The Von Toodleburgs; Or, The History of a Very Distinguished FamilyAdams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
General
The Von Toodleburgs; Or, The History of a Very Distinguished Family
Adams, F. Colburn (Francis Colburn)
Families -- Fiction; New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Treasure troves -- Fiction
This reply troubled Chapman considerably. He had for once found
something he would rather encourage than oppose. But he had a motive for
his action, as will be seen hereafter.
CHAPTER VII.
THE TOWN MOVED WITH INDIGNATION.
It was less than a week after the scenes we have described in the
foregoing chapter took place, that the good sloop Heinrich arrived,
having made her weekly voyage to New York and back. A small, ill-favored
man, with a very long red beard, and very long red hair, might have been
seen stepping ashore, with a book and an umbrella under his arm, and
wending his way up the lane, followed by Tite, carrying a corpulent
carpet-bag. There was a combative air about the little man, who stared
with a pair of small, fierce eyes, through a pair of glaring spectacles
at every one he met. He was dressed in a shabby black suit, that hung
loosely on his lean figure. This, with a broad, rolling collar, a pair
of russet brogans, and a common straw hat, turned up at one side,
completed his wardrobe, and gave an odd appearance to the man. Indeed,
the gentleman had no taste for the vanities of the world, and parted his
hair in the middle to save trouble. The ordinary observer might easily
have mistaken him for a school-master out of employment and in distress.
That such a man was to upset the settled opinions of a big town, few
persons would have believed. Such, however, was this odd-looking little
man's mission, and there was no end of new ideas contained in that
little bumpy forehead of his.
The new arrival was the much-expected Reverend Warren Holbrook, from
Dogtown last. As I have said before, he looked askance and inquisitively
at every one he met as he walked up the lane. He bowed, too, and had a
smile for all the females; then he enquired the name and condition of
those who lived in each house he came to--how many children they had,
and whether they were boys or girls. Now he paused and rested on his
umbrella when he had reached a bit of high ground, and gazed over Nyack
generally, and then over the Tappan Zee. Here was the new field of the
great labors before him. How often he had taken Dogtown by the neck and
shaken her up severely. The day might come when he would have to take
Nyack by the neck and give her a good shaking up, morally and
religiously. Mrs. Chapman had written him to say that Nyack was a bad
place, secularly and otherwise.
The whole Chapman family (including the big dog) was out at the door to
welcome the stranger; and such a warm greeting as he got. Mrs. Chapman
assured him that the best in the house had been prepared for him, and
that she had got the town in a state of great anxiety to see him. To
tell the truth, this busy, bustling woman had been blowing a noisy
trumpet for him in advance, and enlisting a large amount of female
sympathy by stating that he was preeminent as an advocate of woman's
rights in all things.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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