On the present occasion, Joel, who had the distribution of such duty, placed Mike in a skiff, by himself, flattering the poor fellow with the credit he would achieve, by rowing a boat to the foot of the lake, without assistance.  He might as well have asked Mike to walk to the outlet on the surface of the water!  This arrangement proceeded from an innate love of mischief in Joel, who had much of the quiet waggery, blended with many of the bad qualities of the men of his peculiar class.  A narrow and conceited selfishness lay at the root of the larger portion of this man’s faults.  As a physical being, he was a perfect labour-saving machine, himself; bringing all the resources of a naturally quick and acute mind to bear on this one end, never doing anything that required a particle more than the exertion and strength that were absolutely necessary to effect his object.  He rowed the skiff in which the captain and his wife had embarked, with his own hands; and, previously to starting, he had selected the best sculls from the other boats, had fitted his twhart with the closest attention to his own ease, and had placed a stretcher for his feet, with an intelligence and knowledge of mechanics, that would have done credit to a Whitehall waterman.  This much proceeded from the predominating principle of his nature, which was, always to have an eye on the interests of Joel Strides; though the effect happened, in this instance, to be beneficial to those he served.

Michael O’Hearn, on the contrary, thought only of the end; and this so intensely, not to so say vehemently, as generally to overlook the means.  Frank, generous, self-devoted, and withal accustomed to get most things wrong-end-foremost, he usually threw away twice the same labour, in effecting a given purpose, that was expended by the Yankee; doing the thing worse, too, besides losing twice the time.  He never paused to think of this, however.  The masther’s boat was to be rowed to the other end of the lake, and, though he had never rowed a boat an inch in his life, he was ready and willing to undertake the job.  “If a certain quantity of work will not do it,” thought Mike, “I’ll try as much ag’in; and the divil is in it, if that won’t sarve the purpose of that little bit of a job.”

Under such circumstances the party started.  Most of the skiffs and canoes went off half an hour before Mrs. Willoughby was ready, and Joel managed to keep Mike for he last, under the pretence of wishing his aid in loading his own boat, with the bed and bedding from the hut.  All was ready, at length, and taking his seat, with a sort of quiet deliberation, Joel said, in his drawling way, “You’ll follow us, Mike, and you can’t be a thousand miles out of the way.”  Then he pulled from the shore with a quiet, steady stroke of the sculls, that sent the skiff ahead with great rapidity, though with much ease to himself.

Michael O’Hearn stood looking at the retiring skiff, in silent admiration, for two or three minutes.  He was quite alone; for all the other boats were already two or three miles on their way, and distance already prevented him from seeing the mischief that was lurking in Joel’s hypocritical eyes.