answers that were as evasive and cautious as his own interrogatories. All
this was characteristic of the wary people from which both had sprung, who
seldom speak, in a matter of business, without bearing in mind all the
possible constructions of what they are saying. After a discourse of some
fifteen minutes, in which the history of the chest, in its outlines, was
fully given, and during which the stranger produced written evidence of
his right to interfere, it was determined to make an inventory, on the
spot, of the property left by Daggett, for the benefit of all who might
have any interest in it. Accordingly, the whole party, including Mary, was
soon assembled in the deacon's own room, with the sea-chest placed
invitingly in the centre. All eyes were fastened on the lid, in curious
anticipations of the contents; for, the deacon excepted, all supposed that
those contents were a profound secret. The Widow White could have told
them better, she having rummaged that chest a dozen times, at least,
though without abstracting even a pin. Curiosity had been her ruling
motive, far more than cupidity. It is true, the good woman had a prudent
regard to her own interests, and felt some anxiety to learn the prospects
of her receiving the stipulated price for board--only $1.50 per week--but
the sales of the needles, and palms, and carved whale-bone, having kept
her accounts reasonably square, solicitude on this particular interest was
not at is height. No: curiosity, pure female curiosity, a little quickened
by the passion which is engendered among the vulgar by the possession of a
slight degree of instruction, was really at the bottom of her researches.
Not only had she handled every article in the chest, but she had read, and
re-read, every paper it contained, half-a-dozen letters included, and made
her own surmises on their nature. Still, the good woman was very little
the wiser for her inquiries. Of the great secret she knew absolutely
nothing, unless the broken hints collected in her many listenings, could
be so considered. But, here her ignorance ceased. Every hole in a shirt,
every patch in a pair of trousers, and every darn in a stocking, had been