t he had full leisure to practise;
one of his parochial duties, that of visiting the sick, being a mere
shadow; for your fisherman, with his wife and his little ones, is but
seldom on the doctor's list, and when he "files off," generally does it
without beat of drum or flap of banner. He was a constant visiter at the
house of Captain Bowline, whither he was attracted by the fascination
of the seaman's stories of foreign parts. Charmed with the dawning
beauty of the lovely little Mary, he readily undertook to give her
better instruction than she could have obtained at the town school, to
which he added drawing. Her mother had amply instructed her in the more
useful and homely arts of cooking, sewing, knitting, &c. and she had
even taught her to spin; for she lived before the establishment of any,
or many, of those institutions for the increase of illegitimate
children, ignorance, immorality, suicide, seduction, murder, &c.--I mean
cotton factories. The comparatively affluent circumstances of her family
had, however, rendered it unnecessary for her to practise this last
accomplishment. With all these charms in her own person, and right in
her father's strong box, it is not to be wondered at that the lovely
Mary Bowline had suitors in abundance; but the only one that seemed to
have made any impression upon her light heart, was a young seaman by the
name of Kelson, who had now attained his twenty-seventh year.

Thomas Kelson was the son of poor parents, indeed it would have been
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to have found a family in the
whole town of B---- that could be called wealthy. He had followed the
sea from early life, and had always returned home during the intervals
of his voyages, at which times he had improved his education under the
instructions of the clergyman aforesaid. His acquaintance with Mary had
passed by a very natural transition from intimacy to affection; he was
the constant companion of her rambles, and when she chose an aquatic
excursion his sail-boat was always ready. To her father his company was
always acceptable; the old seaman had none of the pride of "monied
aristrocracy;" he saw no harm in his daughter placing her affections,
and bestowing her hand and fortune, upon a young man who was fast rising
to respectability and wealth, in precisely the same steps by which he
had himself ascended, commencing as cabin-boy and ending as master and
part owner; he lived on a part of the coast tha