His word was
decisive with his subjects, for he was so rich a man that he was
never expected to support any opinion by argument. The landlord
waited on him with peculiar officiousness,--not that he paid better
than his neighbors, but then the coin of a rich man seems always to
be so much more acceptable. The landlord had ever a pleasant word
and a joke to insinuate in the ear of the august Ramm. It is true
Ramm never laughed, and, indeed, ever maintained a mastiff-like
gravity and even surliness of aspect; yet he now and then rewarded
mine host with a token of approbation, which, though nothing more
nor less than a kind of grunt, still delighted the landlord more
than a broad laugh from a poorer man.
[1] A people of French origin, inhabiting the frontiers between
France and Flanders. A colony of one hundred and ten Walloons came
to New York in 1624.
"This will be a rough night for the money diggers," said mine host,
as a gust of wind bowled round the house and rattled at the
windows.
"What! are they at their works again?" said an English half-pay
captain, with one eye, who was a very frequent attendant at the
inn.
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