sometimes disgust. In this particular, Scottish and Swiss thrift, both
notorious, and the latter particularly so, are nearly equalled by New
England thrift; more especially in the close estimate of the value of
services rendered. So marked, indeed, is this practice of looking for
requitals, that even the language is infected with it. Thus, should a
person pass a few months by invitation with a friend, his visit is termed
'boarding;' it being regarded as a matter of course that he pays his way.
It would scarcely be safe, indeed, without the precaution of "passing
receipts" on quitting, for one to stay any time in a New England dwelling,
unless prepared to pay for his board. The free and frank habits that
prevail among relatives and friends elsewhere, are nearly unknown there,
every service having its price. These customs are exceedingly repugnant to
all who have been educated in different notions; yet are they not without
their redeeming qualities, that might be pointed out to advantage, though
our limits will not permit us, at this moment, so to do.

Little did Mary Pratt suspect the truth; but habit, or covetousness, or
some vague expectation that the girl might yet contract a marriage that
would enable him to claim all his advances, had induced the deacon never
to bestow a cent on her education, or dress, or pleasures of any sort,
that the money was not regularly charged against her, in that nefarious
work that he called his "day-book." As for the self-respect, and the
feelings of caste, which prevent a gentleman from practising any of these
tradesmen's tricks, the deacon knew nothing of them. He would have set the
man down as a fool who deferred to any notions so unprofitable. With him,
not only every _man_, but every _thing_ "had its price," and usually it
was a good price, too. At the very moment when our tale opens there stood
charged in his book, against his unsuspecting and affectionate niece,
items in the way of schooling, dress, board, and pocket-money, that
amounted to the considerable sum of one thousand dollars, money fairly