20 THE SMUGGLER. 



"Indeed, indeed!" exclaimed their elderly friend. "Do 

 you know any body in that part of Kent? Have you ever 

 been there before?" 



"Never," replied the other;* "nor have I ever seen the 

 persons I am going to see. What sort of a country is it?" 



"Bless the young man's life!" exclaimed the gentleman in 

 black, "does he expect me to give him a long picturesque 

 description of St. Augustine's Lathe? If you wish to know 

 my opinion of it, it is as wild and desolate a part of the world 

 as the backwoods of America, and the people little better than 

 American savages. You'll find plenty of trees, a few villages, 

 some farm-houses, one or two gentlemen's seats they had 

 better have called them stools a stream or two, a number of 

 hills and things of that kind ; and your humble servant, who 

 would be very happy to see you, if you are not a smuggler, 

 and are coming to that part of the country." 



" I shall not fail to pay my respects to you," replied the 

 gentleman to whom he spoke; " but I must first know who I 

 am to inquire for." 



" Pay your respect where it is due, my dear sir," rejoined 

 the other. " You can't tell a whit whether I deserve any 

 respect or not. You'll find all that out by-and-bye. As to 

 what I am called, I could give you half a dozen names. 

 Some people call me the Bear, some people the Nabob, some 

 the Misanthrope ; but my real name that which I am known 

 by at the post-office is Mr. Zachary Croyland, brother of the 

 man who has Harbourne House: a younger brother too, by 

 God's blessing, and a great blessing it is." 



" It is lucky when every man is pleased with his situation," 

 answered his young acquaintance. " Most elder brothers 

 thank God for making them such, and I have often had cause 

 to do the same." 



" It's the greatest misfortune that can happen to a man," 

 exclaimed the old gentleman, eagerly. " What are elder 

 brothers, but people who are placed by fate in the most des- 

 perate and difficult circumstances. Spoilt and indulged in 

 their infancy, taught to be vain and idle and conceited from 

 the cradle, deprived of every inducement to the exertion of 

 the mind, corrupted by having always their own way, sheltered 

 from all the friendly buffets of the world, and left, like a pond 

 in a gravel pit, to stagnate or evaporate without stirring. 



