“I have succeeded in engaging the first officer I wanted,” added the young man, “and he is now busy in looking up and shipping hands, at Stonington.  We must get half-a-dozen reliable men on the main, and then we can take some of our neighbours here, as beginners, just to please them.”

“Yes; ship a goodly number of green hands,” said the deacon, zealously.  “They work at cheap ‘lays,’ and leave the owners the greater profits.  Well, well, Captain Gar’ner, things seem to be doing well in your hands, and I will leave you.  About two hours after dinner, I shall want to have a word with you in private, and will thank you just to step across to the house, where you will be certain to find me.  Baiting Joe seems to have hooked something there, in ’arnest.”

“That has he!  I’ll answer for it that he has a sheepshead at the end of his line that will weigh eight or ten pounds.”

The words of Gardiner proved true, for Joe actually pulled in a fish of the description and weight he had just mentioned.  It was this sight that, in the lightness of his heart, tempted the deacon to a little extravagance.  Joe was called ashore, and after a good deal of chaffering, the deacon bought the prize for half a dollar.  As Mary was celebrated for her skill in preparing this particular fish, the deacon, before he left the wharf, with the sheepshead hanging from one hand, fairly invited “Captain Gar’ner” so to time his visit to the house, as to be present at the feast.

Nor was this all.  Before the deacon had settled with Joe, the Rev. Mr. Whittle came on the wharf, confessedly in quest of something to eat.  The regular occupations of this divine were writing sermons, preaching, holding conferences, marrying, christening and burying, and hunting up “something to eat.”  About half of his precious time was consumed in the last of these pursuits.  We do not wish to represent this clergyman as having an undue gastronomic propensity; but, as having a due one, and a salary that was so badly paid as quite to disable him from furnishing his larder, or cellar, with anything worth mentioning, in advance.  Now, he was short of flour; then, the potatoes were out; next, the pork was consumed; and always there was a great scarcity of groceries, and other necessaries of that nature.  This neglect on the part of the parishioners, coupled with a certain improvidence on that of the pastor, left the clergyman’s family completely in that state which is usually described as being in the “from hand to mouth” condition, and which consequently occupied so large a portion of the good man’s time in “providing.”