.. Book
VII., chap. ii. How Peter Stuyvesant labored to civilize the community.
How he was a great promoter of holydays. How he instituted kissing on
New Year's Day.... Chap. iii. How troubles thicken on the province. How
it is threatened by the Helderbergers,--the Merrylanders, and the Giants
of the Susquehanna.
* * * * *
=_179._= THE ARMY AT NEW AMSTERDAM.
First of all came the Van Bummels, who inhabit the pleasant borders
of the Bronx. These were short, fat men, wearing exceeding large
trunk-breeches, and are renowned for feats of the trencher; they were
the first inventors of suppawn, or mush and milk.... Lastly came the
Knickerbockers, of the great town of Schahticoke, where the folks lay
stones upon the houses in windy weather, lest they should be blown away.
These derive their name, as some say, from _Knicker_, to shake, and
_Beker_, a goblet, indicating thereby that they were sturdy tosspots of
yore; but in truth, it was derived from _Knicker_, to nod, and _Bocken_,
books, plainly meaning that they were great nodders or dozers over
books; from them did descend the writer of this History.
* * * * *
From the "Tales of a Traveller."
=_180._= A MOTHER'S MEMORY.
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