en seen in these Highlands in storms, which are
considered as connected with the old story of the ship. The captains
of the river craft talk of a little bulbous-bottomed Dutch goblin, in
trunk hose and sugar-loafed hat, with a speaking-trumpet in his hand,
which, they say, keeps about the Dunderberg. They declare that they
have heard him, in stormy weather, in the midst of the turmoil, giving
orders in Low Dutch for the piping up of a fresh gust of wind or the
rattling off of another thunder-clap; that sometimes he has been seen
surrounded by a crew of little imps in broad breeches and short
doublets, tumbling head-over-heels in the rack and mist, and playing a
thousand gambols in the air, or buzzing like a swarm of flies about
Anthony's Nose; and that, at such times, the hurry-scurry of the storm
was always greatest. One time a sloop, in passing by the Dunderberg,
was overtaken by a thunder-gust that came scouring round the mountain,
and seemed to burst just over the vessel. Though light and well
ballasted she labored dreadfully, and the water came over the gunwale.
All the crew were amazed when it was discovered that there was a little
white sugar-loaf hat on the masthead, known at once to be the hat of
the Herr of the Dunderberg. Nobody, however, dared to climb to the
mast-head and get rid of this terrible hat. The sloop continued
laboring and rocking, as if she would have rolled her mast overboard,
and seemed in continual danger either of upsetting or of running on
shore. In this way she drove quite through the Highlands, until she
had passed Pollopol's Island, where, it is said, the jurisdiction of
the Dunderberg potentate ceases. No sooner had she passed this bourn
than the little hat spun up into the air like a top, whirled up all the
clouds into a vortex, and hurried them back to the summit of the
Dunderberg, while the sloop righted herself and sailed on as quietly as
if in a mill-pond. Nothing saved her from utter wreck but the
fortunate circumstance of having a horse-shoe nailed against the
mast--a wise precaution against evil spirits, since adopted by all the
Dutch captains that navigate this haunted river.

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER.

THE RENDEZVOUS.

[From _The Deerslayer_.]

In the position in which the ark had now got, the castle was concealed
from view by the projection of a point, as, indeed, was the northern
extremity of the lake itself. A respectable mountain, forest-clad, and
rounded