They would slip stealthily into the church while he was there with his dim lantern, unlock the side door, hide in some dark corner, and when the old man was fairly seated at home, and had his pipe lighted for a last smoke, they would ring the bell furiously. Down to the old church the sexton would hasten, the boys would slip out at the side door before his arrival, and the old man would return home thoughtfully, musing upon the probability of invisible hands pulling at his bell-rope -- those

" People-- all, the people, They that dwell up in the steeple

All alone ; And who, tollinp:, tolling, tolling,

In that muffled monotone, Feel a glory in so rolling

On the human heart a stone ;

They are neither man nor woman.

They are neither brute nor human,

They are ghouls ! "

Albany wore a quaint aspect until the beginning of the present century, on account of the predominance of steep-roofed houses, with their terraced gables to the street. A fair specimen is given in our Street View in Ancient Albany, which shows the appearance of the town at the intersection of North Pearl and State Streets, sixty years ago. The house at the nearer corner was built as a parsonage for the Eev. Gideon Schaats, who arrived in Albany in 1652. The materials were imported from Holland, -- ^bricks, tiles, iron, and wood-work, -- and were brought, with the church bell and pulpit, in 1657, "When I was quite a lad," says a late writer, ' ' I visited the house with my mother, who was acquainted with the father of Balthazar Lydius, the last proprietor of the mansion. To my eyes it appeared like a palace, and I thought the pewter plates in a corner cupboard were solid silver, they glittered so.