hting with a mysterious excitement, while he affected to laugh at the
folly he uttered, "that the great Poughkeepsie fortune-teller foretold, in
the presence of my grandmother, that a Patroon of Kinderhook should
intermarry with a witch. So, should I see la Belle in the position you
name, it would not greatly alarm me."

"The prophecy was fulfilled at the wedding of thy father!" muttered
Myndert, who, notwithstanding the outward levity with which he treated the
subject, was not entirely free from secret reverence for the provincial
soothsayers, some of whom continued in high repute, even to the close of
the last century. "His son would not else have been so clever a youth! But
here is Captain Ludlow looking at the ocean, as if he expected to see my
niece rise out of the water, in the shape of a mermaid."

The commander of the Coquette pointed to the object which attracted his
gaze, and which, appearing as it did at that moment, was certainly not of
a nature to lessen the faith of either of his companions in supernatural
agencies.

It has been said that the wind was dry and the air misty, or rather so
pregnant with a thin haze, as to give it the appearance of a dull, smoky
light. In such a state of the weather, the eye, more especially of one
placed on an elevation, is unable to distinguish what is termed the
visible horizon at sea. The two elements become so blended, that our
organs cannot tell where the water ends, or where the void of the heavens
commences. It is a consequence of this in distinctness, that any object
seen beyond the apparent boundary of water, has the appearance of floating
in the air. It is rare for the organs of a landsman to penetrate beyond
the apparent limits of the sea, when the atmosphere exhibits this
peculiarity, though the practised eye of a mariner often detects vessels,
which are hid from others, merely because they are not sought in the
proper place. The deception may also be aided by a slight degree of
refraction.

"Here;" said Ludlow, pointing in a line that would have struck the water
some two or three leagues in the offing. "First bring the chimney of
yonder low building on the plain, in a range with the dead oak on the
shore, and then raise your eyes slowly, till they strike a sail."

"That ship is navigating the heavens!" exclaimed Myndert! "Thy grandmother
was a sensible woman, Patroon; she was a cousin of my pious progenitor,
and there is no knowing what two clever old ladies,