• The chamber Chamber window stood to the street,
• With shutters strongly barred—
• There came A timid knock was heard without
• And another afterward
• But both so low & faint & weak
• That the casement never jarred.

• And weak the voice that came
• with the knock:—
• O My father pity & hear lend your ear
• 'Twas goodly wealth store of gold you would
• that you bade have me wed
• 10 But the wife I chose was dear
• And she & my babes crave
• only bread
• O father pity & hear.

• Van Hunks looked after the
• feathered smoke
• What thing so slight & vain ?
• Why As pride whose plume is torn
• in the wind
• And joy 's befould with rash flight to pain ?

• There turned a foot in the came a moan to the
• crumbling snow
  Added Textlighted room
• 20 A face moan to the frosty sky,—
• O father we all my loves are dying now
• And yet Father you too must die.
• O on your soul, by God's good grace,
• Let not this dread hour lie.

• Gossip well done, quoth the little
• old man
• And in a silvery spire
• Like a spiders web up
• leaped the his
• smoke
• Still twisting higher and
• And still at its heart the through its th veil th
• his watchful eye
• 30 Burned with a fell desire.

• A woman's voice came next
• to the wall—
• Father my mother died.
• 'Twas 3 months since that you
• drove her forth
• At bitter Xmas tide.
• How could I care for your proffered
• gold
• And quit my mother's side?

• For 2 months now I have begged
• my bread
• Father I can no more.
• My mother's blind & deaf in her
• grave
• 40 But her soul is at Heaven's door
• And though we're parted on this
• side death
• We may meet on the further shore.

• Van Hunks laughed up at looked after the scudding
• smoke
• Ay, go what way you will
• Of folly & pride in life or death,
• Let a woman take her fill
• And why should
  Added TextMad girl, even take the choose this road you list or that
• So we be asunder still.

• Gossip well said, the old man
• shrieked cried
• 50 And mark how the words come true,
• The smoke soared swiftly above around his
• head
• In snakes of curling swirling knotted blue
• And ever at heart of the inmost
• coil
• Two fiery eyes shone shot through

• Above the hearth was a carven frame
• Where 7 small mirrors shone
• There 6 bright moon-shapes circled
• round
• A centre rayed like a sun
• And ever the reflex image dwelt
• 60 Alike in every one.

• No smokers faces appeared therein
• But there by magic art,
• Seven times a one squalid chamber showed
• The dull graves counterpart
• For there 2 starving parents lay
• With their starved babes heart
• to heart.

• Then changed the scene. In the
• watered street
• 'Twixt houses dark & tall
• Like shaggy dogs did the pollards shake
• 70 Above the dark canal
• And a girl's thin form gleamed through past
• through the air the sky
• And sank, and that was all.

• And there then the smoker beheld once more
• 7 times his own hard face
• Half dazed it seemed with the sudden
• sights,
• But showed no sign of grace
• And 7 times flashed those burning
• fiery eyes
• In the mirror's narrow space.

• The hours wore on & still they
• sat
• 80 In 'Mid the vapours stifling cloud
• The one sank towards sudden stupor
• sank
• And the other laughed now scoffed aloud
• Alas for the shrinking blinking
• owl,
• With the vulture over him
• bowed

• 'Twas the 2 ^nd night of the wager now
• And the midnight hour was near
• That glance was like a kindled cresset turned blazed
• Ho! gossip of mine, what cheer
• But the smoke from the Dutchman's pipe arose
• 90 No longer swift & clear

• The door-bell rang—Peace to this house
• 'Twas the pastor's voice that spoke.
• Above Van Hunks's pipe there still curled
• A feeble fitful flickering smoke,
• As the last quarter half-hour ere full midnight
• From the distant booming clock-tower broke.

• The old man doffed his bonnet & cringed
• As he oped the chamber door
• The priest cast never a glance his way
• 100 But crossed the polished floor
• To where the Dutchman's head on his breast
• Lolled with a torpid snore.

• Mynheer your servant sought me out
• He says that day & night
• You have sat—He shook the smoker's arm
• But shrank in sudden fright
• The arm dropped down like a weight of lead
• The face was dull & white.

• And now the old man stood astride
• 110 And taller he seemed to grow
• The pipe still sat firm in his sneering lips
• And with victorious show glow
• Like dancing figures around its bowl
• Did the smoke-wreaths race & glow come & go

• Nay nay he said our gossip sits
• To contemplation bent;
• On son & daughter afar, his mind
• Is doubtless all intent
• Haply his silence breathes a prayer
• 120 Ere the midnight hour be spent.

• And who art thou? the pastor cried
• With a quaking countenance.
• A smoke-dried crony of our good friend
• Here rapt in pious trance.
• And his chuckle shook the vaporous sprites
• To a madder merrier dance.

• Hence mocking fiend, for I know thee now
• The pastor signed the cross.
• Then the old man laughed & yelled shrieked at once,
• 130 And As over turret & fosse
• The midnight hour in the sleeping town
• From bell to bell did toss.

• Too late Sir Priest!” In the pastor's ear
• So rang the scornful croak.
• With that, a swoon closed fell over his sense
• And when at length he woke
• Two pipes lay broken shattered upon the floor,
• The room was ful of smoke.

• That hour a direful Master sped
• 140 Home to his fiery place
• A shrieking wretch hung over his back
• As he sank through nether space.
• Of such a rider on such a steed
• How speak the dreadful case What tongue thought the flight shall trace ?

• The Fiend has bearer shook his burden off
• In the horrid retinue
• He's flung him into a knot of fiends
• Red yellow green & blue
• “I've brought a pipe for my private use
• 150 Go trim it, some of you.

• They've sliced the very crown from his head
• Worse tonsure than a monk's
• Lopped arms & legs, stuck a red-hot tube
• In his wretchedest of trunks
• And when the Devil wants his pipe
• They bring him Jan Van Hunks

• Full of smoke was the queer old room
• And of pleasant winter-heat
• Whence you might here the hall door slap
• 160 And the wary shuffling of feet
• Which from the carpeted floor stept out
• Into the ice-paved street..

• Van Hunks was laughing in his paunch:
• Twelve silver pieces fair
• Lay in his hand. With neighbour Spratz
• He had smoked for a wager there
• He laughed & from his neighbour's pipe
• He looked to his neighbour's chair.

• Even as he looked the evening shades
• 170 Rose stealthily & spread,
• Till the smoky clouds walled up the sun
• And hid his shiny old head,
• As though he too had his evening pipe
• Before he tumbled to bed

• Van Hunks still chuckled as he sat
• It caused him an inward grin
• When he heard the blast shake shutter & blind
• With that its teeth chattering din
• To fancy the many who froze without
• 180 While he sat thawing within.

• His bowl restuffed again he puffed
• No noise the stillness broke
• Save the tread of feet here & there in the street
• And the churchbell's house clock's hourly stroke
• While silver white through the evening shade
• Up leaped the flying smoke

• For thirty years the Dutchman said
• I have smoked both night [and] day;
• I've laid great wagers on my pipe
• 190 But never had once to pay
• For my vapouring foes long ere the close
• Have all sneaked sickly away

• Ah would that I could find but one
• Who knew m y e not too well
• To try his chance against me
• After the evening bell
• Even though he came to challenge me
• From the smoking-crib of Hell.

• His breath still lingered on the air
• 200 And lingered mingled with the smoke,—
• When he was aware of a little old man
• In broidered hosen & tocque
• Who looked as through from a century's sleep
• That instant he had woke

• Small to scan was the little old man
• Passing small & lean
• But Yet a something lurked about him
• Felt strongly but though unseen
• Which made him you fear the hidden soul
• 210 Whose covering was so lean mean

• With cap in hand the old man stranger bowed
• Till the feather swept his shoe
• “A noble wish was yours he said,
• “And I come to humour pleasure you;
• We're goodly gossips, you & I
• Let us wager & fall to.

• The Dutchman stared. How here you came
• Is nothing to me he said;
• “A stranger I sought to smoke withal
• 220 And my words have well been weighed.
• But tell me, what shall the wager be,
• By our high hopes/two selves Between our pipes essayed?

• “Nay now the old man said what need
• Have we for a golden stake?
• What more do we ask but honour's spur
• To keep our hopes awake?
• And yet some bond 'twixt our goodwills
• Must stand for the wager's sake.

• This be our bond. 2 Midnights hence
• 230 The term of our strife shall be
• And whichsoe'er to the other then
• Must Shall yield the victory,
• At the victor's hand hest must needs accept
• His hospitality.

• Done, done the Dutchman cried,—for your cri[?] home
• I know it not, far or near
• But in my good pipe I set my trust
• And tis you shall sojourn here
• Here many a time we'll meet again
• 240 For the smokers' merry welcome cheer.

• With that they lit their pipes & smoked
• And never a word they said.
• The dark cloud gathered above them there
• High over each smoke crowned head
• As if by the veil of some secret thing
• They sat encompassèd.

• Twas then But now a great blast shook the house
• And the Dutchman paused & spoke:
• “If aught this night could be devised
• 250 To sweeten our cosy smoke,
• Twere the thought of the outcast loons who freeze
• Neath the winter's bitter yoke

• Gossip The stranger said I've I most have watched
• The dire extremes of heat
• And like yourself I have seen men shrink
• And found their sufferings sweet.
• Brave gossips, you & I! But hark
• What sound comes from the street?

• Hard thunder came there it had/ What thunder dwelt there that had
• 260 On his brow that lowering trace,—
• What lightning that could kindle so
• The fitful glare on his face
• Though the sneering smile coursed over his lips,
• And the laughter rose apace?