Out of Deht^ out of Danger, 37 



ready to maintain that lie lias escaped this 

 danger and its penalties, owing to "a word 

 spoken in season" by Colonel Johnston, his 

 brother-in-law. The Colonel and Mr. Smith 

 were going out to ride one day, when a fish- 

 hawker came np, and some of his ware was 

 purchased; after which the party prepared to 

 start, when the Colonel said, ^' Smith, the fish 

 is not paid for." The hawker cried, '^ Oh ! sir, 

 I know Mr. Smith well enough ; he will pay 

 me another day." But this did not suit 

 Colonel Johnston's ideas, who took money 

 from his pocket, and would have paid the 

 trifle, but that Mr. Smith anticipated him. 

 When the man was gone, the Colonel asked, 

 ^' Smith, how could you bear to put it in the 

 power of such a fellow as that to say that you 

 owed him a shilling even for a day?" The 

 reproof went home, and under any difiiculties 

 ^^ready-money payment" has ever since been 

 the practice of Mr. Smith ; to which he attri- 

 butes his success in life, and which cannot be 



