Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon, William Craig, Charles Franks, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team THE CRAYON PAPERS by GEOFFREY CRAYON, GENT. MOUNTJOY: or Some Passages out of the Life of a Castle-Builder THE GREAT MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE--"A Time of Unexampled Prosperity" DON JUAN: A Spectral Research BROEK: or the Dutch Paradise SKETCHES IN PARIS IN 1825--From the Traveling Note-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. My French Neighbor The Englishman at Paris English and French Character The Tuileries and Windsor Castle The Field of Waterloo Paris at the Restoration AMERICAN RESEARCHES IN ITALY--Life of Tasso: Recovery of a Lost Portrait of Dante THE TAKING OF THE VEIL The Charming Letorières THE EARLY EXPERIENCES OF RALPH RINGWOOD--Noted Down from his Conversations THE SEMINOLES ORIGIN OF THE WHITE, THE RED, AND THE BLACK MEN--A Seminole Tradition THE CONSPIRACY OF NEAMATHLA--An Authentic Sketch LETTER FROM GRANADA ABDERAHMAN: Founder of the Dynasty of the Ommiades in Spain THE WIDOW'S ORDEAL: or a Judicial Trial by Combat THE CREOLE VILLAGE: A Sketch from a Steamboat A CONTENTED MAN * * * * * MOUNTJOY OR SOME PASSAGES OUT OF THE LIFE OF A CASTLE-BUILDER I was born among romantic scenery, in one of the wildest parts of the Hudson, which at that time was not so thickly settled as at present. My father was descended from one of the old Huguenot families that came over to this country on the revocation of the edict of Nantz. He lived in a style of easy, rural independence, on a patrimonial estate that had been for two or three generations in the family. He was an indolent, good-natured man, who took the world as it went, and had a kind of laughing philosophy, that parried all rubs and mishaps, and served him in the place of wisdom. This was the part of his character least to my taste; for I was of an enthusiastic, excitable temperament, prone to kindle up with new schemes and projects, and he was apt to dash my sallying enthusiasm by some unlucky joke; so that whenever I was in a glow with any sudden excitement, I stood in mortal dread of his good-humor.