dutch sea-captain, who 
 died suddenly of a fever, in consequence of working too hard, 
 and eating too heartily, at the time when all the inhabitants 
 turned out in a panic, to fortify the place against the invasion 
 of a small French privateer.* He left her with very little 
 money, and one infant son, the only survivor of several 
 children. The good woman had need of much management 
 to make both ends meet, and keep up a decent appearance. 
 However, as her husband had fallen a victim to his zeal for the 
 public safety, was universally agreed that " something ought 
 to be done for the widow ;" and on the hopes of this " something" 
 she lived tolerably for some years ; in the meantime every- 
 body pitied and spoke well of her, and that helped along. 
 
 * 1705. 
 
78 S ^aok of ti)e l^uUgon, 
 
 She lived in a small house, in a small street, called Garden- 
 street, very probably from a garden vrhich may have flourished 
 there some time or other. As her necessities every year grew 
 greater, and the talk of the public about doing " something 
 for her" grew less, she had to cast about for some mode of 
 doing something for herself, by way of helping out her slender 
 means, and maintaining her independence, of which she was 
 somewhat tenacious. 
 
 Living in a mercantile town, she had caught something of 
 the spirit, and determined to venture a little in the great lottery 
 of commerce. On a sudden, therefore, to the great surprise of 
 the street, there appeared at her window a grand array of 
 gingerbread kings and queens, with their arms stuck a-kimbo, 
 after the invariable royal manner. There were also several 
 broken tumblers, some filled with sugar-plums, some with 
 marbles ; there were, moreover, cakes of various kinds, and 
 barley-sugar, and Holland dolls, and wooden horses, with 
 here and there gilt-covered picture-books, and now and then 
 a skein of thread, or a dangling pound of candles. At the 
 door of the house sat the good old dame's cat, a decent 
 demure-looking personage, who seemed to scan everybody 
 that passed, to criticise their dress, and now and then to 
 atretch her neck, and to look out with sudden curiosity, to 
 see what was going on at the other end of the street ; but if 
 by chance any idle vagabond dog came by, and ofiered to be 
 uncivil — hoity-toity ! — how she would bristle up, and growl, 
 and spit, and strike out her paws ! she was as indignant as 
 ever was an ancient and ugly spinster on the approach of some 
 graceless profligate. 
 
 But though the good woman had to come down to those 
 humble means of subsistence, yet she still kept up a feeling of 
 family pride, being descended from the Vanderspiegels, of 
 Amsterdam ; and she had the family arms painted and framed, 
 and hung over her mantel-piece. She was, in truth, much re- 
 spected by all the poorer people of the place ; her house was 
 quite a resort of the old wives of the neighborhood ; they 
 
JSolpf) ^tQliQex. 79 
 
 would drop in there of a winter's afternoon, as she sat knitting 
 on one side of her fireplace, her cat purring on the other, and 
 tlie tea-kettle singing before it, and they would gossip with her 
 until late in the evening. There was always an arm chair for 
 Peter de Groodt, sometimes called Long Peter, and sometimes 
 Peter Longlegs, the clerk and sexton of the little Lutheran 
 church, who was her great crony, and, indeed, the oracle of her 
 fireside. Nay, the Dominie himself did not disdain, now and 
 then, to step in, converse about the state of her mind, and take 
 a glass of her special good cherry brandy. Lideed, he never 
 failed to call on new year's day, and wish her a happy new 
 year ; and the good dame, who was a . little vain on some 
 points, always piqued herself on giving him as large a cake as 
 any one in town. 
 
 I have said that she had one son. He was the child of her 
 old age ; but could hardly be called the comfort, for, of all un- 
 lucky urchins, Dolph Heyliger was the most mischievous. Not 
 that the whipster was really vicious, he was only full of fun and 
 frolic, and had that daring, gamesome spirit, which is extolled in 
 a rich man's child, but execrated in a poor man's. He was con- 
 tinually getting into scrapes ; his mother was incessantly 
 harassed with complaints of some waggish pranks which he 
 had played off; bills were sent in for windows that he had 
 broken ; in a word, he had not reached his fourteenth year be- 
 fore he was pronounced, by all the neighborhood, to be a 
 " wicked dog, the wickedest dog in the street !" Nay, one old 
 gentleman, in a claret-colored coat, with a thin red face, and 
 ferret eyes, went so far as to assure Dame Heyliger that her 
 son would, one day or other, come to the gallows. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding all this, the poor soul loved her boy. 
 It seemed as though she loved him the better the worse he be- 
 haved, and that he grew more in her favor, the more he grew 
 out of favor with the world. Mothers are foolish, fond-hearted 
 beings ; there's no reasoning them out of their dotage ; and, 
 indeed, this poor woman's child was all th.-it was left to love 
 her in this world, so we must not thmk it hard that she turned 
 
80 aiJoofeoftfjelLHtison. 
 
 a deaf ear to her good friends, who sought to prove to her that 
 Dolph would come to a halter. 
 
 To do the varlet justice, too, he was strongly attached to his 
 parent. He would not willingly have given her pain on any 
 account, and when he had been doing wrong, it was but for 
 him to catch his poor mother's eye fixed wistfully and sorrow- 
 fully upon him, to fill his heart with bitterness and contrition. 
 But he was a heedless youngster, and could not, for the life of 
 him, resist any new temptation to fun and mischief Though 
 quick at his learning, whenever he could be brought to apply 
 himself, he was always prone to be led away by idle company, 
 and would play truant to hunt after birds' nests, to rob orchards, 
 or to swim in the Hudson. 
 
 In this way he grew up a tall, lubberly boy, and his mother 
 began to be greatly perplexed what to do with him, or how to 
 put him in a way to do for himself ; for he had acquired such 
 an unlucky reputation, that no one seemed willing to employ 
 him. 
 
 Many were the consultations that she held with Peter de 
 Groodt, the clerk and sexton, who was her prime counsellor. 
 Peter was as much perplexed as herself, for he had no great 
 opinion of the boy, and thought he would never come to good. 
 He at one time advised her to eend him to sea — a piece of 
 advice only given in the most desperate cases ; but Dame 
 Heyliger would not listen to such an idea ; she could not think 
 of letting Dolph go out of her sight. She was sitting one day 
 knitting by the fireside, in great perplexity, when the sexton 
 entered with an air of unusual vivacity and briskness. He had 
 just come from a funeral. It had been that of a boy of Dolph's 
 years, who had been apprentice to a famous German doctor, 
 and had died of a consumption. It is true, there had been a 
 whisper that the deceased had been brought to his end by being 
 made the subject of the doctoi-'s experiments, on which he was 
 apt to try the effects of a new compound, or a quieting draugjit. 
 This, however, it^ is likely was a mere scandal ; at any rate, 
 Peter de Groodt did not think it worth m.entioning, though, 
 
©olpf)|l}cDltgcr. 81 
 
 had we time to philosophize, it would be a curious matter for 
 speculation, why a doctcfr's family is apt to be so lean and 
 cadaverous, and a butcher's so jolly and rubicund. 
 
 Peter de Groodt, as I said before, entered the house of 
 Dame Heyliger with vmusual alacrity. A bright idea had 
 popped into his head at the funeral, over which he had 
 chuckled as he shovelled the earth into the grave of the 
 doctoi-'s disciple. It had occurred to him, that, as the situation 
 of the deceased was vacant at the doctoi-'s, it would be the very 
 place for Dolph. The boy had parts, and could pound a 
 pestle, and run an errand with any boy in the town, and what 
 more was wanted in a student ? 
 
 The suggestion of the sage Peter was a vision of glory to the 
 mother. She had already seen Dolph, in her mind's eye, with 
 a cane at his nose, a knocker at his door, and an M.D. at the 
 end of his name — one of the established dignitaries of the town. 
 The matter once undertaken, was soon effected : the sexton 
 had some influence with the doctor, they having had much 
 dealing together in the way of their separate professions ; and 
 the very next morning he called and conducted the urchin, clad 
 in his Sunday clothes, to undergo the inspection of Dr. Karl 
 Lodovick Knipperhausen. 
 
 They found the doctor seated in an elbow-chair, in one 
 corner of his study, or laboratory, with a large volume, in 
 German print, before him. He was a short fat man, with a 
 dark square face, rendered more dark by a black velvet cap. 
 He had a little knobbed nose, not unhke the ace of spades, with 
 a pair of spectacles gleaming on each side of his dusky 
 countenance, like a couple of bow-windows. 
 
 Dolph i'elt struck with awe on entering into the presence 
 of this learned man ; and gazed about him with boyish wonder 
 at the furniture of this chamber of knowledge, which appeared 
 to him almost as the den of a magician. In the centre stood a 
 claw-footed table, with pestle and mortar, phials and gallipots, 
 and a pair of small burnished scales. At one end was a heavy 
 clothee-press, turned into a receptacle for drugs and com- 
 4* 
 
82 aiSooftoftfjel^uUson. 
 
 pounds ; against which hung the doetoi-'s hat and .cloaii, and 
 gold-headed cane, and on the top grinned a human skull. 
 Along the mantel-piece were glass vessels, in which were 
 snakes and lizards, and a human foetus preserved in spirits. A 
 closet, the doors of which were taken off, contained three 
 whole shelves of books, and some too of mighty folio disten- 
 sions ; a collection, the like of which Dolph had never before 
 beheld. As, however, the library did not take up the whole of 
 the closet, the doctor's thrifty housekeeper had occupied the 
 rest with pots of pickles and preserves ; and had hung about the 
 room, among awful implements of the healing art, strings of 
 red pepper and corpulent cucumbers, carefully preserved for 
 seed, 
 
 Peter de Groodt and his protege were received with great 
 gravity and stateliness by the doctor, who was a very wise, 
 dignified little man, and never smiled. He surveyed Dolph 
 from head to foot, above, and under, and through his spectacles, 
 and the poor lad's heart quailed as these great glasses glared 
 on him like two full moons. The doctor heard all that Petei 
 de Groodt had to say in favor of the youthful candidate ; and 
 then wetting his thumb with the end of his tongue, he began 
 deliberately to turn over page after page of the great black 
 volume before him. At length, after many hums and haws, 
 and strokings of the chin, and all that hesitation and delibera- 
 tion with which a wise man proceeds to do what he intended 
 to do from the very first, the doctor agreed to take the lad as a 
 disciple ; to give him bed, board, and clothing, and to instruct 
 him in the healing art ; in return for which he was to have his 
 services until his twenty -first year. 
 
 Behold, then, our hero, all at once transformed from an un- 
 lucky urchin, running wild about the streets, to a student of 
 medicine, diligently pounding a pestle, under the auspices of the 
 learned Doctor Karl Lodovick Knipperhausen. It was a 
 happy transition for his fond old mother. She was delighted 
 with the idea of her boy's being brought up worthy of his 
 ancestors ; and anticipated the day when he would be able to 
 
oIpO ?§f2liger. 83 
 
 hold up his head with the lawyer, that lived in the large house 
 opposite ; or, peradventure, with the Dominie himself. 
 
 Doctor Knipperhausen was a native of the Palatinate in Ger- 
 many ; whence, in company with many of his countrymen, he 
 h9.d taken refuge in England, on account of religious persecu- 
 tion. He was one of nearly three thousand Palatines, who 
 came over from England in 1710, under the protection of 
 Governor Hunter. Where the doctor had studied, how he had 
 acquired his medical knowledge, and where he had received 
 his diploma, it is hard at present to say, for nobody knew at 
 the time ; yet it is certain that his profound skill and abstmse 
 knowledge were the talk and wonder of the common people, 
 far and near. 
 
 His practice was totally different from that of any other 
 physician ; consisting in mysterious compounds, known only to 
 himself, in the preparing and administering of which, it was 
 said, he always consulted the stars. So high an opinion was 
 entertained of his skill, particularly by the German and Dutch 
 inhabitants, that they always resorted to him in desperate 
 cases. He was one of those infallible doctors, that are always 
 effecting sudden and surprising cures, when the patient has 
 been given up by all the regular physicians ; unless, as is 
 shrewdly observed, the case has been left too long before it was 
 put into their hands. The doctor's library was the talk and 
 marvel of the neighborhood, I might almost say of the entire 
 burgh. The good people looked with reverence at a man who 
 had read three whole shelves full of books, and some of them 
 too as large as a family Bible. There were many disputes 
 among the members of the little Lutheran Church, as to which 
 was the wisest man, the doctor or the Dominie. Some of his 
 admirers even went so far as to say, that he knew more than 
 the governor himself— in a word, it was thought that there was 
 no end to his knowledge ! 
 
 No sooner was Dolph received into the doctor's family, than 
 he was put in possession of the lodging of his predecessor. It 
 was a garret-room of a steep-roofed Dutch house, where the 
 
84 S 33oDk of tfje ?!3utison. 
 
 rain pattered on the shingles, and the lightning gleamed, and 
 the wind piped through the crannies in stonny weather ; and 
 where whole troops of hungry rats, like Don Cossacks, galloped 
 about, in defiance of traps and ratsbane. 
 
 He was soon up to his ears in medical studies, being em- 
 ployed, morning, noon, and night, in rolling pills, filtering 
 tinctures, or pounding the pestle and mortar in one corner of 
 the laboratory ; while the doctor would take his seat in 
 another comer, when he had nothing else to do, or expected ' 
 visitors, and arrayed in his morning-gown and velvet cap, 
 would pore over the contents of some folio volume. It is true, 
 that the regular thumping of Dolph's pestle, or, perhaps,- the 
 drowsy buzzing of the summer flies, would now and then lull ] 
 the little man into a slumber ; but then his spectacles were ] 
 always wide awake, and studiously regarding the book. 
 
 There was another personage in the house, however, to 
 whom Dolph was obliged to pay allegiance. Though a ■ 
 bachelor, and a man of such great dignity and importance, the - 
 doctor was, like many other wise men, subject to petticoat ' 
 government. He was completely under the sway of his 
 housekeeper ; a spare, busy, fretting housewife, in a little, j 
 round, quilted German cap, with a huge bunch of keys I 
 jingling at the girdle of an exceedingly long waist. Frau Use i 
 (or Frow Ilsy as it was pronounced) had accompanied him in 1 
 his various migrations from Germany to England, and from ] 
 England to the province ; managing his establishment and j 
 himself too : ruling him, it is true, with a gentle hand, but ! 
 carrying a high hand with all the world besides. How she ' 
 had acquired such ascendency I do not pretend to say. I 
 People, it is true, did talk — but have not people been prone ' 
 to talk ever since the world began? Who can tell how ' 
 women generally contrive to get the upper hand ? A husband, 
 it is true, may now and then be master in his own house ; ] 
 but who ever knew a bachelor that was not managed by his \ 
 housekeeper 1 
 
 Indeed, Frau Ilsy's power was not confined to the doctoi-'s i 
 
©olpfj f^CBltser. 85 
 
 household. She was one of those prying gossips who know 
 every one's business better than they do themselves ; and 
 whose all-seeing eyes, and all-telling tongues, are terrors 
 throughout a neighborhood. 
 
 Nothing of any moment transpired in the world of scandal 
 of this little burgh, but it was known to Frau llsy. She had 
 her crew of cronies, that were perpetually hurrying to her 
 little parlor with some precious bit of news ; nay, she would 
 somethnes discuss a whole volume of secret history, as she 
 held the street door ajar, and gossiped with one of these gar- 
 rulous cronies in the very teeth of a December blast. 
 
 Between the doctor and the housekeeper it maj' easily be 
 supposed that Dolph had a busy life of it. As Frau llsy kept 
 the keys, and literally ruled the roast, it was starvation to 
 offend her, though he found the study of her temper more 
 perplexing even than that of medicine. When not busy in the 
 laboratory, she kept him running hither and thither on her 
 errands ; and on Sundays he was obliged to accompany her 
 to and from church, and carry her Bible. Many a time has 
 the poor varlet stood shivering and blowing his fingers, or 
 holding his frost-bitten nose, in the church-yard, while llsy 
 and her cronies were huddled together, wagging their heads, 
 and tearing some unlucky character to pieces. 
 
 With all his advantages, however, Dolph made very slow 
 progress in his art. This was no fault of the doctor's, cer- 
 tainly, for he took unwearied pains with the lad, keeping him 
 close to the pestle and mortar, or on the trot about town with 
 phials and pill-boxes ; and if he ever flagged in his industry, 
 which he was rather apt to do, the doctor would fly into a 
 passion, and ask him if he ever expected to learn his profession, 
 unless he applied himself closer to the study. The fact is,' he 
 still retained the fondness for sport and mischief that had 
 marked his childhood ; the habit, indeed, had strengthened 
 with his years, and gained force from being thwarted and con- 
 strained. He daily grew more and more untractable, and lost 
 favor in the eyes both of the doctor and the housekeeper. 
 
86 QJUooRofttfl^utison. 
 
 In the meantime the doctor went on, waxhig wealthy and 
 renowned. He was famous for his skill in managing caees 
 not laid down in the books. He had cm-ed several old 
 women and young girls of witchcraft ; a terrible complaint, 
 and nearly as prevalent in the province in those days as hy- 
 drophobia is at present. He had even restored one strapping 
 country girl to perfect health, who had gone so far as to vomit 
 crooked pins and needles ; which is considered a desperate 
 stage of the malady. It was whispered, also, that he was pos- 
 sessed of the art of preparing love-powders ; and many appli- 
 cations had he in consequence from love-sick patients of both 
 sexes. But all these cases formed the' mysterious part of his 
 practice, in which, according to the cant phrase, " secresy and 
 honor might be depended on." Dolph, therefore, was obliged 
 to turn out of the study whenever such consultations occurred, 
 though it is said he learnt more of the secrets of the art at the 
 key-hole, than by all the rest of his studies put together. 
 
 As the doctor increased in wealth, he began to extend his 
 possessions, and to look forward, like other great men, to the 
 time when he should retire to the repose of a country seat. 
 For this purpose he had purchased a faiTn, or, as the Dutch 
 settlers called it, a bowerie, a few miles from town. It had 
 been the residence of a wealthy family, that had returned some 
 time since to Holland. A large mansion-house stood in the 
 centre of it, very itiuch out of repair, and which, in conse- 
 quence of certain reports, had received the appellation of the 
 Haunted House. Either from these reports, or from its actual 
 dreariness, the doctor found it impossible to get a tenant ; and, 
 that the place might not fall to ruin before he could reside in 
 it himself, he placed a country boor, with his family, in one 
 wing, with the privilege of cultivating the farm on shares. 
 
 The doctor now felt all the dignity of a landholder rising 
 within him. He had a little of the German pride of territory 
 in his composition, and almost looked upon himself as owner 
 of a principality. He began to complain of the fatigue of 
 business ; and was fond of riding out " to look at his estate." 
 
IDoIpfjfSJcBligcr. 87 
 
 His little expeditions to his lands were attended with a bustle 
 and parade that created a sensation throughout the neighbor- 
 hood. His wall-eyed horse stood, stamping and whisking off 
 the Hies, for a full hour before the house. Then the doctor's 
 saddle-bags would be brought out and adjusted ; then, after a 
 little while, his cloak would be rolled up and strapped to the 
 saddle ; then his umbrella would be buckled to the cloak ; 
 while, in the meantime, a group of ragged boys, that observant 
 class of beings, would gather before the door. At length the 
 doctor would issue forth, in a pair of jack-boots that reached 
 above his knees, and a cocked-hat flapped down in front. As 
 he was a short, fat man, he took some time to mount into the 
 saddle ; and when there, he took some time to have the saddle 
 and stirrups properly adjusted, enjoying the wonder and admi- 
 ration of the urchin crowd. Even after he had set off, he 
 would pause in the middle of the street, or trot back two or 
 three times to give some parting orders ; which were answered 
 by the housekeeper from the door, or Dolph from the study, or 
 the black cook from the cellar, or the chambermaid from the 
 garret window ; and there were generally some last words 
 bawled after him, just as he was turning the comer. 
 
 The whole neighborhood would be aroused by this pomp 
 and circumstance. The cobbler would leave his last ; the 
 barber would thrust out his frizzed head, with a comb sticking 
 in it ; a knot would collect at the grocei-'s door, and the word 
 would be buzzed from one end of the street to the other, " The 
 doctor's riding out to his country seat." 
 
 These were golden moments for Dolph. No sooner was the 
 doctor out of sight, than pestle and mortar were abandoned ; 
 the laboratory was left to take care of itself, and the student 
 was off on some mad-cap frolic. 
 
 Indeed, it must be confessed, the youngster, as he grew up, 
 seemed in a fair way to fulfil the prediction of the old claret- 
 colored gentleman. He was the ringleader of all holiday 
 sports and midnight gambols ; ready for all kinds of mis- 
 chievous pranks and harebrained adventures. 
 
68 SI 33ooft of tf)« l^uHson. 
 
 There is nothing so troublesome as a hero on a small scale, 
 or, rather, a hero in a small town. Dolph soon became the 
 abhorrence of all drowsy, housekeeping old citizens, who 
 hated noise, and had no relish for waggery. The good dames, 
 too, considered him as little better than a reprobate, gathered their 
 daughters under their wings whenever he approached, and 
 pointed him out as a warning to their sons. No one seemed 
 to hold him in much regard, excepting the wild striplings of 
 the place, who were captivated by his open-hearted, daring 
 manners, and the negroes, who always look upon every idle, do- 
 nothing youngster as a kind of gentleman. Even the good 
 Peter de Groodt, who had considered himself a kind of patron 
 of the lad, began to despair of him, and would shake his head 
 dubiously, as he listened to a long complaint from the house- 
 keeper, and sipped a glass of her raspberry brandy. 
 
 Still his mother was not to be wearied out of her affection 
 by all the waywardness of her boy, nor disheartened by the 
 stories of his misdeeds, with which her good friends were con- 
 tinually regaling her. She had, it is true, very little of the 
 pleasure which rich people enjoy, in always hearing their chil- 
 dren praised ; but she considered all this ill-will as a kind of 
 persecution which he suffered, and she liked him better on that 
 account. She saw him growing up a fine, tall, good looking 
 youngster, and she looked at him with the secret pride of a 
 mother's heart. It was her great desire that Dolph should ap- 
 pear like a gentleman, and all the nioney she could save went 
 towards helping out his pocket and his wardrobe. She would 
 look out of the window after him, as he sallied forth in his 
 best array, and her heart would yearn with delight, and once, 
 when Peter de Groodt, strack with the youngster's gallant ap- 
 pearance on a bright Sunday morning, observed, " Well, after 
 all, Dolph does grow a comely fellow !" the tear of pride start- 
 ed into the mother's eye ; " Ah, neighbor, neighbor !" exclaim- 
 ed she, " they may say what they please, poor Dolph will yet 
 hold up his head with the best of them." 
 
 Dolph Heyliger had now nearly attamed his one-and-twentieth 
 
-^i^ 
 
 year, and the term of his medical studies was just expiring ; 
 yet it must be confessed that he knew little more of the pro- 
 fession than when he first entered the doctoi-'s door. This, 
 however, could not be from any want of quickness of parts, 
 for he showed amazing aptness in mastering other branches of 
 knowledge, which he could only have studied at intervals. He 
 was, for instance, a sure marksman, and won all the geese and 
 turkeys at Christmas holidays. He was a bold rider ; he was 
 famous for leaping and wrestling ; he played tolerably on the 
 fiddle ; could swim like a fish, and was the best hand in the 
 whole place at fives or ninepins. 
 
 All these accomplishments, however, procured him no favor 
 in the eyes of the doctor, who grew more and more crabbed 
 and intolerant the nearer the term of apprenticeship approach- 
 ed. Frau Ilsy, too, was for ever finding some occasion to 
 raise a Mundy tempest about his ears ; and seldom encountered 
 him about the house, without a clatter of the tongue ; so that 
 at length the jingling of her keys, as she approached, was to 
 Dolph like the ringing of the prompter's bell, that gives notice 
 of a theatrical thunder-storm. Nothing but the infinite good 
 humor of the heedless youngster enabled him to bear all this 
 domestic tyranny without open rebellion. It was evident that 
 the doctor and his housekeeper were preparing to beat the poor 
 youth out of the nest, the moment his term should have ex- 
 pired, a short-hand mode which the doctor had of providing 
 for useless disciples. 
 
 Indeed the little man had been rendered more than usually 
 irritable lately, in consequence of various cares and vexations 
 which his country estate had brought upon him. The doctor 
 had been repeatedly annoyed by the nimors and tales which 
 prevailed concerning the old mansion, and found it difficult to 
 prevail even upon the countryman and his family to remain 
 there rent-free. Every time he rode out to the farm he was 
 teased by some fresh complaint of strange noises and fearful 
 sights, with which the tenants were disturbed at night ; and the 
 doctor would come home fretting and fuming, and vent his 
 
90 Cl33ookoftf)c1§utrson. 
 
 —^ 
 
 spleen upon the whole household. It was indeed a sore 
 grievance, that affected him both in pride and purse. He was 
 threatened with an absolute loss of the profits of his property, 
 and then, what a blow to his territorial consequence, to be the 
 landlord of a haunted house. 
 
 It was observed, however, that with all his vexation, the 
 doctor never proposed to sleep in the house himself ; nay, he 
 could never be prevailed upon to remain on the premises after 
 dark, but made the best of his way for town as soon as the bats 
 began to flit about in the twilight. The fact was, the doctor 
 had a secret belief- in ghosts, having passed the early part of 
 his lifft in a country where they particularly abound ; and, in- 
 deed, the story went that, when a boy, he had once seen the 
 devil upon the Hartz mountains in Germany. 
 
 At length the doctoi-'s vexations on this head were brought 
 to a crisis. One morning, as he sat dozing over a volume in 
 his study, he was suddenly startled from his slumbers by the 
 bustling in of the housekeeper. 
 
 " Here's a fine to-do !" cried she, as she entered the room. 
 " Here's Claus Hopper come in, bag and baggage, from the 
 farm, and swears he'll have nothing more to do with it. The 
 whole family have been frightened out of their wits, for there's 
 such racketing and rummaging about the old house, that 'they 
 can't sleep quiet in their beds !" 
 
 " Donner und blitzen !" cried the doctor, impatiently. " Will 
 they never have done chattering about that house ? What a 
 pack of fools, to let a few rats and mice frighten them out of 
 good quarters." 
 
 " Nay, nay," said the housekeeper, wagging her head know- 
 ingly, and piqued at having a good ghost-story doubted, 
 •' there's rnore in it than rats and mice. All the neighborhood 
 talks about the house ; and then such sights as have been seen 
 in it. Peter de Groodt tells me that the family that sold you 
 the house, and went to Holland, dropped several strange hints 
 about it, and said, ' they wished you joy of your bargain ;' and 
 you know yourself there's no getting any family to live in it." 
 
©Olpf) ^tQliQtT. 91 
 
 " Peter De Groodt's a ninny — an old woman," said the 
 doctor, peevishly ; " I'll warrant he's been filling these people's 
 heads full of stories. It's just like his nonsense about the ghost 
 that haunted the church belfry, as an excuse for not ringing the 
 bell that cold night when Harmanus Brinkerhoff's house waa^ 
 on fire. Send Claus to me." 
 
 Claus Hopper now made his appearance : a simple country 
 lout, full of awe at finding himself in the very study of Dr. 
 Knipperhausen, and too much embarrassed to enter in much 
 detail of the matters that had caused his alarm. He stood 
 twirling his hat in one hand, resting sometimes on one leg, 
 sometimes on the other, looking occasionally at the doctor, 
 and now and then stealing a iearful glance at the death's head 
 that seemed ogling him from the top of the clothes-press. 
 
 The doctor tried every means to persuade him to return to 
 the farm, but all in vain ; he maintained a dogged determination 
 on the subject ; and at the close of every argument or solicita- 
 tion would make the same brief, inflexible reply, " Ich kan 
 nicht, mynheer." The doctor was a " little pot, and soon 
 hot ;" his patience was exhausted by these continual vexations 
 about his estate. The stubborn refusal of Claus Hopper 
 seemed to him like flat rebellion ; his temper suddenly boiled 
 over, and Claus was glad to make a rapid retreat to escape 
 scalding. 
 
 When the bumpkin got to the housekeeper's room, he found 
 Peter de Groodt, and several other true believers, ready to re- 
 ceive him. Here he indemnified himself for the restraint he had 
 suflTered in the study, and opened a budget of stories about the 
 haunted house that astonished all his hearers. The house- 
 keeper believed them all, if it was only to spite the doctor for 
 having received her intelligence so uncourteousiy. Peter de 
 Groodt matched them with many a wonderful legend of the 
 times of the Dutch dynasty, and of the Devil's Stepping-stones ; 
 and of the pirate hanged at Gibbet Island, that continued to 
 swing there at night long after the gallows was taken down ; 
 and of the ghost of the unfortunate Governor Leisler, hanged 
 
92 a3Sooftoft§ef^uD0on. 
 
 for treason, which haunted the old fort and the government- 
 house. The gossiping knot dispersed, each charged with 
 direful intelligence. The sexton disburdened himself at a 
 vestry meeting that was held that very day, and the black cook 
 forsook her kitchen, and spent half the day at the street pump, 
 that gossiping-place of servants, dealing forth the news to all 
 that came for water. In a little time the whole town was in a 
 buzz with tales about the haunted house. Some said that 
 Claus Hopper had seen the devil, while others hinted that the 
 house was haunted by the ghosts of some of the patients whom 
 the doctor had physicked out of the world, and that was the 
 reason why he did not venture to live in it himself. 
 
 All this put the little doctor in a terrible fume. He threat- 
 ened vengeance on any one who should affect the value of his 
 property by exciting popular prejudices. He complained 
 loudly of thus being in a manner dispossessed of his territories 
 by mere bugbears ; but he secretly determined to have the house 
 exorcised by the Dominie. Great was his relief, therefore, 
 when, m the midst of his perplexities, Dolph stepped forward 
 and undertook to garrison the haunted house. The youngster 
 had been listening to all the stories of Claus Hopper and Peter 
 de Groodt : he was fond of adventure, he loved the marvellous, 
 and his imagination had become quite excited by these tales of 
 wonder. Besides, he had led such an uncomfortable hfe at the 
 doctor's, being subjected to the intolerable thraldom of early 
 hours, that he was delighted at the prospect of having a house 
 to himself, even though it should be a haunted one. His offer 
 was eagerly accepted, and it was determined he should mount 
 guard that very night. His only stipulation was, that the 
 enterprise should be kept secret from his mother ; for he knew 
 the poor soul would not sleep a wink if she knew her son was 
 waging war with the powers of darkness. 
 
 When night came on he set out on this perilous expedition. 
 The old black cook, his only friend in the household, had 
 provided him with a little mess for supper, and a rashlight ; 
 and she tied round his neck an amulet, given her by an African 
 
DoIpO ILIfjjliger, 
 
 conjurer, as a charm against evil spirits. Dolph was escorted 
 on his way by the doctor and Peter de Groodt, who had agreed 
 to accompany him to the house, and see him safe lodged. The 
 night was overcast, and it was very dark when they arrived at 
 the grounds which surrounded the mansion. The sexton led 
 the way with a lantern. As they walked along the avenue of 
 acacias, the fitful light, catching from bush to bush, and tree to 
 tree, often startled the doughty Peter, and made him fall back 
 upon his followers ; and the doctor grappled still closer hold of 
 Dolph's arm, observing that the ground was very slippery and 
 uneven. At one time they were nearly put to total rout by a 
 bat, which came flitting about the lantern ; and the notes of the 
 insects from the trees, and the frogs from a neighboring pond, 
 formed a most drowsy and doleful concert. 
 
 The front door of the mansion opened with a grating sound, 
 that made the doctor turn pale. They entered a tolerably 
 large hall, such as is common in American country-houses, and 
 which serves for a sitting-room in warm weather. From this 
 they went up a wide staircase, that groaned and creaked as 
 they trod, every step making its particular note, like the key of 
 a harpsichord. This led to another hall on the second story, 
 whence they entered the room where Dolph was to sleep. It 
 was large, and scantily furnished ; the shutters were closed ; 
 but as they were much broken, there was no want of a circula- 
 tion of air. It appeared to have been that sacred chamber, 
 known among Dutch housewives by the name of " the best bed- 
 room ;" which is the best furnished room in the house, but in 
 which scarce anybody is ever permitted to sleep. Its splendor, 
 however, was all at an end. There were a few broken 
 articles of furniture about the room, and in the centre stood a 
 heavy deal -table and a large arm-chair, both of which had the 
 look of being coeval with the mansion. '^I'he fireplace was 
 wide, and had been faced with Dutch tiles, representing Scrip- 
 ture stories ; but some of them had fallen out of their places, 
 and lay shattered about the hearth. The sexton lit the rush- 
 light ; and the doctor, looking fearfully about the room, was 
 
94 ® iSonfe of tf)e ?^utiann. 
 
 just exhorting Dolph to be of good cheer, and to pluck up a 
 stout heart, when a noise in the chimney, like voices and strug- 
 gling, struck a sudden panic into the sexton. He took to his ' 
 heels with the lantern ; the doctor followed hard after him ; the 
 stairs groaned and creaked as they hurried down, increasing 
 their agitation and speed by its noises. The front door slam- 
 med after them ; and Dolph heard them scrabbling down the 
 avenue, till the sound of their feet was lost in the distance. 
 That he did not join in this precipitate retreat might have been 
 owing to his possessing a little more courage than his com- 
 panions, or perhaps that he had caught a glimpse of the cause 
 of their dismay, in a nest of chimney swallows, that came 
 tumbling down into the fireplace. 
 
 Being now left to himsell", he secured the front door by a 
 strong bolt and bar ; and having seen that the other entrances 
 were fastened, returned* to his desolate chamber. Having 
 made his supper from the basket which the good old cook had 
 provided, he locked the chamber door, and retired to rest on a 
 mattress in one corner. The night was calm and still ; and 
 nothing broke Upon the profound quiet, but the lonely chirping 
 of a cricket from the chimney of a distant chamber. The 
 rushlight, which stood in the centre of the deal table, shed 
 a feeble yellow ray, dimly illuminating the chamber, and 
 making uncouth shapes and shadows on the walls, from the 
 clothes which Dolph had thrown over a chair. 
 
 With all his boldness of heart, there was something subduing 
 in this desolate scene ; and he felt his spirits flag within him, 
 as he lay on his hard bed and gazed about the room. He was 
 turning over in his mind his idle habits, his doubtful prospects, 
 and now and then heaving a heavy sigh, as he thought on his 
 poor old mother ; for there is nothing like the silence and 
 loneliness of night to bring dark shadows over the brightest 
 mind. By-and-by he thought he heard a sound as of some one 
 walking below stairs. He listened, and distinctly heard a step 
 on the great staircase. It approached solemnly and slowly, 
 tramp — tramp — tramp ! It was evidently the tread of some 
 
olp5 MeQii&tr. 95 
 
 heavy personage ; and yet how could he have got into the 
 house without making a noise ? He had examined all the 
 fastenings, and was certain that every entrance was secure. 
 Still the steps advanced, tramp — tramp — tramp ! It was 
 evident that the person approaching could not be a robber, the 
 step was too loud and deliberate ; a robber would either be 
 stealthy or precipitate. And now the footsteps had ascended 
 the staircase ; they were slowly advancing along the passage, 
 resounding through the silent and empty apartments. The 
 very cricket had ceased its melancholy note, and nothing in- 
 terrupted their awful distinctness. The door, which had been 
 locked on the inside, slowly sprang open, as if self-moved. 
 The footsteps entered the room ; but no one was to be seen. 
 They passed slowly and audibly across it, tramp — tramp — 
 tramp ! but whatever made the sound was invisible. Dolph 
 rubbed his eyes, and stared about him ; he could see to every 
 part of the dimly-lighted chamber ; all was vacant ; yet still 
 he heard those mysterious footsteps, solemnly walking about 
 the chamber. They ceased, and all was dead silence. There 
 was something more appalling in this invisible visitation, than 
 there would have been in anything that addressed itself to the 
 eyesight. It was awfully vague and indefinite. He felt his 
 heart beat against his ribs ; a cold sweat broke out upon his 
 forehead ; he lay for some time in a state of violent agitation ; 
 nothing, however, occurred to increase his alarm. His light 
 gradually burnt down into the socket, and he fell asleep. 
 When he awoke it was broad daylight ; the sun was peering 
 through the cracks of the window -shutters, and the birds were 
 merrily singing about the house. The bright cheery day soon 
 put to flight all the terrors of the preceding night. Dolph 
 laughed, or rather tried to laugh, at all that had passed, and 
 endeavored to persuade himself that it was a mere freak of the 
 imagination, conjured up by the stories he had heard ; but he 
 was a little puzzled to find the door of his room locked on the 
 inside, notwithstanding that he had positively seen it swing 
 open as the footsteps had entered. He returned to town in a 
 
96 S Book of t^f f^utjson. 
 
 etate of considerable perplexity ; but he determined to say 
 nothing on the subject, until his doubts were either confirmed 
 or removed by another night's watching. His silence was a 
 grievous disappointment to the gossips who had gathered at the 
 doctor's mansion. They had prepared their minds to hear 
 direful tales, and were almost in a rage at being assured he had 
 nothing to relate. 
 
 The next night, then, Dolph repeated his vigil. He now 
 entered the house with some trepidation. He was particular 
 in examining the fastenings of all the doors, and securing them 
 well. He locked the door of his chamber, and placed a chair 
 against it ; then having dispatched his supper, he threw him- 
 self on his mattress and endeavored to sleep. It was all in 
 vain ; a thousand crowding fancies kept him waking. The time 
 slowly dragged on, as if minutes were spinning themselves out 
 into hours. As the night advanced, he grew more and more 
 nervous ; and he almost started from his couch when he heard 
 the mysterious footstep again on the staircase. Up it came, as 
 before, solemnly and slowly, tramp — tramp — tramp ! It ap- 
 proached along the passage ; the door again swung open, as if 
 there had been neither lock nor impediment, and a strange 
 looking figure stalked into the room. It was an elderly man, 
 large and robust, clothed in the old Flemish fashion. He 
 had on a kind of short cloak, with a garment under it, belted 
 round the waist ; tnink hose, with great bunches or bows at 
 the knees ; and a pair of russet boots, very large at top, and 
 standing widely from his legs. His hat was broad and slouched, 
 with a feather trailing over one side. His iron-grey hair hung 
 in thick masses on his neck ; and he had a short grizzled 
 beard. He walked slowly round the room, as if examining 
 that all was safe ; then, hanging his hat on a peg beside the 
 door, he sat down in the elbow-chair, and, leaning his elbow 
 on the table, fixed his eyes on Dolph with an unmoving and 
 deadened stare. 
 
 Dolph was not naturally a coward ; but he had been 
 brought up in an implicit belief in ghosts and goblins. A 
 
©olpf) ?3eal(ger. 97 
 
 thousand stories came swarming to his mind that he had 
 heard about this building ; and as he looked at this strange 
 personage, with his uncouth garb, his pale visage, his grizzly 
 beard, and his fixed, staring, fish-like eye, his teeth began to 
 chatter, his hair to rise on his head, and a cold sweat to break 
 out all over his body. How long he remained in this situation 
 he could not tell, for he was like one fascinated. He could 
 not take his gaze off" from the spectre ; but lay staring at him, 
 with his whole intellect absorbed in the contemplation. The 
 old man remained seated behind the table, without stirring, or 
 turning an eye, always keeping a dead, steady glare upon 
 Dolph. At length the household cock, from a neighboring 
 farm, clapped his wings, and gave a loud cheerful crow that 
 rang over the fields. At the sound the old man slowly rose, 
 and took down his hat from the peg ; the door opened, and 
 closed after him ; he was heard to go slowly down the stair- 
 case, tramp — tramp — tramp ! — and when he had got to the 
 bottom, all was again silent. Dolph lay and listened earnestly ; 
 counted every footfall ; listened, and listened, if the steps 
 should return, until, exhausted by watching- and agitation, he 
 fell into a troubled sleep. 
 
 Daylight again brought fresh courage and assurance. He 
 would fain have considered all that had passed as a mere 
 dream ; yet there stood the chair in which the unknown had 
 seated himself ; there was the table on which he had leaned ; 
 there was the peg on which he had hung his hat ; and there 
 was the door, locked precisely as he himself had locked it, 
 with the chair placed against it. He hastened down stairs, and 
 examined the doors and windows ; all were exactly in the 
 same state in which he had left them, and there was no appa- 
 rent way by which any being could have entered and left the 
 house, without leaving some trace behind. " Pooh I" said 
 Dolph to himself, " it was all a dream :" — but it would not 
 do ; the more he endeavored to shake the scene off from his 
 mind, the more it haunted him. 
 
 Though he persisted in a strict silence as to all that he had 
 5 
 
gg 9 JBooft of tlje ?^uli2on. 
 
 seen or heard, yet his looks betrayed the uncomfortable night 
 that he had passed. It was evident that there was something 
 wonderful hidden under this mysterious reserve. The doctor 
 took him into the study, locked the door, and sought io have 
 a full and confidential communication ; but he could get no- 
 thing out of him. Fran Ilsy took him aside into the pantry, but 
 to as little purpose ; and Peter de Groodt held him by the but- 
 ton for a full hour, in the church-yard, the very place to get at 
 the bottom of a ghost story, but came ofT not a whit wiser 
 than the rest. It is always the case, however, that one truth 
 concealed makes a dozen current lies. It- is lilie a guinea 
 locked up in a bank, that has a dozen paper representatives. 
 Before the day was over, the neighborhood was full of reports. 
 Some said that Dolph Heyliger watched in the haunted house, 
 with pistols loaded with silver bullets ; others, that he had a 
 long talk with a spectre without a head ; others that Doctor 
 Knipperhausen and the sexton had been hunted down the 
 Bowery lane, and quite into town by a legion of the ghosts of 
 their customers. Some shook their heads, and thought it a 
 shame the doctor should put Dolph to pass the night alone in 
 that dismal house, where he might be spirited away, no one 
 knew whither, while others observed, with a shrug, that if the 
 devil did carry off the youngster, it would be but taking his own. 
 These rumors at length reached the ears of the good Dame 
 Heyliger, and, as may be supposed, threw her into a terrible 
 alarm. For her son to have opposed himself to danger from 
 living foes, would have been nothing so dreadful in her eyes, a3 
 to dare alone the terrors of the haunted house. She hastened 
 to the doctor's, and passed a great part of the day in attempt- 
 ing to dissuade Dolph from repeating his vigil ; she told him 
 a score of tales, which her gossiping friends had just related to 
 her, of persons who had been carried off, when watching alone 
 in old ruinous houses. It was all to no effect. Dolph's pride, as 
 well as curiosity, was piqued. He endeavored to calm the ap- 
 prehensions of his mother, and to assure her that there was no 
 truth in all the rumors she had heard : she looked at hira 
 
©olpf) ?^«aUBcr. 99 
 
 dubiously, and shook her head ; but finding his determination 
 was not to be shaken, she brought him a little thick Dutch 
 Bible, with brass clasps, to take with him as a sword where- 
 with to fight the powers of darkness ; and, lest that might not 
 be sufficient, the housekeeper gave him the Heidelberg catechism 
 by way of dagger. 
 
 The next night, therefore, Dolph took up his quarters for the 
 third time in the old mansion. Whether dream or not, the 
 same thing was repeated. Towards midnight, when every- 
 thing was still, the same sound echoed through the empty 
 halls — tramp — tramp — tramp ! The stairs were again ascended 
 — the door again swung open — the old man entered, walked 
 round the room, hung up his hat, and seated himself by the 
 table. The same lear and trembling came over poor Dolph, 
 though not in so violent a degree. He lay in the same way, 
 motionless and fascmated, staring at the figure, which regarded 
 him as before, with a dead, fixed, chilling gaze. In this way 
 they remained for a long time, till, by degrees, Dolph's courage 
 began gradually to revive. Whether alive or dead, this being 
 had certainly some object in his visitation, and he recollected 
 to have heard it said, spirits have no power to speak until 
 spoken to. Summoning up resolution, therefore, and makmg 
 two or three attempts, before he could get his parched tongue 
 in motion, he addressed the unknown in the most solemn form 
 of adjuration, and demanded to know what was the motive of 
 liis visit. 
 
 No sooner had he finished, than the old man rose, took 
 down his hat, the door opened, and he went out, looking back 
 upon Dolph just as he crossed the threshold, as if expecting 
 him to follow. The youngster did not hesitate an instant. 
 He took the candle in his hand, and the Bible under his arm, 
 and obeyed the tacit invitation. The candle emitted a feeble, 
 uncertain ray, but still he could see the figure before him, 
 slowly descend the stairs. He followed, trembling. When it 
 had reached the bottom of the stairs, it turned through the 
 hall towards the back door of the mansion. Dolph held the 
 
100 ^ 33ooR of tfjf ?l1utiSDn. 
 
 light over the balustrades, but, in his eagerness to catch a sight 
 of the unknown, he flared his feeble taper so suddenly, that it 
 went out. Still there was sufficient light from the pale moon- 
 beams, that fell through a narrow window, to give him an in- 
 distinct view of the figure, near the door. He followed, there- 
 fore, down stairs, and turned towards the place ; bnt when he 
 arrived there, the unknown had disappeared. The door re- 
 mained fast barred and bolted ; there was no other mode of 
 exit, yet the being, whatever he might be, was gone. He un- 
 fastened the door, and looked out into the fields. It was a 
 hazy, moonlight night, so that the eye could distinguish objects 
 at some distance. He thought he saw the unknown in a foot- 
 path which led from the door. He was not mistaken ; but 
 how had he got out of the house ? He did not pause to think, 
 but followed on. The old man proceeded at a measured pace, 
 without looking about him, his footsteps sounding on the hard 
 ground. He passed through the orchard of apple-trees, always 
 keeping the footpath. It led to a well, situated in a little hol- 
 low, which had supplied the farm with water. Just at this well 
 Dolph lost sight of him. He rubbed his eyes and looked 
 again, but nothing was to be seen of the unknown. He 
 reached the well, but nobody was there. All the surrounding 
 ground was open and clear ; there was no bush or hiding- 
 place. He looked down the well, and saw, at a great depth, 
 the reflection of the sky in the still water. After remaining 
 here for some time, without seeing or hearing anything more 
 of his mysterious conductor, he returned to the house, full of 
 awe and wonder. He bolted the door, groped his way back to 
 bed, and it was long before he could compose himself to 
 sleep. 
 
 His dreams were strange and troubled. He thought he was 
 following the old man along the side of a great river, until 
 they came to a vessel on the point of sailing, and that his con- 
 ductor led him on board and vanished. He remembered the 
 commander of the vessel, a short swarthy man, with crisped 
 black hair, blind of one eye, and lame of one leg ; but the 
 
olpfi mtnliQtx, 101 
 
 rest of his dream was very confused. Sometimes he was 
 sailing, sometimes on shore ; now amidst storms and tempests, 
 and now wandering qnietly in unknown streets. The figure 
 of the old man was strangely mingled up with the incidents of 
 the dream ; and the whole distinctly wound up by his finding 
 himself on board of the vessel again, returning home, with a 
 great bag of money. 
 
 When he awoke, the grey, cool light of dawn was streaking 
 the horizon, and the cocks passing the reveille from farm to 
 farm, throughout the country. He rose more harassed and 
 perplexed than ever. He was singularly confounded by all 
 that he had seen and dreamt, and began to doubt whether his 
 mind was not affected, and whether all that was passing in his 
 thoughts might not be mere feverish fantasy. In his present 
 state of mind, he did not feel disposed to return immediately to 
 the doctor's, and undergo the cross-questioning of the house- 
 hold. He made a scanty breakfast, therefore, on the remains 
 of the last night's provisions, and then wandered out into the 
 fields to meditate on all that had befallen him. Lost in 
 thought, he rambled about, gradually approaching the town, 
 until the morning was far advanced, when he was roused by a 
 hurry and buttle around him. He found himself near the 
 water's edge, in a throng of people, hurrying to a pier, where 
 was a vessel ready to make sail. He was unconsciously car- 
 ried along by the impulse of the crowd, and found that it was 
 a sloop, on the point of sailing up the Hudson to Albany. 
 There was much leave-taking and kissing of old women and 
 children, and great activity in carrying on board baskets of bread 
 and cakes, and provisions of all kinds, notwithstanding the 
 mighty joints of meat that dangled over the stern ; for a 
 voyage to Albany was an expedition of great moment in those 
 days. The commander of the sloop was hurrying about, and 
 giving a world of orders, which were not very strictly attended 
 to, one man being busy in lighting his pipe, and another in 
 sharpening his snicker-snee. 
 
 The appearance of the commander suddenly caught Dolph'a 
 
102 S 33oofe of tf)e f^utJBon. 
 
 attention. He was short and swarthy, with crisped black 
 hair ; blind of one eye and lame of one leg — the very com- 
 mander that he had seen in his dream ! Surprised and aroused, 
 he considered the scene more attentively, and recalled still 
 further traces of his dream: the appearance of the vessel, of the 
 river, and of a variety of other objects, accorded with the im- 
 perfect images vaguely rising to recollection. 
 
 As he stood musing on these circumstances, the captain 
 suddenly called out to him in Dutch, " Step on board, young 
 man, or you'll be left behind !" He was startled by the sum- 
 mons ; he saw that the sloop was cast loose, and was actually 
 moving from the pier ; it seemed as if he was actuated by some 
 irresistible impulse ; he sprang upon the deck, and the next 
 moment the sloop was hurried off by the wind and tide. 
 Dolph's thoughts and feelings were all in tumult and confusion. 
 He had been strongly worked upon by the events which had 
 recently befallen him, and could not but think there was some 
 connexion between his present situation and his last night's 
 dream. He felt as if under supernatural influence ; and tried to 
 assure himself with an old and favorite maxim of his, that 
 " one way or the other, all would turn out for the best." For 
 a moment, the indignation of the doctor at his departure, with- 
 out leave, passed across his mind, but that was matter of little 
 moment ; then he thought of the distress of his mother at his 
 strange disappearance, and the idea gave him a sudden pang ; 
 he would have entreated to be put on shore ; but he knew 
 with such wind and tide the entreaty would have been in vain. 
 Then the inspiring love of novelty and adventure came rushing 
 in full tide through his bosom ; he felt himself launched 
 strangely and suddenly on the world, and under full way to ex- 
 plore the regions of wonder that lay up this mighty river, and 
 beyond those blue mountains which had bounded his horizon 
 since childhood. While he was lost in this whirl of thought, 
 the sails strained to the breeze ; the shores seemed to hurry 
 away behind him ; and, before he perfectly recovered his self- 
 possession, the sloop was ploughing her way past Spiking-devil 
 
©olpi^ l&caltgfr. 103 
 
 and Yonkerg, and the tallest chimney of the Manhattoes had 
 faded from his sight. 
 
 I have said that a voyage up the Hudson in those days w^as 
 an undertaking of some moment ; indeed, it was as much 
 thought of as a voyage to Europe is at present. The sloops 
 were often many days on the way ; the cautious navigators 
 taking in sail when it blew fresh, and coming to anchor at 
 night ; and stopping to send the boat ashore for milk for tea ; 
 without which it was impossible for the worthy old lady pas- 
 sengers to subsist. And there were the much-talked-of perils 
 of the Tappaan Zee, and the highlands. In short, a prudent 
 Dutch burgher would talk of such a voyage for months, and 
 even years, beforehand ; and never undertook it without putting 
 his affairs in order, making his will, and having prayers said for 
 him in the Low Dutch Churches. 
 
 In the coui'se of such a voyage, therefore, Dolph was 
 satisfied he would have time enough to reflect, and to make up 
 his mind as to what he should do when he arrived at Albany. 
 The captain, with his blind eye and lame leg, would, it is true, 
 bring his strange dream to mind, and perplex him sadly for a 
 few moments ; but of late his life had been made up so much 
 of dreams and realities, his nights and days had been so jumbled 
 together, that he seemed to be moving continually in a delu- 
 sion. There is always, however, a kind of vagabond consola- 
 tion in a man's having nothing in this world to lose ; with this 
 Dolph comforted his heart, and determined to make the most 
 of the present enjoyment. 
 
 In the second day of the voyage they came to the highlands. 
 It was the latter part of a calm, sultry day, that they floated 
 gently with the tide between these stern mountains. There 
 was that perfect quiet which prevails over nature in the languor 
 of summer heat ; the turning of a plank, or the accidental 
 falling of an oar on deck, was echoed from the mountain side, 
 and reverberated along the shores ; and if by chance the captain 
 gave a shout of command, there were airy tongues which 
 mocked it from every cliff. 
 
104 ^ J3ooft of t^e ^ulison. 
 
 Dolph gazed about him in mute delight and wonder at these 
 scenes of nature's magnificence. To the left the Dunderberg 
 reared its woody precipices, height over height, forest over 
 forest, away into the deep summer sky. To the right strutted 
 forth the bold promontory of Anthony's Nose, with a solitary 
 eagle wheeling about it ; while beyond, mountain succeeded to 
 movmtain, until they seemed to lock their arms together, and 
 confine this mighty river in their embraces. There was a feel- 
 ing of quiet luxury in gazing at the broad, green bosoms here 
 and there scooped out among the precipices ; or at woodlands 
 high in air, nodding over the edge of some beetling bluff, and 
 their foliage all transparent in the yellow sunshine. 
 
 In the midst of his admiration, Dolph remarked a pile of 
 bright, snowy clouds peering above the western heights. It 
 was succeeded by another, and another, each seemingly push- 
 ing onwards its predecessor, and towering, with dazzling bril- 
 liancy, in the deep blue atmosphere : and now muttering peals 
 of thunder were faintly heard rolling behind the mountains. 
 The river, hitherto still and glassy, reflecting pictures of the 
 sky and land, now showing a dark ripple at a distance, as the 
 breeze came creeping up it. The fish-hawks wheeled and 
 screamed, and sought their nests on the high dry trees ; the 
 crows flew clamorously to the crevices of the rocks, and all 
 nature seemed conscious of the approaching thunder-gust. 
 
 The clouds now rolled in volumes over the mountain-tops ; 
 their summits still bright and snowy, but the lower parts of an 
 inky blackness. The rain began to patter down in broad and 
 scattered drops ; the wind freshened, and curled up the waves ; 
 at length it seemed as if the bellying clouds were torn open by 
 the mountain-tops, and complete torrents of rain came rattling 
 down. The lightning leaped from cloud to cloud, and stream- 
 ed quivering against the rocks, splitting and rending the 
 stoutest forest-trees. The thunder burst in tremendous explo- 
 sions ; the peals were echoed from mountain to mountain ; 
 they crashed upon Dunderberg, and rolled up the long defile 
 
Bolpf) ?,Ualiser. 105 
 
 of the highlands, each headland making a new echo, until old 
 Bull Hill seemed to bellow back the storm. 
 
 For a time the scudding rack and mist, and the sheeted rain 
 almost hid the landscape from the sight. There was a fear- 
 ful gloom, illuminated still mure fearfully by the streams of 
 lightning which glittered among the rain-drops. Never had 
 Dolph beheld such an absolute warring of the elements ; it 
 seemed as if the storm was tearing and rending its way through 
 this mountain defile, and had brought all the artillery of heaven 
 into action. 
 
 The vessel was hurried on by the increasing wind, until she 
 came to where the river makes a sudden bend^ the only one in 
 the whole course of its majestic career.* Just as they turned 
 the point, a violent flaw of wind came sweeping down a moun- 
 tain gully, bending the forest before it, and, in a moment, lash- 
 ing up the river into white froth and foam. The captain saw 
 the danger, and cried out to lower the sail. Before the order 
 could be obeyed, the flaw struck the sloop, and threw her on 
 her beam-ends. Everything now was fright and confusion ; the 
 flapping of the sails, the whistling and rushing of the wind, 
 the bawling of the captain and crew, the shrieking of the pas- 
 sengers, all mingled with the rolling and bellowing of the 
 thunder. In the mid.st of the uproar the sloop righted ; at the 
 same time the mainsail shifted, the boom came sweeping the 
 quarter-deck, and Dolph, who was gazing unguardedly at the 
 clouds, found himself, in a moment, floundering in the river. 
 
 For once in his life one of his idle accomplishments was of 
 use to him. The many truant hours he had devoted to sport- 
 ing in the Hudson had made him an expert swimmer ; yet with 
 all his strength and skill, he found great difficulty in reaching 
 the shore. His disappearance from the deck had not been 
 noticed by the crew, who were all occupied by their own dan- 
 ger. The sloop was driven along with inconceivable rapidity. 
 
 * This must have been the bend at West Point. 
 5* 
 
X06 ^ JBoofe of t^e ^ubaon. 
 
 She had hard work to weather a long promontory on the 
 eastern shore, round which the river turned, and which com- 
 pletely shut her from Dolph's view. 
 
 It was on a point of the western shore that he landed, and, 
 scrambling up the rocks, threw himself, faint and exhausted, at 
 the foot of a tree. By degrees the thunder-gust passed over. 
 The clouds rolled away to the east, where they lay piled in 
 feathery masses, tinted with the last rosy rays of the sun. The 
 distant play of the lightning might be seen about the dark 
 bases, and now and then might be heard the faint muttering of 
 the thunder. Dolph rose, and sought about to see if any path 
 led from the shore, but all was savage and trackless. The 
 rocks were piled upon each other ; great trunks of trees lay 
 shattered about, as they had been blown down by the strong 
 winds which draw through these mountains, or had fallen 
 through age. The rocks, too, were overhung with wild vines 
 and briers, which completely matted themselves together, and 
 opposed a barrier to all ingress ; every movement that he made 
 shook down a shower from the dripping foliage. He attempt- 
 ed to scale one of these almost perpendicular heights ; but, 
 though strong and agile, he found it an Herculean undertaking. 
 Often he was supported merely by crumbling projections of the 
 rock, and sometimes he clung to roots and branches of trees, 
 and hung almost suspended in the air. The wood-pigeon 
 came cleaving his whistling flight by him, and the eagle 
 screamed from the brow of the impending cliff. As he was 
 thus clambering, ho was on the point of seizing hold of a shrub 
 to aid his ascent, when something rustled among the leaves, 
 and he saw a snake quivering along like lightning, almost from 
 under his hand. It coiled itself up immediately, in an attitude 
 of defiance, with flattened head, distended jaws, and quickly 
 vibrating tongue, that played like a little flame about its 
 mouth. Dolph's heart turned faint within him, and he had 
 well nigh let go his hold, and tumbled down the precipice. 
 The serpent stood on the defensive but for an instant ; and, 
 finding there was no attack, glided away into a cleft of the 
 
©olpl) ?^t2ligEr. 107 
 
 rock. Dolph's eye followed it with fearful intensity, and saw 
 a nest of adders, knotted, and writhing, and hissing in the 
 chasm. He hastened with all speed from so frightful a neigh- 
 borhood. His imagination, full of this new horror, saw an 
 adder in every curling vine, and heard the tail of a rattlesnake in 
 every dry leaf that rustled. 
 
 At length he succeeded in scrambling to the summit of a 
 precipice, but it was covered by a dense forest. Wherever he 
 could gain a look out between the trees, he beheld heights and 
 cliffs, one rising beyond another, until huge mountains overtop- 
 ped the whole. There were no signs of cultivation ; no smoke 
 curling among the trees, to indicate a human residence. 
 Everything was wild and solitary. As he was standing on 
 the edge of a precipice overlooking a deep ravine fringed with 
 trees, his feet detached a great fragment of rock ; it fell, crash- 
 ing its way through the tree tops, down into the chasm. A 
 loud whoop, or rather yell, issued from the bottom of the glen ; 
 the moment after there was the report of a gun ; and a ball 
 came whistling over his head, cutting the twigs and leaves, and 
 burying itself deep in the bark of a chestnut tree. 
 
 Dolph did not wait for a second shot, but made a precipitate 
 retreat, fearing every moment to hear the enemy in pursuit. 
 He succeeded, however, in returning unmolested to the shore, 
 and determined to penetrate no further into a country so beset 
 with savage perils. 
 
 He sat himself down, dripping, disconsolately, on a wet 
 Ktone. What was to be done 1 Where was he to shelter him- 
 self ] The hour of repose was approaching ; the birds were 
 seeking their nests, the bat began to flit about in the twilight, 
 and the night-hawk, soaring high in the heaven, seemed to be 
 callling out the stars. Night gradually closed in, and wrap- 
 ped everything in gloom ; and though it was the latter part of 
 summer, the breeze stealing along tiie river, and among these 
 dripping forests, was chilly and penetrating, especially to a half- 
 drowned man. 
 
 As he sat drooping and despondent in this comfortless con- 
 
108 a aaoolt of tl)e f^ttliison. 
 
 dition, he perceived a light gleaming through the trees near the 
 shore, where the winding of the river made a deep bay. It 
 cheered him with the hope of a human habitation, where he 
 might get something to appease the clamorous cravings of his 
 stomach, and what was equally necessary in his shipwrecked 
 condition, a comfortable shelter for the night. With extreme 
 difficulty he made his way towards the light, along ledges of 
 rocks, down which he was in danger of sliding into the river, 
 and over great trunks of fallen trees, some of which had been 
 blown down in the late storm, and lay so thickly together, that 
 he had to struggle through their branches. At length he 
 came to the brow of a rock overhanging a small dell, whence 
 the light proceeded. It was from a fire at the foot of a great 
 tree in the midst of a grassy interval or plat among the rocks. 
 The fire cast up a red glare among the grey crags and im- 
 pending trees ; leaving chasms of deep gloom, that resembled 
 entrances to caverns. A small brook rippled close by, be- 
 trayed by the quivering reflection of the flame. There were 
 two figures moving about the fire, and others squatted before 
 it. As they were between him and the light, they were in 
 complete shadow, but one of them happening to move round 
 to the opposite side, Dolph was startled at perceiving, by the 
 glare falling on painted features, and glittering on silver orna- 
 ments, that he was an Indian. He now looked more narrow- 
 ly, and saw guns leaning against a tree, and a dead body lying 
 on the ground. Here was the very foe that had fired at him 
 from the glen. He endeavored to retreat quietly, not caring to 
 intrust himself to these half-human beings, in so savage and 
 lonely a place. It was too late ; the Indian, with that eagle 
 quickness of eye so remarkable in his race, perceived some- 
 thing stirring among the bushes on the rock ; he seized one of 
 the guns that leaned against the tree ; one moment more, and 
 Dolph might have had his passion for adventure cured by a 
 bullet. He hallooed loudly, with the Indian salutation of 
 friendship ; the whole party sprang upon their feet ; the salu- 
 
©olpt ?^caltgcr. 109 
 
 tation was returned, and the straggler was invited to join them 
 at the fire. 
 
 On approaching, he found, to his consolation, the party was 
 composed of white men, as well as Indians. One, evidently 
 the principal personage, or commander, was seated on a trunk 
 of a tree before the fire. He was a large stout man, somewhat 
 advanced in life, but hale and hearty. His face was bronzed 
 almost to the color of an Indian's ; he had strong but rather 
 jovial features, an aquiline nose, and a mouth shaped like a 
 mastiff's. His face was half thrown in shade by a broad hat, 
 with a buck's tail in it. His grey hair hung short in his neck. 
 He wore a hunting-frock, with Indian leggins and moccasins, 
 and a tomahawk in the broad wampum-belt round his waist. 
 As Dolph caught a distinct view of his person and features, 
 something reminded him of the old man of the haunted house. 
 The man before him, however, was different in dress and age ; 
 he was more cheery too in aspect, and it was hard to define 
 where the vague resemblance lay ; but a resemblance there 
 certainly was. Dolph felt some degree of awe in approaching 
 him ; but was assured by a frank, hearty welcome. He was 
 still further encouraged, by perceiving that the dead body, 
 which had caused him some alarm, was that of a deer ; and 
 his satisfaction was complete in discerning, by savory steams 
 from a kettle, suspended by a hooked stick over the fire, that 
 there was a part cooking for the evening's repast. 
 
 He had, in fact, fallen in with a rambling hunting party ; 
 such as often took place in those days among the settlers along 
 the river. The hunter is always hospitable ; and nothing 
 makes men more social and unceremonious than meeting in 
 the wilderness. The commander of the party poured out a 
 dram of cheering liquor, which he gave him with a merry leer, 
 to warm his heart ; and ordered one of his followers to fetch 
 some garments from a pinnace, moored in a cove close by, 
 while those in which our hero was dripping might be dried 
 before the fire. 
 
110 ^ lUooft of tf)£ ?^ulraon. 
 
 Dolph found, as he had suspected, that the shot from the 
 glen, which had come so near giving him his quietus when on 
 tlie precipice, was from the party before him. He had nearly 
 crushed one of" them by the fragments of rock which he had 
 detached ; and the jovial old hunter, in the broad hat and 
 buck-tail, had fired at the place where he saw the bushes 
 move, supposing it to be some wild animal. He laughed 
 heartily at the blunder ; it being what is considered an exceed- 
 ing good joke among hunters ; " but faith, my lad," said he, 
 " if I had but caught a glimpse of you to take sight at, you 
 would have followed the rock. Antony Vander Heyden is 
 seldom known to miss his aim." These last words were at 
 once a clue to Dolph's curiosity ; and a few questions let him 
 completely into the character of the man before him, and of his 
 band of woodland rangers. The commander in the broad hat 
 and hunting-frock was no less a personage than the Heer 
 Antony Vander Heyden, of Albany, of whom Dolph had many 
 a time heard. He was, in fact, the hero of many a story ; his 
 singular humors and whimsical habits being matters of wonder 
 to his quiet Dutch neighbors. As he was a man of property, 
 having had- a father before him, from whom he inherited large 
 tracts of wild land, and whole barrels full of wampum, he 
 could indulge his humors without control. Instead of staying 
 quietly at home, eating and drinking at regular meal times, 
 amusing himself by smoking his pipe on the bench before the 
 door, and then turning into a comfortable bed at night, he 
 delighted in all kinds of rough, wild expeditions. Never so 
 happy as when on a hunting party in the wilderness, sleeping 
 under trees or bark sheds, or cmising down the river, or on 
 some woodland lake, fishing and fowling, and living the Lord 
 knows how. 
 
 He was a great friend to Indians, and to an Indian mode of 
 life ; which he considered tnae natural liberty and manly 
 enjoyment. When at home he had always several Indian 
 hangers-on, who loitered about his house, sleeping like hounds 
 in the sunshine ; or preparing hunting and fishing-tackle for 
 
©olpf) ?3EBliger. HI 
 
 some new expedition ; or shooting at marks with bows and 
 arrows. 
 
 Over these vagrant beings Heer Antony had as perfect 
 command as a huntsman over his pack ; though they were 
 great nuisances to the regular people of his neighborhood. As 
 he was a rich man, no one ventured to thwart his humors ; 
 indeed, his hearty, joyous manner made him universally 
 popular. He would troll a Dutch song as he tramped along 
 the street; hail every one a mile off, and when he entered a 
 house, would slap the good man familiarly on the back, shake 
 him by the hand till he roared, and kiss his wife and daughter 
 before his face — in short, there was no pride nor ill humor 
 about Heer Antony. 
 
 Besides his Indian hangers-on, he had three or four humble 
 friends among the white men, who looked up to him as a 
 patron, and had the nin of his kitchen, and the favor of being 
 taken with him occasionally on his expeditions. With a 
 medley of such retainers he was at present on a ciTiise along 
 the shores of the Hudson, in a pinnace kejpt for his own re- 
 creation. There were two white men with him, dressed partly 
 in the Indian style, with moccasins and hunting-shirts ; the 
 rest of his crew consisted of four favorite Indians. They had 
 been prowling about the river, without any definite object, 
 until they found themselves in the Highlands ; where they had 
 passed two or three days, hunting the deer which still lingered 
 among these mountains. 
 
 "It is lucky for you, young man," said Antony Vander 
 Heyden, " that you happened to be knocked overboard to-day ; 
 as to-morrow morning we start early on our return home- 
 wards ; and you might then have looked in vain for a meal 
 among the mountains — but come, lads, stir about ! stir about ! 
 Let's see what prog we have for supper ; the kettle has boiled 
 long enough ; my stomach cries cupboard ; and I'll warrant 
 our guest is in no mood to dally with his trencher." 
 
 There was a bustle now in the little encampment ; one took 
 off the kettle and turned a part of the contents into a fiuge 
 
112 ® JiJooft of tfje l^ulison, 
 
 wooden bowl. Another prepared a flat rock for a table; 
 while a third brought various utensils from the pinnace ; Heer 
 Antony himself brought a flask or two of precious liquor from 
 his own private locker ; knowing his boon companions too 
 well to trust any of them with the key. 
 
 A nide but hearty repast was soon spread ; consisting of 
 venison smoking from the kettle, with cold bacon, boiled 
 Indian corn, and mighty loaves of good brown household 
 bread. Never had Dolph made a more delicious repast ; and 
 when he had washed it down with two or three draughts from 
 the Heer Antony's flask, and felt the jolly liquor sending its 
 warmth through his veins, and glowing round his very heart, 
 he would not have changed his situation, no, not with the 
 governor of the province. 
 
 The Heer Antony, too, grew chirping and joyous ; told half 
 a dozen fat stories, at which his white followers laughed 
 immoderately, though the Indians, as usual, maintained an 
 invincible gravity. 
 
 " This is your tijae life, my boy !" said he, slapping Dolph on 
 the shoulder ;■ " a man is never a man till he can defy wind and 
 weather, range woods and wilds, sleep under a tree, and live 
 on bass-wood leaves !" 
 
 And then would he sing a stave or two of a Dutch drinking 
 song, swaying a short squab Dutch bottle in his hand, while his 
 myrmidons would join in the chorus, until the woods echoed 
 again ; — as the good old song has it, 
 
 " They all with a shout made the elements ring, 
 So soon as the office was o'er ; 
 To feasting they went, with true merriment, 
 And tippled strong liquor galore." 
 
 In the midst of his joviality, however, Heer Antony did not 
 lose sight of discretion. Though he pushed the bottle without 
 reserve to Dolph, he always took care to help his followers 
 himself, knowing the beings he had to deal with ; and was 
 particular in granting but a moderate allowance to the Indians. 
 
Dolpft lUeal'Ser. 113 
 
 The repast being ended, the Indians having drunk their liquor and 
 smoked their pipes, now wrapped themselves in their blankets, 
 stretched themselves on the ground, with their feet to the lire, 
 and soon fell asleep, like so many tired hounds. The rest of 
 the party remained chattering before the fire, which the gloom 
 of the forest, and the dampness of the air from the late storm, 
 rendered extremely grateful and comforting. The conversation 
 gradually moderated from the hilarity of supper-time, and 
 tm-ned upon hunting adventures, and exploits and perils in the 
 wilderness ; many of which were so strange and improbable, 
 that I will not venture to repeat them, lest the veracity of 
 Antony Vander Heyden and his comrades should be brought 
 into question. There were many legendary tales told, also, 
 about the river, and the settlements on its borders ; in which 
 valuable kind of lore the Heer Antony seemed deeply versed. 
 As the sturdy bush-beater sat in a twisted root of a tree, that 
 served him for an arm-chair, dealing forth these wild stories, 
 with the fire gleaming on his strongly-marked visage, Dolph 
 was again repeatedly perplexed by something that reminded him 
 of the phantom of the haunted house ; some vague resemblance 
 not to be fixed upon any precise feature or lineament, but 
 pervading the general air of his countenance and figure. 
 
 The circumstance of Dolph's falling overboard led to the 
 relation of divers disasters and singular mishaps that had 
 befallen voyagers on this great river, particularly in the earlier 
 periods of colonial history ; most of which the Heer deliberately 
 attributed to supernatural causes. Dolph stared at this sugges- 
 tion ; but the old gentleman assured him it was very currently 
 believed by the settlers along the river, that these highlands 
 were under the dominion of supernatural and mischievous 
 beings, which seemed to have taken some pique against the 
 Dutch colonists in the early time of the settlement. In conse- 
 quence of this, they have ever taken particular delight in 
 venting their spleen, and indulging their humors, upon the 
 Dutch skippers ; bothering them with flaws, head-winds, 
 counter-currents, and all kinds of impediments ; insomuch, that 
 
114 ^ i3ook of ti^e ^MuUaon- 
 
 a Dutch navigator was always obliged to be exceedingly wary 
 and deliberate in his proceedings ; to come to anchor at dusk ; 
 to drop his peak, or take in sail, whenever he saw a swag- 
 bellied cloud rolling over the mountains ; m short, to take so 
 many precautions, that he was often apt to be an incredible 
 time in toiling up the river. ' 
 
 Some, he said, believed these mischievous powers of the air 
 to be evil spirits conjured up by the Indian wizards, in the early 
 times of the province, to revenge themselves on the strangers 
 who had dispossessed them of their country. They even 
 attributed to their incantations the misadventure which befell 
 the renowned Hendrick Hudson, when he sailed so gallantly 
 up this river in quest of a northwest passage, and, as he 
 thought, ran his ship aground ; which they affirm was nothing 
 more nor less than a spell of these same wizards, to prevent his 
 getting to China in this direction. 
 
 The greater part, however, Heer Antony observed, accounted 
 for all the extraordinary circumstances attending this river, and 
 the perplexities of the skippers who navigated it, by the old 
 legend of the Storm-ship which haunted Point-no-point. On 
 finding Dolph to be utterly ignorant of this tradition, the Heer 
 stared at him for a moment with surprise, and wondered where 
 he had passed his life, to be uninformed on so important a point 
 of history. To pass away the remainder of the evening, there- 
 fore, he undertook the tale, as far as his memory would serve, 
 in the very words in which it had been written out by Mynheer 
 Selyne, an early poet of the New Nederlandts. Giving, then, 
 a stir to the fire, that sent up its sparks among the trees lilte a 
 little volcano, he adjusted himself comfortably in his root of a 
 tree ; and throwing back his head, and closing his eyes for a 
 few moments, to summon up his recollection, he related the 
 following legend. 
 
tHift ^torms^^ip. 115 
 
 THE STORM-SHIP. 
 
 In the golden age of the province of the New Netherlands, 
 when under the sway of Wouter Van Twiller, otherwise called 
 the Doubter, the people of the Manhattoes were alanncd one 
 sultry afternoon, just about the time of the summer solstice, by 
 a tremendous storm of thunder and lightning. The rain fell 
 in such torrents as absolutely to spatter up and smoke along 
 the ground. It seemed as if the thunder rattled and rolled 
 over the very roofs of the houses ; the lightning was seen to 
 play about the church of St. Nicholas, and to strive three 
 times, in vain, to strike its weathercock. Garret Van Home's 
 new chimney was split almost frpm top to bottom ; and 
 Doffue Mildeberger was struck speechless from his bald-faced 
 mare, just as he was riding into town. In a word, it was one 
 of those unparalleled storms which only happen once within 
 the memory of that venerable personage, known in all towns 
 by the appellation of " the oldest inhabitant." 
 
 Great was the terror of the good old women of the Man- 
 hattoes. They gathered their children together, and took 
 refuge in the cellars, after having hung a shoe on the iron 
 point of every bed-post, lest it should attract the lightning. 
 At length the storm abated ; the thunder sank into a growl ; 
 and the setting sun, breaking from under the fringed borders of 
 the clouds, made the broad bosom of the bay to gleam like a 
 vsea of molten gold. 
 
 The word was given from the fort that a ship was standing 
 up the bay. It passed from mouth to mouth, and street to 
 street, and soon put the little capital in a bustle. The arrival 
 of a ship, in those early times of the settlement, was an event 
 of vast importance to the inhabitants. It brought them news 
 from the old world, from the land of their birth, from which 
 they were so completely severed : to the yearly ship, too, they 
 
[16 ^33ooftoftI;t?^ulj3on. 
 
 looked for their supply of luxuries, of finery, of comforts, and 
 almost of necessaries. The good vrouw could not have her 
 new cap nor new gown until the arrival of the ship ; the artist 
 waited for it for his tools, the burgomaster for his pipe and his 
 supply of Hollands, the schoolboy for his top and marbles, and 
 the lordly landholder for the bricks with which he was to 
 build his new mansion. Thus every one, rich and poor, great 
 and small, looked out for the arrival of the ship. It was the 
 great yearly event of the town of New Amsterdam ; and from 
 one end of the year to the other, the ship — the ship — the ship 
 — was the continual topic of conversation. 
 
 The news from the fort, therefore, brought all the populace 
 down to the battery, to behold the wished-for sight. It was 
 not exactly the time when she had been expected to arrive, 
 and the circumstance was a matter of some speculation. 
 Many were the groups collected about the battery. Here and 
 there might be seen a burgomaster, of slow and pompous 
 gravity, giving his opinion with great confidence to a crowd of 
 old women and idle boys. At another place was a knot of 
 old weather-beaten fellows who had been seamen or fishermen 
 in their times, and were great authorities on such occasions ; 
 these gave different opinions, and caused great disputes among 
 their several adherents : but the man most looked up to, and 
 followed and watched by the crowd, was Hans Van Pelt, an 
 old Dutch sea-captain retired from service, the nautical oracle 
 of the place. He reconnoitred the ship through an ancient 
 telescope, covered with tarry canvas, hummed a Dutch tune to 
 himself, and said nothing. A hum, however, from Hans Van 
 Pelt, had always more weight with the public than a speech 
 from another man. 
 
 In the meantime the ship became more distinct to the naked 
 eye : she was a stout, round, Dutch-built vessel, with high bow 
 and poop, and bearing Dutch colors. The evening sun gilded 
 her bellying canvas, as she came riding over the long waving 
 billows. The sentinel who had given notice of her approach, 
 declared, that he first got sight of her when she was in the 
 
Zl)C 5 torm =<Si)ip. 117 
 
 centre of the bay ; and that she broke suddenly on his sight, 
 just as if she had come out of the bosom of the black thunder- 
 cloud. The bystanders looked at Hans Van Pelt, to see what 
 he would say to this report : Hans Van Pelt screwed his 
 mouth closer together, and said nothing ; upon which some 
 shook their heads, and others shrugged their shoulders. 
 
 The ship was now repeatedly hailed, but made no reply, and 
 passing by the fort, stood on up the Hudson. A gun was 
 brought to bear on her, and with some difficulty, loaded and 
 fired by Hans Van Pelt, the garrison not being expert in 
 artillery. The shot seemed absolutely to pass through the 
 ship, and to skip along the water on the other side, but no 
 notice was taken of it ! What was strange, she had all her 
 sails set, and sailed right against wind and tide, which were 
 both down the river. Upon this' Hans Van Pelt, who was 
 likewise harbor-master, ordered his boat, and set off to board 
 her ; but after rowing two or three hours, he returned without 
 success. Sometimes he would get within one or two hundred 
 yards of her, and then, in a twinkling, she would be half a 
 mile off. Some said it was because his oarsmen, who were 
 rather pursy and short-winded, stopped every now and then to 
 take breath, and spit on their hands ; but this it is probable 
 was a mere scandal. He got near enough, however, to see the 
 crew ; who were all dressed in the Dutch style, the officers in 
 doublets and high hats and feathers ; not a word was spoken 
 by any one on board ; they stood as motionless as so many 
 statues, and the ship seemed as if left to her own government. 
 Thus she kept on, away up the river, lessening and lessening 
 in the evening sunshine, until she faded from sight, like a little 
 white cloud melting away in the summer sky. 
 
 The appearance of this ship threw the governor into one of 
 the deepest doubts that ever beset him in the whole course of 
 his administration. Fears were entertained for the security of 
 the infant settlements on the river, lest this might be an enemy's 
 ship in disguise, sent to take possession. The governor called 
 together his council repeatedly to assist him with their conjee- 
 
118 a Book of tfie f^ttlison. 
 
 tures. He sat in his chair of state, built of timber from the 
 sacred forest of the Hague, smoking his long jasmin pipe, and 
 listening to all that his counsellors had to say on a subject 
 about which they knew nothing ; but in spite of all the con- 
 jecturing of the sagest and oldest heads, the governor still con- 
 tinued to doubt. 
 
 Messengers were dispatched to different places on the river ; 
 but they returned without any tidings — the ship had made no 
 port. Day after day, and week after week, elapsed, but she 
 never returned down the Hudson. As, however, the council 
 seemed solicitous for intelligence, they had it in abundance. 
 The captains of the sloops seldom arrived without bringing 
 some report of having seen the strange ship at different parts 
 of the river ; sometimes near the Palisadoos, sometimes off 
 Croton Pomt, and sometimes in the Highlands ; but she never 
 was reported as having been seen above the Highlands. The 
 crews of the sloops, it is tme, generally differed among them- 
 selves in their accounts of these apparitions ; but that may 
 have arisen from the uncertain situations in which they saw 
 her. Sometimes it was by the flashes of the thunder-storm 
 lighting up a pitchy night, and giving glimpses of her careering 
 across Tappaan Zee, or the wide waste of Haverstraw Bay. 
 At one moment she would appear close upon them, as if likely 
 to run them down, and would throw them into great bustle 
 and alarm ; but the next flash would show her far off, always 
 sailing against the wind. Sometimes, in quiet moonlight 
 nights, she would be seen under some high bluff of the High- 
 lands, all in deep shadow, excepting her topsails glittering in 
 the moonbeams ; by the time, however, that the voyagers 
 reached the place, no ship was to be seen ; and when they had 
 passed on for some distance, and looked back, behold ! there 
 she was again, with her top-sails in the moonshine ! Her 
 appearance was always just after, or just before, or just in the 
 midst of unraly weather ; and she was known among the 
 skippers and voyagers of the Hudson by the name of "the 
 stoiTH-ship." 
 
Ci^e .Storm:5f)ip. 119 
 
 Thc?e reports perplexed the governor and his council more 
 than ev^r, and it would be endless to repeat the conjectures and 
 opinions uttered oh the subject. Some quoted cases in point, 
 of ships seen off the coast of New England, navigated by 
 witches and goblins. Old Hans Van Pelt, who had been more 
 than once to the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope, in- 
 sisted that this must be the Flying Dutchman, which had so 
 long haunted Table Bay, but being unable to make port, had 
 now sought another harbor. Others suggested, that if it really 
 was a supernatural apparition, as there was every natural rea- 
 son to believe, it might be Hendrick Hudson, and his crew of 
 the Halfmoon, who, it was well known, had once run aground 
 in the upper part of the river, in seeking a north-west passage 
 to China. This opinion had very little weight with the 
 governor, but it passed current out of doors, for, indeed, it had 
 already been reported that Hendrick Hudson and his crew 
 haunted the Kaatskill Mountain ; and it appeared very reason- 
 able to suppose, that his ship might infest the river where the 
 enterprise was baffled, or that it might bear the shadowy crew 
 to their periodical revels in the mountain. 
 
 Other events occurred to occupy the thoughts and doubts of 
 the sage VVouter and his council, and the storm-ship ceased to 
 be a subject of deliberation at the board. It continued, how- 
 ever, a matter of 'popular belief and marvellous anecdote 
 through the whole time of the Dutch government, and particu- 
 larly just before the capture of New Amsterdam, and the sub- 
 jugation of the province by the English squadron. About that 
 time the storm-ship was repeatedly seen in the Tappaan Zee, 
 and about Weehawk, and even down as far as Hoboken, and her 
 appearance was supposed to be ominous of the approaching 
 squall in public afTairs, and the downfall of Dutch domination. 
 
 Since that time we have no authentic accounts of her, though 
 it is said she still haunts the Highlands, and cruises about Point- 
 no-point. People who live along the river, insist that they 
 sometimes see her in summer moonlight, and that in a deep, 
 still midnight, they have heard the chant of her crew, as if 
 
120 ^ Booft of tf)£ f^uligon. 
 
 heaving the lead ; but sights and sounds are so deceptive along 
 the mountainous shores, and about the wide bays and long 
 reaches of this great river, that I confess I have very strong 
 doubts upon the subject. 
 
 "" It is certain, nevertheless, that strange things have been seen 
 in these highlands in storms, which are considered as connect- 
 ed with the old story of the ship. The captains of the river 
 craft talk of a little bulbous-bottomed Dutch goblin, in trunk 
 hose and sugar-loafed hat, with a speaking trampet in his 
 hand, which they say keeps the Dunderberg.* They declare 
 that they have heard him, in stormy weather, in the midst of 
 the turmoil, giving orders in low Dutch, for the piping up of a 
 fresh gust of wind, or the rattling off of another thunder-clap. 
 That sometimes he has been seen surrounded by a crew of lit- 
 tle imps, in broad breeches and short doublets, tumbling head 
 over heels in the rack and mist, and playing a thousand gam- 
 bols in the air, or buzzing like a swarm of flies about Antony's 
 nose ; and that, at such times, the hurry-scurry of the storm 
 was always greatest. One time a sloop, in passing by the 
 Dunderberg, was overtaken by a thunder-gust, that came 
 scouring round the mountain, and seemed to burst just over the 
 vessel. Though tight and well ballasted, she labored dread- 
 fully, and the water came over the gunwale. All the crew 
 were amazed, when it was discovered thift there was a little 
 white sugar-loaf hat on the mast-head, known at once to be 
 the hat of the Heer of the Dunderberg. Nobody, however, 
 dared to climb to the mast-head, and get rid of this terrible 
 hat. The sloop continued laboring and rocking, as if she 
 would have rolled her mast overboard, and seemed in continual 
 danger either of upsetting, or of running on shore. In this 
 way she drove quite through the Highlands, until she had 
 passed PoUopol's Island, where, it is said, the jurisdiction of the 
 Dunderberg potentate ceases. No sooner had she passed this 
 bourne, than the little hat spun up into the air, like a top, 
 
 * i. e. the " Thunder-Mountain," so called from its echoes. 
 
C:i^f5torm = Sf)tp. 121 
 
 whirled up all the clouds into a vortex, and hurried them back 
 to the summit of the Dunderberg, while the sloop righted her- 
 self, and sailed on as quietly as if in a mill-pond. Nothing 
 saved her from utter wreck but the fortunate circumstance of 
 having a horse-shoe nailed against the mast, a wise precaution 
 against evil spirits, since adopted by all the Dutch captains that 
 navigate this haunted river. 
 
 There is another story told of this foul-weather urchin, by 
 Skipper Daniel Ouslesticker, of Fishkill, who was never known 
 to tell a lie. He declared that, in a severe squall, he saw him 
 seated astride of his bowsprit, riding the sloop ashore, full butt 
 against Antony's nose, and that he was exorcised by Dominie 
 Van Gieson, of Esopus, who happened to be on board, and who 
 sang the hymn of St. Nicholas, whereupon the goblin threw 
 himself up in the air like a ball, and went off in a whirlwind, 
 carrying away with him the nightcap of the Dominie's wife, 
 which was discovered the next Sunday morning hanging on 
 the weathercock of Esopus church steeple, at least forty miles 
 off. Several events of this kind having taken place, the regu- 
 lar skippers of the river, for a long time, did not venture to 
 pass the Dunderberg without lowering their peaks, out of 
 homage to the Heer of the mountain, and it was observed that 
 all such as paid this tribute of respect were suffered to pass 
 unmolested.* 
 
 * Among the superstitions which prevailed in the colonies during the 
 early times of the settlements, there seems to have been a singular one 
 about phantom ships. The superstitious fancies of men are always apt 
 to turn upon those objects which concern their daily occupations. The 
 solitary ship, which, from year to year, came like a raven in the wil- 
 derness, bringing to the inhabitants of a settlement the comforts of life 
 from the world from wliich they were cut off, was apt to be present to 
 their dreams, whether sleeping or waking. The accidental sight from 
 shore of a sail gliding along the horizon in those, as yet, lonely seas, 
 was apt to be a matter of nuich talk and speculation. Tliere is mention 
 made in one of the early New P'ngland writers, of a ship navigated by 
 witches, with a great horse that stood by the mainmast. I have met 
 another story, somewhere, of a shi|) that drove on shore, in fair, sunny, 
 tranquil weather, with sails all set, and a table spread in the cabin, as if 
 6 
 
122 SI 33ooft of ti^e l^ulisnn. 
 
 " Such," said Antony Vander Heyden, " are a few of the 
 stones written down by Selyne the poet, concerning this storm- 
 ship ; which he affirms to have brought a crew of mischievous 
 imps into the province, from some old ghost-ridden country of 
 Europe. I could give you a host more, if necessary ; for all 
 the accidents that so often befall the river craft in the Highlands 
 are said to be tricks played off by these imps of the Dunder- 
 berg ; but I see that you are nodding, so let us turn in for the 
 night." 
 
 The moon had just raised her silver horns above th^round 
 back of Old Bull Hill, and lit up the grey rocks and shagged 
 forests, and glittered on the waving bosom of the river. The 
 night dew was falling, and the late gloomy mountains began to 
 soiten and put on a grey aerial tint in the dewy light. The 
 hunters stirred the fire, and threw on fresh fuel to qualify the 
 damp of the night air. They then prepared a bed of branches 
 and dry leaves under a ledge of rocks for Dolph ; while 
 Antony Vander Heyden, wrapping himself in a huge coat of 
 skins, stretched himself before the fire. It was some time, 
 however, before Dolph could close his eyes. He lay con- 
 templating the strange scene before him : the wild woods and 
 rocks around ; the fire throwing fitful gleams on the faces of 
 the sleeping savages; and the Heer Antony, too, » who so 
 singularly, yet vaguely, reminded him of the nightly visitant 
 to the haunted house. Now and then he heard the cry of 
 some animal from the forest ; or the hooting of the owl ; or 
 the notes of the whip-poor-will, which seemed to abound 
 among these solitudes ; or the splash of a sturgeon, leaping out 
 
 to ren;nle a number of guests, yet not a living being on board. Thee 
 phantom ships always sailed in the eye of the wind, or ploughed their 
 way with great velocity, making the smooth sea foam before their bows, 
 when not a breath of air was stirring. 
 
 Moore has finely wrought up one of these legends of the sea into a 
 little t-ile, which, within a small compass, contains the very essence 
 of this species of supernatural fiction. I allude to his Spectre-Ship, 
 bound to Deadman's Isle. 
 
©aXp5 l^ealtger. 123 
 
 of the river, and falling back full length on its placid surface. 
 He contrasted all this with his accustomed nest in the garret 
 room of the doctor's mansion ; where the only sounds at night 
 were the church clock telling the hour ; the drowsy voice of 
 the watchman, drawling out all was well ; the deep snoring 
 of the doctor's clubbed nose from below stairs ; or the cautious 
 labors of some carpenter rat gnawing in the wainscot. His 
 thoughts then wandered to his poor old mother : what would 
 she think of his mysterious disappearance — what anxiety and 
 distre^ would she not suffer ? This thought would continually 
 intrude itself to mar his present enjoyment. It brought with it 
 a feeling of pain and compunction, and he fell asleep with the 
 tears yet standing in his eyes. 
 
 Were this a mere tale of fancy, here would be a fine opportu- 
 nity for weaving in strange adventures among these wild 
 mountains, and roving hunters ; and, after involving my hero in 
 a variety of perils and difficulties, rescuing him from them all 
 by some miraculous contrivance ; but as this is absolutely a 
 true story, I must content myself with simple facts, and keep 
 to probabilities. 
 
 At an early hour of the next day, therefore, after a hearty 
 morning's meal, the encampment broke up, and our adventurers 
 embarked in the pinnace of Antony Vander Heyden. There 
 being no wind for the sails, the Indians rowed her gently along, 
 keeping time to a kind of chant of one of the white men. 
 The day was serene and beautiful ; the river without a wave ; 
 and as the vessel cleft the glassy water, it left a long, undulat- 
 ing track behind. The crows, who had scented the hunter's 
 banquet, were already gathering and hovering in the air, just 
 where a column of thin, blue smoke, rising from among the 
 trees, showed the place of their last night's quarters. As they 
 coasted along the basis of the mountains, the Heer Antony 
 pointed out to Dolph a bald eagle, the sovereign of the.re 
 regions, veho sat perched on a dry tree that projected over the 
 river ; and, with eye turned upwards, eeemed to be drinking in 
 the splendor of the morning sun. Their approach disturbed 
 
124 ^ Uook of tfjf ?^uT3gon. 
 
 the monarch's meditations. He first spread one wing, and 
 then the other ; balanced himself for a moment ; and then, 
 quitting his perch with dignified composure, wheeled slowly 
 over their heads. Dolph snatched up a gun, and sent a 
 whistling ball after him, that cut some of the feathers from his 
 wing ; the report of the gun leaped sharply from rock to rock, 
 and awakened a thousand echoes ; but the monarch of the air 
 sailed calmly on, ascending higher and higher, and wheeling 
 widely as he ascended, soaring up the green bosom of the 
 woody mountain, until he disappeared over the brow of a 
 beetling precipice. Dolph felt in a manner rebuked by this 
 proud tranquillity, and almost reproached himself for having so 
 wantonly insulted this majestic bird. Heer Antony told him, 
 laughing, to remember that he was not yet out of the territories 
 of the lord of the Dunderberg ; and an old Indian shook his 
 head, and observed, that there was bad luck in killing an eagle ; 
 the hunter, on the contrary, should always leave him a portion 
 of his spoils. 
 
 Nothing, however, occurred to molest them on their voyage. 
 They passed pleasantly through magnificent and lonely scenes, 
 until they came to where Pollopol's Island lay, like a floating 
 bower, at the extremity of the JHighlands. Here they landed, 
 until the heat of the day should abate, or a breeze spring up, 
 that might supersede the labor of the oar. Some prepared the 
 mid-day meal, while others reposed under the shade of the 
 trees in luxurious summer indolence, looking drowsily forth 
 upon the beauty of the scene. On the one side were the High- 
 lands, vast and cragged, feathered to the top with forests, and 
 throwing their shadows on the glassy water that dimpled at 
 their feet. On the other side was a wide expanse of the river, 
 like a broad lake, with long sunny reaches, and green head- 
 lands ; and the distant line of Shawungunk mountains waving 
 along a clear horizon, or checkered by a fleecy cloud. 
 
 But I forbear to dwell on the particulars of their cruise along 
 the river ; this vagrant, amphibious life, careering across silver 
 sheets of water ; coasting wild woodland shores ; banqueting on 
 
Dolpf) ?tUaHflcr. 125 
 
 shady promontories, with the spreading tree over head, the 
 river curling its light foam on one's feel, the distant mountain, 
 and rock, and tree, and snow^y cloud, and deep blue sky, all 
 mingling in summer beauty before one ; all this, though never 
 cloying in the enjoyment, would be but tedious in narration. 
 
 When encamped by the water-side, some of the party would 
 go into the woods and hunt ; others would fish : sometimes 
 they would amuse themselves by shooting at a mark, by leap- 
 ing, by nanning, by wrestling ; and Dolph gained great favor in 
 tile eyes of Antony Vander Heyden, by his skill and adroitness 
 in all the?e exercises ; which the Heer considered as the highest 
 of manly accomplishments. 
 
 Thus did they coast jollily on, choosing only the pleasant 
 hours for voyaging ; sometimes in the cool morning dawn, 
 sometimes in the sober evening twilight, and sometimes when 
 the moonshine spangled the crisp curling waves that whispered 
 along the sides of their little bark. Never had Dolph felt so 
 completely in his element ; never had he met with anything so 
 completely to his taste as this wild, hap-hazard life. He was 
 the very man to second Antony Vander Heyden in his rambling 
 humors, and gained continually on his affections* The heart 
 of the old bush-whacker yearned towards the young man, who 
 seemed thus growing up in his own likeness ; and as they 
 approached to the end of their voyage, he could not help 
 inquiring a little into his history. Dolph frankly told him his 
 course of life, his severe medical studies, his little proficiency, 
 and his very dubious prospects. The Heer was shocked to 
 find that such amazing talents and accomplishments were to be 
 cramped and buried under a doctor's wig. He had a sovereign 
 contempt for the healing art, having never had any other 
 physician than the butcher. He bore a mortal grudge to all 
 kinds of study also, ever since he had been flogged about an 
 unintelligible book when he was a boy. But to think that a 
 young fellow like Dolph, of such wonderful abilities, who 
 could shoot, fish, run, jump, ride, and wrestle, should be 
 obliged to roll pills, and administer juleps for a living — 'twas 
 
126 ^ 33oofe of t^e |^u\i3nn. 
 
 monstrous ! He told Dolph never to despair, but to " throw 
 physic to the dogs ;" for a young fellow of his prodigious 
 talents could never fail to make his way. " As you seem to 
 have no acquaintance in Albany," said Heer Antony, " you 
 shall go home with me, and remain under my roof until you 
 can look about you ; and in the meantime we can take an 
 occasional bout at shooting and fishing, for it is a pity that such 
 talents should lie idle." 
 
 Dolph, who was at the mercy of chance, was not hard to 
 be persuaded. Indeed, on turning over matters in his mind, 
 which he did very sagely and deliberately, he could not but 
 think that Antony Vander Heyden was, " somehow or other," 
 connected with the story of the Haunted House ; that the mis- 
 adventure in the Highlands, which had thrown them so strangely 
 together, was, " somehow or other," to work out something 
 good : in short, there is nothing so convenient as this " some- 
 how or other" way of accommodating one's self to circum- 
 stances ; it is the main stay of a heedless actor and tardy rea- 
 soner, like Dolph Heyliger ; and he who can, in this loose, 
 easy way, link foregone evil to anticipated good, possesses a 
 secret of han^iess almost equal to the philosophei-'s stone. 
 
 On their arrival at Albany, the sight of Dolph's companion 
 seemed to cause universal satisfaction. Many were the greet- 
 ings at the river-side, and the salutations in the streets ; the 
 dogs bounded before him ; the boys whooped as he passed ; 
 everybody seemed to know Antony Vander Heyden. Dolph 
 followed on in silence, admiring the neatness of this worthy 
 burgh ; for in those days Albany was in all its glory, and in- 
 habited almost exclusively by the descendants of the original 
 Dutch settlers, not having as yet been discovered and colonized 
 by the restless people of New England. Everything was 
 quiet and orderly ; everything was conducted calmly and lei- 
 surely ; no hurry, no bustle, no struggling and scrambling for 
 existence. The grass grew about the unpaved streets, and 
 relieved the eye by its refreshing verdure. Tall sycamores or 
 pendent willows shaded the houses, with caterpillars swinging. 
 
SoIpJ) l^egltBer. 127 
 
 in long silken strings, from their fine branches ; or moths 
 fluttering about lilie coxcombs, in joy at their gay transforma- 
 tion. The houses were built in the old Dutch style, with the 
 gable ends towards the street. The thrifty housewife was 
 seated on a bench before her door, in close-crimped cap, 
 bright flowered gown, and white apron, busily employed in 
 knitting. The husband smoked his pipe on the opposite 
 bench, and the little pet negro girl, seated on the step at her 
 mistress's feet, was industriously plying her needle. The 
 swallows sported about the eaves, or skimmed along the 
 streets, and brought back some rich booty for their clamorous 
 young ; and the little housekeeping wren flew in and out of a 
 Lilliputian house, or an old hat nailed against the wall. The 
 cows were coming home, lowing through the streets, to be 
 milked at their owner's door ; and if, perchance, there were 
 any loiterers, some negro urchin, with a long goad, was gently 
 urging them homewards. 
 
 As Dolph'g companion passed on, he received a tranquil nod 
 from the burghers, and a friendly word from their wives ; all 
 calling him familiarly by the name of Antony ; for it was the 
 custom in this stronghold of the patriarchs, where they had all 
 grown up together from childhood, to call each other by the 
 Christian name. The Heer did not pause to have his usual 
 jokes with them, for he was impatient to reach his home. At 
 length they arrived at his mansion. It was of some magni- 
 tude, in the Dutch style, with large iron figures on the gables, 
 that gave the date of its erection, and showed that it had been 
 built in the earliest times of the settlement. 
 
 The news of Heer Antony's arrival had preceded him, and 
 the whole household was on the look-out. A crew of negroes, 
 large and small, had collected in front of the house to receive 
 him. The old, white-headed ones, who had grown grey in 
 his service, grinned for joy, and made many awkward bows 
 and grimaces, and the little ones capered about his knees. But 
 the most happy being in the household was a little, plump, 
 blooming lass, his only child, and the darling of his heart. She 
 
128 aa3ooftoft§e|Huti20tt. 
 
 came bounding out of the house ; but the sight of a strange 
 young man with her father called up, for a moment, all the 
 bashfulness of a homebred damsel. Dolph gazed at her with 
 wonder and delight ; never had he seen, as he thought, any- 
 thing so comely in the shape of woman. She was dressed in 
 the good old Dutch taste, with long stays, and full, short pet- 
 ticoats, so admirably adapted to show and set off the female 
 form. Her hair, turned up under a small round cap, displayed 
 the fairness of her forehead ; she had fine, blue, laughing eyes ; 
 a trim, slender waist, and soft swell — but, in a word, she was 
 a little Dutch divinity ; and Dolph, who never stopped half-way 
 in a new impulse, fell desperately in love with her. 
 
 Dolph was now ushered into the house with a hearty wel- 
 come. In the interior was a mingled display of Heer Antony's 
 taste and habits, and of the opulence of his predecessors. The 
 chambers were furnished with good old mahogany ; the 
 beaufets and cupboards glittered with embossed silver and 
 painted china. Over the parlor fireplace was, as usual, the 
 family coat of arras, painted and framed : above which was a 
 long duck fowling-piece, flanked by an Indian pouch, and a 
 powder-horn. The room was decorated with many Indian 
 articles, such as pipes of peace, tomahawks, scalping-knives, 
 hunting-pouches, and belts of wampum ; and there were 
 various kinds of fishing-tackle, and two or three fowling- 
 pieces in the comers. The household affairs seemed to be 
 conducted, in some measure, after the masters humors ; cor- 
 rected, perhaps, by a little quiet management of the daughter's. 
 There was a great degree of patriarchal simplicity and good- 
 humored indulgence. The negroes came into the room with- 
 out being called, merely to look at their master, and hear of 
 his adventures ; they would stand listening at the door until he 
 had finished a story, and then go off on a broad grin, to 
 repeat it in the kitchen. A couple of pet negro children were 
 playing about the floor with the dogs, and sharing with them 
 their bread and butter. All the domestics looked hearty and 
 happy ; and when the table was set for the evening repast, the 
 
Bolpf) ?l.UEHscr. 129 
 
 variety and abundance of good household luxuries bore testi- 
 mony to the open-handed liberality of the Heer, and the no- 
 table housewifery of his daughter. 
 
 In the evening there dropped in several of the worthies of 
 the place, the Van Rennsellaers, and the Gansevoorts, and the 
 Rosebooms,and others of Antony Vander Heyden's intimates, to 
 hear an account of his expedition, for he was the Sindbad of 
 Albany, and his exploits and adventures were favorite topics of 
 conversation among the inhabitants. While these sat gossip- 
 ing together about the door of the hall, and telling long twilight 
 stories, Dolph was cosily seated, entertaining the daughter, on 
 a window bench. He had already got on intimate terms, for 
 those were not times of false reserve and idle ceremony ; and, 
 besides, there is something wonderfully propitious to a lover's 
 suit, in the delightful dusk, of a long summer evening, it 
 gives courage to the most timid tongue, and hides the blushes 
 oi" the bashful. The stars above twinkled brightly, and now 
 and then a firefly streamed his transient light before the win- 
 dow, or, wandering into the room, flew gleaming about the 
 ceiling. 
 
 What Dolph whispered in her ear that long summer even- 
 ing it is impossible to say ; his words were so low and 
 indistinct, that they never reached the ear of the historian. 
 It is probable, however, that they were to the purpose; for he 
 had a natural talent at pleasing the sex, and was never long in 
 company with a petticoat, without paying proper court to 
 it. 
 
 In the meantime the visitors, one by one, departed ; Antony 
 Vander Heyden, who had fairly talked himself silent, sat nodding 
 alone in his chair by the door, when he was suddenly aroused 
 by a hearty salute with which Dolph Heyliger had unguarded- 
 ly rounded off" o.ne of his periods, and which echoed through 
 the still chamber like the report of a pistol. The Heer start- 
 ed up, rubbed his eyes, called for lights, and observed that it 
 was high time to go to bed, though, on parting for the night, 
 he squeezed Dolph heartily by the hand, looked kindly in liis 
 
130 ^ 13oofe of tfje ?fe}uli20rt. 
 
 face, and shook his head knowingly, for the Hear well remem- 
 bered what he himself had been at the youngster's age. 
 
 The chamber in which our hero was lodged was spacious, 
 and panelled with oak. It was furnished with clothes-presses, 
 and mighty chests of drawers, well waxed, and glittering with 
 brass ornaments. These contained ample stock of family 
 linen, for the Dutch housewives had always a laudable pride 
 in showing off their household treasures to strangers. 
 
 Dolph's mind, however, was too full to take particular notice 
 of the objects around hun ; yet he could not help continually 
 comparing the free, open-hearted cheeriness of this establish- 
 ment, with the starveling, sordid, joyless housekeeping at Doc- 
 tor Knipperhausen's. Still something marred the enjoyment ; 
 the idea that he must take leave of his hearty host and pretty 
 hostess, and cast himself once more adrift upon the world. 
 To Imger here would be folly ; he should only get deeper in 
 love, and for a poor varlet, like hhnself, to aspire to the daugh- 
 ter of the great Heer Vander Heyden — it was madness to think 
 of such a thing. The very kindness that the girl had shown 
 towards him, prompted him, on reflection, to hasten his de- 
 parture ; it would be a poor return for the frank hospitality of 
 his host, to entangle his daughter's heart in an injudicious at- 
 tachment. In a word, Dolph was like many other young' 
 reasoners, of exceeding good hearts, and giddy heads, who 
 think after they act, and act differently from what they think ; 
 who make excellent determinations over night, and forget to 
 keep them the next morning. 
 
 " This is a fine conclusion, truly, of my voyage," said he, as 
 he almost buried himself in a sumptuous feather-bed, and drew 
 the fresh white sheets up to his chin. " Here am I, instead of 
 finding a bag of money to carry home, launched in a strange 
 place, wdth scarcely a stiver in my pocket, and, what is worse, 
 have jumped ashore up to my very ears in love into the bargain. 
 However," added he, after some pause, stretching himself, and 
 turning himself in bed, " I'm in good quarters for the present, 
 at least, so I'll e'en enjoy the present moment, and let the next 
 
 i 
 
J3olpij megltstr. 131 
 
 take care of itself; I dare say all will work out, * somehow or 
 other,' for the best." 
 
 As he said these words, he reached out his hand to extin- 
 guish the candle, when he was suddenly struck with astonish- 
 ment and dismay, for he thought he beheld the phantom of the 
 haunted house staring on him from a dusky part of the cham- 
 ber. A second look reassured him, as he perceived that what he 
 had taken for a spectre was, in fact, nothing but a Flemish 
 portrait, hanging in a shadowy corner, just behind a clothes- 
 press. It was, however, the precise representation of his night- 
 ly visitor. The same cloak and belted jerkin, the same 
 grizzled beard and fixed eye, the same broad* slouched hat, 
 with a feather hanging over one side. Dolph now called to 
 mind the resemblance he had frequently remarked between his 
 host and the old man of the haunted house, and was fully 
 convinced they were in some way connected, and that some 
 especial destiny had governed his voyage. He lay gazing on 
 the portrait with almost as much awe as he had gazed on the 
 ghostly original, until the shrill house-clock warned him of 
 the lateness of the hour. He put out the light, but remained 
 for a long time turning over these curious circumstances and 
 coincidences in his mind, until he fell asleep. His dreams par- 
 took of the nature orhis waking thoughts. He fancied that 
 he still lay gazing on the picture, until, by degrees, it became 
 ananated ; that the figure descended from the wall, and walk- 
 ed out of the room, that he followed it, and found himself by 
 the well, to which the old man pointed, smiled on him, and 
 disappeared. 
 
 In the morning, when he waked, he found his host standing 
 by his bedside, who gave him a hearty morning's salutation, and 
 asked him how he had slept. Dolph answered cheerily, but 
 took occasion to inquire about the portrait that himg against 
 the wall. " Ah," said Heer Antony, " that's a portrait of old 
 Killian Vander Spiegel, once a burgomaster of Amsterdam, 
 who, on some popular troubles, abandoned Holland, and camo, 
 over to the province during the government of Peter Stuyves'ant. 
 
132 a Soofe of tf)c ?lluoson. 
 
 He was my ancestor by the mother's side, and an old miserly 
 curmudgeon he was. When the English took possession of 
 New Amsterdam, in 1664, he retired into the country. He 
 fell into a melancholy, apprehending that his wealth would be 
 taken from him, and he come to beggary. He turned all his 
 property into cash, and used to hide it away. He was for a 
 year or two concealed in various places, fancying himself 
 sought after by the English, to strip him of his wealth ; and 
 finally was found dead in his bed one morning, without any one 
 being able to discover where he had concealed the greater part 
 of his money." 
 
 When his host had left the room, Dolph remained for some 
 time lost in thought. His whole mind was occupied by what 
 he had heard. Vander Spiegel was his mother's family name ; 
 and he recollected to have heard her speak of this veiy Killian 
 Vander Spiegel as one of her ancestors. He had heard her 
 say, too, that her father was Killian's rightful heir, only that 
 the old man died without leaving anything to be inherited. It 
 now appeared that Heer Antony was likewise a descendant, 
 and perhaps an heir, also, of this poor rich man, and that thus 
 the Heyligers and the Vander Heydens were remotely con- 
 nected. " What," thought he, " if, after all, this is the inter- 
 pretation of my dream, that this is the way I .am to make my 
 fortune by this voyage to Albany, and that I am to find the 
 old man's hidden wealth in the bottom of that well ? But 
 what an odd round-about mode of communicating the matter ! 
 Wliy the plague could not the old goblin have told me about 
 the well at once, without sending me all the way to Albany, 
 to hear a story that was to send me all the way back again ?" 
 
 These thoughts passed through his mind while he was 
 dressing. He descended the stairs, full of perplexity, when 
 the bright face of Marie Vander Heyden suddenly beamed in 
 smiles upon him, and seemed to give him a clue to the whole 
 mystery. " After all," thought he, " the old goblin is ia the 
 •right. If I am to get his wealth, he means that I shall marry 
 hie pretty descendant ; thus both branches of the family will be 
 
©olpf) %eQlistx. 133 
 
 again united, and the property go on in the proper chan- 
 nel." 
 
 No sooner did this idea enter his head, than it carried con- 
 viction with it. He was now all impatience to hurry back and 
 secure the treasure, which, he did not doubt, lay at the bottom 
 of" the well, and which he feared every moment might be 
 discovered by some other person. " Who knows," thought he, 
 " but this night-walking old fellow of the haunted house may 
 be in the habit of haunting every visitor, and may give a hint 
 to some shrewder fellow than myself, who will take a shorter 
 cut to the well than by the way of Albany ]" He wished a 
 thousand times that the babbling old ghost was laid in the Red 
 Sea, and his rambling portrait with him. He was in a perfect 
 fever to depart. Two or three days elapsed before any 
 opportunity presented for returning down the river. They 
 were ages to Dolph, notwithstanding that he was basking in 
 the smiles of the pretty Marie, and daily getting more and 
 more enamored. 
 
 At length the very sloop from which he had been knocked 
 overboard, prepared to make sail. Dolph made an awkward 
 apology to his host for his sudden departure. Antony Vander 
 Heyden was sorely astonished. He had concerted half a dozen 
 excursions into the wilderness ; and his Indians were actually 
 preparing for a grand expedition to one of the lakes. He took 
 Dolph aside, and exerted his eloquence to get him to abandon 
 all thoughts of business and to remain with him, but in vain ; 
 and he at length gave up the attempt, observing, " that it was a 
 thousand pities so fine a young man should throw himself 
 away." Heer Antony, however, gave him a hearty shake by 
 the hand at parting, with a favorite fowling-piece, and an 
 invitation to come to his house whenever he revisited Albany. 
 The pretty little Marie said nothing ; but as he gave her a 
 farewell kiss, her dimpled cheek turned pale, and a tear stood 
 in her eye. 
 
 Dolph sprang lightly on board of the vessel. They hoisted 
 sail ; the wind was fair ; they soon lost sight of Albanv, its 
 
154 "^ JSook of tfte ft^utiBon. 
 
 green hills, and embowered islands. They were wafted gaily 
 past the Kaatskill mountains, whose fairy heights were bright 
 and cloudless. They passed prosperously through the High- 
 lands, without any molestation from the Dunderberg goblin and 
 his crew ; they sv»^ept on across Haverstraw Bay, and by 
 Croton Point, and through the Tappaan Zee, and under the 
 Palisadoes, until, in the afternoon of the third day, they saw 
 the promontory of Hoboken, hanging like a cloud in the air ; 
 and, shortly after, the roofs of the Manhattoes rising out of the 
 water. 
 
 Dolph's first care was to repair to his mother's house ; for he 
 was continually goaded by the idea of the uneasiness she must 
 experience on his account. He was puzzling his brains, as he 
 went along, to think how he should account for his absence, 
 without betraying the secrets of the haunted house. In the 
 midst of these cogitations, he entered the street in which his 
 mother's house was situated, when he was thunderstruck at 
 beholding it a heap of ruins. 
 
 There had evidently been a great fire, which had destroyed 
 several large houses, and the humble dwelling of poor Dame 
 Heyliger had been involved in the conflagration. The walls 
 were not so completely destroyed, but that Dolph could 
 distinguish some traces of the scene of his childhood. The 
 fireplace, about which he had often played, still remained, 
 ornamented with Dutch tiles, illustrating passages in Bible 
 history, on which he had many a time gazed with admiration. 
 Among the rubbish lay the wreck of the good dame's elbow- 
 chair, from which she had given him so many a wholesome 
 precept ; and hard by it was the family Bible, with brass clasps ; 
 now, alas ! reduced almost to a cinder. 
 
 For a moment Dolph was overcome by this dismal sight, for 
 he was seized with the fear that his mother had perished in 
 the flames. He was relieved, however, from this horrible 
 apprehension, by one of the neighbors, who happened to come 
 by and informed him that his mother was yet alive. 
 
 The good woman had, indeed, lost everything by this 
 
©alpi) ^ZQliset. 135 
 
 unlocked for calamity ; for the populace had been so intent 
 upon saving the fine furniture of her rich neighbors, thut the 
 little tenement, and the little all of poor Dame Heyliger, had 
 been suffered to consume without interruption ; nay, had it not 
 been for the gallant assistance of her old crony, Peter de 
 Groodt, the worthy dame and her cat might have shared the 
 fate of their habitation. 
 
 As it was, she had been overcome with fright and affliction, 
 and lay ill in body and sick at heart. The public, however, 
 had showed her its vv^onted kindness. The furniture of her rich 
 neighbors being, as far as possible, rescued from the flames ; 
 themselves duly and ceremoniously visited and condoled with 
 on the injury of their property, and their ladies commiserated 
 on the agitation of their nerves ; the- public, at length, began to 
 recollect something about poor Dame Heyliger. She forthwith 
 became again a subject of universal sympathy ; everybody 
 pitied her more than ever ; and if pity could but have been 
 coined into cash — good Lord ! how rich she would have been ! 
 
 It w^as now determined, in good earnest, that something 
 ought to be done for her without delay. The Dominie, there- 
 fore, put up prayers for her on Sunday, in which all the 
 congregation joined most heartily. Even Cobus Groesbeek, 
 the alderman, and Mynheer Milledollar, the great Dutch 
 merchant, stood up in their pews, and did not spare their voices 
 on the occasion ; and it was thought the prayers of such great 
 men could not but have their due weight. Doctor Knipper- 
 hausen, too, visited her professionally, and gave her abundance 
 of advice gratis, and was universally lauded for his charity. 
 As to iftr old friend, Peter de Groodt, he was a poor man, 
 whose pity, and prayers, and advice, could be of but little 
 avail, so he gave her all that was in his power — he gave her 
 shelter. 
 
 To the humble dwelling of Peter de Groodt, then, did Dolph 
 turn his steps. On his way thither, he recalled all the tender- 
 ness and kindness of his sunple-hearted parent, her indulgence 
 of his errors, her blindness to his faults ; and then he bethought 
 
136 ^ 33ooft of tfjc ^Mtsaon. 
 
 himself of his own idle, harum-scarum life. " I've been a sad 
 scapegrace," said Dolph, shaking his head sorrowfully. " I've 
 been a complete sink-pocket, that'9 the tmth of it ! — But," 
 added he briskly, and clasping his hands, '* only let her live — 
 only let her live — and I'll show myself indeed a son !" 
 
 As Dolph approached the house he met Peter de Groodt 
 coming out of it. The old man started back aghast, doubting 
 whether it was not a ghost that stood before him. It being 
 bright daylight, however, Peter soon plucked up heart, satisfied 
 that no ghost dare show his face in such clear sunshine. Dolph 
 now learned from the worthy sexton the consternation and 
 rumor to which his mysterious disappearance had given rise. 
 It had been universally believed that he had been spirited away 
 by those hobgoblin gentry that infested the haunted house ; and 
 old Abraham Vandozer, who lived by the great buttonwood 
 trees, near the three-mile stone, affirmed, that he had heard a 
 terrible noise in the air, as he was going home late at night, 
 which seemed just as if a flock of wild-geese were overhead, 
 passing off" towards the northward. The haunted house was, 
 in consequence, looked upon with ten times more awe than 
 ever ; nobody would venture to pass a night in it for the 
 world, and even the doctor had ceased to make 'his expedition.? 
 to it in the daytime. 
 
 It required some preparation before Dolph's return could be 
 made known to his mother, the poor soul having bewailed him 
 as lost ; and her spirits having been sorely broken down by a 
 number of comforters, who daily cheered her with stories of 
 ghosts, and of people carried away by the devil. He found her 
 confined to her bed, with the other member of the xleyliger 
 family, the good dame's cat, purruig beside her, but sadly 
 singed, and utterly despoiled of those whiskers which were the 
 glory of her physiognomy. The poor woman threw her arms 
 about Dolph's neck : " My boy ! my boy ! art thou still 
 alive V For a time she seemed to have forgotten all her 
 losses and troubles in her joy at his return. Even the sage 
 grimalkin showed indubitable signs of joy at- the return of the 
 
©olpf) ?^ealiger. 137 
 
 youngster. She saw, perhaps, that they were a forlorn and 
 undone family,and felt a touch of that kindliness which fellow- 
 sufferers only know. But, in tnath, cats are a slandered 
 people ; they have more affection in them than the world com- 
 monly gives them credit for. 
 
 The good dame's eyes glistened as she saw one being, at 
 least, beside herself, rejoiced at her son's return. " Tib knows 
 thee ! poor dumb beast !" said she, smoothing down the 
 mottled coat of her favorite ; then recollecting herself, with a 
 melancholy shake of the head, " Ah, my poor Dolph !" ex- 
 claimed she, " thy mother ctyi help thee no longer ! She can 
 no longer help herself! What will become of thee, my poor 
 boy !" 
 
 " Mother," said Dolph, " don't talk in that strain ; I've been 
 too long a charge upon you ; it's now my part to take care 
 of you in your old days. Come ! be of good heart ! you, and 
 I, and Tib will all see better days. I'm here, you see, young, 
 and sound, and hearty ; then don't let us despair ; I dare say 
 things will all, somehow or other, turn out for the best." 
 
 While this scene was going on with the Heyliger family, the 
 news was carried to Doctor Knipperhausen, of the safe return 
 of his disciple. The little doctor scarce knew whether to 
 rejoic'e or be sorry at the tidings. He was happy at having the 
 foul reports which had prevailed concerning his country 
 mansion thus disproved ; but he grieved at having his disciple, 
 of whom he had supposed himself fairly disencumbered, thus 
 drifting back, a heavy charge upon his hands. While balancing 
 between these two feelings, he was determined by the counsels 
 of Frail Il.-y, who advised him to take advantage of the truant 
 absence of the youngster, and shut the door upon him ibr 
 ever. 
 
 At the hour of bed-time, therefore, when it was supposed the 
 recreant disciple would seek his old quarters, everything was 
 prepared for his reception. Dolph, having talked his mother 
 into a state of tranquillity, sought the mansion of his quondam 
 master, and raised the knocker with a faltering hand. Scarcely, 
 
138 ^ Sooft of tf)e |i?ut;son. 
 
 however, had it given a dubious rap, when the doctoi-'s head, 
 m a red night-cap, popped out of one window, and the 
 housekeepers, in a white night-cap, out of another. He was 
 now greeted with a tremendous volley of hard names and hard 
 language, mingled with invaluable pieces of advice, such as 
 u:e :el(lom ventured to be given excepting to a friend in dis- 
 t.c; :•, or a culprit at the bar. In a few moments, not a window 
 ill t'le street but had its particular night-cap, listening to tiie 
 thr.li treble of Frau Ilsy, and the guttural croaking of Dr. 
 Kiiipperhausen ; and the word went from window to window, 
 " Ah ! here's Dolph Heyliger corne back, and at his old pranks 
 a jHii." In short, poor Dolph found he was likely to get 
 loilung from the doctor but good advice, a commodity so 
 al)uii(!ant as even to be thrown out of the window ; so he was 
 i'.i.n to beat a retreat, and take up his quarters for "the night 
 under the lowly roof of honest Peter de Groodt. 
 
 The next morning, bright and early, Dolph was out at the 
 Imuiitcd house. Everything looked just as he had left it. The 
 Lf'J.5 were grass-grown and matted, and appeared as if nobody 
 had traversed them since his departure. With palpitating heart 
 he hastened to the well. He looked down into it, and sav/ 
 t'i;vt it was of great depth, with w^ater at the bottom. He had 
 piovided himself with a strong line, such as the fishermen use 
 1 ihe banks of Newfoundland. At the end was a heavy 
 plummet and a large fish-hook! With this he began to sound 
 the bottom of the well, and to angle about in the water. The 
 water was of some depth ; there was also much rubbish, stones 
 from the top having fallen in. Several times his hook got en- 
 tangled, and he came near breaking his line. Now and then, 
 too, he hauled up mere trash, such as the skull of a horse, an 
 iron hoop, and a shattered iron-bound bucket. He had now 
 been several hours employed without finding anything to repay 
 his trouble, or to encourage him to proceed. He began to 
 think himself a great fool, to be thus decoyed into a wild-goose- 
 chase by mere dreams, and was on the point of throwing line 
 and all into the well, and giving up all further anghng. 
 
©olpf) l^eaHfler. 139 
 
 " One more cast of the line," said he, " and that shall be 
 the last." As he sounded, he felt the plummet slip, as it were 
 through the interstices of loose stones ; and as he drew back 
 the line, he felt that the hook had taken hold of something 
 heavy. He had to manage his line with great caution, lest it 
 should be broken by the strain upon it. By degrees the rubbirli 
 which lay upon the article he had hooked gave way ; he drew 
 it to the surface of the water, and what was his rapture at seeing 
 something like silver glittering at the end of his line ! Almo. t 
 breathless with anxiety, he drew it up to the mouth of the well, 
 surprised at its great weight, and fearing every mstant that liis 
 hook would slip from its hold, and his prize tumble again to 
 the bottom. At length he landed it safe beside the well. It 
 was a great silver porringer, of an ancient form, richly em- 
 bossed, and with armorial bearings engraved on its side, simi- 
 lar to' those over his mother's mantel-piece. The lid was fa.-- 
 teried down by several twists of wire ; Dolph loosened them 
 with a trembling hand, and, on lifting the lid, behold ! the vesetl 
 was filled with broad golden pieces, of a coinage which he had 
 never seen before. It was evident he had lit on the place 
 where Killian Vander Spiegel had concealed his treasure. 
 
 Fearful of being seen by some straggler, he cautiously re-, 
 tired, and buried his pot of money in a secret place. He now 
 spread terrible stories about the haunted house, and deterred 
 every one from approaching it, while he made frequent visits to 
 it in stormy days, when no one was stirring in the neighboring 
 fields ; though, to tell the truth, he did not care to venture there 
 in the dark. For once in his life he was diligent and indus- 
 trious, and followed up his new trade of angling with such per- 
 severance and success, that in a little while he had hooked up 
 wealth enough to make him, in those moderate days, a rich 
 burgher for life. 
 
 It would be tedious to detail minutely the rest of this story. 
 To tell how he gradually managed to bring his property into 
 use without exciting surprise and inquiry — how he satisfied all 
 scruples with regard to retaining the property, and at the same 
 
140 SI aSaok of tf)f ?^ulr8on. 
 
 time gratified his own feelings, by marrying the pretty Marie 
 Vander Heyden — and how he and Heer Antony had many a 
 merry and roving expedition together. 
 
 I must not omit to say, however, that Dolph took his mother 
 home to live with him, and cherished her in her old days. The 
 good dame, too, had the satisfaction of no longer hearing 
 her son made the theme of censure ; on the contrary, he grew 
 daily in public esteem; everybody spoke well of him and 
 his wines ; and the lordliest burgomaster was never known to 
 decline his invitation to dinner. Dolph often related, at his 
 own table, the wicked pranks which had once been the abhor- 
 rence of the town ; but they were now considered excellent 
 jokes, and the gravest dignitary was fain to hold his sides when 
 listening to them. No one was more struck with Dolph's in- 
 creasing merit than his old master the doctor ; and so forgiv- 
 ing was Dolph, that he absolutely employed the doctor as his 
 family physician, only taking care that his prescriptions should 
 be always thrown out of the window. His mother had often 
 her junto of old cronies to take a snug cup of tea with her m 
 her comfortable little parlor ; and Peter de Groodt, as he sat by 
 the fireside, with one of her grandchildren on his knee, would 
 many a time congratulate her upon her son turning out so great 
 a man ; upon which the good old soul would wag her head 
 with exultation, and exclaim, " Ah, neighbor, neighbor ! did I 
 not say that Dolph would one day or other hold up his head 
 with the best of them V 
 
 Thus did Dolph Heyliger go on, cheerily and prosperously, 
 growing merrier as he grew older and wiser, and completely 
 falsifying the old proverb about money got over the devil's 
 back ; for he made good use of his wealth, and became a dis- 
 tinguished citizen, and a valuable member of the community. 
 He was a great promoter of public institutions, such as beef- 
 steak societies and catch-clubs. He presided at all public din- 
 ners, and was the first that introduced turtle from the West 
 Indies. He improved the breed of race-horses and game-cocks, 
 and was so great a patron of modest merit, that any one who 
 
Solpf) %enUQex. 141 
 
 could sing a good song, or tell a good story, was sure to find 
 a place at his -table. 
 
 He was a member, too, of the corporation, made several laws 
 for the protection of game and oysters, and bequeathed to the 
 board a large silver punch-bowl, made out of the identical por- 
 ringer before mentioned, and which is in the possession of the 
 corporation to this very day. 
 
 Finally, he died, in a florid old age, of an apoplexy at a cor- 
 poration feast, and was buried with great honors in the yard of 
 the little Dutch church in Garden-street, where his tombstone 
 may still be seen, with a modest epitaph in Dutch, by his friend 
 Mynheer Justus Benson, an ancient and excellent poet of the 
 province. 
 
 The foregoing tale rests on better authority than most tales 
 of the kind, as I have it at second hand from the lips of Dolph 
 Heyliger himself. He never related it till towards the latter 
 part of his life, and then in great confidence (for he was very 
 discreet), to a few of his particular cronies at his own table, 
 over a supernumerary bowl of punch ; and strange as the hob- 
 goblin parts of the story may seem, there never was a single 
 doubt expressed on the subject by any of his guests. It may 
 not be -amiss, before concluding, to observe that, in addition to 
 his other accomplishments, Dolph Heyliger was noted for being 
 the ablest drawer of the long-bow in the whole province. 
 
143 ^ 33oo{t of tite f^utrson. 
 
 RIP VAN WINKLE. 
 
 By Woden, God of Saxons, 
 
 From whence comes Wensday, that is Wodensday. 
 
 Truth is a thing that ever I will keep 
 
 Unto thylke day in which 1 creep into 
 
 My sepulchre 
 
 Cartwright. 
 
 Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember 
 the Kaatskill mountains. They are a dismembered branch of 
 the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west 
 of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over 
 the surrounding country. Every change of season, every 
 change of weather, indeed every hour of the day, produces 
 some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, 
 and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as 
 perfect barometers. When the weather is fair and settled, 
 they are clothed in blue and purple, and print their bold 
 outlines on the clear evening sky ; but sometimes, when the 
 rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will gather a hood of 
 grey vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the 
 setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory. 
 
 At the foot of these fairy mountains, the voyager may have 
 descried the light smoke curling up from a village, whose 
 shingle-roofs gleam among the trees, just where the blue tmts 
 of the upland melt away into the fresh green of the nearer 
 landscape. It is a little village of great antiquity, having been 
 founded by some of the Dutch colonists in the early times of 
 tlio province, just about the beginning of the government of the 
 good Peter Stuyvesant (may he rest in peace !), and there were 
 some of the houses of the original settlers standing within a 
 few years, built of small yellow bricks brought from Holland, 
 
Btp Fan Jimin'SlE. 143 
 
 having latticed windows and gable fronts, sunnounted with 
 weathercocks. 
 
 In that same village, and in one of these very houses 
 (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and 
 weather-beaten), there lived many years since, while the 
 country was yet a province of Great Britain, a simple, good- 
 natured fellow, of the name of Rip Van Winkle. He was a 
 descendant of the Van Winkles who figured so gallantly in the 
 chivalrous days of Peter Stuyvesant, and accompanied him to 
 the siege of Fort Christina. He inherited, however, but little 
 of the martial character of his ancestors. I have observed that 
 he was a simple, good-natured man ; he was, moreover, a kind 
 neighbor, and an obedient, hen-pecked husband. Indeed, to 
 the latter circumstance might be owing that meekness of spirit 
 which gained him such universal popularity ; for those men are 
 most apt to be obsequious and conciliating abroad, who are 
 under the discipline of shrews at home. Their tempers, 
 doubtless, are rendered pliant and malleable in the fiery*furnace 
 of domestic tribulation, and a curtain lecture is worth all the 
 sermons in the world for teaching the virtues of patience and 
 long-suffering. A termagant wife may, therefore, in some 
 respects, be considered a tolerable blessing ; and if so. Rip Van 
 Winkle was thrice blessed. 
 
 Certain it is, that he was a great favorite among all the good 
 wives of the village, who, as usual with. the amiable sex, took 
 his part in all family squabbles ; and never failed, whenever 
 they talked those matters over in their evening gossipings, to 
 lay all the blame on Dame Van Winkle. The children of the 
 village, too, would shout with joy whenever he approached. 
 He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them 
 to fly kites and shoot marbles, and told them long stories of 
 ghosts, witches, and Indians. Whenever he went dodging 
 about the village, he was surrounded by a tro6p of them, hang- 
 ing on his skirts, clambering on his back, and playing a thousand 
 tricks on him with impunity ; and not a dog would bark at him 
 throughout the neighborhood. 
 
144 ^ 33ook of tfje f^utison. 
 
 The great error in Rip's composition was an insuperable 
 aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. It could not be from 
 the want of assiduity or perseverance ; for he would sit on a 
 wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar's lance, 
 and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not 
 be encouraged by a single nibble. He would carry a fowling- 
 piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging through 
 woods and swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few 
 squirrels or wild pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a 
 neighbor even in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man at 
 all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or building stone- 
 fences; the women of the village, too, used to employ him to 
 run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs as their less 
 obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word Rip was 
 ready to attend to anybody's business but his own ; but as to 
 doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it 
 impossible. 
 
 In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his farm ; it 
 was the most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole 
 country ; everything about it went wrong, and would go 
 wrong, in spite of him. His fences were continually falling to 
 pieces ; his cow would either go astray, or get among the cab- 
 bages ; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields than any- 
 where else ; the rain always made a point of setting in just as 
 he had some out-door work to do ; so that though his patrimo- 
 nial estate had dwindled away under his management, acre by 
 acre, until there was little more left than a mere patch of Indian 
 corn and potatoes, yet it was the worst conditioned farm in the 
 neighborhood. 
 
 His children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they be- 
 longed to nobody. His son Rip, an urchin begotten in his own 
 likeness, promised to inherit the habits, with the old clothes of 
 his father. He was generally seen trooping like a colt at his 
 mother's heels, equipped in a pair of his father's cast-ofF galligas- 
 kins, which he had much ado to hold up with one hand, as a fine 
 lady does her train in bad weather. 
 
iaijj Fan £2IinkU. 145 
 
 Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, 
 of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat 
 white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought 
 or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for 
 a pound. If left to himself, he would have whistled life away 
 in perfect contentment ; but his wife kept continually dinning 
 in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he 
 was biinging on his family. Morning, noon, and night, her 
 tongue was incessantly going, and everythmg he said or did 
 was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence. Rip 
 had but one way of replying to all lectures of the kind, and 
 that, by frequent use, had grown into a habit. He shrugged his 
 shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothmg. 
 This, however, always provoked a fresh volley from his wife ; 
 so that he was fain to draw off his forces, and take to the out- 
 side of the house — the only side which, in truth, belongs to a 
 hen-pecked husband. 
 
 Rip's sole domestic adherent was his dog Wolf, who was as 
 much hen-pecked as his master ; for dame Van Winkle regard- 
 ed them as companions in idleness, and even looked upon 
 Wolf with an evil eye, as the cause of his master's going so 
 often astray. True it is, in all points of spirit befitting an 
 honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal as ever scoured 
 the woods — but what courage can withstand the ever-during 
 and all-besetting terrors of a woman's tongue 1 The moment 
 Wolf entered the house his crest fell, his tail drooped to the 
 ground or curled between his legs, he sneaked about with a 
 gallows air, casting many a sidelong glance at Dame Van 
 Winkle, and at the least flourish of a broomstick or ladle, he 
 would fly to the door with yelping precipitation. 
 
 Times grew worse and worse with Rip Van Winkle as years 
 of matrimony rolled on ; a tart temper never mellows with age, 
 and a sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener 
 with constant use. For a long while he used to console him- 
 self, when driven from home, by frequenting a kind of perpetual 
 club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle persona^jes of the 
 
146 3 Uoofe of ti)e %\ul3san. 
 
 village ; which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn, 
 designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty George the 
 Third. Here they used to sit in the shade through a long lazy 
 summer's day, talking listlessly over village gossip, or telling 
 endless sleepy stories about nothing. But it would have been 
 worth any statesman's money to have heard the profound dis- 
 cussions that sometimes took place, when by chance an old 
 newspaper fell into their hands from some passing traveller. 
 How solemnly they would listen to the contents, as drawled 
 out by Derrick Van Bummel, the schoolmaster, a dapper learned 
 little man, who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic 
 word in the dictionary ; and how sagely they would deliberate 
 upon public events some months after they had taken place. 
 
 The opinions of this junto were completely controlled by 
 Nicholas Vedder, a patriarch of the village, and landlord of the 
 inn, at the door of which he took his seat from morning till 
 night, just moving sufficiently to avoid the sun and keep in the 
 shade of a large tree ; so that the neighbors could tell the hour 
 by his movements as accurately as by a sun-dial. It is true he 
 was rarely heard to speak, but smoked his pipe incessantly. 
 His adherents, however (for every great man has his adherents), 
 perfectly understood him, and knew how to gather his opinions. 
 When anything that was read or related displeased him, he 
 was observed to smoke his pipe vehemently, and to send forth 
 short, frequent, and angiy puffs ; but when pleased, he would 
 inhale the smoke slowly and tranquilly, and emit it in light and 
 placid clouds ; and sometimes, taking the pipe from his mouth, 
 and letting the fragrant vapor curl about his nose, would gravely 
 nod his head in token of perfect approbation. 
 
 From even this stronghold the unlucky Rip was at length 
 routed by his termagant wife, who would suddenly break in 
 upon the tranquillity of the assemblage and call the members 
 all to naught ; nor was that august personage, Nicholas Vedder 
 himself, sacred from the daring tongue of this terrible virago, 
 who charged him outright with encouraging her husband in 
 habits of idleness. 
 
aaip Fan tijaiiifelc. 147 
 
 Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair ; and his only 
 alternative, to escape from the labor of the farm and clamor of his 
 wife, was to take gim in hand and stroll away into the woods. 
 Here he would sometimes seat himself at the foot of a tree, and 
 share the contents of his wallet with Wolf, with whom he 
 sympathized as a fellow-sufferer in persecution. " Poor Wolf,' 
 he would say, " thy mistress leads thee a dog's life of it ; liut 
 never mind, my lad, whilst I live thou shalt never want a iiiend 
 to stand by thee!" Wolf would wag his tail, look wistfully in 
 his master's face, and if dogs can feel pity, I verily believe he 
 reciprocated the sentiment with all his heart. 
 
 In a long ramble of the kind on a fine autumnal day. Rip 
 had unconsciously scrambled to one of the highest parts of the 
 Kaatbkill mountains. He was alter his favorite sport of squir- 
 rel shooting, and the still solitudes had echoed and re-echoed 
 with the reports of his gun. Panting and fatigued, he threw 
 himself, late in the afternoon, on a green knoll, covered with 
 mountain herbage, that crowned the brow of a precipice. From 
 an opening between the trees he could overlook all the lower 
 country for many a mile of rich woodland. He saw at a dis- 
 tance the lordly Hudson, far, far below him, moving on its 
 silent but majestic course, with the reflection of a purple 
 cloud, or the sail of a lagging bark, here and there sleeping 
 on its glassy bosom, and at last losing itself in the blue 
 highlands. 
 
 On the other side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, 
 wild, lonely, and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments 
 from the impending cliffs, and scarcely lighted by the reflected 
 rays of the setting sun. For some time Rip lay musing on 
 this scene ; evening was gradually advancing ; the mountains 
 began to throw their long blue shadows over the valleys ; he 
 saw that it would be dark long before he could reach the vil- 
 lage, and he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of encoun- 
 tering the terrors of Dame Van. Winkle. 
 
 As he was about to descend, he heard a voice from a dis- 
 tance, hallooing, " Rip Van Winkle ! Rip Van Winkle !" He 
 
148 ^ ISoofe of t\)e %\ut}s an. 
 
 looked round, but could see nothing but a crow winging its 
 solitary flight across the mountain. He thought his fancy 
 must have deceived him, and turned again to descend, when he 
 heard the same cry ring through the still evening air ; " Rip 
 Van Winkle ! Rip Van Winkle !" — at the same time Wolf 
 bristled up his back, and, giving a low growl, skulked to his 
 mastei-'s side, looking fearfully down into the glen. Rip now 
 felt a vague apprehension stealing over him ; he looked 
 anxiously in the same direction, and perceived a strange ligm-e 
 slowly toiling up the rocks, and bending under the weight ol' 
 something he carried on his back. He was surprised to see any 
 human being in this lonely and unfrequented place, but sup- 
 posing it to be some one of the neighborhood in need of his 
 assistance, he hastened down to jdeld it. 
 
 On nearer approach he was still more surprised at the sin- 
 gularity of the stranger's appearance. He was a short square 
 built old fellow, with thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard. 
 His dress was of the antique Dutch fashion — a cloth jerkin 
 strapped round the waist — several pair of breeches, the outer 
 one of ample volume, decorated with rows of buttons down 
 the sides, and bunches at the knees. He bore on his shoulder 
 a stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip 
 to approach and assist him with the load. Though rather shy 
 and distrustful of this new acquaintance. Rip complied with his 
 usual alacrity, and mutually relieving each other, they clam- 
 bered up a narrow gully, apparently the dry bed of a mountain 
 torrent. As they ascended. Rip every now and then heard 
 long rolling peals, like distant thunder, that seemed to issue out 
 of a deep ravine, or rather cleft, between lofty rocks, towards 
 which their rugged path conducted. He paused for an instant, 
 but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those transient 
 thunder-showers which often take place in mountain heights, 
 he proceeded. Passing through the ravine, they came to a 
 hollow, like a small amphitheatre, surrounded by perpendicular 
 precipices, over the brinks of which impending trees shot their 
 branches, so that you only caught glimpses of the azure sky 
 
3?. tp Fan (iminfelc. 149 
 
 and the bright evening cloud. During the whole time Rip and 
 his companion had labored on in silence, for though the former 
 mai-velled greatly what <;ould be the object of carrying a keg 
 of liquor up this wild mountain, yet there was something 
 strange and incomprehensible about the unknown, that inspired 
 awe and checked familiarity. 
 
 On entering the amphitheatre, new objects of wonder pre- 
 sented themselves. On a level spot in the centre was a com- 
 pany of odd-looking personages playing at ninepins. They 
 were dressed in a quaint outlandish fashion ; some wore short 
 doublets, others jerkins, with long knives in their belts, and 
 mo&t of them had enormous breeches, of similar style with 
 that of the guide's. Their visages, too, were peculiar ; one 
 had a large head, broad face, and small piggish eyes ; the face 
 of another seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was sur- 
 mounted by a white sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little red 
 cock's tail. They all had beards, of various shapes and 
 colors. There was one who seemed to be the commander. 
 He was a stout old gentleman, with a weather-beaten coun- 
 tenance ; he wore a laced doublet, broad belt and hanger, high 
 crowned hat and feather, red stockings, and high-heeled shoes, 
 with roses in them. The whole group reminded Rip of the 
 figures in an old Flemish painting, in the parlor of Dominie 
 Van Shaick, the village parson, and which had been brought 
 over from Holland at the time of the settlement. 
 
 What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that though 
 these folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they main- 
 tained the gravest fiices, the most mysterious silence, and were, 
 withal, the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever 
 witnessed. Nothing interrupted the stillness of the scene but 
 the noise of the balls, which, whenever they were rolled, 
 echoed along the mountains like rumbling peals of thunder. 
 
 As Rip and his companion approached them, they sudden- 
 ly desisted from their play, and gazed at him with such fi.xed 
 statue-like gaze, and such strange, uncouth, lack-lustre coun- 
 tenances, that his heart turned within him, and his knees smote 
 
150 ^ Booft of tfK fjutiaon. 
 
 together. His companion now emptied the contents of the keg 
 into large flagons, and made signs to him to wait upon the 
 company. He obeyed with fear and trembling ; they quaffed 
 the liquor in profound silence, and then returned to their 
 game. 
 
 By degrees Rip's awe and apprehension subsided. He even 
 ventured, when no eye was fixed upon him, to taste the beverage, 
 which he found had much of the flavor of excellent Hollands. 
 He was naturally a thirsty soul, and was soon tempted to re- 
 peat the draught. One taste provoked another, and he re- 
 iterated his visits to the flagon so often that at length his senses 
 were overpowed, his eyes swam in his head, his head gradually 
 declined, and he fell into a deep sleep. 
 
 On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he 
 had first seen the old man of the glen. He rubbed his eyes — 
 it was a bright sunny morning. The birds were hopping and 
 twittering among the bushes, and the eagle was wheeling aloft, 
 and breasting the pure mountain breeze. •' Surely," thought 
 Rip, " I have not slept here all night." He recalled the oc- 
 currences before he fell asleep. The strange man with a keg 
 of liquor — the mountain ravine — the wild retreat among the 
 rocks — the wo-begone party at ninepins — the flagon — " Oh ! 
 that flagon ! that wicked flagon !" thought Rip — ** what excuse 
 shall I make to Dame Van Winkle 1" 
 
 He looked round for his gun, but in place of the clean well- 
 oiled fowling-piece, he found an old firelock lying by him, the 
 barrel incrusted with rust, the lock falling off", and the stock 
 worm-eaten. He now suspected that the grave roisterers of the 
 mountain had put a trick upon him, and, having dosed him 
 with liquor, had robbed him of his gun. Wolf, too, had 
 disappeared, but he might have strayed away after a squirrel or 
 partridge. He whistled after him and shouted his name, but all 
 in vain ; the echoes repeated his whistle and shout, but no dog 
 was to be seen. 
 
 He determined to revisit the scene of the last evening's 
 gambol, and if he met with any of the party, to demand his 
 
Btp 17 an Wiinklt. 151 
 
 dog and gun. As he rose to walk, he found hhnself etiff'in the 
 joints, and wanting in his usual activity. " These mountain 
 beds do not agree with n*e," thought Rip, " and if this frolic 
 should lay ine up with a lit of the rheumatism, I shall have a 
 blessed time with Dame Van Winkle." With some difficulty 
 lie got down into the glen : he found the gully up which he and 
 his companion had ascended the preceding evening ; but to his 
 astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming down it, 
 leaping from rock to rock, and filling the glen with babbling 
 murmurs. He, however, made shift to scramble up its sides, 
 working his toilsome way through thickets of birch, sassafras, 
 and witch-hazel, and sometimes tripped up or entangled by the 
 wild grapevines that twisted their coils or tendrils from tree to 
 tree, and spread a kind of net- work in his path. 
 
 At length he reached to where the ravine had opened 
 through the cliffs to the amphitheatre ; but no traces of such 
 opening remained. The rocks presented a high impenetrable 
 wall, over which the torrent came tumbling in a sheet of 
 feathery foam, and fell into a broad deep basin, black from the 
 shadows of the surrounding forest. Here, then, poor Rip was 
 brought to a stand. He again called and whistled after his 
 dog ; he was only answered by the cawing of a flock of idle 
 crows, sporting high in air about a dry tree that overhung a 
 sunny precipice ; and who, secure in their elevation, seemed to 
 look down and scoff at the poor man's perplexities. What 
 was to be done ? the morning was passing away, and Rip felt 
 famished for want of his breakfast. He grieved to give up his 
 dog and gun ; he dreaded to meet his wife ; but it would not do 
 to starve among the mountains. He shook his head, shoulder- 
 ed the rusty firelock, and, with a heart full of trouble and 
 anxiety, turned his steps homeward. 
 
 As he approached the village he met a number of people, but 
 none whom he knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he 
 hud thought himself acquainted with every one in the country 
 round. Their dress, too, was of a different fashion from that 
 to which he was accustomed. They all stared at him with 
 
152 ^ 33ooit of tfjel^uligon. 
 
 equal marks of surprise, and whenever they cast their eyes upon 
 him, invariably stroked their chins. The constant recurrence 
 of this gesture induced Rip, involiJntarily, to do the same, 
 when, to his astonishment, he found his beard had grown a foot 
 long! 
 
 He had now entered the skirts of the village. A troop of 
 strange children ran at his heels, hooting after him, and point- 
 ing at his greybeard. The dogs, too, not one of which he 
 recognised for an old acquaintance, barked at him as he passed. 
 The very village was altered ; it was larger and more populous. 
 There were rows of houses which he had never seen before, 
 and those which had been his familiar haunts had disappeared. 
 Strange names were over the doors — strange faces at the 
 windows — everything was strange. His mind now misgave 
 him ; he began to doubt whether both he and the world around 
 him were not bewitched. Surely this was his native village, 
 which he had left but the day before. There stood the Kaat- 
 skill mountains — there ran the silver Hudson at a distance — 
 there was every hill and dale precisely as it had always been — 
 Rip was sorely perplexed — ^" That flagon last night," thought 
 he, " has addled my poor head sadly !" 
 
 It was with some difficulty that he found his way to his own 
 house, which he approached with silent awe, expecting every 
 moment to hear the shrill voice of Dame Van Winkle. He 
 found the house gone to decay — the roof fallen in, the win- 
 dows shattered, and the doors oflT the hinges. A half-starved 
 dog that looked like Wolf was skulking about it. Rip called 
 him by name, but the cur snarled, showed his teeth, and passed 
 on. This was an unkind cut indeed — " My very dog," sighed 
 poor Rip, " has forgotten me !" 
 
 He entered the house, which, to tell the truth. Dame Van 
 Winkle had always kept in neat order. It was empty, forlorn, 
 and apparently abandoned. This desolateness overcame all his 
 connubial fears — he called loudly for his wife and children — 
 the lonely chambers rang for a moment with his voice, and 
 then all again was silence. 
 
aftip Fan WLinhlt. 153 
 
 He now hurried forth, and hastened to his old resort, the 
 village inn — but it too was gone. A large rickety wooden 
 building stood in its place, with great gaping windows, some 
 of them broken and mended with old hats and petticoats, and 
 over the door was painted, " The Union Hotel, by Jonathan 
 Doolittle." Instead of the great tree that used to shelter the 
 quiet little Dutch inn of yore, there now was reared a tall 
 naked pole, with something on the top that looked like a red 
 night-cap, and from it was fluttering a flag, on which was a 
 singular assemblage of stars and stripes — all this was strange 
 and incomprehensible. He recognised on the sign, however, 
 the ruby face of King George, under which he had smoked so 
 many a peaceful pipe ; but even this was singularly metamor- 
 phosed. The red coat was changed for one of blue and buff, 
 a sword was held in the hand instead of a sceptre, the head 
 was decorated with a cocked hat, and underneath was painted 
 in large characters. General Washington. 
 
 There was, as usual, a crowd of folk about the door, but 
 none that Rip recollected. The very character of the people 
 seemed changed. There was a busy, bustling, disputatious tone 
 about it, instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy tran- 
 quillity. He looked in vain for the sage Nicholas Vedder, with 
 his broad face, double chin, and fair long pipe, uttering clouds 
 of tobacco-smoke instead of idle speeches, or Van Bummel, 
 the schoolmaster, doling forth the contents of an ancient news- 
 paper. In place of these, a lean, bilious-looking fellow, with 
 his pockets full of handbills, was haranguing vehemently 
 about rights of citizens — elections — ^members of congress — 
 liberty — Bunker's Hill — heroes of seventy-six — and other 
 words, which were a perfect Babylonish jargon to the bewil- 
 dered Van Winkle. 
 
 The appearance of Rip, with his long grizzled beard, his 
 rufty fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women 
 and children at his heels, soon attracted the attention of the 
 tavern politicians. They crowded round him, eyeing him from 
 head to foot with great curiosity. The orator bustled up to 
 
154 ^ !3oo{t oftfje l^uUgon, 
 
 him, and, drawing him partly aside, inquired " on which side 
 he voted V Rip stared in vacant stupidity. Another short 
 but busy httle fellow pulled him by the arm, and, rising on tip- 
 toe, inquired in his ear, *' Whether he was Federal or Demo- 
 crat V Rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question, 
 when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp 
 cocked hat, made his way through the crowd, putting them to 
 right and left with his elbows as he passed, aud planting him- 
 self before Van Winkle, with one arm a-kimbo, the other 
 resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, as 
 it were, into his very soul, demanded in an austere tone, 
 " what brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, 
 and a mob at his heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot 
 in the village V " Alas ! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat 
 dismayed, " I am a poor, quiet man, a native of the place, and 
 a loyal subject of the king, God bless him !" 
 
 Here a general shout burst from the bystanders — " A tory ! 
 a tory ! a spy ! a refugee ! hustle him ! away with him !" It 
 was with great difficulty that the self-important man in the 
 cocked hat restored order ; and, having assumed a tenfold 
 austerity of brow, demanded again of the unknown culprit, 
 what he came there for, and whom he was seeking ? The 
 poor man humbly assured him that he meant no harm, but 
 merely came there in search of some of his neighbors, who 
 used to keep about the tavern. 
 
 " Well — who are they ? — name them." 
 
 Rip bethought himself a moment, and inquired, " Where's 
 Nicholas Vedder?" 
 
 There was a silence for a little while, when an old man 
 replied, in a thin piping voice, " Nicholas Vedder ! why, he is 
 dead and gone these eighteen years ! There was a wooden 
 tombstone in the church-yard that used to tell all about him, 
 but that's rotten and gone too." 
 
 " Where's Brom Dutcherl" 
 
 " Oh, he went off to the army in the beginning of the war ; 
 some say he was killed at the storming of Stony Point — others 
 
Jitp Fan aminfelc. 155 
 
 say he was drowned in a squall at the foot of Antony's Nose. 
 I don't know — he never came back again." 
 
 " Where's Van Bummel, the schoolmaster V 
 
 " He went off to the wars too, was a great militia general, 
 and is now in congress." 
 
 Rip's heart died away at hearing of these sad changes in his 
 home and friends, and finding himself thus alone in the world. 
 Every answer puzzled him too, by treating of such enormous 
 lapses of time, and of matters which he could not understand ; 
 war — congress — Stony Point ; — he had no courage to ask after 
 any more friends, but cried out in despair, " Does nobody here 
 know Rip Van Winkle ?" 
 
 " Oh, Rip Van Winkle !" exclaimed two or three, " Oh, to 
 be sure ! that's Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the 
 tree." 
 
 Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself, as 
 he went up the mountain : apparently as lazy, and certainly as 
 ragged. The poor fellow was now completely confounded. 
 He doubted his own identity, and whether he was himself or 
 another man. In the midst of his bewilderment, the man in 
 the cocked hat demanded who he was, and what was his 
 name ? 
 
 " God knows," exclaimed he, at his wits' end ; " I'm not 
 myself — I'm somebody else — that's me yonder — no that's 
 somebody else got into my shoes — I was myself last night, but 
 I fell asleep on the mountain, and they've changed my gun, 
 and everything's changed, and I'm changed, and I can't tell 
 what's my name, or who I am !" 
 
 The bystanders began now to look at each other, nod, wink 
 significantly, and tap their fingers against their foreheads. 
 There was a whisper, also, about securing the gun, and keeping 
 the old fellow from doing mischief, at the very suggestion of 
 which the self-important man in the cocked hat retired with 
 some precipitation. At this critical moment a fresh comely 
 woman pressed through the throng to get a peep at the grey- 
 bearded man. She had a chubby child in her arms, which. 
 
i.56 a Booit of tf)c %utsson. 
 
 frightened at his looks, began to cry. " Hush, Rip," cried she, 
 " hush, you little fool ; the old man won't hurt you." The 
 name of the child, the air of the mother, the tone of her voice, 
 all awakened a train of recollections in his mind. " What is 
 your name, my good woman 1" asked he. 
 
 " Judith Gardenier." 
 
 " And your father's name V 
 
 " Ah, poor man. Rip Van Winkle was his name, but it's 
 twenty years since he went away from home with his gun, and 
 never has been heard of since — his dog came home without 
 him, but whether he shot himself, or was carried away by the 
 Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a little girl." 
 
 Rip had but one question more to ask ; but he put it with a 
 faltering voice : 
 
 " Where's your mother ?" 
 
 " Oh, she too had died but a short time since ; she broke a 
 blood-vessel in a fit of passion at a New England pedler." 
 
 There was a drop of comfort, at least, in this intelligence. 
 The honest man could contain himself no longer. He caught 
 his daughter and her child in his arms. " I am your father !" 
 cried he — " Young Rip Van Winkle once — old Rip Van Win- 
 kle now ! — Does nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle V 
 
 All stood amazed, until an old woman, tottering out from 
 among the crowd, put her hand to her brow, and peering under 
 it in his face for a moment, exclaimed, " Sure enough ! it is 
 Rip Van Winkle — ^it is himself! Welcome home again, 
 old neighbor — Why, where have you been these twenty long 
 years 1" 
 
 Rip's story was soon told, for the whole twenty years had 
 been to him but as one night. The neighbors stared when 
 they heard it ; some were seen to wink at each other, and put 
 their tongues in their cheeks : and the self-important man in 
 the cocked hat, who, when the alarm was over, had returned 
 to the field, screwed down the comers of his mouth, and shook 
 his head — upon which there was a general shaking throughout 
 the assemblage. 
 
mtp Fan Jimtniilf. 157 
 
 It was determined, however, to take the opinion of old Peter 
 Vanderdonk, who was seen slowly advancing up the road. 
 He was a descendant of the historian of that name, who wrote 
 one of the earliest accounts of the province. Peter was the 
 most ancient inhabitant of the village, and well versed in all 
 the wonderful events and traditions of the neighborhood. He 
 recollected Rip at once, and corroborated his story m the most 
 satisfactory manner. He assured the company that it was a 
 fact, handed down from his ancestor the historian, that the 
 Kaatskill mountains had always been haunted by strange 
 beingo. That it was affirmed that the great Hendrick Hudson, 
 the first discoverer of the river and country, kept a kind of vigil 
 there every twenty years, with his crew of the Half- Moon ; 
 being permitted in this way to revisit the scenes of his enterprise, 
 and keep a guardian eye upon the river, and the great city 
 called by his name. That his father had once seen them in 
 their old Dutch dresses playing at ninepins in a hollow of the 
 mountain ; and that he himself had heard, one summer after- 
 noon, the sound of their balls, like distant peals of thunder. 
 
 To make a long story short, the company broke up, and re- 
 turned to the more important concerns of the election. Rip's 
 daughter took him home to live with her ; she had a snug, well- 
 furnished house, and a stout cheery farmer for a husband, whom 
 Rip recollected for one of the urchins that used to climb upon 
 his back. As to Rip's son and heir, who was the ditto of him- 
 self, seen leaning against the tree, he was employed to work on 
 the farm ; but evinced an hereditary disposition to attend to 
 anything else but his business. 
 
 Rip now resumed his old walks and habits ; he soon found 
 many of his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the 
 wear and tear of time ; and preferred making friends among the 
 rising generation, with whom he soon grew into great favor. 
 
 Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at that 
 happy age when a man can be idle with impunity, he took his 
 place once more on the bench at the inn door, and was reve- 
 renced as one of the patriarchs of the village, and a chronicle 
 
158 a 33ooJt of tft£ ?ilulison. 
 
 of the old times " before the war." It was some time before 
 he could get into the regular track of gossip, or could be made 
 to comprehend the strange events that had taken place during 
 his toipor. How that there had been a revolutionary war — 
 that the country had thrown off the yoke of old England — and 
 that, instead of being a subject of his Majesty George the Third, 
 he was now a free citizen of the United States. Rip, in fact, 
 was no politician ; the changes of states and empires made but 
 little impression on him ; but there was one species of despotism 
 under which he had long groaned, and that was — petticoat 
 government. Happily that was at an end ; he had got his neck 
 out of the yoke of matrimony, and could go in and out when- 
 ever he pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van 
 Winkle. Whenever her name was mentioned, however, he 
 shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and cast up his eyes ; 
 which might pass either for an expression of resignation to his 
 fate, or joy at his deliverance. 
 
 He used to tell his story to every stranger that arrived at Mr. 
 Doolittle's hotel. He was observed, at first, to vary on some 
 points every time he told it, which was, doubtless, owing to his 
 having so recently awaked. It at last settled down precisely 
 to the tale I have related, and not a man, woman, or child in 
 the neighborhood, but knew it by heart. Some always pre- 
 tended to doubt the reality of it, and insisted that Rip had been 
 out of his head, and that this was one point on which he always 
 remained flighty. The old Dutch inhabitants, however, almost 
 universally gave it full credit. Even to this day they never 
 hear a thunder-storm of a summer afternoon about the Kaats- 
 kills, but they say Hendrick Hudson and his crew are at their 
 game of ninepins ; and it is a common wish of all henpecked 
 husbands in the neighborhood, when life hangs heavy on their 
 hands, that they might have a quieting draught out of Rip Van 
 Winkle's flagon. 
 
jaip Fan Wiinhle. 159 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 The foregoing Tale, one would suspect, had been suggested to Mr. 
 Knickerbocker by a little German superstition about the Emperor 
 Frederick der Rothbart, and the Khypphaiiser mountain ; the subjoined 
 note, however, which he had appended to the tale, shows that it is an 
 absolute fact, narrated with his usual fidelity. 
 
 "The story of Rip Van Winkle may seem incredible to many, but 
 nevertheless I give it my full belief, for I know the vicinity of our old 
 Dutch settlements to have been very subject to marvellous events and 
 appearances. Indeed, I have heard many stranger stories than this, in 
 the villages along the Hudson, all of which were too well authenticated 
 to admit of a doubt. I have even talked with Rip Van Winkle myself, 
 \vho, when last I saw him, was a very venerable old man, and so |)ertectly 
 rational and consistent on every other point, that [ think no conscientious 
 person could refuse to take this into the bargain ; nay, 1 have seen a 
 certificate on the subject taken before a country justice, and signed with 
 a cross, in the justice's own handwriting. The story, therefore, is be- 
 yond the possibility of doubt. 
 
 D. K." 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 The following are travelling notes from a memoranduni-book of Mr. 
 Knickerbocker: 
 
 The Kaatsberg or Catskill Mountains have always been a region full 
 of f ible. The Indians considered them the abode of spirits, who in- 
 fluenced the weather, spreading sunshine or clouds over the landscape, 
 and sending good or bad hunting seasons. They were ruled by an old 
 squaw spirit, said to be their mother. She dwelt on the highest peak of 
 the Catskills, and had cliarge of the doors of day and night, to open and 
 shut them at the proper hour. She hung up the new moons in the 
 skies, and cut up the old ones into stars. In times of drought, if pro- 
 perly propitiated, she would spin light summer clouds out of cobwebs 
 ami morning dew, and send them off from the crest of the mountain, 
 II ike after fi ike, like flakes of carded cotton, to float in the air, until, 
 dissolved by the heat of the sun, they would fall in gentle showers, 
 causing the grass to spring, the fruits to ripen, and the corn to grow an 
 inch an hour. If displeased, however, she would brew up clouds bluck 
 as ink, sitting in the midst of them like a bottle-bellied spider in the 
 midst of its web, and when these clouds broke, woe betide the valleys. 
 
 In old times, say the Indian traditions, there was a kind of Manitou or 
 
160 a JSooft of tf)e ?^uii«on. 
 
 Spirit, who liept about the wildest recesses of the Catslcill Mountains, 
 and took a mischievous pleasure in wrealiing all kinds of evils and 
 vexations upon the red men. Sometimes he would assume the form of 
 a bear, a p;inther, or a deer, lead the bewildered hunter a weary chase 
 through tangled forests and among ragged rocks, and then spring off with 
 a loud ho ! ho ! leaving him aghast on the brink of a beetling precipice 
 or raging torrent. 
 
 The fivorite abode of this Manitou is still shown. It is a great rock 
 or clifl' on the loneliest part of the mountains, and, from the flowering 
 vines which clamber about it, and the wild flowers which abound in its 
 neighborhood, is known by the name of the Garden Rock. Near the foot 
 of it is a small lake, the haunt of the solitary bittern, with water snakes 
 basking in the sun on the leaves of the pond-lilies which lie on the sur- 
 face. This place was held in great awe by the Indians, insomuch that 
 the boldest hunter would not pursue his game within its precincts. 
 Once upon a time, however, a hunter who had lost his way, penetrated 
 to the garden rock, where he beheld a number of gourds placed in the 
 crotches of trees. One of these lie seized and made off with it, but in 
 the hurry of his retreat, he let it fall among the rocks, when a great 
 stream gushed forth, which washed him away, and swept him down 
 precipices, where he was dashed to pieces, and the stream made its way 
 to the Hudson, and continues to flow to the present day, being the iden- 
 tical stream known by the name of the Kaaters-kill. 
 
OEolfert OBLcbbcr. 161 
 
 WOLFERT WEBBER, OR GOLDEN 
 DREAMS. 
 
 In the year of grace one thousand seven hundred and — blank 
 — for I do not remember the precise date ; however, it was 
 somewhere in the early part of the last century, there lived in 
 the ancient city of the Manhattoes a worthy burgher, Wolfert 
 Webber by name. He was descended from old Cobus Webber 
 of the Brille in Holland, one of the original settlers, famous for 
 introducing the cultivation of cabbages, and who came over to 
 the province during the protectorship of Oloffe Van Kortlandt, 
 otherwise called the Dreamer. 
 
 The field in which Cobus Webber first planted himself and 
 his cabbages had remained ever since in the family, who con- 
 tinued in the same line of husbandry, with that praiseworthy 
 perseverance for which our Dutch burghers are noted. The 
 whole family genius, during several generations, was devoted 
 to the study and development of this one noble vegetable ; and 
 to this concentration of intellect may doubtless be ascribed the 
 prodigious renown to which the Webber cabbages attained. 
 
 The Webber dynasty continued in uninterrupted succession ; 
 and never did a line give more unquestionable proofs of legiti- 
 macy. The eldest son succeeded to the looks, as well as the 
 territory of his sire ; and had the portraits of this line of tranquil 
 potentates been taken, they would have presented a row of 
 heads marvellously resembling in shape and magnitude the 
 vegetables over which they reigned. 
 
 The seat of government continued unchanged in the family 
 mansion : — a Dutch-built house, with a front, or rather gable- 
 end of yellow brick, tapering to a point, with the customary 
 iron weathercock at the top. Everything about the building 
 bore the air of long-settled ease and security. Flights of mar- 
 tins peopled the little coops nailed against its walls, and swaj- 
 
lows built their nests under the eaves ; and every one knows 
 that these house-loving birds bring good luck to the dwelling 
 where they take up their abode. In a bright sunny morning in 
 early summer, it was delectable to hear their cheerful notes, as 
 they sported about in the pure sweet air, chirping forth, as it 
 were, the greatness and prosperity of the Webbers. 
 
 Thus quietly and comfortably did this excellent family vege- 
 tate under the shade of a mighty button-wood tree, which by 
 little and little grew so great as entirely to overshadow their 
 palace. The city gi-adually spread its suburbs round their 
 domain. Houses sprang up to interrupt their prospects. The 
 rural lanes in the vicinity began to grow into the bustle and 
 populousness of streets ; in short, with all the habits of rustic 
 life, they began to find themselves the inhabitants of a city. 
 Still, however, they maintained their hereditary character and 
 hereditary possessions, with all the tenacity of petty German 
 prmces in the mid^t of the empire. Wolfe t was the last of the 
 line, and succeeded to the patriarchal bench at the door, under 
 the family tree, and swayed the sceptre of his fathers, a kind of 
 rural potentate in the midst of a metropolis. 
 
 To share the cares and sweets of sovereignty, he had taken 
 unto himself a helpmate, one of that excellent kind, called stir- 
 ring women ; that is to say, she was one of those notable little 
 housewives who are always busy when there is nothing to do. 
 Her activity, however, took one particular direction ; her whole 
 life seemed devoted to intense knitting ; whether at home or 
 abroad, walking or sitting, her needles were continually in mo- 
 tion, and it is even affirmed that by her unwearied industry she 
 very nearly supplied her household with stockings throughout 
 the year. This worthy couple were blessed with one daughter, 
 who was brought up with great tenderness and care ; uncom- 
 mon pains had been taken with her education so that she could ' 
 stitch in every variety of way, make all kinds of pickles and 
 preserves, and mark her own name on a sampler. The influ- 
 ence of her taste was seen also in the family garden, where the 
 ornamental began to mingle with the useful ; whole rows ol 
 
Wioltext Wiebhtx. 163 
 
 fiery marigolds and splendid hollyhocks bordered the cabbage 
 beds; and gigantic sunflowers lolled their broad jolly faces over 
 the fences, seeming to ogle most affectionately the passers-by. 
 
 Thus reigned and vegetated Wolfert Webber over his pater- 
 nal acres, peacefully and contentedly. Not but that, like all 
 other sovereigns, he had his occasional cares and vexations. 
 The growth of his native city sometimes caused him annoy- 
 ance. His little territory gradually became hemmed in by 
 streets and houses, which intercepted air and sunshine. He 
 was now and then subjected to the irruptions of the border 
 population that infest the streets of a metropolis ; who would 
 make midnight forays into his dominions, and carry off captive 
 whole platoons of his noblest subjects. Vagrant swine would 
 make a descent, too, now and then, when the gate was left 
 open, and lay all waste before them ; and mischievous urchins 
 would decapitate the illustrious sunflowers, the glory of the 
 garden, as they lolled their heads so fondly over the walls. 
 Still all these were petty grievances, which might now and then 
 rufRe the surface of his mind, as a summer breeze will raffle the 
 surface of a mill-pond ; but they could not disturb the deep- 
 seated quiet of his soul. He would but seize a trusty staff, that 
 stood behind the door, issue suddenly out, anoint the back of 
 the aggressor, whether pig or urchin, and then return within 
 doors, marvellously refreshed and tranquillized. 
 
 The chief cause of anxiety to honest Wolfert, however, was 
 the growing prosperity of the city. The expenses of living 
 doubled and trebled, but he could not double and treble the 
 magnitude of his cabbages ; and the number of competitors pre- 
 vented the increase of price ; thus, therefore, while every one 
 around him grew richer, Wolfert grew poorer, and he could 
 not, for the life of him, perceive how the evil was to be reme- 
 died. 
 
 This growing care, which increased from day to day, had its 
 gradual eftect upon our worthy burgher ; insomuch, that it at 
 length implanted two or three wrinkles in his brow, things un- 
 known before in the family of the Webbers ; and it seemed to 
 
164 ^ 33ook of tfje ^tjutigon. 
 
 pinch up the comers of his cocked hat into an expression of 
 anxiety, totally opposite to the tranquil, broad-brimmed, low- 
 crowned beavers of his illustrious progenitors. 
 
 Perhaps even this would not have materially disturbed the 
 serenity of his mind, had he had only himself and his wife to 
 care for ; but there was his daughter gradually growing to ma- 
 turity ; and all the world knows that when daughters begin to 
 ripen no fruit nor flower requires so much looking after. I 
 have no talent at describing female charms, else fain would I 
 depict the progress of this little Dutch beauty. How her blue 
 eyes grew deeper and deeper, and her cherry lips redder and 
 redder ; and how she ripened and ripened, and rounded and 
 rounded in the opening breath of sixteen summers, until, m her 
 seventeenth spring, she seemed ready to burst out of her bodice, 
 like a half blown rose-bud. 
 
 Ah, well-a-day ! could I but show her as she was then, 
 tricked out on a Sunday morning, in the hereditary finery of 
 the old Dutch clothes-press, of which her mother had confided 
 to her the key. The wedding-dress of her grandmother, 
 modernized for use, with sundry ornaments, handed down as 
 heirlooms in the family. Her pale brown hair smoothed with 
 buttermilk in flat waving lines on each side of her fair fore- 
 head. The chain of yellow virgin gold, that encircled her 
 neck ; the little cross, that just rested at the entrance of a soft 
 valley of happiness, as if it would sanctify the place. The — 
 but, pooh ! — it is not for an old man like me to be prosing 
 about female beauty ; suffice it to say. Amy had attained her 
 seventeenth year. Long since had her sampler exhibited hearts 
 in couples desperately transfixed with arrows, and true lovers' 
 knots worked in deep-blue silk ; and it was evident she began 
 to languish for some more interesting occupation than rearing 
 of sunflowers or pickling of cucumbers. 
 
 At this critical period of female existence, when the heart 
 within a damsel's bosom, like its emblem, the miniature which 
 hangs without, is apt to be engrossed by a single image, a new 
 visitor began to make his appearance under the roof of Wolfert 
 
Hert Smcbber. 165 
 
 Webber. This was Dirk Waldron, the only son of a poor 
 widow, but who could boast of more fathers than any lad in 
 the province ; for his mother had had four husbands, and this 
 only child, so that though born in her last wedlock, he might 
 fairly claim to be the tardy fruit of a long course of cultivation. 
 This son of four fathers united the merits and the vigor of all his 
 sires. If he had not a great family before him, he seemed 
 likely to have a great one after him ; for you had only to look 
 at the fresh bucksome youth, to see that he was formed to be 
 the founder of a mighty race. 
 
 This youngster gradually became an intimate visitor of the 
 family. He talked little, but he sat long. He filled the 
 fathers pipe when it was empty, gathered up the mother's 
 knitting-needle or ball of worsted when it fell to the ground ; 
 stroked the sleek coat of the tortoise-shell cat, and replenished 
 the teapot for the daughter from the bright copper kettle that 
 sang before the fire. All these quiet little offices may seem of 
 trifling import ; but when true love is translated into Low 
 Dutch, it is in this way that it eloquently expresses itself. 
 They were not lost upon the Webber" family. The winning 
 youngster found marvellous favor in the eyes of the mother ; 
 the tortoise-shell cat, albeit the most staid and demure of her 
 kind, gave indubitable signs of approbation of his visits ; the 
 teakettle seemed to sing out a cheering note of welcome at his 
 approach ; and if the sly glances of the daughter might be 
 rightly read, as she sat bridling and dimpling, and sewing by 
 her mother's side, she was not a whit behind Dame Webber, or 
 grimalkin, or the teakettle, in good will. 
 
 Wolfert alone saw nothing of what was going on. Pro- 
 foundly wrapt up in meditation on the growth of the city and 
 his cabbages, he sat looking in the fire, and puffing his pipe in 
 silence. One night, however, as the gentle Amy, according to 
 custom, lighted her lover to the outer door, and he, according 
 to custom, took his parting salute, the smack resounded so 
 vigorously through the long, silent entry, as to startle even the 
 dull ear of Wolfert. He was slowly roused to a new source 
 
166 ^ J3oo{i of tf)e %\\iXi'. 
 
 of anxiety. It had never entered into his head that this mere 
 child, who, as it seemed, but the other day had been climbing 
 about his knees, and playing with dolls and baby-houses, could 
 all at once be thinking of lovers and matrimony. He rubbed 
 his eyes, examined into the fact, and really found that while he 
 had been dreaming of other matters, she had actually grown to 
 be a woman, and what was worse, had fallen in love. Here 
 arose new cares for Wolfert. He was a kind father, but he 
 was a prudent man. The young man was a lively, stirring 
 lad ; but then he had neither money nor land. Wolfert's ideas 
 all ran in one channel ; and he saw no alternative in case of a 
 marriage, but to portion off the young couple with a corner of 
 his cabbage garden, the whole of which was barely sufficient 
 for the support of his family. 
 
 Like a prudent father, therefore, he determined to nip this 
 passion in the bud, and forbade the youngster the house ; 
 though sorely did it go against his fatherly heart, and many a 
 silent tear did it cause in the bright eye of his daughter. She 
 showed herself, however, a pattern of filial piety and obedience. 
 She never pouted and sulked ; she never flew in the face of 
 parental authority ; she never flew into a passion, nor fell into 
 hysterics, as many romantic, novel-read young ladies do. Not 
 she, indeed ! She was none such heroical rebellious trumpery, 
 I'll warrant ye. On the contrary, she acquiesced like an 
 obedient daughter, shut the street door in her lover's face, and 
 if ever she did grant him an interview, it was either out of 
 the kitchen window, or over the garden fence. 
 
 Wolfert was deeply cogitating these matters in his mind, and 
 his brow wrinkled with unusual care, as he wended his way 
 one Saturday afternoon to a rural inn, about two miles from 
 the city. It was a favorite resort of the Dutch part of the 
 community, from being always held by a Dutch line of land- 
 lords, and retaining an air and relish of the good old time.?. 
 It was a Dutch-built house, that had probably been a country- 
 seat of some opulent burgher in the early times of the fettle- 
 ment. It stood near a point of land called Corlear's Hook, 
 
Smolfcrt SliJUcbbfr. 167 
 
 which stretches out into the Sound, and against which the tide, 
 at its flux and reflux, sets with extraordinary rapidity. Tho 
 venerable and somewhat crazy mansion was distinguished from 
 afar, by a grove of elms and sycamores, that seemed to wave a 
 hospitable invitation ; while a few weeping-willows, with their 
 dank, drooping foliage, resembling fallen waters, gave an idea 
 of coolness, that rendered it an attractive spot, during the heats 
 of summer. 
 
 Here, therefore, as I said, resorted many of the old in- 
 Juibitants of the Manhatioes, where, while some played at 
 shuffle-board, and quoits, and ninepins, others smoked a de- 
 liberate pipe, and talked over public affliirs. 
 
 It was on a blustering autumnal afternoon that Wolfertmade 
 his visit to the inn. The grove of elms and willows was strip- 
 ped ol" its leaves, which whirled in mstling eddies about the 
 fields. The ninepin alley was deserted, for the premature 
 chilliness of the day had driven the company within doors. 
 As it was Saturday afternoon, the habitual club was in session, 
 composed principally of regular Dutch burghers, though min- 
 gled occasionally with persons of various character and coun- 
 try, as is natural in a place of such motley population. 
 
 Beside the fireplace, in a huge, leather-bottomed arm-chair, 
 Bat the dictator of this little world, the venerable Rem, or as it 
 was pronounced Ramm Rapelye. He was a man of Walloon 
 race, and illustrious for the antiquity of his line ; his great- 
 grandmother having been the first white child born in the pro- 
 vince. But he was still more illustrious for his wealth and 
 dignity ; he had long filled the noble office of alderman, and 
 was a man to whom the governor himself took off" his hat. 
 lie had maintained possession of the leather-bottomed chair 
 from time immemorial, and had gradually waxed in bulk as he 
 sat in his seat of government, until in the course of years he 
 filled its whole magnitude. His word was decisive with his 
 subjects ; for he was so rich a man, that he was never expected to 
 support any opinion by argument. The landlord waited on 
 him with peculiar officiousness ; not that he paid better than 
 
168 ^ aSook of tfje fllutiso 
 
 his neighbors, but then the coin of a rich man seems always to 
 be so much more acceptable. The landlord had ever a 
 pleasant word and a joke, to insinuate in the ear of the august 
 Ramm. It is true, Ramm never laughed, and, indeed, ever 
 maintained a mastiff-like gravity, and even surliness of aspect, 
 yet he now and then rewarded mine host with a token of ap- 
 probation, which though nothing more nor less than a kind of 
 grunt, still delighted the landlord more than a broad laugh 
 from a poorer man. 
 
 " This will be a rough night for the money diggers," said 
 mine host, as a gust of wind howled round the house, and rat- 
 tled at the windows. 
 
 <* What ! are they at their works again V said an English 
 half-pay captain, with one eye, who was a very frequent at- 
 tendant at the inn. 
 
 " Aye, are they," said the landlord, " and well may they be. 
 They've had luck of late. They say a great pot of money 
 has been dug up in the fields, just behind Stuyvesant's orchard. 
 Folks think it must have been buried there in old times, by 
 Peter Stuyvesant, the Dutch governor." 
 
 •' Fudge !" said the one-eyed man of war, as he added a 
 small portion of water to a bottom of brandy. 
 
 " Well, you may believe it, or not, as you please," said mine 
 host, somewhat nettled, " but everybody knows that the old 
 governor buried a large deal of his money at the time of the 
 Dutch troubles, when the English redcoats seized on the pro- 
 vince. They say, too, the old gentleman walks, aye, and in 
 the very same dress that he wears in the picture that hangs up 
 in the family house." 
 
 " Fudge !" said the half-pay officer. 
 
 " Fudge, if you please ! — But didn't Corney Van Zandt see 
 him at midnight, stalking about in the meadow with his wooden 
 leg, and a drawn sword in his hand, that flashed like fire 1 And 
 what can he be walking for, but because people have been 
 troubling the place where he buried his money in old times?" 
 
 Here the landlord was interrupted by several guttural 
 
WioUcxt Withitx. 169 
 
 sounds from Ramm Rapelye, betokening that he was labonng 
 with the unusual production of an idea. As he was too great 
 a man to be slighted by a prudent publican, mine host respect- 
 fully paused until he should deliver himself. The corpulent 
 frame of this mighty burgher now gave all the symptoms of a 
 volcanic mountain on the point of an eruption. First, there 
 was a certain heaving of the abdomen, not unlike an earth- 
 quake ; then was emitted a cloud of tobacco-smoke from that 
 crater, his mouth ; then there was a kind of rattle in the throat, 
 as if the idea were working its way up through a region of 
 phlegm ; then there were several disjointed members of a sen- 
 tence thrown out, ending in a cough ; at length his voice forced 
 its way in the slow, but absolute tone of a man who feels the 
 weight of his pursre, if not of his ideas ; every portion of his 
 speech being marked by a testy pufF of tobacco-smoke. 
 
 " Who talks of old Peter Stuyvesant's walking ? — puff- 
 Have people no respect for persons? — puff— puff— Peter 
 Stuyvesant knew better what to do with his money than to bury 
 it — puff — I know the Stuyvesant family — puff — every one of 
 them — puff^not a more respectable family in the province — 
 puff — old standards — puff — warm householders — puff — none of 
 your upstarts — puff — puff — puff. — Don't talk to me of Peter 
 Stuyvesant's walking — puff — puff — puff — puff." 
 
 Here the redoubtable Ramm contracted his brow, clasped up 
 his mouth, till it wrinkled at each corner, and redoubled hi-i) 
 smoking, with such vehemence that the cloudy volumes soon 
 wreathed round his head, as the smoke envelopes the awful 
 summit of Mount Etna. 
 
 A general silence followed the sudden rebuke of this very 
 rich man. The subject, however, was too interesting to bo 
 readily abandoned. The conversation soon broke forth again 
 from the lips of Peechy Prauw Van Hook, the chronicler of 
 the club, one of those prosing, narrative old men, who seem to 
 be troubled with an incontinence of words, as they grow old. 
 
 Peechy could, at any time, tell as many stories in an even- 
 ing as his hearers could digest in a month. He now resumed 
 
170 ® J3ook of tfjc ?§ulison, 
 
 the conversation, by affirming that, to his knowledge, money 
 had at different times been digged up in various parts of the 
 island. The lucky persons who had discovered them had 
 always dreamt of them three times beforehand, and what was 
 worthy of remark, those treasures had never been found but by 
 some descendant of the good old Dutch families, which clear- 
 ly proved that they had been buried by Dutchmen in the olden 
 time. 
 
 " Fiddlestick with your Dutchmen !" cried the half-pay 
 officer. " The Dutch had nothing to do with them. They 
 were all buried by Kidd the pirate, and his crew." 
 
 Here a key-note was touched that roused the whole com- 
 pany. The name of Captain Kidd was like a talisman in those 
 times, and was associated with a thousand marvellous stories. 
 
 The half-pay officer took the lead, and in his narrations 
 fathered upon Kidd all the plunderings and exploits of Morgan, 
 Blackboard, and the whole list of bloody buccaneers. 
 
 The officer was a man of great weight among the peaceable 
 members of the club, by reason of his warlike character and 
 gunpowder tales. All his golden stories of Kidd, however, 
 and of the booty he had buried, were obstinately rivalled by 
 the tales of Peechy Prauw, who, rather than suffer his Dutch 
 progenitors to be eclipsed by a foreign freebooter, enriched 
 every field and shore in the neighborhood with the hidden 
 wealth of Peter Stuyvesant and his contemporaries. 
 
 Not a word of this conversation was lost upon Wolfert 
 Webber. He returned pensively home, full of magnificent 
 ideas. The soil of his native island seemed to be turned into 
 gold dust, and every field to teem with treasure. His head al- 
 most reeled at the thought how often he must have heedlessly 
 rambled over places where countless sums lay, scarcely cover- 
 ed by the turf beneath his feet. His mind was in an uproar 
 with this whirl of new ideas. As he came in sight of the 
 venerable mansion of his forefathers, and the little realm where 
 the Webbers had so long and so contentedly flourished, his gorge 
 rose at the narrowness of his destiny. 
 
olfert USLtbhex. 171 
 
 *' Unlucky Wolfert !" exclaimed he ; " others can go to bed 
 and dream themselves into whole mines of wealth ; they have 
 but to seize a spade in the morning, and turn up doubloons like 
 potatoes ; but thou must dream of hardships, and rise to 
 poverty — must dig thy field from year's end to yeafs end, and 
 yet raise nothing but cabbages !" 
 
 Wolfert Webber went to bed with a heavy heart ; and it was 
 long before the golden visions that disturbed his brain permitted 
 him to sink into repose. The same visions, however, extended 
 into his sleeping thoughts, and assumed a more definite form. 
 He dreamt that he had discovered an immense treasure in the 
 centre of his garden. At every stroke of the spade he laid bare 
 a golden ingot ; diamond crosses sparkled out of the dust ; bags 
 of money turned up their bellies, corpulent with pieces-of-eight, 
 or venerable doubloons ; and chests, wedged close with moi- 
 dores, ducats, and pistareens, yawned before his ravished eyes, 
 and vomited forth their glittering contents. 
 
 Wolfert awoke a poorer man than ever. He had no heart 
 to go about his daily concerns, which appeared so paltry and 
 profitless ; but sat all day long in the chimney-corner, picturing 
 to himself ingots and heaps of gold in the fire. The next night 
 his dream was repeated. He was again in his garden, digging, 
 and laying open stores of hidden wealth. There was some- 
 thing very singular in this repetition. He passed another day 
 of reverie, and though it was cleaning-day, and the house, as 
 usual in Dutch households, completely topsy-turvy, yet he sat 
 unmoved amidst the general uproar. 
 
 The third night he went to bed with a palpitating heart. He 
 put on his red night-cap wrong side outwards, for good-luck. 
 It was deep midnight before his anxious mind could settle itself 
 into sleep. Again the golden dream was repeated, and again 
 he saw his garden teeming with ingots and money bags. 
 
 Wolfert rose the next morning in complete bewilderment. 
 A dream three times repeated was never known to lie ; and if 
 80, his fortune was made. 
 
 In his agitation he put on his waistcoat with the hind part 
 
172 a JSooft of t^c f§utrgon< 
 
 before, and this was a corroboration of good luck. He no 
 longer doubted that a huge store of money lay buried some- 
 where in his cabbage field, coyly waiting to be sought for ; and 
 he repined at having so long been scratching about the surface 
 of the soil instead of digging to the centre. 
 
 He took his seat at the breakfast table full of these specula- 
 tions ; asked his daughter to put a lump of gold into his tea, 
 and on handing his wife a plate of slap-jacks, begged her to 
 help herself to a doubloon. 
 
 His grand care now was how to secure this immense trea- 
 sure without its being known. Instead of working regularly in 
 his grounds in the daytime, he now stole from his bed at night, 
 and with spade and pickaxe, went to work to rip up and dig 
 about his paternal acres, from one end to the other. In a little 
 time the whole garden, which had pre -ented such a goodly and 
 regular appearance, with its phalanx of cabbages, like a vege- 
 table army in battle array, was reduced to a scene of devasta- 
 tion ; while the relentless Wolfert, with night-cap on head, and 
 lantern and spade in hand, stalked through the slaughtered 
 ranks, the destroying angel of his own vegetable world. 
 
 Every morning bore testimony to the ravages of the preced- 
 ing night in cabbages of all ages and conditions, from the ten- 
 der sprout to the full-grown head, piteously rooted from their 
 quiet beds like worthless weeds, and left to wither in the sun- 
 shine. In vain Wolfert's wife remonstrated ; in vain his darling 
 daughter wept over the destruction of some favorite marigold. 
 " Thou shalt have gold of another guess sort," he would cry, 
 chucking her under the chin ; " thou shalt have a string of 
 crooked ducats for thy wedding necklace, my child." His 
 family began really to fear that the poor man's wits were dis- 
 eased. He muttered in his sleep at night about mines of 
 wealth, about pearls and diamonds and bars of gold. In the 
 daytime he was moody and abstracted, and walked about as if 
 in a trance. Dame Webber held frequent councils with all the 
 old women of the neighborhood ; scarce an hour in the day but 
 a knot of tliem might be seen wagging their white caps together 
 
mioltext WSSitlibex. 173 
 
 round her door, while the poor woman made some piteous reci- 
 tal. The daughter too was fain to seek for more frequent con- 
 solation from the stolen intemews of her favored swain Dick 
 Waldron. The delectable little Dutch songs with which she 
 used to dulcify the house grew less and less frequent, and she 
 would forget her sewing and look wistfully in her father's face, 
 as he sat pondering by the fireside. Wolfert caught her eye one 
 day fixed on him thus anxiously, and for a moment was roused 
 from his golden reveries. — " Cheer up, my girl," said he, exul- 
 tingly, " why dost thou droop '? — thou shalt hold up thy head 
 one day with the BrinkerhoflTs and the Schermerhorns, the Van 
 Homes and the Van Dams. — By Saint Nicholas, but the pa- 
 troon himself shall be glad to get thee for his son !" 
 
 Amy shook her head at this vainglorious boast, and was 
 more than ever in doubt of the soundness of the good man's 
 intellect. 
 
 In the meantime Wolfort went on digging and digging ; but 
 the field was extensive, and as his dream had indicated no 
 precise spot, he had to dig at random. The winter set in 
 before one-tenth of the scene of promise had been explored. 
 
 The ground became frozen hard, and the nights too cold for 
 the labors of the spade. 
 
 No sooner, however, did the returning warmth of spring 
 loosen the soil, and the small frogs begin to pipe in the 
 meadows, but Wolfert resumed his labors with renovated zeal. 
 Still, however, the hours of industry were reversed. 
 
 Instead of working cheerily all day, planting and setting out 
 his vegetables, he remained thoughtfully idle, until the shades 
 of night summoned him to his secret labors. In this way he 
 continued to dig from night to night, and Week to week, and 
 month to month, but not a stiver did he find. On the contrary, 
 the more he digged, the poorer he grew. The rich soil of his 
 garden was digged away, and the sand and gravel from 
 beneath were thrown to the surface, until the whole field 
 presented an aspect of sandy barrenness. 
 
 In the meantime the seasons gradually rolled on. The little 
 
174 ® 33ooft of tl^e l^ulison. 
 
 frogs which had piped in the meadows in early spring, croaked 
 as bull-frogs during the summer heats, and then sank into 
 silence. The peach-tree budded, blossomed, and bore its fruit. 
 The swallows and martins came, twittered about the roof, built 
 their nests, reared their young, held their congress along the 
 eaves, and then winged their flight in search of another spring. 
 The caterpillar span its winding-sheet, dangled in it from the 
 great button-wood tree before the house ; turned into a moth, 
 fluttered with the last sunshine of summer, and disappeared ; 
 and finally the leaves of the button-wood tree turned yellow, 
 then brown, then nistled one by one to the ground, and 
 whirling about in little eddies of wind and dust, whispered that 
 winter was at hand. 
 
 Wolfert gradually woke from his dream of wealth as the 
 year declined. He had reared no crop for the supply of his 
 household during the sterility of winter. The season was long 
 and severe, and for the first time the family was really straitened 
 in its comforts. By degrees a revulsion of thought took place 
 in Wolfert's mind, common to those whose golden dreams 
 have been disturbed by pinching realities. The idea gradually 
 stole upon him that he should come to want. He already 
 considered himself one of the most unfortunate men in the 
 province, having lost such an incalculable amount of undis- 
 covered treasure, and now, when thousands of pounds had 
 eluded his search, to be perplexed for shillings and pence was 
 ciTiel in the extreme. 
 
 Haggard care gathered about his brow ; he went about with 
 a money-seeking air, his eyes bent downwards into the dust, 
 and carrying his hands in his pockets, as men are apt to do 
 when they have nothing else to put into them. He could not 
 even pass the city almshouse without giving it a rueful glance, 
 as if destined to be his future abode. 
 
 The strangeness of his conduct and of his looks occasioned 
 much speculation and remark. For a long time he was 
 suspected of being crazy, and then everybody pitied him ; at 
 
Wioltext URclbtv, 175 
 
 length it began to be suspected that he was poor, and then 
 eveiybody avoided him. 
 
 The rich old burghers of his acquaintance met him outside 
 of the door when he called, entertained him hospitably on the 
 threshold, pressed him warmly by the hand at parting, shook 
 their heads as he walked away, with the kind-hearted expres- 
 sion of " poor Wolfeit," and turned a comer nimbly, if by 
 chance they saw him approaching as they walked the streets. 
 Even the barber and the cobbler of the neighborhood, and a 
 tattered tailor in an alley hard by, three of the poorest and 
 merriest rogues in the world, eyed him with that abundant sym- 
 pathy which usually attends a lack of means ; and there is not 
 a doubt but their pockets would have been at his command, 
 only that they happened to be empty. 
 
 Thus everybody deserted the Webber mansion, as if poverty 
 were contagious, like the plague ; everybody but honest Dirk 
 Waldron, who still kept up his stolen visits to the daughter, 
 and indeed seemed to wax more affectionate as the fortunes of 
 his mistress were in the wane. 
 
 Many months had elapsed since Wolfert had frequented his 
 old resort, the rural inn. He was taking a long lonely walk 
 one Saturday afternoon, musing over his wants and disappoint- 
 ments, when his feet took instinctively their wonted direction, 
 and on awaking out of a reverie, he found himself before the 
 door of the inn. For some moments iie hesitated whether to 
 enter, but his heart yearned for companionship ; and where can 
 a ruined man find better companionship than at a tavern, where 
 there is neither sober example nor sober advice to put him out 
 of countenance ? 
 
 Wolfert found several of the old frequenters of the inn at 
 their usual posts, and seated in their usual places ; but one was 
 missing, the great Ramm Rapelye, who for many years had 
 filled the leather-bottomed chair of state. His place was sup- 
 plied by a stranger, who seemed, however, completely at home 
 in the chair and the tavern. He was rather under size, but 
 
176 ® 130 ok of tSje f^ulis 
 
 deep cheated, square, and muscular. His broad shoulders, 
 double joints, and bow knees, gave tokens of prodigious 
 strength. His face was dark and weather-beaten ; a deep scar, 
 as if from the slash of a cutlass, had almost divided his nose, 
 and made a gash in his upper lip, through which his teeth shone 
 like a bull dog's. A mop of iron-grey hair gave a grizzly finish 
 to his hard-favored visage. His dress was of an amphibious 
 character. He wore an old hat edged with tarnished lace, and 
 cocked in martial style, on one side of his head ; a rusty blue 
 military coat with brass buttons, and a wide pair of short petti- 
 coat trowsers, or rather breeches, for they were gathered up at 
 the knees. He ordered everybody about him with an authori- 
 tative air ; talked in a brattling voice, that sounded like the 
 crackling of thorns under a pot ; d d the landlord and ser- 
 vants with perfect impunity, and was waited upon with greater 
 obsequiousness than had ever been shown to the mighty Ramm 
 himself. 
 
 Wolfert's curiosity was awakened to know who and what 
 was the stranger who had thus usurped absolute sway in this 
 ancient domain. Peechy Prauw took him aside into a remote 
 corner of the hall, and there, in an under voice, and with great 
 caution, imparted to him all that he knew on the subject. The 
 inn had been aroused several months before, on a dark, stormy 
 night, by repeated long shouts, that seemed like the bowlings 
 of a wolf. They came from the water-side ; and at length 
 were distinguished to be hailing the house in a seafaring man- 
 ner, " House-ahoy !" The landlord turned out with his head 
 waiter, tapster, hostler, and errand-boy — that is to say, with his 
 old negro Cuff. On approaching the place whence the voice 
 proceeded, they found this amphibious-looking personage at the 
 water's edge, quite alone, and seated on a great oaken sea 
 chest. How he came there, whether he had been set^on shore 
 from some boat, or had floated to land on his chest, nobody 
 could tell, for he did not seem disposed to answer questions, 
 and there was somethmg in his looks and manners that put a 
 stop to all questioning. Suffice if to say, he took possession 
 
Oil ol frit OEffabrr. 177 
 
 of a corner room of the inn, to which his chest was removed 
 with great difiiculty. Here he had remained ever since, keep- 
 ing about the inn and its vicinity. Sometimes, it is true, he 
 disappeared, for one, two, or three days at a time, going and 
 returning without giving any notice or account of his move- 
 ments. He always appeared to have plenty of money, though 
 often of a very strange outlandish coinage, and he regularly 
 paid his bill every evening before turning in. 
 
 He had fitted up his room to his own fancy, having slung a 
 hammock from the ceiling instead of a bed, and decorated the 
 walls with rusty pistols and cutlasses of foreign workmanship. 
 A great part of his time was passed in this room, seated by the 
 window, which commanded a wide view of the Sound, a short 
 old-fashioned pipe in his mouth, a glass of rum toddy at his 
 elbow, and a pocket telescope in his hand, with which he re- 
 connoitred every boat that moved upon the water. Large 
 square-rigged vessels seemed to excite but little attention, but 
 the moment he descried anything with a shoulder-of-mutton 
 sail, or that a barge, or yawl, or jolly-boat hove in sight, up 
 went the telescope, and he examined it with the most scrupulous 
 attention. 
 
 All this might have passed without much notice, for in those 
 times the province was so much the resort of adventurers of all 
 characters and climes, that any oddity in dress or behavior 
 attracted but small attention. In a little while, however, this 
 strange sea-monster, thus strangely cast upon dry land, began 
 to encroach upon the long-established customs and customers 
 of the place, and to interfere in a dictatorial manner m the 
 affairs of the ninepin alley and the bar-room, until, in the end, 
 he usurped an absolute command over the whole inn. It was 
 all in vain to attempt to withstand his authority. He was i;ot 
 exactly quarrelsome, but boisterous and peremptory, like one 
 accustomed to tyrannize on a quarter-deck ; and there was a 
 dare-devil air about everytliing he said and did, that inspired a 
 warmess in all bystanders. Even the half-pay officer, so long 
 8* 
 
178 ^ 33 oft of tijc |L?ul3!8on. 
 
 the hero of the club, was soon silenced by him, and the quiet 
 burghers stared with wonder at seeing their inflammable man 
 of war so readily and quietly extinguished. 
 
 And then the tales that he would tell were enough to make 
 a peaceable man's hair stand on end. There was not a sea- 
 fight, nor marauding nor freebooting adventure that had hap- 
 pened within the last twenty years, but he seemed perfectly 
 versed in it. He delighted to talk of the exploits of the buc- 
 caneers in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main. How 
 his eyes would glisten as he described the waylaying of treasure 
 ships, the desperate fights, yard-arrn and yard-arm — broadside 
 and broadside — the boarding and capturing of huge Spanish 
 galleons ! With what chuckling relish would he describe the 
 descent upon some rich Spanish colony ; the rifling of a church ; 
 the sacking of a convent ! You would have thought you heard 
 some gormandizer dilating upon the roasting of a savory goose 
 at Michaelmas as he described the roasting of some Spanish 
 Don to make him discover his treasure — a detail given with a 
 minuteness that made every rich old burgher present turn uncom- 
 fortably in his chair. All this would be told with infinite glee, as 
 if he considered it an excellent joke ; and then he would give 
 such a tyrannical leer in the face of his next neighbor, that the 
 poor man would be fain to laugh out of sheer faint-heartedness. 
 If any one, however, pretended to contradict him in any of his 
 stories he was on fire in an instant. His very cocked hat 
 assumed a momentary fierceness, and seemed to resent the con- 
 tradiction. " How the devil should you know as well as I ? — 
 I tell you it was as I say ;" and he would at the same time let 
 slip a broadside of thundering oaths and tremendous sea-phrases, 
 such as had never been heard before within these peaceful walls. 
 
 Indeed, the worthy burghers began to surmise that he knew 
 more of those stories than mere hearsay. Day after day their 
 conjectures concerning him grew more and more wild and 
 fearful. The strangeness of his arrival, the strangeness of his 
 manners, the mystery that surrounded him, all made him some- 
 thing incomprehensible in their eyes. He was a kind of mon- 
 
tJIoIfert UXebhet. 179 
 
 ster of the deep to them — he was a merman — he was a behe- 
 moth — he was a leviathan — in sliort, they knew not what he 
 was. 
 
 The domineering spirit of this boisterous sea-urchin at length 
 grew quite intolerable. He was no respecter of persons ; he 
 contradicted the richest burghers without hesitation ; he took 
 possession of the sacred elbow-chair, which, time out of mind, 
 had been the seat of sovereignty of the illustrious Ranun 
 Rapelye. Nay, he even went so far in one of his rough jocular 
 mood^-, as to slap that mighty burgher on the back, drink his 
 toddy, and wink in his face, a thing scarcely to be believed. 
 From this tune Ramm Rapelye appeared no more at the inn ; 
 his example was followed by several of the most eminent cus- 
 tomers, who were too rich to tolerate being bullied out of their 
 opinions, or being obliged to laugh at another man's jokes. The 
 landlord was almost in despair ; but he knew not how to get rid 
 of this sea-monster and his sea-chest, who seemed both to have 
 grown like fixtures, or excrescences, on his establishment. 
 
 Such was the account whispered cautiously in Wolfert's ear, 
 by the narrator, Peechy Prauw, as he held him by the button, 
 in a corner of the hall, casting a wary glance now and then 
 towards the door of the bar-room, lest he should be overheard 
 by the terrible hero of his tale. 
 
 Wolfert took his seat in a remote part of the room in silence ; 
 impressed with profound awe of this unknown, so versed in 
 freebooting history. It was to him a wonderful instance of the 
 revolutions of mighty empires, to find the venerable Ramm 
 Rapelye thus ousted from the throne, and a nagged tarpauling 
 dictating from his elbow-chair, hectoring the patriarchs, and 
 filling this tranquil little realm with brawl and bravado. 
 
 The stranger was on this evening in a more than usually 
 communicative mood, and was narrating a number of astound- 
 ing stories of plunderings and burnings on the high seas. He 
 dwelt upon them with a peculiar relish, heightening the fright- 
 ful particulars in proportion to their effect on his peaceful audi- 
 tors. He gave a swaggering detail of the capture of a Spanish 
 
180 ^ 3i5ook of tfjc l^utsoii. 
 
 merchantman. She was lying becalmed during a long sum- 
 mer's day, just off from an island which was one of the lurking 
 places of the pirates. They had reconnoitred her with their spy- 
 glasses from the shore, and ascertained her character and force. 
 At night a picked crew of daring fellows set off for her in a 
 whaleboat. They approached with muffled oars, as she lay 
 rocking idly with the undulations of the sea, and her sails flap- 
 ping against the masts. They were close under her stern be- 
 fore the guard on deck was aware of their approach. The 
 alarm was given ; the pirates threw hand-grenades on deck, 
 and sprang up the main chains sword in hand. 
 
 The crew flew to arms, but in great confusion ; some were 
 shot down, others took refuge in the tops ; others were driven 
 overboard and drowned, while others foughi hand to hand from 
 the main-deck to the quarter-deck, disputing gallantly every 
 inch of ground. There were three Spanish gentlemen on 
 board with their ladies, who made the most desperate resistance. 
 They defended the companion-way, cut down several of their 
 assailants, and fought like very devils, for they were maddened 
 by the shrieks of the ladies from the cabin. One of the Dons 
 was old, and soon dispatched. The other two kept their 
 ground vigorously, even though the captain of the pirates was 
 among the assailants. Just then there was a shout of victory 
 from the main-deck. " The ship is ours !" cried the pirates. 
 
 One of the Dons immediately dropped his sword and sur- 
 rendered ; the other, who was a hot-headed youngster, and 
 just married, gave the captain a slash in the face that laid all 
 open. The captain just made out to articulate the words 
 " no quarter." 
 
 " And what did they do with their prisoners ?" said Peechy 
 Prauw, eagerly. 
 
 " Threw them all overboard !" was the answer. A dead 
 pause followed the reply. Peechy Prauw sank quietly back, 
 like a man who had unwarily stolen upon the lair of a sleep- 
 ing lion. The honest burghers cast fearful glances at the deep 
 scar slashed across the visage of the stranger, and moved their 
 
Cmolfcrt WLebbcr. 181 
 
 chairs a little further ofl'. Tlie seaman, however, smoked on 
 without moving a muscle, as though he either did not perceive 
 or did not regard the unfavorable effect he had produced upon 
 his hearers. 
 
 The half-pay officer was the first to break the silence, for he 
 was continually tempted to make ineffectual head against this 
 tyrant of the seas, and to regain his lost consequence in the 
 eyes of his ancient companions. He now tried to match the 
 gunpowder tales of the stranger by others equally tremendous. 
 Kidd, as usual, was his hero, concerning whom he seemed to 
 have picked up many of the floating traditions of the province. 
 The seaman had always evinced a settled pique against the one- 
 eyed warrior. On this occasion he listened with peculiar im- 
 patience. He sat with one arm a-kimbo, the other elbow on a 
 table, the hand holding on to the small pipe he was pettishly 
 puffing ; his legs crossed, drumming with one foot on the 
 ground, and casting every now and then the side-glance of a 
 basilisk at the prosing captain. At length the latter spoke of 
 Kidd's having ascended the Hudson with some of his crew, to 
 land his plunder in secresy. 
 
 " Kidd up the Hudson !" burst forth the seaman, with a tre- 
 mendous oath — " Kidd never was up the Hudson." 
 
 " I tell you he was," said the other. " Aye, and they say he 
 buried a quantity of treasure on the little flat that runs out into 
 the river called the Devil's Dans Kammer." 
 
 " The Devil's Dans Kammer in your teeth !" cried the sea- 
 man. " I tell you Kidd never was up the Hudson. What a 
 plague do you know of Kidd and his haunts'?" 
 
 " What do I know ?" echoed the half-pay officer. " Why, 
 I was in London at the time of his trial ; aye, and I had the 
 pleasure of seeing him hanged at Execution Dock." 
 
 " Then, sir, let me tell you that you saw as pretty a fellow 
 hanged as ever trod shoe-leather. Aye," putting his face near- 
 er to that of the officer, " and there was many a land-lubber 
 looked on that might much better have swung in his stead." 
 
 The half-pay officer was silenced, but the indignation thus 
 
183 « J3ooft of tfjf ?^utJ2on. 
 
 pent Tip in his bosom glowed with intense vehemence in his sin- 
 gle eye, which kindled like a coal. 
 
 Peechy Prauw, who never could remain silent, observed that 
 the gentleman certainly was in the right. Kidd never did bury 
 money up the Hudson, nor indeed in any of those parts, though 
 many affirmed such to be the fact. It was Bradish and others 
 of the buccaneers who had buried money ; some said in Tur- 
 tle Bay, others on Long Island, others in the neighborhood of 
 Hellgate. Indeed, added he, I recollect an adventure of Sam, 
 the negro fisherman, many years ago, which some think had 
 something to do with the buccaneers. As we are all friends 
 here, and as it will go no further, I'll tell it to you. 
 
 " Upon a dark night many years ago, as Black Sam was re- 
 turning from fishing in Hell-gate " 
 
 Here the story was nipped in the bud by a sudden movement 
 from the unknown, who, laying his iron fist on the table, 
 knuckles downward, with a quiet force that indented the very 
 boards, and looking grimly over his shoulder, with the grin of 
 an angry bear — " Heark'ee, neighbor," said he, with significant 
 nodding of the head, '" you'd better let the buccaneers and 
 their money alone — they're not for old men and old women to 
 meddle with. They fought hard for their money ; they gave 
 body and soul for it, and wherever it lies buried, depend upon 
 it he must have a tug with the devil who gets it !" 
 
 This sudden explosion was succeeded by a blank silence 
 throughout the room. Peechy Prauw shrank within himself, 
 and even the one-eyed officer turned pale. Wolfert, who from 
 a dark corner of the room had listened with intense eagerness 
 to all this talk about buried treasure, looked with mingled awe 
 and reverence at this bold buccaneer, for such he really sus- 
 pected him to be. There was a chinking of gold and a spark- 
 ling of jewels in all his stories about the Spanish Main, that 
 gave a value to every period, and Wolfert would have given 
 anything for the mmmaging of the ponderous sea-chest, which 
 his imagination crammed full of golden chalices, crucifixes, 
 and jolly round bags of doubloons. 
 
WLoltext Wieihtt. 183 
 
 The dead stillness that had fallen upon the company was at 
 length interrupted by the stranger, who pulled out a prodigious 
 watch of curious and ancient workmanship, and which in Wol- 
 fert's eyes had a decidedly Spanish look. On touching a 
 spring it siruck ten o'clock ; upon which the sailor called for 
 his reckoning, and having paid it out of a handful of outlandish 
 coin, he drank off the remainder of his beverage, and Vv^ithout 
 taking leave of any one, rolled out of the room, muttering to 
 liimself, as he stamped up stairs to his chamber. 
 
 It was some time before the company could recover from 
 the silence into which they had been thrown. The veiy foot- 
 Kleps of the stranger, which were heard now and then as he 
 traversed his chamber, inspired awe. 
 
 Still the conversation in which they had been engaged was 
 too interesting not to be resumed. A heavy thunder- gust had 
 gathered up unnoticed while they were lost in talk, and the 
 torrents of rain that fell forbade all thoughts of setting off for 
 home until the storm should subside. They drew nearer to- 
 gether, therefore, and entreated the worthy Peechy Prauw to 
 continue the tale which had been so discourteously mterrupted. 
 He readily complied, whispering, however, in a tone scarcely 
 above his breath, and drowned occasionally by the rolling of 
 the thunder, and he would pause every now and then, and lis- 
 ten with evident awe, as he heard the heavy footsteps of the 
 stranger pacing overhead. 
 
 The following is the purport of his story. 
 
184 ^ JiJooft of if)e ^utseon. 
 
 ADVENTURE OF THE BLACK FISHERMAN 
 
 Everybody knows Black Sam, the old negro fisherman, or, 
 as he is commonly called, Mud Sam, who has fished about the 
 Sound for the last half century. It is now many years since 
 Sam, who was then as active a young negro as any in the 
 province, and worked on the farm of Killian Suydam, on Long 
 Island, having finished his day's work at an early hour, was 
 fishing, one still summer evening, just about the neighborhood 
 of Ilell-gate. 
 
 He was in a light skiff, and being well acquainted with the 
 currents and eddies, had shifted his station, according to the 
 shifting of the tide, from the Hen and Chickens to the Hog's 
 Back, from the Hog's Back to the Pot, and from the Pot to 
 the Frying Pan ; but in the eagerness of his sport he did not 
 see that the tide was rapidly ebbing, until the roaring of the 
 whirlpools and eddies warned him of his danger ; and he had 
 some difficulty in shooting his skiff from among the rocks and 
 breakers, and getting to the point of Blackwell's Island. Here 
 he cast anchor for some time, waiting the turn of the tide, to 
 enable him to return homewards. As the night set in, it grew 
 blustering and gusty. Dark clouds came bundling up in the 
 west, and now and then a growl of thunder or a flash of light- 
 ning told that a summer storm was at hand. Sam pulled over, 
 therefore, under the lee of Manhattan Island, and coasting 
 along, came to a snug nook, just under a steep beetling rock, 
 where he fafiened his skiff to the root of a tree that shot out 
 from a cleft, and spread its broad branches like a canopy over 
 the water. The gust came scouring along ; the wind threw 
 up the river in white surges ; the rain rattled among the 
 
€i)C iSIacft jrfsficrman. 185 
 
 leaves ; the thunder bellowed worse than that which is now 
 bellowing ; the lightning seemed to lick up the surges of the 
 stream ; but Sam, snugly sheltered under rock and tree, lay 
 crouching in his skiff, rocking upon the billows until he fell 
 asleep. When he woke all was quiet. The gust had passed 
 away, and only now and then a faint gleam of lightning in the 
 east showed which way it had gone. The night was dark and 
 moonless, and from the state of the tide Sam concluded it was 
 near midnight. He was on the point of making loose his 
 skiff to return homewards, when he saw a light gleaming along 
 the water from a distance, which seemed rapidly approaching. 
 As it drew near he perceived it came from a lantern in the bow 
 of a boat gliding along under shadow of the land. It pulli^d 
 up in a small cove, close to where he was. A man jumped on 
 sh^re, and searching about with the lantern, exclaimed, " This 
 is the place — here's the iron ring." The boat was then made 
 fast, and the man returning on board, assisted his comrades in 
 conveying something heavy on shore. As the light gleamed 
 among them, Sam saw that they were five stout desperate look- 
 ing fellows, in red woollen caps, with a leader in a three-cornered 
 hat, and that some of them were armed with dirks, or long 
 knives, and pistols. They talked low to one another, and oc- 
 casionally in some outlandish tongue which he could not 
 understand. 
 
 On landing they made their w\ny among the bushes, taking 
 turns to relieve each other in lugging their burden up the rocky 
 bank. Sam's curiosity was now fully aroused ; so, leaving his 
 skiff, he clambered silently up a ridge that overlooked their 
 path. They had stopped to rest for a moment, and the leader 
 was looking about among the bushes with his lantern. " Have 
 you brought the spades ?" said one. " They are here," replied 
 another, who had them on his shoulder. " We must dig deep, 
 where there will be no risk of discovery," said a third. 
 
 A cold chill ran through Sam's veins. He fancied he saw 
 before him a gang of murderers, about to bury their victim. 
 His knees smote together. In his agitation he shook the branch 
 
186 a 33oofe of tfjf lUuison. 
 
 of a tree with which he was supporting himself as he looked 
 over the edge of the cliff. 
 
 " What's that ?" cried one of the gang. " Some one stirs 
 among the bushes I" 
 
 . The lantern was held up in the direction of the noise. One 
 of the red-caps cocked a pistol, and pointed it towards the very 
 place where Sam was standing. He stood motionless — breath- 
 less ; expecting the next moment to be his last. Fortunately 
 his dingy complexion was in his favor, and made no glare 
 among the leaves. 
 
 '• 'Tis no one/' said the man with the lantern. '•' What a 
 plague I you would not fire off your pistol and alarm the 
 country I" 
 
 The pistol was uncooked ; the burden was resumed, and the 
 party slowly toiled along the bank. Sam watched them as 
 they went ; the light sending back fitful gleams tlirough the 
 dripping bushes, and it was not till they were fairly out of sight 
 that he ventured to draw breath freely. He now thought of 
 getting back to his boat, and making his escape out of the 
 reach of such dangerous neighbors ; but curiosity was all- 
 powerful. He hesitated and lingered and listened. By and by 
 he heard the strokes of spades. '■' They are digging the grave !" 
 said he to himself; and the cold sweat started upon his fore- 
 head. Every stroke of a spade, as it sounded through the silent 
 groves, went to his heart ; it was evident tliere was as little 
 noine made as possible ; everything had an air of terrible mys- 
 tery and secresy. Sam had a great relish for the horrible — a 
 tale of murder was a treat for him ; and he was a constant 
 attendant at executions. He could not resist an impulse, in 
 spite of every danger, to steal nearer to the scene of mystery, 
 and overlook the midnight fellows at their work. He crawled 
 along cautiously, therefore, inch by inch ; stepping with the 
 utmost care among the dry leaves, lest their rustling should 
 betray him. He came at length to where a steep rock inter- 
 vened between him and the gang ; for he saw the light of their 
 lantern shining up against the branches of the treea on tlie other 
 
Ki)c JJlack Jisfjcrman. 187 
 
 Bide. Sam slowly and silently clambered up the surface of the 
 rock, and raising his head above its naked edge, beheld the 
 villains immediately below him, and so near, that though he 
 dreaded discovery, he dared not withdraw lest the least move- 
 ment should be heard. In this way he remained, with his 
 roimd black face peering above the edge of the rock, like the 
 sun just emerging above the edge of the horizon, or the round- 
 cheeked moon on the dial of a clock. 
 
 The red-caps had nearly finished their work ; the grave was 
 filled up, and they were carefully replacing the turf. This 
 done, they scattered dry leaves over the place. " And now," 
 said the leader, " I defy the devil himself to find it out." 
 
 •'. The murderers !" exclaimed Sum, involuntarily. 
 
 The whole gang started, and looking up beheld the round 
 black head of Sam just above them ; his white eyes strained 
 half out of their orbits ; his white teeth chattering, and his whole 
 visage shining with cold perspiration. 
 
 " We're discovered !" cried one. 
 
 " Down with him !" cried another. 
 
 Sam heard the cocking of a pistol, but did not pause for the 
 report. He scrambled over rock and stone, through brush and 
 brier ; rolled down banks like a hedgehog ; scrambled up 
 others like a catamount. In every direction he heard some 
 one or other of the gang hemming him in. At length he 
 reached the rocky ridge along the river ; one of the red-caps was 
 hard behind him. A steep rock like a wall rose directly in his 
 way ; it seemed to cut off' all retreat, when fortunately he espied 
 the strong cord-like branch of a grape-vine reaching half way 
 down it. He sprang at it with the force of a desperate man, 
 seized it with both hands, and being young and agile, succeeded 
 in swinging himself to the summit of the cliff'. Here he stood 
 in full relief against the sky, when the red-cap cocked his pistol 
 and fired. The ball .whistled by Sam's head. With the lucky 
 thought of a man in an emergency, he uttered a yell, fell to the 
 ground, and detached at the same time a fragmeiit of the rock, 
 which tumbled with a loud splash into the river. 
 
188 ^ 33oofe of tf)e l^uftsoi 
 
 " I've done his business," said the red-cap to one or two of 
 his comrades as they arrived panting. " He'll tell no tales, ex- 
 cept to the fishes in the river." 
 
 His pursuers now^ turned to meet their companions. Sam 
 sliding silently down the surface of the rock, let himself quietly 
 into his skiff, cast loose the fastening, and abandoned himself 
 to the rapid current, which in that place runs like a mill-stream, 
 and soon swept him off from the neighborhood. It was not, 
 however, until he had drifted a great distance that he ventured 
 to ply his oars ; when he made his skiff dart like an arrow 
 through the strait of Hell-gate, never heeding the danger of Pot, 
 Frying-Pan, nor Hog's Back itself: nor did he feel himself 
 thoroughly secure until safely nestled in bed in the cocklolt of 
 the ancient farm-house of the Suydams. 
 
 Here the worthy Peechy Prauw paused to take breath, and 
 to take a sip of the gossip tankard that stood at his elbow. 
 His auditors remained with open mouths and outstretched 
 necks, gaping like a nest of swallows for an additional 
 mouthful. 
 
 " And is that all V' exclaimed the half-pay officer. 
 
 " That's all that belongs to the story," said Peechy Prauw. 
 
 " And did Sam never find out what was buried by the red- 
 caps?" said Wolfert eagerly, whose mind was haunted by 
 nothing but ingots and doubloons. 
 
 " Not that I know of," said Peechy ; " he had no time to 
 spare from his work, and, to tell the truth, he did not like to 
 run the risk of another race among the rocks. Besides, how 
 should ho recollect the spot where the grave had been digged 1 
 everything would look so different by daylight. And then, 
 where was the use of looking for a dead body, when there was 
 no chance of hanging the murderers 1" 
 
 " Aye, but are you sure it was a dead body they buried 1" 
 said Wolfert. 
 
 " To be sure," cried Peechy Prauw, exultingly. " Does it 
 not haunt in the neighborhood to this very day ]" 
 
STfjc 33latk iFtsTjerntan. 189 
 
 " Haunt !" exclaimed several of the party, opening their 
 eyes still wider, and edging their chairs still closer. 
 
 " Aye, haunt," repeated Peechy ; " have none of you heard 
 of father Red-cap, who haunts the old burnt fami-house in the 
 woods, on the border of the Sound, near Hell-gate 1" 
 
 " Oh, to be sure, I've heard tell of something of the kind, but 
 then I took it for some old wives' fable." 
 
 " Old wives' fable or not," said Peechy Prauw, " that farm- 
 house stands hard by the very spot. It's been unoccupied time 
 out of mind, and stands in a lonely part of the coast ; but 
 those who fish in the neighborhood have often heard strange 
 noises there ; and lights have been seen about the wood at 
 night ; and an old fellow in a red cap has been seen at the 
 windows more than once, which people take to be the ghost 
 of the body buried there. Once upon a time three soldiers 
 took shelter in the building for the night, and rummaged it from 
 top to bottom, when they found old father Red-cap astride of 
 a eider-barrel in the cellar, with a jug in one hand and a goblet 
 in the other. He offered them a drink out of his goblet, but 
 just as one of the soldiers was putting it to his mouth — whew ! 
 — a flash of fire blazed through the cellar, blinded every 
 mother's son of them for several minutes, and when they 
 recovered their eye-sight, jug, goblet, and Red-cap had vanish- 
 ed, and nothing but the empty cider-barrel remained." 
 
 Here the half-pay officer, who was growing very muzzy and 
 sleepy, and nodding over his liquor with half-extinguished eye, 
 suddenly gleamed up like an expiring rushlight. 
 
 " That's all fudge !" said he, as Peechy finished his last 
 story. 
 
 " Well, I don't vouch for the truth of it myself," said Peechy 
 Prauw, " though all the world knows that there's something 
 strange about that house and grounds ; but as to the story of 
 Mud Sam, I believe it just as well as if it had happened to 
 myself." 
 
 The deep mtcrcst taken m this conversation by the company 
 
190 ^ Sooft ot tf)e |l1u5son, 
 
 had made them unconscious of the uproar abroad among the 
 elements, when suddenly they were electrified by a tremendous 
 clap of thunder. A lumbering crash followed instantaneously, 
 shaking the building to its very foundation. All started from 
 their seats, imagining it the shock, of an earthquake, or that old 
 father Red-cap was coming among them in all his terrors. 
 They listened for a moment, but only heard the rain pelting 
 against the windows, and the wind howling among the trees. 
 The explosion was soon explained by the apparition of an old 
 negro's bald head thrast in at the door, his white goggle eyes 
 contrasting witli his jetty poll, which was wet with rain, and 
 shone like a bottle. In a jargon but half intelligible, he 
 announced that the kitchen chimney had been struck with 
 lightning. 
 
 A sullen pause of the storm, which now rose and sank in 
 gusts, produced a momentary stillness. In this interval the 
 report of a musket was heard, and a long shout, almost like a 
 yell, resounded from the shores. Every one crowded to the 
 window ; another musket-shot was heard, and another long 
 ehout, mingled wildly with a rising blast of wind. It seemed 
 as if the cry came up from the bosom of the waters ; for though 
 incessant flashes of lightning spread a light about the shore, 
 no one was to be seen. 
 
 Suddenly the window of the room overhead was opened, and 
 a loud halloo uttered by the mysterious stranger. Several 
 bailings passed from one party to the other, but in a language 
 which none of the company in the bar-room could understand ; 
 and presently they heard the window closed, and a great noise 
 overhead, as if all the furniture were pulled and hauled about 
 the room. The negro servant was summoned, and shortly 
 afterwards was seen assisting the veteran to lug the ponderous 
 sea-chest down stairs. 
 
 The landlord was in amazement. " What, you are not going 
 on the water in such a storm V 
 
 " Storm !" said the other, scornfully, " do you call such a 
 sputter of weather a storm 1" 
 
m.olistt mitbhtr. 191 
 
 " You'll get drenched to the skin — You'll catch your 
 death !" said Peechy Piauw, aflectionately. 
 
 " Thunder and lightning !" exclaimed the merman, " don't 
 preach about weather to a man that has cniised in whirlwinds 
 and tornadoes." 
 
 The obsequious Peechy was again stmck dumb. The voice 
 from the water was heard once more in a tone of impatience ; 
 the bystanders stared with redoubled awe at this man of storms, 
 who seemed to have come up out of the deep, and to be sum- 
 moned back to it again. As, with the assistance of the negro, 
 he slowly bore his ponderous sea-chest towards the shore, they 
 eyed it with a superstitious feeling ; half doubting whether he 
 were not really about to embark upon it and launch forth upon 
 the wild waves. They followed him at a distance with a 
 lantern. 
 
 " Dowse the light !" roared the hoarse voice from the water. 
 " No one wants lights here!" 
 
 "Thunder and lightning!" exclaimed the veteran, turning 
 short upon them ; " back to the house with you !" 
 
 Woliert and his companions shrank back in dismay. Still 
 their curiosity would not allow them entirely to withdraw. A 
 long sheet of lightning now flickered across the waves, and dis- 
 covered a boat, filled with men, just under a rocky point, rismg 
 and sinking with the heaving surges, and swashing the water at 
 every heave. It was with difficulty held to the rocks by a boat- 
 hoolipfor the current rushed furiously round the point. The 
 veteran hoisted one end of the lumbering sea-chest on the 
 gimwale of the boat, and seized the handle at the other end to 
 lift it in, when the motion propelled the boat from the shore ; 
 the chest slipped off from the gunwale, and, sinking into the 
 waves, pulled the veteran headlong after it. A loud shriek 
 was uttered by all on shore, and a volley of execrations by 
 those on board ; but boat and man were hurried away by the 
 rushing swiftness of the tide. A pitchy darkness succeeded ; 
 Wolfert Webber indeed fancied that he distinguished a cry for 
 help, and that he beheld the drowning man beckoning for 
 
192 a aSoofe of t\)e %]n-ason. 
 
 assistance ; but when the lightning again gleamed along the 
 water, all was void ; neither man nor boat was to be seen ; 
 nothing but the dashing and weltering of the waves as they 
 hurried past. 
 
 The company returned to the tavern to await the subsiding 
 of the storm. They resumed their seats, and. gazed on each 
 other with dismay. The whole transaction had not occupied 
 five minutes, and not a dozen words had been spoken. When 
 they looked at the oaken chair, they could scarcely realize the 
 fact that the strange being who had so lately tenanted it, full 
 of life and Herculean vigor, should already be a corpse. 
 There was the very glass he had just drunk from ; there lay the 
 ashes from the pipe which he had smoked, as it were, with his 
 last breath. As the worthy burghers pondered on these things, 
 they felt a terrible conviction of the uncertainty of existence, 
 and each felt as if the ground on which he stood was rendered 
 less stable by this awful example. 
 
 As, however, the most of the company were possessed of 
 that valuable philosophy which enables a man to bear up with 
 fortitude against the misfortunes of his neighbors, they soon 
 managed to console themselves for the tragic end of the veteran. 
 The landlord was particularly happy that the poor dear man 
 had paid his reckoning before he went ; and made a kind of 
 farewell speech on the occasion. 
 
 " He came," said he, " in a storai, and he went in a storm ; 
 he came in the night, and he went in the night; hefHime 
 nobody knows whence, and he has gone nobody knows where. 
 For aught I know he has gone to sea once more on his chest, 
 and may land to bother some other people on the other side of 
 the world ! Though it's a thousand pities," added he, " if he 
 has gone to Davy Jones's locker, that he had not left his own 
 locker behind him." 
 
 " His locker ! St. Nicholas preserve us !" cried Peechy 
 Prauw. " I'd not have had that sea-chest in the house for any 
 money ; Pll warrant he'd come racketing after it at nights, and 
 making a haunted house of the inn. And, as to his going to 
 
Caolfert tJEctbcr. 193 
 
 sea in his chest, I recollect what happened to Skipper Onder- 
 donk's ship on his voyage from Amsterdam. 
 
 " The boatswain died during a storm, so they wrapped him 
 up in a sheet, and put him in his own sea-chest, and threw him 
 overboard ; but they neglected in their hurry-skurry to say 
 prayers over him — and the stoiTn raged and roared louder than 
 ever, and they saw the dead man seated in his chest, with his 
 shroud for a .sail, coming hard after the ship ; and the sea 
 breaking before him in great sprays like fire ; and there they 
 kept scudding day after day, and night after night, expecting 
 every moment to go to wreck ; and every night they saw the 
 dead boatswain in his sea-chest trying to get up with them, 
 and they heard his whistle above the blasts of wind, and he 
 seemed to send great seas mountain high after them, that 
 would have swamped the ship if they had not put up the dead- 
 lights. And so it went on till they lost sight of him in the 
 fogs off Newfoundland, and supposed he had veered ship and 
 stood for Dead Man's Isle. So much for burying a man at 
 sea without saying prayers over him." 
 
 The thunder-gust which had hitherto detained the company 
 was now at an end. The cuckoo clock in the hall tolled mid- 
 night ; every one pressed to depart, for seldom was such a late 
 hour of the night trespassed on by these quiet burghers. As 
 they sallied forth, they found the heavens once more serene. 
 The storm which had lately obscured them had rolled away, 
 and lay piled up in fleecy masses on the horizon, lighted up by 
 the bright crescent of the moon, which looked like a little silver 
 lamp hung up in a palace of clouds. 
 
 The dismal occurrence of the night, and the dismal narra- 
 tions they had made, had left a superstitious feeling in every 
 mind. They cast a fearful glance at the spot where the buc- 
 caneer had disappeared, almost expecting to see him sailing on 
 his chest in the cool moonshine. The trembling rays glittered 
 along the waters, but all was placid, and the current dimpled 
 over the spot where he had gone down. The party huddled 
 together in a little crowd as they repaired homeward, particu- 
 9 
 
194 ^ J3ooft of tf)g l^utigon. 
 
 larly when they passed a lonely field where a man had been 
 murdered, and even the sexton, who had to complete his jour- 
 ney alone, though accustomed, one would think, to ghosts and 
 goblins, went a long way round, rather than pass by his own 
 church-yard. 
 
 Wolf'ert Webber had now carried home a fresh stock of 
 stories and notions to ruminate upon. These accounts of pots 
 of money and Spanish treasures, buried here and there and 
 everywhere, about the rocks and bays of these wild shores, 
 made him almost dizzy. " Blessed St. Nicholas !" ejaculated 
 he half aloud, " is it not possible to come upon one of these 
 golden hoards, and to make one's self rich in a twinkling ? 
 How hard that I must go on, delving and delving, day in and 
 day out, merely to make a morsel of bread, when one lucky 
 stroke of a spade might enable me to ride in my carriage for the 
 rest of my life V 
 
 As he turned over in his thoughts all that had been told of 
 the singular adventure of the negro fisherman, his imagination 
 gave a totally different complexion to the tale. He saw in the 
 gang of red-caps nothing but a crew of pirates burying their 
 spoils, and his cupidity was once more awakened by the possi- 
 bility of at length getting on the traces oi' some of this lurk- 
 ing wealth. Indeed, his infected fancy tinged everything with 
 gold. He felt like the greedy inhabitant of Bagdad, when his 
 eyes had been greased with the magic ointment of the dervise, 
 that gave him to see all the treasures of the earth. Caskets 
 of buried jewels, chests of ingots, and barrels of outlandish 
 coins, seemed to court him from their concealments, and sup- 
 plicate him to relieve them from their unthnely graves. 
 
 On making private inquiries about the grounds said to be 
 haunted by Father Red-cap, he was more and more confirmed 
 in his surmise. He learned that the place had several times 
 been visited by experienced money-diggers, who had heard 
 black Sam's story, though none of them had met with success. 
 On the contrary, they had always been dogged with ill-luck 
 of some kind or other, in consequence, as Wolfert concluded. 
 
olfert Smcfilier. 195 
 
 of not going to work at the proper time, and with the proper 
 ceremonials. The last attempt had been made by Cobus 
 Quackenbos, who dug for a whole night, and met with incredi- 
 ble difficulty, for as fast as he threw one shovel full of earth 
 out of the hole, two were thrown in by invisible hands. He 
 succeeded so far, however, as to uncover an iron chest, when 
 there was a terrible roaring, ramping, and raging of uncouth 
 figures about the hole, and at length showers of blows, dealt 
 by invisible cudgels, fairly belabored him off of the forbidden 
 ground. This Cobus Quackenbos had declared on his death- 
 bed, so that there could not be any doubt of it. He was a 
 man that had devoted many years of his life to money-digging, 
 and it was thought would have ultimately succeeded, had he 
 not died recently of a brain fever in the alms-house. 
 
 Wolfert Webber was now in a worry of trepidation and im- 
 patience, fearful lest some rival adventurer should get a scent 
 of the buried gold. He determined privately to seek out the 
 black fisherman, and get him to sei^ve as guide to the place 
 where he had witnessed the mysterious scene of interment. 
 Sam was easily found, for he was one of those old habitual 
 beings that live about a neighborhood until they wear them- 
 selves a place in the public mind, and become, in a manner, 
 public characters. There was not an unlucky urchin about 
 town that did not know Sam the fisherman, and think that he 
 had a right to play his tricks upon the old negro. Sam had 
 led an amphibious life for more than half a century, about the 
 shores of the bay, and the fishing grounds of the Sound. He 
 passed the greater part of his time on and in the water, par- 
 ticularly about Hell-gate, and might have been taken, in bad 
 weather, for one of the hobgoblins that used to haunt that 
 strait. There would he be seen, at all times, and in all 
 weathers, sometimes in his skifl^, anchored among the eddies, 
 or prowling like a shark about some wreck, where the fish 
 are supposed to be most abundant. Sometimes seated on a 
 rock from hour to hour, looking in the mist and drizzle like a 
 solitary heron, watching for its prey. He was well acquainted 
 
196 ^ Book of tije IlluSson. 
 
 with every hole and corner of the Sound, from the Wallabout 
 to Hell-gate, and from Hell-gate even unto the Devil's Step- 
 ping-Stones, and it was even affirmed that he knew all the fish 
 in the river by their Christian names. 
 
 Wolfert found him at his cabin, which was not much larger 
 than a tolerable dog-house. It was rudely constructed of frag- 
 ments of wrecks and drift-wood, and built on the rocky shore 
 at the foot of the old fort, just about what at present forms the 
 point of the Battery. A " most ancient and fish-like smell" per- 
 vaded the place. Oars, paddles, and fishing-rods were leaning 
 against the wall of the fort ; a net was spread on the sands to 
 dry ; a skiff" was drawn up on the beach, and at the door of 
 his cabin was Mud Sam himself, indulging in the true negro 
 luxury of sleeping in the sunshine. 
 
 Many years had passed away since the time of Sam's youth- 
 ful adventure, and the snows of many a winter had grizzled the 
 knotty wool upon his head. He perfectly recollected the cir- 
 cumstances, however, for he had often been called upon to re- 
 late them, though in his version of the story he differed in 
 many points from Peechy Prauw, as is not unfrequently the 
 case with authentic historians. As to the subsequent researches 
 of money-diggers, Sam knew nothing about them ; they were 
 matters quite out of his line, neither did the cautious Wolfert 
 care to disturb his thoughts on that point. His only wish was 
 to secure the old fisherman as a pilot to the spot, and this was 
 readily effected. The long time that had intervened since his 
 nocturnal adventure had effaced all Sam's awe of the place, 
 and the promise of a trifling reward roused him at once from 
 his sleep and his sunshine. 
 
 The tide was adverse to making the expedition by water, 
 and Wolfert was too impatient to get to the land of promise, 
 to wait for its turning ; they set off, therefore, by land. A 
 walk of four or five miles brought them to the edge of a wood, 
 which, at that time, covered the greater part of the eastern side 
 of the island. It was just beyond the pleasant region of 
 Bloomen-dael. Here they struck into a long lane, straggling 
 
olfert imeibex. 197 
 
 among trees and bushes, very much overgrown with weeds and 
 mullen-stalks, as if but seldom used, and so completely over- 
 shadowed as to enjoy but a kind of" twilight. Wild vines en- 
 tangled the trees, and flaunted in their faces ; brambles and 
 briers caught their clothes as they passed ; the garter-snake 
 glided across their path ; the spotted toad hopped and waddled 
 before them, and the restless cat-bird mewed at them from 
 every thicket. Had Wolfert Webber been deeply read in ro- 
 mantic legend, he might have fancied himself entering upon 
 forbidden, enchanted ground, or that these were some of the 
 guardians set to keep watch upon buried treasure. As it was, 
 the loneliness of the place, and the wild stories connected with 
 it, had their effect upon his mind. 
 
 On reaching the lower end of the lane, they found them- 
 selves near the shore of the Sound in a kind of amphitheatre, 
 surrounded by forest trees. The area had once been a grass- 
 plot, but was now shagged with briers and rank weeds. At 
 one end, and just on the river bank, was a ruined building, lit- 
 tle better than a heap of rubbish, with a stack of chimneys, 
 rising lilce a solitary tower out of the centre. The current of 
 the Sound mshed along just below it, with wildly grown trees 
 drooping their branches into its waves. 
 
 Wolfert had not a doubt that this was the haunted house of 
 Father Red-cap, and called to mind the story of Peeehy Prauw. 
 The evening was approaching, and the light falling dubiously 
 among these woody places, gave a melancholy tone to the scene, 
 v/ell calculated to foster any lurking feeling of awe or supersti- 
 tion. The night-hawk, wheeling about in the highest regions 
 of the air, emitted his peevish, boding cry. The woodpecker 
 gave a lonely tap now and then on some hollow tree, and the 
 fire-bird* streamed by them with his deep-red plumage. 
 
 They now came to an inclosure that had once been a gar- 
 den. It extended along the foot of a rocky ridge, but was 
 little better than a wilderness of weeds, with here and there a 
 
 * Orchard Oriole. 
 
198 a Boofi of tf)£ l^ulijson. 
 
 matted rose bush, or a peach or plum-tree grown wild and rag- 
 ged, and covered with moss. At the lower end of the garden 
 they passed a kind of vault in the side of a bank, facing the 
 water. It had the look of a root-house. The door, though 
 decayed, was still strong, and appeared to have been recently 
 patched up. Wolfert pushed it open. It gave a harsh grating 
 upon its hinges, and striking against something like a box, a 
 rattling sound ensued, and a skull rolled on the floor. Wol- 
 fert drew back shuddering, but was reassured on being inform- 
 ed by the negro that this was a family-vault, belonging to one 
 of the old Dutch families that owned this estate ; an assertion 
 corroborated by the sight of coffins of various sizes piled within. 
 Sam had been familiar with all these scenes when a boy, and 
 now knew that he could not be far from the place of which 
 they were in quest. 
 
 They now made their way to the water's edge, scrambling 
 along ledges of rocks that overhung the waves, and obliged 
 often to hold by shrubs and grape-vines to avoid slipping into 
 the deep and hurried stream. At length they came to a small 
 cove, or rather indent of the shore. It was protected by steep 
 rocks, and overshadowed by a thick copse of oaks and chest- 
 nuts, so as to be sheltered and almost concealed. The beach 
 shelved gradually within the cove, but the current swept deep 
 and black and rapid along its jutting points. The negro paus- 
 ed ; raised his remnant of a hat, and scratched his grizzled poll 
 for a moment, as he regarded this nook ; then suddenly clapping 
 his hands, he stepped exultingly forward, and pointed to a large 
 iron ring, stapled firmly in the rock, just where a broad shelf of 
 stone furnished a commodious landing-place. It was the very 
 spot where the red-caps had landed. Years had. changed the 
 more perishable features of the scene ; but rock and iron yield 
 slowly to the influence of time. On looking more closely, 
 Wolfert remarked three crosses cut in the rock just above the 
 ring, which had no doubt some mysterious signification. Old 
 Sam now readily recognised the overhanging rock under which 
 his ekifi" had been sheltered during the thunder-gu?t. To follow 
 
Smolftrt SmcbTer. 199 
 
 up the course which the midnight gang had taken, however, 
 was a harder task. His mind had been so much taken up on 
 that eventful occasion by the persons of the drama, as to pay 
 but little attention to the scenes ; and these places look so 
 difTerent by night and day. After wandering about for some 
 time, however, they came to an opening among the trees which 
 Sam thought resembled the place. There was a ledge of rock 
 of moderate height like a wall on one side, which he thought 
 might be the very ridge whence he had overlooked the diggers. 
 Wolfert examined it narrowly, and at length discovered three 
 crosses similar to those above the iron ring, cut deeply into the 
 face of the rock, but nearly obliterated by moss that had grown 
 over them. His heart leaped v/ith joy, for he doubted not they 
 were the private marks of the buccaneers. All now that re- 
 mained was to ascertain the precise spot where the treasure lay 
 buried ; for otherwise he might dig at random in the neighbor- 
 hood of the crosses, without coming upon the spoils, and he 
 had already had enough of such profitless labor. Here, how- 
 ever, the old negro was perfectly at a loss, and indeed perplexed 
 him by a variety of opinions ; for his recollections were all con- 
 fused. Sometimes he declared it must have been at the foot of 
 a mulberry- tree hard by ; then beside a great white stone ; then 
 under a- small green knoll, a short distance from the ledge of 
 rocks ; until at length Wolfert became as bewildered as himself. 
 
 The shadows of evening were now spreading themselves over 
 the woods, and rock and tree began to mingle together. It 
 v/as evidently too late to attempt anything further at present ; 
 and, indeed, Wolfert had come unprovided with implements to 
 prosecute his researches. Satisfied, therefore, with having ascer- 
 tained the place, he took note of all its landmarks, that he 
 might recognise it again, and set out on his return homewards, 
 resolved to prosecute this golden enterprise without delay. 
 
 The leading anxiety which had hitherto absorbed every feel- 
 ing, being now in some measure appeased, fancy began to wan- 
 der, and to conjure up a thousand shapes and chimeras as he 
 returned through this haunted region. Pirates hanging in 
 
200 S J3t)oft oftf)c ?l!uti2on. 
 
 chains seemed to swing from every tree, and he almost expect- 
 ed to see some Spanish Don, with his throat cut from ear to 
 ear, rising slowly out of the ground, and shaking the ghost of a 
 money-bag. 
 
 Their way back lay through the desolate garden, and Wol- 
 fert's nerves had arrived at so sensitive a state that the flitting 
 of a bird, the rastling of a leaf, or the falling of a nut, was 
 enough to startle him. As they entered the confines of the 
 garden, they caught sight of a figure at a distance advancing 
 slowly up one of the walks, and bending under the weight of a 
 burden. They paused and regarded him attentively. He wore 
 what appeai-ed to be a woollen cap, and still more alamiing, 
 of a most sanguinary red. 
 
 The figure moved slowly on, ascended the bank, and stopped 
 at the very door of the sepulchral vault. Just before entering 
 it he looked around. What was the affright of Wolfert, when 
 he recognised the grizzly visage oi" the drowned buccaneer ! He 
 uttered an ejaculation of horror. The figure slowly raised his 
 iron fist, and shook it with a terrible menace. Wolfert did not 
 pause to see any more, but hurried off" as fast as his legs could 
 carry him, nor was Sam slow in following at his heels, having 
 all his ancient terrors revived. Away, then, did they scramble 
 through bush and brake, horribly frightened at every bramble 
 that tugged at their skirts, nor did they pause to breathe, until 
 they had blundered their way through this perilous wood, and 
 fairly reached the high road to the city. 
 
 Several days elapsed before Wolfert could summon courage 
 enough to prosecute the enterprise, so much had he been dis- 
 mayed by the apparition, whether living or dead, of the grizzly 
 buccaneer. In the meantime, what a conflict of mind did he 
 Buffer ! He neglected all his concerns, was moody and restles.? 
 all day, lost his appetite, wandered in his thoughts and words, 
 and committed a thousand blunders. His rest was broken ; 
 and when he fell asleep, the nightmare, in shape of a huge 
 money-bag, sat squatted upon his breast. He babbled abou< 
 incalculable sums ; fancied himself engaged in money-digging ; 
 
tSMoUirt Wiebber, 201 
 
 threw the bedclothes right and left, in the idea that he was 
 shovelling away the dirt ; groped under the bed in quest of 
 the treasure, and lugged forth, as he supposed, an inestimable 
 pot of gold. 
 
 Dame Webber and her daughter were in despair at what 
 they conceived a returning touch of insanity. There are two 
 family oracles, one or other of which Dutch housewives 
 consult in all cases of great doubt and perplexity — the dominie 
 and the doctor. In the present instance they repaired to the 
 doctor. There was at that time a little dark mouldy man of 
 medicine, Itimous among the old wives of the Manhattoes for 
 his skill, not only in the healing art, but in all matters of 
 strange and mysterious nature. His name was Dr. Knipper- 
 hausen, but he was more commonly known by the appellation 
 of the High German Doctor.* To him did the poor women 
 repair for counsel and- assistance touching the mental vagaries 
 of Wolfert Webber. 
 
 They found the doctor seated in his little study, clad in his 
 dark camlet robe of knowledge, with his black velvet cap ; 
 after the manner of Boorhaave, Van Helmont, and other 
 medical sages ; a pair of green spectacles set in black hora 
 upon his clubbed nose, and poring over a German folio that 
 reflected back the darkness of his physiognomy. The doctor 
 listened to their statement of the symptoms of Wolfert's malady 
 with profound attention ; but when they came to mention his 
 raving about buried money, the little man pricked up his ears. 
 Alas, poor women ! they little knew the aid they had called in. 
 
 Dr. Knipperhausen had been half his life engaged in seeking 
 the short cuts to fortune, in quest of which so many a long 
 lifetime is wasted. He had passed some years of his youth 
 among the Har? mountains of Germany, and had derived 
 much valuable instruction from the miners, touching the mode 
 of seeking treasure buried in the earth. He had prot-ecuted his 
 
 * The same, no doubt, of whom mention is madt^ in the history of 
 Dolph Heyliger. 
 
 9* 
 
202. ® 33oofe Df tf)e l^utison. 
 
 studies also under a travelling sage who united the mysteries 
 of medicine with magic and legerdemain. His mind therefore 
 had become stored with all kinds of mystic lore ; he had 
 dabbled a little in astrology, alchemy, divination ; knew how 
 to detect stolen money, and to tell where springs of water lay 
 hidden ; in a word, by the dark nature of his knowledge he 
 had acquired the name of the High German Doctor, which is 
 pretty nearly equivalent to that of necromancer. The doctor 
 had often heard rumors of treasure being buried in various parts 
 of the island, and had long been anxious to get on the traces 
 of it. No sooner were Wolfert's waking and sleeping vagaries 
 confided to him, than he beheld in them the confirmed symp- 
 toms of a case of money-digging, and lost no time in probing 
 it to the bottom. Wolfert had long been sorely oppressed in 
 mind by the golden secret, and as a family physician is a kind 
 of father confessor, he was glad of any opportunity of un- 
 burdening himself. So far from curing, the doctor caught the 
 malady from his patient. The circumstances unfolded to him 
 awakened all his cupidity ; he had not a doubt of money being 
 buried somewhere in the neighborhood of the mysterious 
 crosses, and offered to join Wolfert in the search. He informed 
 him that much secresy and caution must be observed in enter- 
 prises of the kind ; that money is only to be digged for at night ; 
 with certain forms and ceremonies ; the burning of drugs ; the 
 repeating of mystic words ; and above all, that the seekers must 
 first be provided with a divining rod, which had the wonderful 
 property of pointing to the very spot on the surface of the 
 earth under which treasure lay hidden. As the doctor had 
 given much of his mind to these matters, he charged himself 
 with all the necessary preparations, and, as the quarter of the 
 moon was propitious, he undertook to have the divining rod 
 ready by a certain night.* 
 
 * The following note was found .Tppended to this passage in the hand- 
 writing of Mr. Knickerbocker. "There has been much written against 
 the divining rod by those light minds who are ever ready to scoff ut tho 
 iHj'steries of nature ; but I fully join with Dr. Knipperhausen in giving 
 
olfert OJefibcr. 203 
 
 Wolfert's heart leaped with joy at having met with so 
 learned and able a coadjutor. Everything went on secretly, 
 but swimmingly. The doctor had many consultations with 
 his patient, and the good woman of the household lauded tho 
 comforting effects of his visits. In the meantime the wonderful 
 divining rod, that great key to nature's secrets, was duly pre- 
 pared. The doctor had thumbed over all his books of know- 
 ledge for the occasion ; and the black fisherman was engaged 
 to take them in his skiff to the scene of enterprise ; to work 
 wath spade and pickaxe in unearthing the treasure ; and to 
 freight his bark with the weighty spoils they were certain of 
 finding. 
 
 it my faith. I shall not insist upon its efficacy in discovering the con- 
 cealment of stolen goods, the boundary stones of fields, the traces of 
 robbers and murdcjprs, or even the existence of subterraneous springs 
 and stre.ims of water : albeit, I think these properties not to be readily 
 discredited : but of its potency in discovering veins of preciriis metal, 
 and hidden sums of money and jewels, I have not the least doubt. 
 Some said that the rod turned only in the hands of persons who had 
 been born in particular nmnths of the year; hence astrologers had re- 
 course to {.'lanetary influence when they would procure a talisman. 
 Others declared that the properties of the rod were either an effect of 
 chance, or the fraud of the holder, or the work of the devil. Tims saith 
 the reverend father Gaspard Sebett in his Treatise on Magic: ' Pro])ter 
 haic et similia argumenta audacler ego promisero vim conversivam 
 virgulae bifurcate nequaquam naturalem esse, sed vol casu vel fr.iude 
 virgulam tractantis vel ope diaboli,' &c. 
 
 "Georghis Agricola also was of opinion that it was a mere delusion of 
 the devil to inveigle the avaricious and unwary into his clutches, and in 
 his treatise! 'de re Mctallica,' lays particular stress on the mysterious 
 words pronounced by those persons who employed the divining rod 
 during his time. Cut I make not a doubt that the divining rod 
 is one of those secrets of natural magic, the mystery of which is to be 
 explained by the sympathies existing between physical things operated 
 upon by the planets, and rendered efficacious by the strong faith of the 
 individual. Let the divining rod 1)0 properly gathered at the proper time 
 of the moon, cut into the proper form, used with the necessary ceremo- 
 nies, and with a perfect fiith in its efficacy, and I can confidently re- 
 commend it to my fellow-citizens as an infallible means of discovering 
 the various places on the Island of Manhattoes where treasure hath 
 been buried in the olden time. D. K." 
 
204 ^ ^oo'k of tf)e %utison. 
 
 At length the appointed night arrived for this perilous un- 
 dertaking. Before Wolfert left his home he counselled his 
 wife and daughter to go to bed, and feel no alarm if he should 
 not return during the night. Like reasonable women, on being 
 told not to feel alarm, they fell immediately into a panic. They 
 saw at once by his manner that something unusual was in agita- 
 tion ; all their fears about the unsettled state of his mind were 
 revived with tenfold force ; they hung about him, entreating 
 him not to expose himself to the night air, but all in vain. 
 When once Wolfert was mounted on his hobby, it was no easy 
 matter to get him out of the saddle. It was a clear starlight 
 night, when he issued out of the portal of the Webber palace. 
 He wore a large flapped hat tied under the chin with a hand- 
 kerchief of his daughter's, to secure him from the night damp, 
 while Dame Webber threw her long red cloak about his shoul- 
 ders, and fastened it round his neck. 
 
 The doctor had been no less carefully armed and accoutred 
 by his housekeeper, the vigilant Frau Ilsy, and sallied forth in 
 his camlet robe, by way of surcoat ; his black velvet cap under 
 his cocked hat, a thick clasped book under his arm, a basket 
 of dmgs and dried herbs in one hand, and in the other the 
 miraculous rod of divination. 
 
 The great church clock struck ten as Wolfert and the doc- 
 tor passed by the churchyard, and the watchman bawled in 
 hoarse voice a long and doleful " all's well !" A deep sleep 
 had already fallen upon this primitive little burgh ; nothing 
 disturbed this awful silence, excepting now and then the bark 
 of some profligate night walking dog, or the serenade of some 
 romantic cat. It is true, Wolfert fancied more than once that 
 he heard the sound of a stealthy footfall at a distance behind 
 them : but it might have been merely the echo of their own 
 steps along the quiet streets. He thought -also at one time 
 that he saw a tall figure skulking after them — stopping when 
 they stopped, and moving on as they proceeded ; but the dim 
 and uncertain lamp-light threw such vague gleams and 
 shadows, that this might all have been mere fancy. 
 
amolfcrt miebbtt, 205 
 
 They found the old fisherman waiting for them, smoking his 
 pipe in the stem of his skiff, which was moored just in front of 
 his little cabin. A pickaxe and spade were lying in the bot- 
 tom of the boat, with a dark lantern, and a stone bottle of 
 good Dutch courage, in which honest Sam no doubt put even 
 more faitii than Dr. Knipperhausen in his drags. 
 
 Thus then did these three worthies embark in their cockle- 
 shell of a skiff upon this nocturnal expedition, with a wisdom 
 and valor equalled only by the three wise men of Gotham, who 
 adventured to sea in a bowl. The tide was rising and running 
 rapidly up the Sound. The current bore them along, almost 
 without the aid of an oar. The profile of the town lay all in 
 shadow. Here and there a light feebly glimmered from some 
 sick chamber, or from a cabin window of some vessel at an- 
 chor in the stream. Not a cloud obscured the deep starry fir- 
 mament, the lights of which wavered on the surface of the 
 placid river ; and a shooting meteor, streaking its pale course 
 in the very direction they were taking, was interpreted by the 
 doctor into a most propitious omen. 
 
 In a little while they glided by the point of Corlaer's Hook 
 with the rural inn which had been the scene of such night ad- 
 ventures. The family had retired to rest, and the house was 
 dark and still. Wolfert felt a chill pass over him as they pass- 
 ed the point where the buccaneer had disappeared. He pointed 
 it out to Dr. Knipperhausen. While regarding it, they thought 
 they saw a boat actually lurking at the very place ; but the 
 shore cast such a shadow over the border of the water that they 
 could discern nothing distinctly. They had not proceeded far 
 when they heard the low sounds of distant oars, as if cautiously 
 pulled. Sam plied his oars with redoubled vigor, and knowing 
 all the eddies and currents of the stream, soon left their follow- 
 ers, if such they were, far astern. In a little while they stretch- 
 ed across Turtle bay and Kip's bay, then shrouded themhelves 
 in the deep shadows of the Manhattan shore, and glided swiftly 
 along, secure from observation. At length the negro shot his 
 skifT into a little cove, darkly embowered by trees, and made it 
 
g06 ® Sooit of tfje %u5son. 
 
 fast to the well-known iron ring. They now landed, and 
 lighting the lantern, gathered their various implements and pro- 
 ceeded slowly through the bushes. Every sound startled them, 
 even that of their own footsteps among the dry leaves ; and the 
 hooting of a screech-owl, from the shattered chimney of the 
 neighboring ruin, made their blood run cold. 
 
 In spite of all Wolfert's caution in taking note of the land- 
 marks, it was some time before they could find the open place 
 among the trees, where the treasure was supposed to be buried. 
 At length they came to the ledge of rock ; and on examining 
 its surface by the aid of the lantern, Wolfert recognised the 
 three mystic crosses. Their hearts beat quick, for the momen- 
 tous trial was at hand that was to determine their hopes. 
 
 The lantern was now held by Wolfert Webber, while the 
 doctor produced the divining rod. It was a forked twig, one 
 end of which was grasped firmly in each hand, while the centre, 
 forming the stem, pointed perpendicularly upwards. The doctor 
 moved this wand about, within a certain distance of the earth, 
 from place to place, but for some time without any effect, 
 while Wolfert kept the light of the lantern turned full upon it, 
 and watched it with the most breathless interest. At length 
 the rod began slov/ly to turn. The doctor grasped it with 
 greater earnestness, his hands trembling with the agitation of 
 his mind. The wand continued to turn gradually, until at 
 length the stem had reversed its position, and pointed perpen- 
 dicularly downwards, and remained pointing to one spot as 
 fixedly as the needle to the pole. 
 
 " This is the spot !" said the doctor, in an almost inaudible 
 tone. 
 
 Wolfert's heart was in his throat. 
 
 " Shall I dig V said the negro, grasping the spade. 
 
 " Fots tausends, no !" replied the little doctor, hastily. He 
 now ordered his companions to keep close by him, and to 
 maintain the most inflexible silence. That certain precautions 
 must be taken and ceremonies used to prevent the evil spirits 
 
olUxt TIMtliiex. 207 
 
 which kept about buried treasure from doing them any harm. 
 He then drew a circle about the place, enough to include the 
 whole party. He next gathered dry twigs and leaves and made 
 a fire, upon which he threw certain drugs and dried herbs which 
 he had brought in his basket. A thick smoke rose, diffusing a 
 potent odor, savoring marvellously of brimstone and asafoetida, 
 which, however grateful it might be to the olfactory nerves of 
 spirits, nearly strangled poor Wolfert, and produced a fit of 
 coughing and wheezing that made the whole grove resound. 
 Doctor Kuipperhausen then unclasped the volume which he 
 had brought under his arm, which was printed in red and black 
 characters in German text. While Wolfert held the lantern, 
 the doctor, by the aid of his spectacles, read off several forms 
 of conjuration in Latin and German. He then ordered Sam 
 to seize the pickaxe and proceed to work. The close-bound 
 soil gave obstinate signs of not having been disturbed for many 
 a year. After having picked his way through the surface, Sam 
 came to a bed of sand and gravel, which he threw briskly to 
 right and left with the spade. 
 
 " Hark !" said Wolfert, who fancied he heard a trampling 
 among the dry leaves, and rustling through the bushes. Sam 
 paused for a moment, and they listened. No footstep was 
 near. The bat flitted by them in silence ; a bird, roused from 
 its roost by the light which glared up among the trees, flew 
 circling about the flame. In the profound stillness of the 
 woodland, they could distinguish the current rippling along 
 the rocky shore, and the digtant murmuring and roaring of 
 Hell-gate. 
 
 The negro continued his labors, and had already digged a 
 considerable hole. The doctor stood on the edge, reading 
 formulae every now and then from his black-letter volume, or 
 throwing more drugs and herbs upon the fire ; while Wolfert 
 bent anxiously over the pit, watching every stroke of the spade. 
 Any one witnessing the scene thus lighted up by fire, lantern, 
 and the reflection of Wolfert's red mantle, might have mistaken 
 
Q08 ® 33ooft of tije I^UUson. 
 
 the little doctor for some foul magician busied in his incanta- 
 tions, and the grizzly-headed negro for some swart goblin, 
 obedient to his commands. 
 
 At length the spade of the fisherman struck upon something 
 that sounded hollow. The sound vibrated to Wolfert's heart. 
 He struck his spade again. 
 
 " 'Tis a chest," said Sam. 
 
 " Full of gold, I'll warrant it !" cried Wolfert, clasping his 
 hands with rapture. 
 
 Scarcely had he uttered the words when a sound from above 
 caught his ear. He cast up his eyes, and lo ! by the expiring 
 light of the fire he beheld, just over the disk of the rock, what 
 appeared to be the grim visage of the drowned buccaneer, 
 grinning hideously down upon him. 
 
 Wolfert gave a loud cry, and let fall the lantern. His panic 
 communicated itself to his companions. The negro leaped 
 out of the hole ; the doctor dropped his book and basket, and 
 began to pray in German. All was horror and confusion. 
 The fire was scattered about, the lantern extinguished. In 
 then- hm-ry-scurry they ran against and confounded one 
 another. They fancied a legion of hobgoblins let loose upon 
 them, and that they saw, by the fitful gleams of the scattered 
 embers, strange figures, in red caps, gibbering and ramping 
 around them. The doctor ran one way, the negro another, 
 and Wolfert made for the water side. As he plunged strug- 
 gling onwards through brush and brake, he heard the tread of 
 f?ome one in pursuit. He scrambled frantically forward. The 
 footsteps gained upon him. He felt himself grasped by his 
 cloak, when suddenly his pursuer was attacked in turn: a fierce 
 fight and struggle ensued — a pistol was discharged that lit up 
 rock and bush for a second, and showed two figures grappling 
 together — all was then darker than ever. The contest con- 
 tinued — the combatants clinched each other, and panted, and 
 groaned, and rolled among the rocks. There was snarling and 
 growling as of a cur, mingled with curses, in which Wolfert 
 fancied he could recognise the voice of the buccaneer. He 
 
WLoltext tmfbbtt. 209 
 
 would fain have fled, but he was on the brink of a precipice, 
 and could go no further. 
 
 Again the parties were on their feet ; again there was a tag- 
 ging and struggling, as if strength alone could decide the com- 
 bat, until one was precipitated from the brow of the cliff, and 
 sent headlong into the deep stream that whirled below. Wol- 
 fert heard the plunge, and a kind of strangling, bubbling mur- 
 mur, but the darkness of the night hid everything from him, 
 and the swiftness of the current swept everything instantly out 
 of hearing. One of the combatants was disposed of, but 
 whether friend or foe, Wolfert could not tell, nor whether 
 they might not both be foes. He heard the sui-vivor 
 approach, and his terror revived. He saw, where the profile 
 of the rocks rose against the horizon, a human form advanc- 
 ing. He could not be mistaken ; it must be the buccaneer. 
 Whither should he fly ! — a precipice was on one side — a mur- 
 derer on the other. The enemy approached — he was close at 
 hand. Wolfert attempted to let himself down the face of the 
 cliff. His cloak caught in a thorn that grew on the edge. He 
 was jerked from off his feet, and held dangling in the air, half- 
 choked by the string with which his careful wife had fastened the 
 garment round his neck. Wolfert thought his last moment 
 was arrived ; already had he committed his soul to St. Nicho- 
 las, when the string broke, and he tumbled down the bank, 
 bumping from rock to rock, and bush to bush, and leaving the 
 red cloak fluttering like a bloody banner in the air. 
 
 It was a long while before Wolfert came to himself. 
 When he opened his eyes, the ruddy streaks of morning were 
 already shooting up the sky. He found hunself grievously 
 battered, and lying in the bottom of a boat. He attempted to 
 sit up, but was too sore and stiff to move. A voice requested 
 him in friendly accents to lie still. He turned his eyes towards 
 the speaker ; it was Dirk Waldron. He had dogged the par- 
 ty, at the earnest request of Dame Webber and her daughter, 
 who, with the laudable curiosity of their sex, had pried into 
 the secret consultations of Wolfert and the doctor. Dirk had 
 
210 ^ ISaoft ot tife ^utsseti. 
 
 been completely distanced in following the light skifF of the 
 fisherman, and had just come in time to rescue the poor money- 
 digger from his pursuer. 
 
 Thus ended this perilous enterprise. The doctor and Black 
 Sam severally found their way back to the Manhattoes, each 
 having some dreadful tale of peril to relate. As to poor Wol- 
 fert, instead of returning in triumph laden with bags of gold, he 
 was borne home on a shutter, followed by a rabble rout of 
 curious urchins. . His wife and daughter saw the dismal pageant 
 from a distance, and alarmed the neighborhood with their 
 cries ; they thought the poor man had suddenly settled the 
 great debt of nature in one of his wayward moods. Finding 
 him, however, still living, they had him speedily to bed, and a 
 jury of old matrons of the neighborhood assembled, to deter- 
 mine how he should be doctored. The whole town was in a 
 buzz with the story of the money-diggers. Many repaired to 
 the scene of the previous night's adventures ; but though they 
 found the very place of the digging, they discovered nothing 
 that compensated them for their trouble. Some say they found 
 the fragments of an oaken chest, and an iron pot-lid, which 
 savored strongly of hidden money, and that in the old family vault 
 there were traces of bales and boxes, but this is all veiy dubious. 
 
 In fact, the secret of all this story has never to this day 
 been discovered ; whether any treasure were ever actually 
 buried at that place ; whether, if so, it were carried off at 
 night by those who had buried it ; or whether it still remains 
 there under the guardianship of gnomes and spirits, until it 
 shall be properly sought for, is all matter of conjecture. For 
 my part, I incline to the latter opinion, and make no doubt 
 that great sums lie buried, both there and in other parts of this 
 island and its neighborhood, ever since the times of the buc- 
 caneers and the Dutch colonists, and I would earnestly recom- 
 mend the search after them to such of my fellow citizens as are 
 not engaged in any other speculations. 
 
 There were many conjectures formed, also, as to who and 
 what was the strange man of the seas who had domineered 
 
Wioltext WSSitibtx. 211 
 
 over the little fraternity at Corlaer's Hook for a time, disap- 
 peared so strangely, and reappeared so fearfully. Some sup- 
 posed him a smuggler stationed at that place to assist his com- 
 rades in landing their goods among the rocky coves of the 
 island. Others that he was one of the ancient comrades of 
 Kidd or Bradish, returned to convey away treasures formerly 
 hidden in the vicinity. The only circumstance that throws 
 anything like a vague light on this mysterious matter, is a re- 
 port which prevailed of a strange, foreign built shallop, with 
 much the look of a picaroon, having beeft seen hovering about 
 the Sound for several days, without landing or reporting her- 
 self, though boats were seen going to and from her at night, 
 and that she was seen standing out of the mouth of the har- 
 bor in the grey of the dawn after the catastrophe of the money- 
 diggers. 
 
 I must not omit to mention another report, also, which I 
 confess is rather apocryphal, of the buccaneer, who was sup- 
 posed to have been drowned, being seen before daybreak, with 
 a lantern in his hand, seated astride of his great sea-chest, and 
 sailing through Hell-gate, which just then began to roar and 
 bellow with redoubled fury. 
 
 While all the gossip world was thus filled with talk and ru- 
 mor, poor Wolfert lay sick and sorrowful in his bed, bruised 
 in body, and sorely beaten down in mind. His wife and 
 daughter did all they could to bind up his wounds, both corpo- 
 ral and spiritual. The good old dame never stirred from his 
 bedside, where she sat knitting from morning till night, while 
 his daughter busied herself about him with the fondest care. 
 Nor did they lack assistance from abroad. Whatever may be 
 said of the desertion of friends in distress, they had no complaint 
 of the kind to make. Not an old wife of the neighborhood but 
 abandoned her work to crowd to the mansion of Wolfert 
 Webber, inquire after his health, and the particulars of his 
 story. Not one came moreover, without her little pipkin of 
 pennyroyal, sage, balm, or other herb tea, delighted at an 
 opportunity of signalizing her kindness and her doctorship. 
 
212 ® aSook of tf)e ^utizan. 
 
 What drenchings did not poor Wolfert undergo, and all in 
 vain ! It was a moving sight to behold him wasting away day 
 by day, growing thinner and thinner, and ghastlier and ghast- 
 lier, and staring with rueful visage from under an old patch- 
 work counterpane, upon the jury of matrons kindly assembled 
 to sigh, and groan, and look unhappy around him. 
 
 Dirk Waldron was the only being that seemed to shed a ray 
 of sunshine into this house of morning. He came in with 
 cheery look and manly spirit, and tried to reanimate the ex- 
 piring heart of the potir money-digger, but it was all in vain. 
 Wolfert was completely done over. If anything was wanting 
 to complete his despair, it was a notice served upon him in the 
 midst of his distress, that the corporation were about to run a 
 new street through the very centre of his cabbage garden. He 
 now saw nothing before him but poverty and ruin ; his last re- 
 liance, the garden of his forefathers, was to be laid waste, and 
 what then was to become of his poor wife and child ? 
 
 His eyes filled with tears as they followed the dutiful Amy 
 out of the room one morning. Dirk Waldron was seated 
 beside him ; Wolfert grasped his hand, pointed after his daugh- 
 ter, and, for the first time since his illness, broke the silence he 
 had maintained. 
 
 " I am going !" said he, shaking his head feebly, " and when 
 I am gone — my poor daughter " 
 
 " Leave her to me, father !" said Dirk, manfully — " I'll take 
 care of her !" 
 
 Wolfert looked up in the face of the cheery, trapping 
 youngster, and saw there was none better able to take care of a 
 woman. 
 
 " Enough," said he — " she is yours ! — and now fetch me a 
 lawyer — let me make my will and die." 
 
 The lawyer was brought — a dapper, bustling, round-headed 
 little man. Roorback (or Rollebuck as it was pronounced) by 
 name. At the sight of him the women broke into loud 
 lamentations, for they looked upon the signing of a will as the 
 
aaaolfcrt miebitt. 213 
 
 signing of a death-warrant. WoH'ert made a feeble motion for 
 them to be silent. Poor Amy buried her face and her grief in 
 the bed-curtain. Dame Webber resumed her knitting to hide 
 her distress, which betrayed itself, however, in a pellucid tear, 
 which trickled silently down, and hung at the end of her 
 peaked nose ; while the cat, the only unconcerned member of 
 the family, played with the good dame's ball of worsted, as it 
 rolled about the floor. 
 
 Wolfert lay on his back, his night-cap drawn over his fore- 
 head ; his eyes closed ; his whole visage the picture of death. 
 He begged the lawyer to be brief, for he felt his end approach- 
 ing, and that he had no time to lose. The lawyer nibbed his 
 pen, spread out his paper, and prepared to write. 
 
 " I give and bequeathe," said Wolfert, faintly, " my small 
 farm " 
 
 " What — all !" exclaimed the lawyer. 
 
 Wolfert half opened his eyes and looked upon the lawyer. 
 
 " Yes — all," said he. 
 
 " What ! all that great patch of land with cabbages and sun- 
 flowers, which the coi-poration is just going to run a main street 
 through ?" 
 
 " The same," said Wolfert, with a heavy sigh, and sinking 
 back upon his pillow. 
 
 " I wish him joy that inherits it !" said the little lawyer, 
 chuckling and rubbing his hands involuntarily. 
 
 " What do you mean V said Wolfert, again opening his 
 eyes. 
 
 " That he'll be one of the richest men in the place !" cried 
 little Rollebuck. 
 
 The expiring Wolfert seemed to step back from the threshold 
 of existence ; his eyes again lighted up ; he raised himself in his 
 bed, shoved back his red worsted night-cap, and stared broadly 
 at the lawyer. 
 
 " You don't say so !" exclaimed he. 
 
 " Faith, but I do !" rejoined the other. " Why, when that 
 
214 ^ !3oofe of t^e ?^ufison. 
 
 great field and that huge meadow come to be laid out in streets, 
 and cut up into snug building lots — why, whoever owns it need 
 not pull off his hat to the patroon !" 
 
 " Say you so ?" cried Wolfert, half thrusting one leg out of 
 bed, " why, then I think I'll not make my will yet !" 
 
 To the surprise of everybody the dying man actually re- 
 covered. The vital spark, which had glimmered faintly in the 
 socket, received fresh fuel from the oil of gladness which the 
 little lawyer poured into his soul. It once more burnt up into 
 a flame. 
 
 Give physic to the heart, ye who would revive the body of a 
 spirit-broken man ! In a few days Wolfert left his room ; in a 
 few days more his table was covered with deeds, plans of streets, 
 and building lots. Little Rollebuck was constantly with him, 
 his right-hand man and adviser ; and instead of making his 
 will, assisted in the more agreeable task of making his fortune. 
 In fact Wolfert Webber was one of those worthy Dutch 
 burghers of the Manhattoes whose fortunes have been made, in 
 a manner, in spite of themselves ; who have tenaciously held 
 on to their hereditary acres, raising turnips and cabbages about 
 the skirts of the city, hardly able to make both ends meet, 
 until the corporation has craelly driven streets through their 
 abodes, and they have suddenly awakened out of their lethargy, 
 and, to their astonishment, found themselves rich men. 
 
 Before many months had elapsed, a great bustling street 
 passed through the very centre of the Webber garden, just 
 where Wolfert had dreamed of finding a treasure. His golden 
 dream was accomplished ; he did indeed find an unlooked-for 
 source of wealth ; for, when his paternal lands were distributed 
 into building lots, and rented out to safe tenants, instead of 
 producing a paltry crop of cabbages, they returned him an 
 abundant crop of rents ; insomuch that on quarter-day, it was 
 a goodly sight to see his tenants knocking at his door, from 
 morning till night, each with a little round-bellied bag of 
 money, a golden produce of the soil. 
 
 The ancient mansion of his forefathers was still kept up ; but 
 
Jiaiotfcit Wiebbet. 215 
 
 instead of being a little yellow-fronted Dutch house in a garden, 
 it now stood boldly in the midst of a street, the grand house 
 of the neighborhood ; for Wolfert enlarged it with a wing on 
 each side, and a cupola or tea-room on top, where he might 
 climb up and smoke his pipe in hot weather ; and in the course 
 of time the whole mansion was overrun by the chubby-faced 
 progeny of Amy Webber and Dirk Waldron. 
 
 As Wolfert waxed old, and rich, and corpulent, he also set 
 up a great gingerbread-colored carriage, drawn by a pair of 
 black Flanders mares, with tails that swept the ground ; and 
 to commemorate the origin of his greatness, he had for his 
 crest, a full-blown cabbage painted on the panels, with the 
 pithy motto SI lies lHopf, that is to say, all head ; meaning 
 thereby that he had risen by sheer head-work. 
 
 To fill the measure of his greatness, in the fulness of time 
 the renowned Ramm Rapelye slept with his fathers, and 
 Wolfert Webber succeeded to the leather-bottomed arm-chair, 
 in the inn parlor at Corlaei^'s Hook ; where he long reigned 
 greatly honored and respected, insomuch that he was never 
 known to tell a story without its being believed, nor to utter a 
 'oke without its being laughed at. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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