month, in order to see if the true saving grace was likely to abide in the family for another generation.  My heart misgave me for a moment; for young Oloff has the fist of a vice, and I thought the goodly names of the Harmans, and Rips, Corneliuses, and Dircks of the manor rent-roll were likely to be contaminated by the company of an Increase or a Peleg; but just as the Patroon thought he had the watery viper by the throat, the fish gave an unexpected twist, and slid through his fingers by the tail.  Flaws and loop-holes! but that experiment has as much wisdom as wit in it!”

“And to me, it seemeth better, now that Providence has brought all the colonies under one government, that these prejudices should be forgotten.  We are a people, sprung from many nations, and our effort should be to preserve the liberality and intelligence, while we forget the weaknesses, of all.”

“Bravely said, for the child of a Huguenot!  But I defy the man, who brings prejudice to my door.  I like a merry trade, and a quick calculation.  Let me see the man in all New-England, that can tell the color of a balance-sheet quicker than one that can be named, and I’ll gladly hunt up the satchel and go to school again.  I love a man the better for looking to his own interests, I; and, yet common honesty teaches us, that there should be a convention between men, beyond which none of reputation and character ought to go.”

“Which convention shall be understood, by every man, to be the limits of his own faculties; by which means the dull may rival the quick of thought.  I fear me, uncle, there should be an eel kept on every coast, to which a trader comes!”

“Prejudice and conceit, child, acting on a drowsy head; ’tis time thou seekest thy pillow, and in the morning we shall see if young Oloff of the Manor shall have better success with thy favor, than with the prototype of the Jonathans.  Here, put out these flaring candles, and take a modest lamp to light thee to thy bed.  Glaring windows, so near midnight give a house an extravagant name, in the neighborhood.”

“Our reputation for sobriety may suffer in the opinion of the eels,” returned Alida, laughing, “but here are few others, I believe, to call us dissipated.”

“One never knows—­one never knows—­” muttered the Alderman, extinguishing the two large candles of his niece, and substituting his own little handlamp in their place.  “This broad light only invites to wakefulness, while the dim taper I leave is good as a sleeping draught.  Kiss me, wilful one, and draw thy curtains close, for the negroes will soon rise to load the periagua, that they may go up with the tide to the city.  The noise of the chattering black guards may disturb thy slumbers!”

“Truly, it would seem there was little here to invite such active navigation,” returned Alida, saluting the cheek of her uncle at his order.  “The love of trade must be strong, when it finds the materials of commerce, in a solitude like this.”