Here are to be seen articles of furniture which came over with the first settlers from Holland; ancient chests of drawers, and massive clothespresses, quaintly carved, and waxed and polished until they shine like mirrors. Here are old black-letter volumes with brass clasps, printed of yore in Ley den, and handed down from generation to generation, but never read. Also old parchment deeds in Dutch and English, bearing the seals of the early governors of the province. In this house the primitive Dutch holydays of Paas and Pinxter are faithfully kept up, and New Year celebrated with cookies and cherry bounce; nor is the festival of the good vSt. Nicholas forgotten; when all the cliildren are sure to hang up their stockings, and to have them filled according to their deserts; though it is said the good Saint is occasionally perplexed, in his nocturnal visits, which chimney to descend. A tradition exists concerning this mansion, which, however dubious it may seem, is treasured up wdth good faith by the inhabitants. It is said that at the founding of it St. Nicholas took it under his protection, and the Dutch Dominie of the place, who was a kind of soothsayer, predicted that as long as these four chimneys stood Communipaw would flourish. Now it came to pass that some years since, during the great mania for land speculation, a Yankee speculator found his way into Communipaw ; bewildered the old burghers with a project to erect their village into a great sea-port; made a lithographic map, in which their oyster beds were transformed into docks and quays, their cabbage-gardens laid out in town lots and squares, and the House of the Four