“I hope not, Gar’ner.  ’Twould be vexatious to have all this risk and trouble for nothing.  How much ile have you stowed?”

“All my ground-tier, and a few riders.  It is with the skins that we are doing the best business.”

Daggett’s eyes fairly snapped at this announcement, which aroused all his professional ambition, to say nothing of that propensity to the “root of all evil,” which had become pretty thoroughly incorporated with his moral being, by dint of example, theory, and association.  We have frequently had occasion to remark how much more ‘enjoyable,’ for the intellectual and independent, is a country on the decline, than a country on the advance.  The one is accumulating that wealth which the other has already possessed and improved; and men cease to dwell so much on riches in their inmost souls, when the means of obtaining them would seem to have got beyond their reach.  This is one of the secrets of the universal popularity of Italy with the idle and educated; though the climate, and the monuments, and the recollections, out of doubt, contribute largely to its charms.  Nevertheless, man, as a rule, is far more removed from the money-getting mania in Italy, than in almost any other portion of the Christian world; and this merely because the time of her wealth and power has gone by, leaving in its train a thousand fruits, that would seem to be the most savoury, as the stem on which they grew would appear to be approaching its decay.  On Martha’s Vineyard, however, and in no part of the Great Republic, indeed, has this waning season yet commenced, and the heart of man is still engrossed with those desires that are to produce the means which are to lay the foundations for the enjoyment of generations to come.

“That’s luck, indeed, for a craft so early in the season,” returned Daggett, when his eyes had done snapping.  “Are the critturs getting to be wild and skeary?”

“Not more so than the day we began upon them.  I have taken the greatest care to send none but my most experienced hands out to kill and skin, and their orders have been rigid to give as little alarm as possible.  If you wish to fill up, I would advise you to take the same precautions, for the heel of the season is beginning to show itself.”

“I will winter here, but I get a full craft,” said Daggett, with a resolute manner, if not absolutely serious in what he said.  “Trouble enough have I had to find the group, and we Vineyard-men don’t relish the idee of being outdone.”

“You would be done up, my fine fellow,” answered Roswell, laughing, “did you attempt to pass a winter here.  The Sea Lion of Humse’s Hull would not herself keep you in fuel, and you would have to raft it off next summer on your casks, or remain here for ever.”

“I suppose a body might expect to see you back again, another season,” observed Daggett, glancing meaningly towards his companion, as if he had seriously revolved so desperate a plan in his mind. “’Tisn’t often that a sealer lets a station like that you’ve described drop out of his recollection in a single v’y’ge.”