As the Roost, from its lonely situation on the water's edge, might be liable to i^ttack, he took measures for defence. On a row of hooks above his fire-place reposed his great piece of ordnance, ready charged and primed for action. This was a duck, or rather goose-gun, of unparallelled longitude, with which it was said he could kill a wild goose, though half way across the Tappan Sea. a Indeed, there are as many wonders told of this renowned gun as of the enchanted weapons of the heroes of classic story.

In different parts of the stone walls of his m-ansion he had made loop-holes, through which he might fire upon an assailant. His wife vias stout-hearted as himself, and could load as fast as he could fire ; and then he had an ancient and redoubtable sister, Nochie van Wurmer, a match, as he said, for the stoutest man in the country. Thus garrisoned, the liltle Roost was fit to stand a siege, and Jacob van Tassel was the man to defend it to the last charge of powder.

He was, as I have already hinted, of pugnacious propensities, and, not content with being a patriot at home, and fighting for the security of his own fireside, he extended his thoughts abroad, and entered into a confederacy with certain of the bold, hard-riding lads of Tarrytown, Petticoat Lane and Sleepy Hollow, who formed a kind of holy brotherhood, scouring the country to clear it of skinners and cow-boys, and all other border vermin. The Roost was one of their rallying points. Did a band of marauders from Manhattan island come