tea (real congou), and the
Collector catching him on the spot. 'Hornblower's tricky--he larnt it
of the Yankees--and I'm always afraid he'll get cotched smuggling
little things for himself. What a blessing it is to have a clear
conscience!' he would say: the last sentence referring to himself.

"But soon the knowing ones got an inkling of the Squire's secrets, and
when he mentioned the Dash in his prayers at morning, and walked the
wharf after breakfast, muttering his misgivings, she was sure to
arrive in the afternoon. There was virtue in the Squire, but the
citizens got the hang of it so well, that whenever I arrived at town
they would say: 'It's only Hornblower's ghost.'

"While the Squire would be doing what he called the straight-forward
up in town, I'd be dropping kedge at Digby, where (the Colonial
Parliament having withdrawn the appropriation for a boarding-boat,
that smugglers might get through their little operations without
trouble) we would send our own boat for the collector. Used to have
everything as bright as a new sixpence, and colors flying, and my own
face squared up to do the honest, when that imported dignitary came on
board, affecting all the importance of a Port-Admiral.

"'Had a good passage, eh, Hornblower?' the prim collector used to ask,
as he mounted the rail.

"'Blowed like cannons, outside, last night! Seeing how we had just
ballast in her, like to tipped her over,' I'd say, bowing, keeping my
hat in my hand, and doing the polite all up.

"'Didn't have a chance to smuggle, according to that, eh?'

"'Yer honor knows Hornblower never does that sort of thing. The
Squire, my owner, is pious, you know,' I'd say, keeping the long face
hard down.

"'Yes, Hornblower, I know your owner to be conscientious and pious;
that is why I always let you off so easy.' And the collector would
look so credulously good-natured that I couldn't help drawing out a
roll of cigars, telling him they were pure Havanas, when presenting
them. It used to do me good to see how it--small as it was--softened
things about his heart. I would immediately follow the cigars with the
papers, taking good care to have merchandise enough in the hold to
correspond with what was set forth on the clearance and manifest. 'Ye
see, sir,' I'd remark, 'I never smuggles, except it is a few cigars
now and then, for my own smoking! Old Jacob Grimes says, when a
government makes laws what people can't live to, you must live round
them;