Well, Gentlemen, It Being The Time Of The Annual Fair, All The Town Was
Crowded; Every Inn And Tavern Full, And My Grandfather Applied In Vain
From One To The Other For Admittance.
At length he rode up to an old
rackety inn that looked ready to fall to pieces, and which all the rats
would have run away from, if they could have found room in any other
house to put their heads.
It was just such a queer building as you see
in Dutch pictures, with a tall roof that reached up into the clouds;
and as many garrets, one over the other, as the seven heavens of
Mahomet. Nothing had saved it from tumbling down but a stork's nest on
the chimney, which always brings good luck to a house in the Low
Countries; and at the very time of my grandfather's arrival, there were
two of these long-legged birds of grace, standing like ghosts on the
chimney top. Faith, but they've kept the house on its legs to this very
day; for you may see it any time you pass through Bruges, as it stands
there yet; only it is turned into a brewery - a brewery of strong
Flemish beer; at least it was so when I came that way after the battle
of Waterloo.
My grandfather eyed the house curiously as he approached. It might Not
altogether have struck his fancy, had he not seen in large letters over
the door,
HEER VERKOOPT MAN GOEDEN DRANK.
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