We have spoken of the coasters that ply between the emporium and all the creeks and bays of the Sound, as well as of the numberless rivers that find an outlet for their waters between Sandy Hook and Rockaway.  Wharves were constructed, at favourable points, inside the prong, and occasionally a sloop was seen at them loading its truck, or discharging its ashes or street manure, the latter being a very common return cargo for a Long Island coaster.  At one wharf, however, now lay a vessel of a different mould, and one which, though of no great size, was manifastly intended to go outside.  This was a schooner that had been recently launched, and which had advanced no farther in its first equipment than to get in its two principal spars, the rigging of which hung suspended over the mast-heads, in readiness to be “set up” for the first time.  The day being Sunday, work was suspended, and this so much the more, because the owner of the vessel was a certain Deacon Pratt, who dwelt in a house within half a mile of the wharf, and who was also the proprietor of three several parcels of land in that neighbourhood, each of which had its own buildings and conveniences, and was properly enough dignified with the name of a farm.  To be sure, neither of these farms was very large, their acres united amounting to but little more than two hundred; but, owing to their condition, the native richness of the soil, and the mode of turning them to account, they had made Deacon Pratt a warm man, for Suffolk.

There are two great species of deacons; for we suppose they must all be referred to the same genera.  One species belong to the priesthood, and become priests and bishops; passing away, as priests and bishops are apt to do, with more or less of the savour of godliness.  The other species are purely laymen, and are sui generis.  They are, ex officio, the most pious men in a neighbourhood, as they sometimes are, as it would seem to us, ex officio, also the most grasping and mercenary.  As we are not in the secrets of the sects to which these lay deacons belong, we shall not presume to pronounce whether the individual is elevated to the deaconate because he is prosperous, in a worldly sense, or whether the prosperity is a consequence of the deaconate; but, that the two usually go together is quite certain:  which being the cause, and which the effect, we leave to wiser heads to determine.

Deacon Pratt was no exception to the rule.  A tighter fisted sinner did not exist in the county than this pious soul, who certainly not only wore, but wore out the “form of godliness,” while he was devoted, heart and hand, to the daily increase of worldly gear.  No one spoke disparagingly of the deacon, notwithstanding.  So completely had he got to be interwoven with the church—­’meeting,’ we ought to say—­in that vicinity, that speaking disparagingly of him would have appeared like assailing Christianity.  It is true, that many an unfortunate