gh the
Indians, as usual, maintained an invincible gravity.

"This is your true 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 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 gillore."

In the midst of his jovialty, however, Heer Antony did not lose sight
of discretion. Though he pushed the bottle without reserve to Dolph,
yet he always took care to help his followers himself, knowing the
beings he had to deal with; and he was particular in granting but a
moderate allowance to the Indians. 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 fire, and soon fell asleep, like so many tired
hounds. The rest of the party remained chatting 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 turned 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 the twisted root of a tree, that
served him for a kind of 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, that could not be fixed
upon any precise feature or lineament, but which pervaded the general
air of his countenance and figure.

The circumstance of Dolph's falling overboard being again discussed,
led to the relation of divers disasters and singular mishaps