n he died. But it ought to be added
that Stumpy did not hold his head any higher because of his family
connections. In fact, he hardly ever alluded to his relationship to the
wealthy and distinguished man. To use his own words, he, "did not take
much stock in his grandfather;" and in his confidential conversations
with Leopold he did not scruple to say that the old gentleman was the
meanest man in Rockhaven.

This grandfather was Moses Wormbury, Esq.; he was a Justice of the
peace, and had been a member of the legislature. It was said that he had
a mortgage on every other house in Rockhaven; but this was doubtless an
exaggeration, though he loaned out a great deal of money on good
security. Squire Wormbury had had two sons and several daughters, all
the latter being married and settled in Rockhaven or elsewhere. The
elder son, Joel, was the father of Stumpy. The younger son, Ethan, kept
the Island Hotel, a small establishment of not half the size even of the
Cliff House, which had less than twenty rooms. In some respects the two
hotels were rivals, though the Cliff House had all the better business.
Ethan Wormbury did his best to fill up his small house, and was not
always careful to be fair and honorable in his competition; but Mr.
Bennington was good-natured, and only laughed when bad stories about his
house came from the Island Hotel.

Connected with Joel Wormbury, the father of Stumpy, there was a sad leaf
of family history. At the age of twenty-three he had married a poor
girl, who became a most excellent woman. Before this event he had been
to sea, and had made several fishing trips to the Banks. After his
marriage, he worked at "coopering" when he could obtain this employment,
and went a fishing when he could not. When his first boy was born, he
named him after the master of a bark with whom he had made a voyage up
the Mediterranean, and who had been very kind to him during a severe
illness at Palermo. Joel's father, uncles, and brother had all received
Scripture names; and perhaps it would have been better if Joel himself
had been equally scriptural in choosing names for his offspring, for the
master of the bark was Captain Stumpfield, and the boy, Stumpfield
Wormbury, was doomed to be called _Stumpy_ from the day he first went to
school till he lost it in the dignity of manhood, though, even then, the
unfortunate cognomen was applied to him by his old cronies.

Joel Wormbury was an industrious and prudent man