Determined to turn to their own private use
What before they had thought was a public abuse,
Prepared in great kettles his blubber to broil,
And try the great whale into barrels of oil.
The Skipper Jan Symensen ruled in the roast,
With Borssum and Stogpens and burgher Van Voorst.
Then Dirck Cornelissen came in for his share,
As did Jansen and Claessen, — which surely was fair.
Govert Loockmans was there with the Criegers and Pieters,
And Volckertsen, Symon Pos, Teunissen Meters ;
Jan Tyssen, the trumpeter famed for his blowing,
And Wolfert Gerrittsen, a master at mowing ;
Rutger Hendricksen, ale-maker equal to Taylor ;
Cornelis Tomassen, both blacksmith and nailor;
Carstenssen, the millwright, Laurenssen, the sawyer,
And Adriaen van der Donck, sheriff and lawyer;
Jansen Stol, who at Beverwyck managed the ferry ;
Pieter Bronck, at whose tavern so many got merry;
Gerrittsen van Bergen, the owner of acres;
The sportsman renowned, named Harry de Backers,
Of whom it is told that one day out of fun
He killed eleven gray geese at a shot from his gun;
Pels Steltyn the brewer, and Jacob Wolfertsen;
Cornelis Crynnesen, Cornelis Lambertsen;
Claes Jansen van Waalwyck, Claes Jansen van Ruth,
And Megapolensis, a preacher of truth,
Who afterwards sent his son Samuel to college,
Where he rapidly grew both in size and in knowledge ;
Sander Leendertsen Glen, a skilled Indian pedler,
And Mynderts der Bogaert, a quarrelsome meddler,
Of whom it is said, having got in a passion,
He strove to throw over in murderous fashion
A man whom in anger he caught by the throat,
As the twain were a-sailing one day in a boat;
Jan de Neger, the hangman, the colonie's Haman;
Jan Willemsen Scuth, and Jan Jansen van Bremen ;
Antonie de Hooges, who to Anthony's Nose
Gave his name on the Hudson, and Andries de Vos ;
Jan Labbadie, carpenter, native of France,
Who oft at Fort Orange led many a dance ;
Gysbertsen, the wheelwright, who frequently spoke ;
Jansen Dam, who in Council delighted to smoke;
Burger Joris, whose smithy stood under a tree;
Adriaensen van Veere, a freebooter free;
And Pieterse Koyemans, called Barent the miller,
Whose name in the manor was ever a pillar

Of strength, and his brothers Dave, Jacob, and Arent,
Who shed lustre and fame on the name of their parent.
Besides these, there came an unnamable throng,
With titles so twisted and jagged and long,
That were I to try to record them in rhyme,
I should fail in my language, my rhythm and time.
It would lengthen too much this unerring detail
To tell how by piecemeal they cut up the whale ;
How the doughty old knights of the broadsword appeared
When they brought down their blades as if nothing they feared ;
How the butchers with cleavers dealt terrible blows,
And the children all scattered for fear of their toes;
How Harry de Backers, with cracking report,
Kept on shooting his gun off to keep up the sport ;
How Skipper Jan Symensen smoked and drank toddy
Till he could not distinguish the whale from his body;
How Mynderts der Bogaert got into a fight,
And was whipped by Van Porg, to the people's delight;
How Jansen Dam swore, and how Labbadie capered ;
How Neger, the hangman, got sulky and vapored ; -
These matters are treated by Munsell's grave pen,
In his volumes of Annals, now numbering ten.

At the end of a month from the time they began,
The oil ceased to flow, which so freely had ran.
Of the whale naught remained but his carcass and spine,
On which crows came to breakfast and oft stayed to dine.
An account which was kept showed the end of this toil
To be seventy-nine barrels five pipkins of oil.
Thus light was increased, and spread through the land,
Springing forth from the whale lying dead on the strand;
And down to this day in some houses they show
The oil which kind Providence once did bestow ;
For the vessels in which it was placed, like the cruse
Of the widow, ne'er lessened, though ever in use;
And the good vrouws felt certain that oil would abound
If the vessels that held it were kept clean and sound.

But the ghost of the whale lingers still round the spot
Where they tried out his blubber in caldron and pot.
And in spring, when the ice in the river goes down,
And rushes in torrents past Albany town,
When the water submerges the docks and the street,
And boats take the highway intended for feet,
Then often dread blows break the silence of night,
And the children start up with a terrible fright,

And mammas in their nightcaps look ghastly with fear,
As the sound from the river falls full on the ear.
Well the old burghers know that the wandering shade
Of the monster is roving and will not be laid.
And though ages have passed since he gave his last groan,
And no vestige remains of his vertebrate bone,
Still the noise of those blows, as it breaks on the sense,
Makes the breathing come hard, and the muscles grow tense ;
For then in mid-river the ghost of the whale
Is flapping in madness his horrible tail.

• B. H. Hall.

IT so happened once, that a fair, tall White Lily grew near the edge of a I small brook in a forest; and the forest, which was very large, nestled the brook in its very midst; and so no human eye had ever looked upon the Lily, and she could never have known of the existence of human beings at all, unless she listened to what the young angels whispered, as they flew past sometimes at twilight.

But she was so happy in her green, wild home, surrounded by her friends, and full of her cares !

If she looked up, she saw some large-leaved vine, which threw its tendrils from branch to branch of the tall trees, and from tree to tree. So there a great bower spread over her head. And when she looked down, there was the thick, green moss, spotted with bright flowers, and tiny vines crept in and out of it, with bright red berries, and soft, white blossoms; and she, in the midst of her large tuft of leaves and flowers, herself the tallest and fairest of them all, the queen and eldest sister, watched with pride and joy their slowly swelling buds, and the pale yellowish, greenish petals, as they grew almost glowing with whiteness. She was so fair, our Lily, that nature had given her a mirror, the clear waters of the little brook, from which her open blossom looked up into the blue skies. going to do, the hard crust on his back had separated, and out came two gauzy, but fibrous wings, which took him right up to the Lily, and there he sat on one of her green, broad leaves! Well, indeed! and on the same leaf a golden butterfly had settled himself just before, and, astonished at the impudence of the brown beetle, whose back was covered with grains of dirt, he fluttered off up to the white petals of the Lily, and then poised himself on her long stamens.

Did I tell you she had friends there in the woods ? Yes, and you have already guessed them. Not a gay butterfly roamed that way, that did not stop to rest upon her dear blossoms; there were tiny birds, too, with bright plumage, that would come and dip their long bills among her yellow-dusted stamens, and then, lifting their heads in the air, fly away, singing her sweetest praises ; and she loved at night to listen to their notes, when they sang and folded their little heads under their wings.

Was it not a beautiful forest, to be so full of love and sweetness, all alone by itself, and don't you wish you could find it out?

But this Lily was meek, as well as lovely, and did not scorn to talk with the grasshoppers that came awkwardly jumping on her green leaves, nor the flies, though they sometimes would eat holes in her green leaves and lay their eggs injuriously along their fibres; and she always had a pleasant nod for the gnats hopping along on the stream, whenever those nervous creatures could stop to look her way. O, you cannot think what a busy life that was, off in the forest, where there lived so many brilliant and so many ugly little creatures, all together, but each living for some good purpose, and a necessary one too.

There were the glow-worms and the fireflies, that were loved by the Lily, for they came at the pensive hour of evening, with the dews and the soft night-breezes, and when their silent, yellow light shone out, her softest fragrance filled the air.

I suppose you have often seen a beetle? There are many different kinds of them, and they do not look pretty either, as you turn them up from the earth ; but I want to tell you how the Lily comforted one of them, who believed himself to be very ugly, and of no use to anything in the world.

Very near her, down under the moss, in the marshy bog, a whole family of brown beetles lived. The old father and mother had died long ago, and left the children to bring themselves up; and they did it a good deal better than little human children would have done, whom God makes dependent upon tender care; they brought themselves up so well, that they could do everything that beetles were intended to do, quite as properly as ever their father and mother did before them.

But these young beetles, who had been hatched in the earth where their mother bad left them when she died, had not come yet to notice the beautiful things about them, but crawled about slowly over the moss, tipping forward on their noses, and then backwards on their tails, while their long, fan-like horns waved slowly up, and then down, till you would have thought the bright moss was a very uneven ground for them.

But one day one of the beetles, as he crawled up out of his hole in the earth, felt himself stronger. So, taking courage and looking up, what should he see but that great tuft of Lily; and before he knew what he was

“The awkward thing," he said, flippantly, “to come bouncing here without warning or invitation. Shake him off, fair Lily, and let him not come to ride on your shiny leaves.”

But the Lily, though perhaps she thought his appearance was sudden, only nodded her stately head, and slightly moved her leaves, so that the beetle enjoyed a pleasant swing; and the butterfly, shocked at her indifference, hastily bade her good morning.

But very happy was the ugly brown beetle with his new experience of life ; and soon feeling about, in his way, with those fan-like horns of his, he came upon the layers of eggs which the flies had left there, and shortly made a good meal of them; and some insects that alighted for a bite of the green