launched, and which had advanced no farther in its first equipment than to
get in its two principal spars, the rigging of which hung suspended over
the mast-heads, in readiness to be "set up" for the first time. The day
being Sunday, work was suspended, and this so much the more, because the
owner of the vessel was a certain Deacon Pratt, who dwelt in a house
within half a mile of the wharf, and who was also the proprietor of three
several parcels of land in that neighbourhood, each of which had its own
buildings and conveniences, and was properly enough dignified with the
name of a farm. To be sure, neither of these farms was very large, their
acres united amounting to but little more than two hundred; but, owing to
their condition, the native richness of the soil, and the mode of turning
them to account, they had made Deacon Pratt a warm man, for Suffolk.

There are two great species of deacons; for we suppose they must all be
referred to the same _genera_. One species belong to the priesthood, and
become priests and bishops; passing away, as priests and bishops are apt
to do, with more or less of the savour of godliness. The other species are
purely laymen, and are _sui generis_. They are, _ex officio,_ the most
pious men in a neighbourhood, as they sometimes are, as it would seem to
us, _ex officio_, also the most grasping and mercenary. As we are not in
the secrets of the sects to which these lay deacons belong, we shall not
presume to pronounce whether the individual is elevated to the deaconate
because he is prosperous, in a worldly sense, or whether the prosperity is
a consequence of the deaconate; but, that the two usually go together is
quite certain: which being the cause, and which the effect, we leave to
wiser heads to determine.

Deacon Pratt was no exception to the rule. A tighter fisted sinner did not
exist in the county than this pious soul, who certainly not only wore, but
wore out the "form of godliness," while he was devoted, heart and hand, to