dinner, he rose, took from his pocket a six-pence, and handed it to the landlord. How is this?' asked the latter; 'your dinner and wine amount to ten shillings eight-pence.' ple justice to the viands and wine. After the loser, consented to let him go, if he would agree to play the same trick upon a rival inn-keeper, who lived opposite. 'You must step,' said he, across the way, to the Black Bear, and order a supper twice the value of the dinner with which I have furnished you; for I hate the landlord, and should like to do him all the mischief in my power.' 6 That may be true, and I even think that price very cheap,' replied the rogue; 'but you will please to remember, that I expressly ordered a dinner worth my money; and, as true as I stand before you, this sixpence is all the money I have in the world.' After considerable dispute, the landlord saw it was no use talking the matter over any further; and seeing that he must be The Honest 'Excuse me,' replied the rogue, chuckling; but the man you are speaking of, I cheated this morning out of a breakfast ; and it was he who sent me to you, to cheat you out of a dinner.' Thus, in wishing to injure each other, the inn-keepers only injured themselves. Dutchman. room?" So they called together the chief men of their nation, and they held a great council to consider what they must do. And behold, there rose amongst them a man unlike the men of the land, for they were short, and broad, and well-formed in body, of a solemn and quiet countenance, and clad in peaceable garments; but he was tall, and bony, and of a grim and hairy aspect. He had a great hard hand, and a fierce eye; his clothes had a wild look; he had a sword by his side, a spear in his grasp, and his name was Van Manslaughter. T came to pass, in the days of old, that the men of Holland found themselves straitened in their habitations, for who knows not that they were, from the first, a sober, hardy, and industrious race, tilling the ground, buying and selling, eating and drinking in humility, and therefore they lived to a good old age, and sent forth their little ones like a flock, and their children danced;' so that their land being small, they filled it brimful of inhabitants, till they were ready to overflow all its borders. And they looked this way, and that way, and they said, 'What shall we do, for Fellow citizens! I marvel at your perthe people are many, and the land is plexity. You sit quietly at home, and small, and we are much straitened for know nothing of the world; but I and With a glad, but a savage gaze, he looked round upon the assembly, and said, STORY OF THE HONEST DUTCHMAN. lips move. brethren! 267 my followers have pursued the deer and wife or his friend. As he arose there the boar far away into the forests of Ger- was a great silence, and he stood and many. We have fought with the wolf sighed; and those who were near him and the bear, and, if need were, with the heard him mutter, in a low tone, the word men of the woods; and enjoy our hunt-Glory,' but those afar off only saw his ing, and to eat of our prey with joy and jollity. Why sit ye here in a crowd, like sheep penned in a fold? We have seen the land that is next to ours, and we have been through it to the length of it, and to the breadth of it, and it is a good land. There are corn and wine; there are cities, towns, and villages ready built to our hands. Let us arise and come suddenly upon them, and we shall not only get all these possessions, but we shall get great glory.' And when he had so said, he looked round him with much exultation, and a crowd of dark hairy faces behind him cried out, Ay, it is true! Let us arise and get great glory!' But at that word there stood up Mynheer Kindermann, an old man, a very old man. He was of low stature, of a stout broad frame, and his hair, which was very white, hung down from his shoulders; and his beard also, as white as driven snow, fell reverently upon his breast. That old man had a large and tranquil countenance; his features were bold, and of a very healthful complexion; his face, though of a goodly breadth, was of a striking length, for his forehead was bold and high, and his eyes had a pleasant fire-side expression, as though he had been used only to behold his children and his children's children at their play, or to fix them on the loving forms of his Then he said aloud : My Iam glad that you are called upon to get great glory; but what is that glory to which Mynheer Van Manslaughter calls you? In my youth, as some of you well know, I travelled far and wide with my merchandize; I have sojourned in all the countries that adjoin ours, and they are truly good countries, and full of people; but what of that? It is not people that we lack, it is land; and I should like to know how we are to take this land, that is full of people, and yet do those people no wrong! If we go to take that land, we shall find the people ready to defend their homes and their children; and if we fight in a bad cause, we shall probably get beaten, like thieves and robbers, for our pains ;—and is that glory? But if we are able to take that land, we must first kill or drive out those that cultivate it, and make it fit to live in ; and is that glory? And if we take those cities, and towns, and villages, we must kill those who built them, or have lived pleasantly in them, with God's blessing. Oh, what honest, inoffensive men, what good, kind-hearted mothers, what sweet and tender brothers and sisters, what dear little babes we must murder and destroy, or drive away from their warm homes which God has given them, and which are almost as dear to them as their lives, into the dismal forests, to perish with cold and hunger, or to be devoured by wild beasts, and, in their anguish, to curse us before the Great Father who made us all! My brethren, I cannot think that is glory, but great disgrace and infamy, and a misery that, I trust, shall never come upon us. 'I have long looked about me, and I see that Heaven has given all those countries round us to whom He would, and they are full of people; they are full of towns for men, and temples for God; they are full of warm, bright, happy homes, where there are proud fathers, and glad mothers, and innocent children, as amongst ourselves, and cursed be he who would disturb or injure them. But, my brethren, how shall we get glory, and, what is more immediate necessity, how shall we get land to live in? I have been thinking of this, and it has come into my mind that it has been too long the custom for men to call themselves warriors when they desire to be murderers, and to invade the property and the lives of their neighbors; and I have thought, as all the land is taken up, and as we cannot without great sin invade the land, that we had better invade the sea, where we can take, and wrong no man! And who does not know, that has looked towards the sea, that there is much ground which seems properly to belong neither to the sea nor the land? Sometimes it is covered with the waters, and sometimes it is partly bare,-a dreary, slimy, and profitless region, inhabited only by voracious crabs that make war upon one another, the stronger upon the weaker,-and sea-fowl which come in like conquerors and subdue them, and devour them, and get what Van Manslaughter calls 'great glory!' My brethren, let us invade the sea, let us get piles, and beams, and stones, and dig up the earth, and make a large mound which will shut out the sea, and we shall have land enough and to spare.' As he finished his speech, there arose a deep murmur that grew and grew till it spread among the people collected in thousands without, and at length became the sound of the ocean itself; and then the people cried out, Yes, we will invade the sea!' and so it was decreed. Then began they with axes to fell wood; with levers and mattocks to wrench up stones; and with wagons, horses, and oxen, to lead them to the sea. Now, it being the time of low water, and the tide being gone down very far, they began to dig up the earth and to make a mighty bank. So when the sea came up again, it saw the bank and the people upon it in great numbers, but it took no notice thereof. And it went down and came up again, and they had pushed out the bank still farther, and raised it higher, and secured it with beams, and piles, and huge stones, and it began to wonder. And it went down and came up again, and they had pushed the bank still further, so that in great amaze it said within itself, What are these little STORY OF THE DUTCHMAN. creatures doing? Some great scheme is in their heads, but I wot not what; and one of these days I will come up and overturn their banks and sweep both it and them away together.' out. But, at length, as it came up once on a time, it perceived that the bank was finished. It stretched across from land to land, and the sea was entirely shut Then was it filled with wonder that such little creatures had done so a mazing a deed; and with great indignation that they had presumed to interrupt the progress of itself-the mighty sea, which stretched round the whole world, and was the greatest moving thing in it. Retreating in fury, it collected all its strength, and came with all its billows, and struck the bank in the midst as with thunder. In a moment there appeared on the top of the mound, on the whole length of it, a swarm of little stout men, thick as a swarm of bees. Marvellous was it to see how that throng of little creatures was all astir, running here, and running there; stopping crevices, and repairing damages done by that vast and tremendous enemy, that, roaring and foaming, repeated its blows like the strokes of a million of battering-rams, till the faces of the men were full of fear, and they said, Surely the mound will fall!' Then came the sea, swelling and raging more dreadfully than ever, and, urged by the assistance of a mighty wind, it thundered against the bank and burst it! The waters flowed triumphantly over all their old places and many men perished. 269 Then went Van Manslaughter amongst the people with great joy, and many loud words, saying,See what has come of despising my counsel! See what glory your old counsellor has brought you to! Come now, follow me, and I will lead you to possessions where you need not fear the sea. Let us leave it to people this bog with fish. I am for no newfangled schemes, but for the good old plan of fair and honorable war, which has been the highway to wealth and glory from the beginning of the world.' Then began the people to be very sad, and to listen to his words; but Mynheer Kindermann called them again to him and bid them be of good heart, and to repair the bank; to make it stronger, and to build towers upon it, and to appoint men to dwell in them that they might continually watch over and strengthen it. So the people took courage and did so, for they said, 'Let us take no man's goods, and let us do no murder.' Therefore they renewed the mound, and the sea came up in tenfold wrath and smote it worse than before, but it was all in vain. It failed not, save a little here and there, and the people seeing it, set up a great shout, and cried, 'The mound will stand !' Then did they begin to dig and drain, to plant trees, to build towns, and to lay out gardens, and it became a beautiful country. Then the inhabitants rejoiced, saying, Others have invaded lands and killed people, but we have hurt no man. We have only invaded the sea, and Heaven has made us out of it a goodly nies to the ends of the earth, and have heritage !' These are the people whose wealth and industry are known through the whole world. They have sent out colo got themselves the name of Honest Dutchmen. Would that they had always been as wise and merciful as they were on that day! Quintin Harewood and his Brother Brian. CHAPTER III. Quintin and Brian well received by their Uncle. They prepare for adventures. Packages are sent off to Newfoundland. Quintin and Brian in Kentucky. The Skunk. Affair with a Cougar. Brian's narrow escape. Lizards. Snakes and Scorpions in the Mississippi valley. Ar Philadelphia we were well received by our uncle; and no sooner had we arranged what business required our attention, than we began to think of seeing a little of the country. We had provided ourselves with double-barreled rifles at Paris, and were anxious to get into the woods. To my surprise my uncle favored my inclination to remain some time in America, and undertook to reconcile my mother to this arrangement. Thus strengthened in my favorite project, I prepared myself for adventures with my brother Brian. Our first step was to forward to Newfoundland the greater part of our packages, among which was a writing-desk of mine, in a private drawer of which I kept the note of Helen Archer, and the ring given me by my mother. The motto of that ring Thou, God, seest me,' often gave a thrill to my heart. W. HOWITT. It was not long before Brian and I were sailing on the Delaware, the Schuylkill, and the Ohio, and soon had left Philadelphia far behind. One morning, while we were in Kentucky, we set off in the twilight, just before the sun rose, with a brace of dogs, and had scarcely walked a mile before we saw an animal, of a kind which we had never seen before, running on in rather a serpentine direction. It was a pretty creature to look at, about a foot and a half long. Its color a blackish brown, with a little white behind its ears and on the tip of its bushy tail. It was on the skirt of the forest that this animal made its appearance, and Brian directly gave chase to it, setting on the dogs, for it was rather too dark to fire at it with our rifles. Away ran the dogs, and away we scampered after, thinking to catch it alive. Just as we came up with it, and expected the dogs to leap forward, the creature emitted such an offensive, acrimonious, and indeed poisonous fluid, that the dogs stopped short, turned round, and ran away howling. We called the dogs, but in vain; for they had buried their noses deep in the soil to get rid of |