e Barent Bleecker, inasmuch as he refused to come to a settlement of
accounts, seeing that there was a heavy balance in favor of the said
Wandle. Governor Van Twiller, as I have already observed, was a man of
few words; he was likewise a mortal enemy to multiplying writings or
being disturbed at his breakfast. Having listened attentively to the
statement of Wandle Schoonhoven, giving an occasional grunt as he
shoveled a spoonful of Indian pudding into his mouth, either as a sign
that he relished the dish or comprehended the story, he called unto him
his constable, and, pulling out of his breeches pocket a huge
jack-knife, dispatched it after the defendant, as a summons, accompanied
by his tobacco-box as a warrant.

This summary process was as effectual in those simple days as was the
seal ring of the great Haroun Alraschid among the true believers. The
two parties being confronted before him, each produced a book of
accounts written in a language and character that would have puzzled any
but a High Dutch commentator or a learned decipherer of Egyptian
obelisks. The sage Wouter took them one after the other, and, having
poised them in his hands and attentively counted over the number of
leaves, fell straightway into a very great doubt, and smoked for half an
hour without saying a word; at length, laying his finger beside his nose
and shutting his eyes for a moment with the air of a man who had just
caught a subtle idea by the tail, he slowly took his pipe from his
mouth, puffed forth a column of tobacco-smoke, and with marvelous
gravity and solemnity pronounced--that, having carefully counted over
the leaves and weighed the books, it was found that one was just as
thick and as heavy as the other; therefore it was the final opinion of
the court that the accounts were equally balanced; therefore Wandle
should give Barent a receipt, and Barent should give Wandle a receipt;
and the constable should pay the costs.

This decision, being straightway made known, diffused general joy
throughout New Amsterdam, for the people immediately perceived that they
had a very wise and equitable magistrate to rule over them. But its
happiest effect was that not another lawsuit took place throughout the
whole of his administration, and the office of constable fell into such
decay that there was not one of those losel scouts known in the province
for many years.

HOW THE COLONISTS LIVED IN THE DAYS OF WALTER THE DOUBTER

The houses of t