University of Virginia Library

A DUTCH SETTLER'S DREAM.

And the sage Oloffe dreamed a dream—and lo, the
good St. Nicholas came riding over the tops of the trees
in that selfsame waggon wherein he brings his yearly
presents to children; and he came and descended hard by
where the heroes of Communipaw had made their late
repast. And the shrewd Van Kortland knew him by his
broad hat, his long pipe, and the resemblance which he
bore to the figure on the brow of the Goede Vrouw. And
he lit his pipe by the fire, and he sat himself down and
smoked; and as he smoked, the smoke from his pipe
ascended into the air and spread like a cloud overhead.
And the sage Oloffe bethought him, and he hastened and
climbed up to the top of one of the tallest trees, and saw
that the smoke spread over a great extent of country; and
as he considered it more attentively, he fancied that the
great volume of smoke assumed a variety of marvellous
forms, where in dim obscurity he saw shadowed out palaces
and domes and lofty spires, all of which lasted but a
moment, and then faded away, until the whole rolled off,
and nothing but the green woods were left. And when
St. Nicholas had smoked his pipe, he twisted it in his hatband,
and laying his finger beside his nose, gave the astonished
Van Kortlandt a very significant look; then
mounting his waggon, he returned over the tree tops and
disappeared.

And Van Kortlandt awoke from his sleep greatly instructed,
and he aroused his companions and related to
them his dream: and interpreted it, that it was the will
of St. Nicholas that they should settle down and build the
city here. And that the smoke of the pipe was a type
how vast should be the extent of the city; inasmuch as the
volumes of its smoke should spread over a vast extent of
country. And they all with one voice assented to this
interpretation excepting Mynheer Tenbroeck, who declared
the meaning to be that it should be a city wherein a little
fire should occasion a great smoke, or in other words, a
very vapouring little city—both which interpretations have
strangely come to pass.