ing
the northern boundary of the village, and known as the Hell Hole. On
the right are abrupt little hills, wooded and awesome, while off
toward the west stretch the flats left by the river, with now and then
a silent pool to reflect the dying embers of the burned-out day. No
light gleams from a friendly window, only the shadowy form of a hay
rake left out by some farmer suggests human companionship. With eight
miles of such traveling ahead, it is small wonder if the wayfarer
hastens.

[Sidenote: _"CITIZEN" GENET._]

About half-way, where one passes a schoolhouse overlooking the flats
and the guide board says 3-1/2 miles to Castleton, once lived
"Citizen" Genet, and his house still stands a quarter of a mile back
on Prospect Hill, facing the cross road to East Greenbush. Edmond
Charles Genet was sent out to this country in the Spring of 1793 by
the new French Republic. Things moved rapidly in France in those days,
and Genet's friends were soon removed and he, fearing the guillotine,
became an American citizen, "a scientific farmer and an ornament to
New York society." In 1810 he moved to Greenbush, where he died in
1834. His tombstone in the burial ground of the Dutch Church in East
Greenbush tells us that "His heart was love and friendship's sun."
His house was once the home of Gen. Hendrick K. Van Rensselaer, whose
bravery at Fort Ann saved the American army in 1777.

Part of the flat lands we have been skirting go to make up the long
island of Paps Knee, which was early selected as a place of refuge.
Here a fort was built and farms were laid out, but in 1666 a flood
swept away houses and cattle, and since then the farmers have lived on
the higher main land; only one brick house, the fort, escaped and that
still stands, bearing its two hundred and seventy-five years with the
grace of long practice.

Where the road works down to meet the river comes Douw's Point, once
the head of steamboat navigation; passengers for Albany and beyond
going forward in stages after crossing the river in a horse ferryboat.
It is whispered that a few rods below the point Captain Kidd buried
treasures. Old Volkert P. Douw was so staunch a patriot that he
refused to hold office under the English, and gave his money and his
time to the American cause.

[Sidenote: _FORT CRALO._]

[Sidenote: _YANKEE DOODLE._]

In the lower edge of the village of Greenbush and on the River Road
which we are following stands the most interesting buildin