could."

"_Your_ notion of what is best for man as he draws near to his end,
captain Gar'ner, is not likely to be of the most approved nature. The sea
does not produce many very orthodox divines."

The young sailor coloured, bit his lip, cast a glance at Mary, and began a
nearly inaudible whistle. In a moment he forgot the rebuke he had
received, and laughingly went on with the inventory.

"Well," he cried, "this is rather a poorer outfit than Jack is apt to
carry! _in_fit, I suppose it should be called, as the poor fellow who
owned it was inward bound, when he brought up on Oyster Pond. You'll
hardly think it worth while, captain Daggett, to take this dunnage across
to the Vineyard."

"It is scarce worth the trouble, though friends and relations may set a
value on it that strangers do not. I see a couple of charts there--will
you hand them this way, if you please? They may have a value with a
sea-faring man, as old mariners sometimes make notes that are worth as
much as the charts themselves."

This was said very naturally and simply; but it gave the deacon a good
deal of concern. Nor was this feeling at all lessened by the earnest, not
to say eager, manner in which Daggett, as we shall now call this member of
the family, spread the chart on the bed, and began to pry into its
records. The particular chart first opened in this way, was the one
including the antarctic circle, and, of course, was that from which the
deacon had been at so much pains to erase the sealing-islands, that the
deceased mariner had laid down with so great precision and care. It was