whose whole existence is concentrated in the accumulation of property.
Born poor, and in a state of society in which no one other generally
recognised mode of distinction is so universally acknowledged as that of
the possession of money, it is not surprising that a man of his native
disposition should early bend all his faculties to this one great object.
He was not a miser, Irke Deacon Pratt, for he could spend freely, on
occasion, and perfectly understood the necessity of making liberal outfits
to insure ample returns; but he lived for little else than for gain. What
such a man might have become, under more favourable auspices, and with
different desires instilled into his youthful mind, it is not easy to say;
it is only certain that, as he was, the steel-trap is not quicker to
spring at the touch, than he was to arouse all his manifold energies at
the hopes or promise of profit. As his whole life had been passed in one
calling, it was but natural that his thoughts should most easily revert to
the returns that calling had so often given. He never dreamed of
speculations, knew nothing of stocks, had no concern with manufactures in
cotton or wool, nor had any other notion of wealth than the possession of
a good farm on the Vineyard, a reasonable amount of money "at use,"
certain interests in coasters, whalers, and sealers, and a sufficiency of
household effects, and this in a very modest way, to make himself and
family comfortable. Notwithstanding this seeming moderation, Daggett was
an intensely covetous man; but his wishes were limited by his habits.

While one of the masters of the sealing crafts was drawing these pictures,
in his imagination, of wealth after his manner, very different were the
thoughts of the other. Roswell's fancy carried him far across that blue
and sparkling ocean, northward, to Oyster Pond, and Deacon Pratt's
homestead, and to Mary. He saw the last in her single hearted simplicity,
her maiden modesty, her youthful beauty,--nay, even in her unyielding
piety; for, singular as it may seem, Gardiner valued his mistress so much