Gaut Gurley | Page 9

and finally came out with a direct proposition to his brother to
buy him out at a sum which he knew would be a temptingly low one.
And the result was, that the proposition was accepted, "the partnership
dissolved by mutual consent," and the released Arthur, with his portion,

soon on his way to one of the eastern seaports, to set up business, as he
soon did, for himself alone.
The withdrawal of Arthur Elwood deprived this little establishment of
its only really valuable guidance, and left it to the chance fortunes of
greater gains or greater losses than would have been likely to occur
under the cautious and hazard-excluding system of business which he
had adopted for its control. But, nothing for a year or two occurring to
induce Mark Elwood to depart from the system under which the
business had been conducted, and Arthur's prudent maxims of trade, to
which he had been accustomed to defer, remaining fresh in his mind, he
naturally kept on in the old routine, which he was the more willing to
follow, as by it he found himself clearly on the advance. He was
blessed in his family; for his wife, who had no undue aspirations for
wealth or show, had not only proved an efficient helper by her
economy and good counsels, but added still more to his gratification by
bringing him a promising boy. Being the only trader of the village, or
hamlet it might more properly be called, he was conscious of being the
object of that peculiar kind of favor and respect which was then--more
freely than at the present day, perhaps--accorded to the country
merchant by the masses among whom he resided. And, finding his still
comparatively moderate expectations thus every day fully realized, he
was satisfied with his condition in the present, and hopeful and happy
in the prospects it presented in the future; for the demon of unlawful
gain had not then tempted him into forbidden paths by the lure of
sudden riches.
But that demon at length came in the shape of Gaut Gurley. From what
part of the country this singular and questionable personage originally
came, was unknown, even in the neighboring village (which was within
the borders of Maine) where he had recently located himself with a
young wife and child. And, as he very rarely made any allusions to his
own personal affairs, every thing relating to his origin, life, and
employments, previous to his appearance in this region, was a matter of
mere conjecture, and many a dark surmise, also, we should add,
respecting his true character. For the last few years, however, he was
known to have followed, at the appropriate seasons of the year, the
business of trapping, or trading for furs with the Indians, around the
northern lakes. He had several times passed through the village on his

returns from his northern tours, and called on the Elwoods, whose
contrasted characters he seemed soon to understand. But he pressed no
bargains upon them for his peltries; for, disliking the close questionings
and scrutinizing glances of Arthur, and finding he could make no final
trade with Mark without the assent of the former, he gave up all
attempts of the kind, and did not call again during the continuance of
the partnership, nor till this time; when, finding that Mark was in trade
alone, he announced his intention of spending some time in the village,
to see what arrangements could be made, as he at first held out to
Elwood, for establishing this as his place for the regular sales or deposit
of his furs.
But the fur traffic, whatever it might have been formerly, was now not
the main, if any part of the object he had in view. The times had
changed, closing many of the old avenues of trade, but opening new
ones to tempt the ever restless spirit of gain. And, although the fur trade
was still profitable, there was yet another springing up, which, for those
who, like him, had no scruples about engaging in it, promised to
become far more so. The restrictions which it had been the policy of
our government to throw around commerce, in the incipient stages of
our last national quarrel with Great Britain, had caused an
unprecedented rise in the prices of silks and other fine fabrics of
foreign import. This had put whatever there was of the two alleged
leading traits of Yankee character, acquisitiveness and ingenuity, on the
qui vive to obtain those goods at the former prices, for the purpose of
home speculation. And Canada, being separated by a land boundary
only from the States, presented to the greedy eyes of hundreds of
village mammonists, who, like Elwood, were plodding along at the
slow jog of twenty