The husband smoked his pipe on the
opposite bench, and the little pet negro girl, seated on the step at
her mistress' feet, was industriously plying her needle. The swallows
sported about the eaves, or skimmed along the streets, and brought
back some rich booty for their clamorous young; and the little
housekeeping wren flew in and out of a Lilliputian house, or an old
hat nailed against the wall. The cows were coming home, lowing through
the streets, to be milked at their owner's door; and if, perchance,
there were any loiterers, some negro urchin, with a long goad, was
gently urging them homewards.
As Dolph's companion passed on, he received a tranquil nod from the
burghers, and a friendly word from their wives; all calling him
familiarly by the name of Antony; for it was the custom in this
strong-hold of the patriarchs, where they had all grown up together
from childhood, to call every one by the Christian name. The Heer did
not pause to have his usual jokes with them, for he was impatient to
reach his home. At length they arrived at his mansion. It was of some
magnitude, in the Dutch style, with large iron figures on the gables,
that gave the date of its erection, and showed that it had been built
in the earliest times of the settlement.
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