GARRETT VAN HOESEN. 



SPEARING EELS AND TRAPPING RABBITS. 



THE village boys called him Garry Van Hooser, 

 and I am not sure but the whole family pro- 

 nounced it in that way; but Garry could write, 

 and he spelled the name as it is given above. He had 

 been a clerk in the grocery of Thomas B. Simmonds 

 since my earliest memory, and had none of the Dutch 

 accent common to his people, for at this late day the 

 descendants of the original settlers of the Upper Hudson 

 often spoke Dutch, and their English had an accent 

 which Garry had lost by frequent contact with other 

 people. He was older than I by some six to ten years, 

 and was a shy young man, who never seemed to have 

 any companions, and often went fishing and shooting 

 alone or with his spaniel Coody, which was a good re- 

 triever. He told me where he got the dog, but where its 

 name came from even he did not know. He said: "Oh, 

 I do* know; he had to have a name, and I just called him 

 Coody." 



That settled the matter to the satisfaction of Garry, 

 the dog seemed to be pleased with the name, and who 

 could object? 



One day in '48, after the election of General Taylor 

 as President, when the ice was just thick enough for 

 skating, I had been told to stop at the grocery for some- 

 thing when I came home to supper, and Garry said: "I 

 am going up to the mill pond in the morning to spear 

 eels. How would you like to go with me?" 



"First-rate; what must I take along?" 



127 



