have a comfortable chair to rest him
self in.

When the mint-master had grown very rich, a young man, Samuel Sewall by
name, came a-courting to his only daughter. His daughter--whose name I
do not know, but we will call her Betsey--was a fine, hearty damsel,
by no means so slender as some young ladies of our own days. On the
contrary, having always fed heartily on pumpkin-pies, doughnuts, Indian
puddings, and other Puritan dainties, she was as round and plump as a
pudding herself. With this round, rosy Miss Betsey did Samuel Sewall
fall in love. As he was a young man of good character, industrious in
his business, and a member of the church, the mint-master very readily
gave his consent.

"Yes, you may take her," said he, in his rough way, "and you'll find her
a heavy burden enough!"

On the wedding day, we may suppose that honest John Hull dressed himself
in a plum-colored coat, all the buttons of which were made of pine-tree
shillings. The buttons of his waistcoat were sixpences; and the knees of
his small-clothes were buttoned with silver threepences. Thus attired,
he sat with great dignity in Grandfather's chair; and, being a portly
old gentleman, he completely filled it from elbow to elbow. On the
opposite side of the room, between her bride-maids, sat Miss Betsey. She
was blushing with all her might, and looked like a full-blown peony, or
a great red apple.

There, too, was the bridegroom, dressed in a fine purple coat and
gold-lace waistcoat, with as much other finery as the Puritan laws and
customs would allow him to put on. His hair was cropped close to his
head, because Governor Endicott had forbidden any man to wear it below
the ears. But he was a very personable young man; and so thought the
bridemaids and Miss Betsey herself.

The mint-master also was pleased with his new Son-in-law; especially as
he had courted Miss Betsey out of pure love, and had said nothing at all
about her portion. So, when the marriage ceremony was over, Captain Hull
whispered a word to two of his men-servants, who immediately went out,
and soon returned, lugging in a large pair of scales. They were such
a pair as wholesale merchants use for weighing bulky commodities; and
quite a bulky commodity was now to be weighed in them.

"Daughter Betsey," said the mint-master, "get into one side of these
scales."

Miss Betsey--or Mrs. Sewall, as we must now call her--did as she
was bid, like a dutiful child, without any question of