"He is a noble looking fellow, though I cannot approve of the cut of his coat."
"Now this young man is also German, called Lambert Sternberg. He lives on Canada Creek, and I have just, in my office, counted out one hundred pounds into his hands, and have given him a commission for another hundred pounds if he delivers to my correspondents in Albany this fall by October, on my account, the tar and rosin agreed upon."
"Is it possible," said Samuel Squenz. "Yes, yes, there are exceptions."
"Not at all an exception," earnestly replied Mr. Brown. "Lambert Sternberg's brother is a fur-hunter and has, for six years, been in a mutually advantageous partnership with my neighbor Squirrel. So likewise there live on Canada Creek, on the Mohawk, and on the Schoharie dozens, yes, hundreds of excellent people, who have in their veins as pure German blood as you and I have English blood. By diligent labor they have placed themselves in comfortable circumstances; and it would have gone still better with them had not the Government, instead of aiding and protecting them, thrown obstacles in their way. This time the young man was obliged to take his long journey to New York to maintain his and his neighbors' rights to the pine trees growing on their own ground--a right as clear as the sun--and yet, God only knows what the issue would have been, had I not intervened and showed the Governor that the purchaser of land, first from the Indians, then from the government, should not be forced to buy it again for the third time from the first swindler who crowds himself in and manages to get some show of title."
Mr. Brown spoke with great earnestness. Most of his hearers, whose eyes wandered back and forth between the speaker and the farmer at the edge of the quay, seemed to be convinced. However Samuel Squenz would not keep quiet, but cried out with a grieved voice:
"What do you thus show, Mr. Brown, except that these scamps swallow up the land to which we, and our children, and our children's children, are entitled? And one must not speak of injury done to the commonwealth! I would like to know what else it should be called?"
"A strengthening," cried Mr. Brown; "a strengthening and an establishing of the commonwealth. That would be the right word. Is it not a blessing for us all that outside, on the farthest border, these poor Germans have settled, and, if God permit, will settle still farther, and, by their position, are in constant conflict with the French, and whom we have to thank that you, and I, and all of us here in New York, can peacefully prosecute our business. When last fall Captain Belletre, with his French and Indians, fell upon the valley of the Mohawk, who hindered that he did not reach Albany, and God knows how much further? We did not, for two years ago we allowed Fort Oswego to be taken; and General Abercrombie, who commands at Albany, had done nothing to protect the threatened points until October when Belletre came. I ask again, who hindered? The Germans, who fought as well as they could under the lead of their watchful captain, Nicolas Herkimer, though they lost forty killed and one hundred and two prisoners, not to speak of the $50,000 damage done by the thieving, burning murderers. That is an injury to the commonwealth, Mr. Squenz, of which you may take occasion to think, Mr. Squenz, and therewith I commend you to God."
The choleric old gentleman had spoken in such a passion that, in spite of the rain, he took off, not only his hat, but also his wig, and was now wiping his bald head with his handkerchief as he left the group and shuffled over to the young countryman, who still stood in the same place on the quay looking at the ship. Now, however, as the old man patted him on the shoulder, he turned about with the appearance of one who has just been awakened out of a dream. It could not have been a pleasant dream. On the fine, dark-complexioned face there was a trace of deep grief, and the large, blue, kind, German eyes looked very sad.
"Ah, Mr. Brown," said the young man, "I supposed you had long since gone home."
"While I stood but ten steps behind you and spent my breath in defending you! But so it is with you Germans. To strike home when it comes to the worst--that you can do; but to speak for yourselves--to maintain your rights against the simpletons who look at you over the shoulder and who shrug the shoulder over you--that you leave for others."