leep.

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
that was on the point of sailing; and that his conductor led him on
board and vanished. He remembered the commander of the Tessel, a short
swarthy man,--with crisped black hair, blind of one eye, and lame of
one leg; but the rest of his dream was very confused. Sometimes he was
sailing; sometimes on shore; now amidst storms and tempests, and now
wandering quietly 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 woke, the gray, cool light of dawn was streaking the horizon,
and the cocks passing the reveil 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 household.
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 bustle around him. He found himself
near the water's edge, in a throng of people, hurrying to a pier,
where there was a vessel ready to make sail. He was unconsciously
carried 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's attentio