turies ago,
for these lands, now proverbially rich, and worth millions of dollars.
The treaty was mutually executed, according to the records from which we
quote, on the 20th of May, 1677.

The patentees immediately took possession of their newly-acquired
property, their first conveyances being three wagons, which would be
rare curiosities in our day. The wheels were very low, shaped like
old-fashioned spinning-wheels, with short spokes, wide rim, and without
any iron. The settlers were three days on their way from Kingston to New
Paltz, a distance of only sixteen miles. The place of their first
encampment is still known by the name of '_Tri Cor_,' or three cars, in
honor of these earliest conveyances. Soon, however, they selected a more
elevated site, on the banks of the beautiful Walkill, where the village
now stands. Log houses were erected not far apart, for mutual defence,
and afterwards stone edifices, with port-holes, some of which still
remain.

* * * * *

MACCARONI AND CANVAS.

INTRODUCTION.

Rome is the cradle of art,--which accounts for its sleeping there.

Nature, however, is nowhere more wide awake than it is in and around
this city: therefore, Mr. James Caper, animal painter, determined to
repose there for several months.

The following sketches correctly describe his Roman life.

ARRIVAL IN ROME.

It was on an Autumn night that the traveling carriage in which sat James
Caper arrived in Rome; and as he drove through that fine street, the
Corso, he saw coming towards him a two-horse open carriage, filled with
Roman girls of the working class (_minenti_). Dressed in their
picturesque costumes, bonnetless, their black hair tressed with flowers,
they stood up, waving torches, and singing in full voice one of those
songs in which you can go but few feet, metrically speaking, without
meeting _amore_. And then another and another carriage, with flashing
torches and sparkling-eyed girls. It was one of the turnouts of the
_minenti_; they had been to Monte Testaccio, had drank all the wine they
could pay for; and, with a prudence our friend Caper could not
sufficiently admire, he noticed that the women were in separate
carriages from the men. It was the Feast Day of Saint Crispin, and all
the cobblers, or artists in leather, as they call themselves, were
keeping it up bravely.

'Eight days to make a pair of shoes?' he once asked a shoemaker. 'Si,
Signore, there are th