his part of the world, as
Mrs. Abbott?"

"The hills and valleys are filled with them. You mean persons who
have got so much religion that they have no room for any thing else?"

"I shall mourn to my dying day, that you were not brought up to the
sea! If you discover so much of the right material on fresh-water,
what would you have been on salt? The people who suck in nutriment
from a brain and a conscience like those of Mr. Dodge, too,
commodore, must get, in time, to be surprisingly clear-sighted."

"Just so; his readers soon overreach themselves. But it's of no great
consequence, sir; the people of this part of the world keep nothing
long enough to do much good, or much harm."

"Fond of change, ha?"

"Like unlucky fishermen, always ready to shift the ground. I don't
believe, sir, that in all this region you can find a dozen graves of
sons, that lie near their fathers. Every body seems to have a mortal
aversion to stability,"

"It is hard to love such a country, commodore!"

"Sir, I never try to love it. God has given me a pretty sheet of
water, that suits my fancy and wants, a beautiful sky, fine green
mountains, and I am satisfied. One may love God, in such a temple,
though he love nothing else."

"Well, I suppose if you love nothing, nothing loves you, and no
injustice is done."

"Just, so, sir. Self has got to be the idol, though in the general
scramble a man is sometimes puzzled to know whether he is himself, or
one of the neighbours."

"I wish I knew your political sentiments, commodore; you have been
communicative on all subjects but that, and I have taken up the
notion that you are a true philosopher."

"I hold myself to be but a babe in swaddling-clothes compared to
yourself, sir; but such as my poor opinions are, you are welcome to
them. In the first place, then, sir, I have lived long enough on this
water to know that every man is a lover of liberty in his own person,
and that he has a secret distaste for it in the persons of other
people. Then, sir, I have got to understand that patriotism means
bread and cheese, and that opposition is every man for himself."

"If the truth were known, I believe, commodore, you have buoyed out
the channel!"

"Just so. After being pulled about by the salt of the land, and using
my freeman's privileges at their command, until I got tired of so
much liberty, sir, I have resigned, and retired to private life,
doing most of my own thinking out here on the Otseg