The new arrival was the much-expected Reverend Warren Holbrook, from
Dogtown last. As I have said before, he looked askance and inquisitively
at every one he met as he walked up the lane. He bowed, too, and had a
smile for all the females; then he enquired the name and condition of
those who lived in each house he came to--how many children they had,
and whether they were boys or girls. Now he paused and rested on his
umbrella when he had reached a bit of high ground, and gazed over Nyack
generally, and then over the Tappan Zee. Here was the new field of the
great labors before him. How often he had taken Dogtown by the neck and
shaken her up severely. The day might come when he would have to take
Nyack by the neck and give her a good shaking up, morally and
religiously. Mrs. Chapman had written him to say that Nyack was a bad
place, secularly and otherwise.

The whole Chapman family (including the big dog) was out at the door to
welcome the stranger; and such a warm greeting as he got. Mrs. Chapman
assured him that the best in the house had been prepared for him, and
that she had got the town in a state of great anxiety to see him. To
tell the truth, this busy, bustling woman had been blowing a noisy
trumpet for him in advance, and enlisting a large amount of female
sympathy by stating that he was preeminent as an advocate of woman's
rights in all things.

Of course the Reverend Warren Holbrook's arrival soon got noised over
Nyack, and the female mind was in a state of great agitation. Before
bed-time a number of curious and somewhat aged women dropped in to pay
their respects to the gentleman, and see for themselves what this man of
great natural gifts, who was to reform all Nyack and the world
generally, was like.