came of the poor. Accordingly, when he heard of any case
of particular distress, such as that a poor emigrant died of misery in a
cold, deserted house, our poormaster regretted it, as an individual;
but, as an officer, he said, he acted according to principle. He could
not betray his constituents, who elected him against his will, by any
act of extravagance; and the good of the many must be consulted. "Even
the Lord," he used to say,--for he was a religious man,--"when he
created the sun, left spots in it." The best statesman must sometimes do
what may be cruel to the few; but, in the end, it would turn out for the
good of man. This district, since his election, now twice successively,
had made a saving of some two hundred a year since he became its
officer; and that would, in time, open the eyes of the people as to who
were proper candidates for office, tend to diminish taxes, and, in fact,
be a work for man--progress and virtue. Besides this, Mr. Poormaster Van
Stingey had "got religion," by which he was wonderfully enlightened,
having been so lucky as to gain that valuable accomplishment just six
months, and only six months, before his election, at a camp meeting held
near the village of M----ville.

"I tell you what, the fact of the matter is, Mr. Knicks," said he,
"there is nothin' like religion. Before I got religion, and jined the
church, I didn't have any knowledge of God. I used to pity these
emigrants, seeing them poor and pale looking as death; but now, sir, I
reads my Bible, and finds that the Lord must not regard nor love these
Papists, wher'n he lets them run down so. The word of life is great."

"Wal, I do not know. I care not a straw about any church; but my old
mother used to teach us, when children, that poverty and crosses were no
sign of the Lord's displeasure; as witness holy Job and Christ himself,
who were poor. In fact, she never stopped telling us, when boys, that
riches were dangerous, the love of money the root of all evil, and that
'whom he chastiseth the Lord loveth.'"

"O, but your mother was a stiff Papist, you know, and did not understand
the word of God."

"Yes, sir-ee, she did that; for I well recollect that, in the many
arguments she had with father, she always had the best of it. That she
had."

"She may argue from Jesuit books and the like; but the Bible she durst
not look at, you know, Knicks."

"I know better, Van. Don't you talk so. I have got the very Bible she
used and re