island, low and
insignificant as it is, contains treasure. Pirates made their deposits
here a long time ago, and the knowledge of that fact is now confined to
myself."

The young man stared at the deacon as if he had some doubts whether the
old man were in his right mind. He knew the besetting weakness of his
character well, and had no difficulty in appreciating the influence of
such a belief as that he had just expressed, on his feelings; but it
seemed so utterly improbable that he, living on Oyster Pond, should learn
a fact of this nature, which was concealed from others, that, at first, he
fancied his owner had been dreaming of money until its images had made him
mad. Then he recollected the deceased mariner, the deacon's many
conferences with him, the interest he had always appeared to take in the
man, and the suddenness, as well as the time, of the purchase of the
schooner; and he at once obtained a clue to the whole affair.

"Daggett has told you this, Deacon Pratt"--said Gardiner, in his off-hand
way. "And he is the man who has told you of those sealing-islands too?"

"Admitting it to be so, why not Daggett as well as any other man?"

"Certainly, if he knew what he was saying to be true--but the yarn of a
sailor is not often to be taken for gospel."

"Daggett was near his end, and cannot be classed with those who talk idly
in the pride of their health and strength--men who are ever ready to
say--'Tush, God has forgotten.'"

"Why was this told to you, when the man had natural friends and relatives
by the dozen over on the Vineyard?"

"He had been away from the Vineyard and them relatives fifty years; a
length of time that weakens a body's feelings considerably. Take you away
from Mary only a fourth part of that time, and you would forget whether
her eyes are blue or black, and altogether how she looks."

"If I should, a most miserable and contemptible dog should I account
myself! No, deacon, twice fifty years would not make me forget the eyes or
the looks of Mary!"

"Ay, so all youngsters think, and feel, and talk. But let 'em try the
world, and they'll soon find out their own foolishness. But Daggett made
me his confidant because Providence put me in his way, and because he
trusted to being well enough to go in the schooner, and to turn the
expedition to some account in his own behalf."

"Had the man the impudence to confess that he had been a pirate, and
helped to bury treasure on this key?"

"That