THE SMUGGLER. 191 



you have forgotten me. I could not let you go, however, 

 without just asking you to shake hands with me, though you 

 are a great gentleman now, and I am much what I was." 



The young officer gazed at him for a moment, and let his 

 eye run over the stout limbs and portly person of the landlord, 

 till at length he said, in a doubtful tone, " Surely, you cannot 

 be young Miles, the son of my father's clerk?" 



"Ay, sir, just the same," replied the host; " but young 

 and old, we change, just as women do their mimes when they 

 marry. Not that six or seven years have made nio old either; 

 but I was six and twenty when you went away, and as thin 

 as a whipping post; now I'm two and thirty and as fat as a 

 porker. That makes a wonderful difference, sir. Bat I'm 

 glad you don't forget old times." 



"Forget them, Miles!" said the young officer, holding out 

 his hand to him; "Oh! no; they are too deeply written in my 

 heart ever to be blotted outl I thought I was too much 

 changed myself for any one to remember me, but those who 

 were most dear to me. What between the effects of time and 

 labour, sorrow and war, I hardly fancied that any one in Kent 

 would know me. But you are changed for the better, I for 

 the worse. Yet I am very glad to see you, Miles ; and I shall 

 see you again to-morrow, for I am coming back here towards 

 two o'clock. In the mean time, you need not say you have 

 seen me, for I do not wish it to be known that I am here, 

 till I have learned a little of what reception I am likely to 

 have." 



"Oh! I understand, sir; I understand," replied the land- 

 lord; "and if you should want to know how the land lies, I 

 can always tell you; for you see, I have the parish-clerks' 

 club, which meets here once a week ; and then all the news of 

 the country comes out; and besides, many a one of them 

 comes in here at other times, to have a gossip with old Rafe 

 Miles's son, so that I hear everything that goes on in the 

 county almost as soon as it is done; and right glad shall I be 

 to tell you anything you want to know, just for old times' 

 sake, when you used to go shooting snipes by the brooks, and 

 I used to come after for the sport; that is to say, anything 

 about your own people, not about the smugglers, you know, 

 for they say you are sent here to put them down ; and I should 

 not like to peach, even to you. I heard that some great 



