but them ain't my principles.'

"'Thank you, Mr. Hornblower, I am sure you have more regard for your
honor than to smuggle,' he would resume, keeping his eyes fixed upon
me.

"'I am obliged to you for the confidence--the confidence of superiors
in spirit or body; and I hope I may never do anything but what will
merit yours. It has been my motto through life to keep before me the
words of my good old mother. Ah! she was a mother. Fond soul, she used
to say, 'Solomon, my boy, let your dealing with the world be marked by
honesty, and remember that one small error in your life may stain
forever your character. The eyes of an unforgiving world once excited
to suspicion will ever wear the same glasses.'' Having said this,
nothing more was wanted to make complete the Squire's confidence.
Without further detention, he would have the papers made out, and
having received them, we would trim our sheets and sail away up the
river, Old Tom boarding us off Pin Point, and laughing himself almost
out of his black skin--welcoming us after the fashion of friends met
after a long absence. All this time the Squire would be impatiently
waiting on the wharf at the little town of Annapolis--so glad to see
Hornblower! 'No contraband goods on board, eh, Hornblower?' he would
inquire, affecting such an amount of piety that it made me laugh in my
shoes.

"'Not so much as a plug of tobacco!' I would reply, contemplatively,
as the crew commenced putting out the few things we had entered at Her
Majesty's Custom House. We had great regard for Her Majesty; nor have
I the least doubt of the Squire's honesty, which would have been all
right had it not been for the law and parliament. We have only to add
that, having played his part after the manner of a good Christian, he
would seek his way home, there to arrange an evening prayer-meeting.

"But the beauty of the Squire's nature, as illustrated in his pious
hatred of smuggling, or otherwise defrauding Her Majesty, would shine
out bright on the day the Dash left on her return voyage. I was sure
of an invitation to breakfast with him on that morning, and he was
equally sure to paint the purity of his conscience in such glowing
colors that it was difficult for me to maintain a serious face. When
we had eaten bread, and he had offered up his prayer (in which he
always remembered Her Majesty), he would accompany me to the Dash,
when, having got on board, and cast off, he would mount the most
prominent p