 | The works of Washington Irving |  |
A VILLAGE POLITICIAN.
I am a rogue if I do not think I was designed for
the helm of state; I am so full of nimble stratagems,
that I should have ordered affairs, and carried
it against the stream of a faction, with as much
case as a skipper would laver against the wind.
The Goblins.
In one of my visits to the village with
Master Simon, he proposed that we should
stop at the inn, which he wished to show
me, as a specimen of a real country inn,
the head-quarters of village gossip. I
had remarked it before, in my perambulations
about the place. It has a deep
old-fashioned porch, leading into a large
hall, which serves for tap-room and
travellers' room; having a wide fireplace,
with high-backed settles on each
side, where the wise men of the village
gossip over their ale, and hold their
sessions during the long winter evenings.
The landlord is an easy indolent fellow,
shaped a little like one of his own beer
barrels, and is apt to stand gossiping
at his door, with his wig on one side,
and his hands in his pockets, whilst his
wife and daughter attend to customers.
His wife, however, is fully competent to
manage the establishment; and, indeed,
from long habitude, rules over all the
frequenters of the tap-room