f.

I would not have condescended to have noticed this place, had it not
been that I wish you to observe a vessel which is lying along the
pier-wharf, with a plank from the shore to her gunnel. It is low water,
and she is aground, and the plank dips down at such an angle that it is
a work of danger to go either in or out of her. You observe that there
is nothing very remarkable in her. She is a cutter, and a good sea-boat,
and sails well before the wind. She is short for her breadth of beam,
and is not armed. Smugglers do not arm now--the service is too
dangerous; they effect their purpose by cunning, not by force.
Nevertheless, it requires that smugglers should be good seamen, smart,
active fellows, and keen-witted, or they can do nothing. This vessel has
not a large cargo in her, but it is valuable. She has some thousand
yards of lace, a few hundred pounds of tea, a few bales of silk, and
about forty ankers of brandy--just as much as they can land in one boat.
All they ask is a heavy gale or a thick fog, and they trust to
themselves for success.

There is nobody on board except a boy; the crew are all up at the
cabaret, settling their little accounts of every description--for they
smuggle both ways, and every man has his own private venture. There they
are all, fifteen of them, and fine-looking fellows, too, sitting at that
long table. They are very merry, but quite sober, as they are to sail
to-night.

The captain of the vessel (whose name, by-the-bye is the
"_Happy-go-lucky_,"--the captain christened her himself) is that
fine-looking young man, with dark whiskers, meeting under his throat.
His name is Jack Pickersgill. You perceive, at once, that he is much
above a common sailor in appearance. His manners are good, he is
remarkably handsome, very clean, and rather a dandy in his dress.
Observe, how very politely he takes off his hat to that Frenchman, with
whom he has just settled accounts; he beats Johnny Crapeau at his own
weapons. And then there is an air of command, a feeling of conscious
superiority about Jack; see how he treats the landlord, _de haut en
bas_, at the same time that he is very civil. The fact is, that Jack is
of a very good, old family, and received a very excellent education; but
he was an orphan, his friends were poor, and could do but little for
him: he went out to India as a cadet, ran away, and served in a schooner
which smuggled opium into China, and then came home. He took a liking to