ratt was a robber. He was merely a
hard man in the management of his affairs; never cheating, in a direct
sense, but seldom conceding a cent to generous impulses, or to the duties
of kind. He was a widower, and childless, circumstances that rendered his
love of gain still less pardonable; for many a man who is indifferent to
money on his own account, will toil and save to lay up hoards for those
who are to come after him. The deacon had only a niece to inherit his
effects, unless he might choose to step beyond that degree of
consanguinity, and bestow a portion of his means on cousins. The
church--or, to be more literal, the 'meeting'--had an eye on his
resources, however; and it was whispered it had actually succeeded, by
means known to itself, in squeezing out of his tight grasp no less a sum
than one hundred dollars, as a donation to a certain theological college.
It was conjectured by some persons that this was only the beginning of a
religious liberality, and that the excellent and godly-minded deacon would
bestow most of his property in a similar way, when the moment should come
that it could be no longer of any use to himself. This opinion was much in
favour with divers devout females of the deacon's congregation, who had
daughters of their own, and who seldom failed to conclude their
observations on this interesting subject with some such remark as, "Well,
in _that_ case, and it seems to me that every thing points that way, Mary
Pratt will get no more than any other poor man's daughter."

Little did Mary, the only child of Israel Pratt, an elder brother of the
deacon, think of all this. She had been left an orphan in her tenth year,
both parents dying within a few months of each other, and had lived
beneath her uncle's roof for nearly ten more years, until use, and natural
affection, and the customs of the country, had made her feel absolutely at
home there. A less interested, or less selfish being than Mary Pratt,
never existed. In this respect she was the very antipodes of her uncle,
who often stealthily rebuked her for her charities and acts of
neighbourly kindness, which he was wont to term waste. But Mary kept the
even tenor of her way, seemingly not hearing such remarks, and doing her
duty quietly, and in all humility.

Suffolk was settled originally by emigrants from New England, and the
character of its people is, to this hour, of modified New England habits
and notions. Now, one of the marked peculiariti