"And now," said honest John Hull to the servants, "bring that box hither."

The box, to which the mint-master pointed, was a huge, square, iron bound,
oaken chest; it was big enough, my children, for all four of you to play
at hide-and-seek in. The servants tugged with might and main, but could
not lift this enormous receptacle, and were finally obliged to drag it
across the floor. Captain Hull then took a key from his girdle, unlocked
the chest, and lifted its ponderous lid. Behold! it was full to the brim
of bright pine-tree shillings, fresh from the mint; and Samuel Sewell
began to think that his father-in-law had got possession of all the money
in the Massachusetts treasury. But it was only the mint-master’s honest
share of the coinage.

Then the servants, at Captain Hull’s command, heaped double handfulls of
shillings into one side of the scales, while Betsey remained in the other.
Jingle, jingle, went the shillings, as handful after handful was thrown
in, till, plump and ponderous as she was, they fairly weighed the young
lady from the floor.

"There, son Sewell!" cried the honest mint-master, resuming his seat in
Grandfather’s chair. "Take these shillings for my daughter’s portion. Use
her kindly, and thank Heaven for her. It is not every wife that’s worth
her weight in silver!"



The children laughed heartily at this legend, and would hardly be
convinced but that Grandfather had made it out of his own head. He assured
them faithfully, however, that he had found it in the pages of a grave
historian, and had merely tried to tell it in a somewhat funnier style. As