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What is the Devil doing when Tom Walker encounters him?

When Tom Walker encounters him, the Devil is busy cutting down trees. He tells Tom Walker that he will have a good harvest of firewood for winter.


As Tom surveys his surroundings, he realizes that the Devil has scored the names of important men onto certain trees. The trees are all tall and magnificent in build. However, Tom notices that one of the trees appear to be "fair and flourishing without, but rotten at the core." This tree has Deacon Peabody's name on it, and Tom marks that the tree is almost ready to fall.


In fact, the trunk Tom has been seated on bears the name of Crowninshield, a wealthy man who lived an ostentatious (showy) life, purportedly acquired through buccaneering (piracy). When Tom confronts the Devil about his right to cut down the trees, the Devil answers that the land belonged to him long before any settlers set foot on it. He imagines himself a judge, the "great patron and prompter of slave dealers, and the grand master of the Salem witches."

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