It is needless farther to pursue the ebb and flow of popular favor
between the rival cobblers. Suffice it to say that this last device
succeeded to the entire satisfaction of _our_ cobbler; and men,
women, and children, literally flocked to his shop, until his hands
were kept busy night and day, and his pockets overflowed with gold,
silver, and bank-notes. Yankee had met Yankee in the conflict of
intellect, and fortune had smiled upon the school-master. In a very
short time Mr. Jonas Jones and Company pulled up their stakes, moved
farther west, and were never heard of afterward.
What now interposed to prevent the union of Nicholas and Ellen?
How readily the fond father said: 'Yes, certainly, Mr. Pelt. God
bless you! I can never repay your kindness.' How beautifully Ellen
blushed at the thought that she was actually going to be married;
how the parson tied the knot which no enactment of man should ever
sunder; how friends gathered there to congratulate the happy pair,
and share the bountiful repast prepared by the dame; how the wit of
the bridegroom and the beauty of the bride never shone so brightly
as then, and how Rip was put to bed of a surfeit; and how through
it all the story of the _Mens conscia recti_ was repeated over and
over in tones of merriment, until the cobbler's dwelling rang again;
these pictures are all too bright for delineation by our feeble pen.
Departing from the well-beaten paths of many writers of legends and
chronicles, who usually drop the curtain at the bridal night, we
ask but a moment, gentle reader, to record in outline the incidents
which grew out of and succeeded this alliance. These weddings,
after all, are actual occurrences, and not dreams of romance. Night
_will_ slowly retire; the lamps must necessarily go out, even though
filled with the oil of Aladdin's; the liveliest tongues will get
tired of talking, and the briskest feet of dancing; and then the
quiet honeymoon will succeed, and life with its stern realities will
wake the loving pair to the thought of duties and pleasures yet in
store, until the fading twilight of existence shall restore the
bright ideal of 'Love's young dream.'
Nicholas's first step, then, was to inform Caleb Van Dyke that
beside being a school-master, he was also a very respectable
cobbler; and Caleb was convinced of this fact, almost against
his will, at the sight of a pair of sturdy shoes manufactured
by the quondam pedagogue, with a neatness and despatch that
truly astonished him. Having arrived at the conclusion that the
Idlebergers were disposed to spend their money more freely on
their feet than their heads, Nicholas delivered his pedestal and
birchen-rods to another adventurer who came along soon after in
search of a school, and betook himself to cobbling in all its
varieties. The firm of Van Dyke and Pelt thrived beyond precedent,
and the old sign-board, after having become so illustrious, was
permitted to retire, and its place was soon filled by another,
composed and executed by the gifted Yankee, as follows:
'Blow, blow, ye winds and breezes
All among the leaves and treeses:
Sing, oh sing, ye heavenly muses,
While we make both boots and shoeses.'
In the mean time Hans Keiser returned to Idleberg, thoroughly
cured of his passion for adventure. His old father, while under
the combined effects of those genial stimulants, beer and tobacco,
received him with great cordiality. Hans soon became reconciled
to the loss of Ellen Van Dyke, having found a congenial spirit in
the person of a farmer's buxom daughter, who had been for years
selling butter, eggs, and poultry, at the sign of the yellow sky and
blue stars, until the young Dutchman was suddenly smitten with her
charms; and all parties consenting, they were in due time pronounced
man and wife by the very parson who had officiated at the nuptials
of Nicholas and Ellen.
Since then Idleberg has emerged from the ashes of its primitive
obscurity, and has risen into great consideration at home, if not
abroad, for its chaste attractions and its elegant society. The spot
of ground once occupied by the hostelry of Karl Keiser, now sustains
an imposing mansion-house, distinguished hereabouts as the Indian
Queen Hotel. During Caleb Van Dyke's life-time nothing could induce
the old gentleman to improve the indifferent dwelling to which a
long residence had so much attached him; but Nicholas took the
earliest advantage of his decease to remove the old shop, and rear
upon its ruins a larger and more elegant building. While the Pelts
are enjoying the luxuries of elegant country-seats and well-tilled
acres, they cherish a commendable pride in remembering the humble
means by which they have arisen to competence. Nicholas and Ellen
are now enjoying a green old age, surrounded by their numerous and
prosperous posterity; and the old family carriage, as it comes
rumbling into town every Sunday, drawn by a pair of sterling gray
horses, has painted on the pannel of each door an odd-looking pair
of shoes of the last century's fashion, beneath which are inscribed
in antique characters, the magical words: