As to Roswell and Mary, they had much reason to be content with their lot.  The deacon’s means were found to be much more considerable than had been supposed.  When all was brought into a snug state.  Roswell found that his wife was worth more than thirty thousand dollars, a sum which constituted wealth on Oyster Pond, in that day.  We have, however, already hinted that the simplicity, and we fear with it the happiness, of the place has departed.  A railroad terminates within a short distance of the deacon’s old residence, bringing with it the clatter, ambition, and rivalry, of such a mode of travelling.  What is even worse, the venerable and expressive name of “Oyster Pond,” one that conveys in its very sound the idea of savoury dishes, and an abundance of a certain and a very agreeable sort has been changed to “Orient,” Heaven save the mark!  Long Island has, hitherto, been famous, in the history of New York, for the homely piquancy of its names, which usually conveyed a graphic idea of the place indicated.  It is true, “Jerusalem” cannot boast of its Solomon’s Temple, nor “Babylon” of its Hanging Gardens; but, by common consent, it is understood that these two names, and some half-a-dozen more of the same quality, are to be taken by their opposites.

Roswell Gardiner did not let Stimson pass out of his sight, as is customary with seamen when they quit a vessel.  He made him master of a sloop that plied between New York and Southold, in which employment the good old man fulfilled his time, leaving to a widowed sister who dwelt with him, the means of a comfortable livelihood, for life.

The only bit of management of which Mary could be accused, was practised by her shortly after Stimson’s death, and some six or eight years after her own marriage.  One of her school friends, and a relative, had married a person who dwelt ‘west of the bridge,’ as it is the custom to say of all the counties that lie west of Cayuga Lake.  This person, whose name was Hight, had mills, and made large quantities of that excellent flour, that is getting to enjoy its merited reputation even in the old world.  He was disposed to form a partnership with Roswell, who sold his property, and migrated to the great west, as the country ‘west of the bridge’ was then termed, though it is now necessary to go a thousand miles farther, in order to reach what is termed “the western country.”  Mary had an important agency in bringing about this migration.  She had seen certain longings after the ocean, and seals, and whales, in her husband; and did not consider him safe, as long as he could scent the odours of a salt marsh.  There is a delight in this fragrance that none can appreciate as thoroughly as those who have enjoyed it in youth; it remains as long as human senses retain their faculties.  An increasing family, however, and el dorado of the west, which, in that day, produced wheat, were inducements for a removal there, and, aided by Mary’s gentle management,