CHAPTER II.
COMING INTO THE WORLD.
It was mentioned in the last chapter that Hanz Toodleburg had seen twenty years of the happiest of wedded life; and yet that Angeline had not increased his joys with an offspring.

Thoughtless people made much ado about this, and there were enough of them in the settlement to get their heads together and say all sorts of unkind things to Hanz concerning this family failing.

I verily believe that the time of one-half of the human family is engaged seeking scandal in the misfortunes of the other.

And I have always found that you got the ripest scandal in the smallest villages; and Nyack was not an exception.
No wonder, then, that Hanz had to bear his share of that slander which one-half the world puts on the other.

Not an idle fellow at the inn, where Hanz would look in of an evening, but would have his sly joke.
Many a time he had to "stand" cider and ale for the company, and considered he got off cheap at that.