y, on the history of the
past.

To William, the merchant, it brought chiefly a recollection how in his
early manhood he had set out from those quiet fields for a hard struggle
with the world, with a bare dollar in his pocket, and when that was gone
the whole world seemed to combine in a desperate league against him to
prevent his achieving another. How at last, on the very edge of
starvation and despair, he had wrung from it the means of beginning his
fortunes; and how he had gone on step by step, forgetting all the
pleasant ties of his youth, all recollections of nature and cheerful
faces of friends and kinsfolk, adding thousand to thousand, house to
house; building, unlike Jacob, a ladder, that descended to the lower
world, up which all harsh and dark spirits perpetually thronged and
joined to drag him down; and yet he smiled grimly at the thought of the
power he possessed, and how many of his early companions trembled before
him because he was grown to be a rich man.

Old Sylvester, on the other hand, in all his memory had no thought of
himself. His recollection ran back to the old times when his neighbors
sat down under a king's sceptre in these colonies, how that chain had
been freed, the gloomy Indian had withdrawn his face from their fields,
how the darkness of the woods had retired before the cheering sun of
peace and plenty; and how from a little people, his dear country, for
whose welfare his sword had been stained, had grown into a great nation.
Scattered up and down the long line of memory were faces of friends and
kindred, which had passed long ago from the earth. He called to mind
many a pleasant fire-side chat; many a funeral scene, and burying in
sun-light and in the cold rain; the young Elbridge too was in his
thoughts last of all; could he return to them with a name untainted, the
old man would cheerfully lie down in his grave and be at peace with all
the world.

In the meanwhile, within the house the Captain in high favor was seated
in a great cushioned arm-chair with little Sam Peabody on his knee, and
the women of the house gathered about him, looking on as he narrated the
courses and adventures of his last voyage. The widow listened with a sad
interest. Mopsey rolled her eyes and was mirthful in the most serious
and stormiest passages; while little Sam and the Captain's wife rivalled
each other in regarding the Captain with innocent wonder and
astonishment, as though he were the most extraordina