I set myself
up for a gentleman, governor, but I've lived too long and too much in
your respected society not to have l'arn'd some of the ways. The brig's
mine, if ile will pay for her. And now, sir, having completed the trade,
I _should_ like to know if your judgment and mine be the same. I say the
Dragon will beat the Jonas half a knot, the best day the Jonas ever
seed."

"I do not know but you are right, Bob. In looking at the two craft, last
evening, I gave the preference to the Dragon, though I kept my opinion
to myself, lest I might mortify those who built the Jonas."

"Well, sir, I'm better pleased to hear this, than to be able to pay for
the brig! It is something to a plain body like myself, to find his
judgment upheld by them that know all about a matter."

In this friendly and perfectly confidential way did Mark Woolston still
act with his old and long-tried friend, Robert Betts. The Dragon was
cheap at the money mentioned, and the governor took all of the old
seaman's 'ile' at the very top of the market. This purchase at once
elevated Betts in the colony, to a rank but a little below that of the
'gentlemen,' if his modesty disposed him to decline being classed
absolutely with them. What was more, it put him in the way of almost
coining money. The brig he purchased turned out to be as fast as he
expected, and what was more, the character of a lucky vessel, which she
got the very first cruise, never left her, and gave her commander and
owner, at all times, a choice of hands.

The governor sold the Jonas to the merchants, and took the Martha off
Betts' hands, causing this latter craft to run regularly, and at stated
hours, from point to point among the islands, in the character of a
packet. Twice a week she passed from the Reef to the Cove at the Peak,
and once a fortnight she went to Rancocus Island. In addition to her
other duties, this sloop now carried the mail.

A post-office law was passed by the council, and was approved of by the
governor. In that day, and in a community so simple and practical,
new-fangled theories concerning human rights were not allowed to
interfere with regulations that were obviously necessary to the comfort
and convenience of the public.

Fortunately, there was yet no newspaper, a species of luxury, which,
like the gallows, comes in only as society advances to the corrupt
condition; or which, if it happen to precede it a little, is very
certain soon to conduct it there. If