The house had been previously occupied by a man largely implicated in smuggling transactions, and it was well adapted for the stowage of quantities of goods. It was old-fashioned. On the ground floor in the kitchen, there was a large oven, not used for its legitimate purposes, but frequently full of smuggled goods ; in one of the bedrooms was a large closet very often put to the same use, and in the back yard was an unused pig-stye, beneath the sleeping part of which was a large excavation which had been made specially for the purpose of concealing casks of spirits.
JOHN'S SUNDAY BOOTS.
Such was the confidence in each other possessed by the smugglers, that they never hesitated in taking refuge, and even depositing their goods in the house or on the premises of any of their party, even if the person were not engaged in the particular transaction. One night, a company being hard pressed, deposited in this house not less than from eighty to one hundred casks of spirits. I am not positively sure that my father had anything to do in running this particular cargo ; I think not, as I recollect his being in a great passion on the following day in consequence of the goods being there. Unfortunately one of the casks sprung a leak, and there was a smell of brandy in the court. To make the matter still more dangerous, a coast-blockade man made enquiries, who and what -
