the daily increase of worldly gear. No one spoke disparagingly of the
deacon, notwithstanding. So completely had he got to be interwoven with
the church--'meeting,' we ought to say--in that vicinity, that speaking
disparagingly of him would have appeared like assailing Christianity. It
is true, that many an unfortunate fellow-citizen in Suffolk had been made
to feel how close was the gripe of his hand, when he found himself in its
grasp; but there is a way of practising the most ruthless extortion, that
serves not only to deceive the world, but which would really seem to
mislead the extortioner himself. Phrases take the place of deeds,
sentiments those of facts, and grimaces those of benevolent looks, so
ingeniously and so impudently, that the wronged often fancy that they are
the victims of a severe dispensation of Providence, when the truth would
have shown that they were simply robbed.

We do not mean, however, that Deacon Pratt was a robber. He was merely a
hard man in the management of his affairs; never cheating, in a direct
sense, but seldom conceding a cent to generous impulses, or to the duties
of kind. He was a widower, and childless, circumstances that rendered his
love of gain still less pardonable; for many a man who is indifferent to
money on his own account, will toil and save to lay up hoards for those
who are to come after him. The deacon had only a niece to inherit his
effects, unless he might choose to step beyond that degree of
consanguinity, and bestow a portion of his means on cousins. The
church--or, to be more literal, the 'meeting'--had an eye on his
resources, however; and it was whispered it had actually succeeded, by
means known to itself, in squeezing out of his tight grasp no less a sum
than one hundred dollars, as a donation to a certain theological college.
It was conjectured by some persons that this was only the beginning of a
religious liberality, and that the excellent and godly-minded deacon would
bestow most of his property in a similar way, when the moment should come