d adroitness in all these 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 any thing so completely to his taste as this wild, hap-hazard
life. He was the very man to second Antony Vander Heyden in his
rambling humours, and gained continually on his affections. The heart
of the old bushwhacker yearned toward 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 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 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, "some how or other," connected with the story of the Haunted
House; that the misadventure in the highlands, which had thrown them
so strangely together, was, "some how or other," to work out something
good: in short, there is nothing so convenient as this "some how or
ot