a whaler and no less than three coasters, as well as an interest in a
store at Southold; that is to say, to commit them all to the keeping of
"young Gar'ner" when he was himself dead; for no one believed he would
part with more than Mary, in his own lifetime.

Others fancied he was desirous of getting the orphan off his hands, in the
easiest possible way, that he might make a bequest of his whole estate to
the Theological Institution that had been coquetting with him now, for
several years, through its recognised agents, and to which he had already
made the liberal donation of one hundred dollars. It was well ascertained
that the agents of that Institution openly talked of getting Deacon Pratt
to sit for his portrait, in order that it might be suspended among those
of others of its benefactors.

A third set reasoned differently from both the foregoing. The "Gar'ners"
were a better family than the Pratts, and the deacon being so "well to
do," it was believed by these persons that he was disposed to unite money
with name, and thus give to his family consideration, from a source that
was somewhat novel in its history. This class of reasoners was quite
small, however, and mainly consisted of those who had rarely been off of
Oyster Pond, and who passed their days with "Gar'ner's Island" directly
before their eyes. A few of the gossips of this class pretended to say
that their own young sailor stood next in succession after the immediate
family actually in possession should run out, of which there was then some
prospect; and that the deacon, sly fellow, knew all about it! For this
surmise, to prevent useless expectations in the reader, it may be well to
say at once, there was no foundation whatever, Roswell's connection with
the owner of the island being much too remote to give him any chance of
succeeding to that estate, or to anything else that belonged to him.