Chapter 18

"Good Sir, why do you start; and seem to fear
Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show?"

_Banquo_.

As I have said already, the adventure on the river made a good deal of
noise, in that simple community; and it had the effect to render Guert and
myself a sort of heroes, in a small way; bringing me much more into
notice, than would otherwise have been the case. I thought that Guert,
in particular, would be likely to reap its benefit; for, various elderly
persons, who were in the habit of frowning, whenever his name was
mentioned, I was given to understand, could now smile; and two or three of
the most severe among the Albany moralists, were heard to say that, "after
all, there was some good about that Guert Ten Eyck." The reader will not
require to be told, that a high-school moralist, in a place as retired and
insulated as Albany, must necessarily be a being that became subject to a
very severe code. Morality, as I understand the matter, has a good deal of
convention about it. There is town-morality and country-morality, all over
the world, as they tell me. But, in America, our morals were, and long
have been, separated into three great and very distinct classes; viz.--New
England, or puritan-morals; middle colonies, or liberal morals; and
southern colonies, or latitudinarian morals. I shall not pretend to point
out all the shades of difference in these several schools; though that in
which I had myself been taught, was necessarily the most in conformity with
my own tastes. There were minor shades to be found in the same school;
Guert and myself belonging to different classes. His morals were of the
Dutch class; while mine more properly belonged to the English. The great
characteristic of the Dutch school, was the tendency to excess that
prevailed, when indulgences were sought. With them, it did not rain often;
but, when it did rain, it was pretty certain to pour. Old Col. Follock was
a case in point, on this scare; nor was his son Dirck, young and diffident
as he was, altogether an exception to the rule. There was not a more
respectable man in the colony, in the main, than Col. Van Valkenburgh.
He was well connected; had a handsome unencumbered estate; and money at
interest;--was a principal prop, in the church of his neighbourhood; was
esteemed as a good husband; a good father; a true friend; a kind neighbour;
an excellent, and loyal subject, and a thoroughly honest man. Nevertheless,
Col. Van Valkenburgh had his weak times and seasons. He _would_ have a
frolic; and the Dominie was obliged to wink at this propensity. Mr. Worden
often nicknamed him Col. Frolic. His frolics might be divided into two
classes; viz.