Gothic parody, tells the story of Tom Walker who meets up with devil in the swamp. The devil is cutting down trees that are flourishing on the outside but rotting in the inside. Tom makes a deal with the devil and becomes a man of usury, a money lender. As he destroys people by lending money, Tom becomes a "violent" church goer. I especially enjoyed the description of Tom's relationship with his equally miserly wife. This is a story of greed that destroys and corrupts ( )

"Tom lifted up his eyes and beheld a great black man, seated directly opposite him on the stump of a tree. He was exceedingly surprised, having neither seen nor heard any one approach, and he was still more perplexed on observing, as well as the gathering gloom would permit, that the stranger was neither negro nor Indian. It is true, he was dressed in a rude, half Indian garb, and had a red belt or sash swathed round his body, but his face was neither black nor copper colour, but swarthy and dingy and begrimed with soot, as if he had been accustomed to toil among fires and forges. He had a shock of coarse black hair, that stood out from his head in all directions; and bore an axe on his shoulder.
"He scowled for a moment at Tom with a pair of great red eyes.
"'What are you doing in my ground?' said the black man, with a hoarse growling voice.
"'Your grounds?' said Tom, with a sneer; 'no more your grounds than mine: they belong to Deacon Peabody.'
"'Deacon Peabody be d---d,' said the stranger, 'as I flatter myself he will be, if he does not look more to his own sins and less to his neighbour's. Look yonder, and see how Deacon Peabody is faring.'
"Tom looked in the direction that the stranger pointed, and beheld one of the great trees, fair and flourishing without, but rotten at the core, and saw that it had been nearly hewn through, so that the first high wind was likely to blow it down. On the bark of the tree was scored the name of Deacon Peabody...."