in the corner. A small barrel was packed
with ribbons, with a layer of cod sounds at the
top. The tobacco went into holes under the
floor, under a loose plank. My mother was
puzzling her brain to find a place for the
largest package of all,—a bale too big to go
under her bed, or look like any article of
furniture, when a faint gleam of sunshine
touched the floor, through the dim pane of
glass which was our only window.

"There, go, child! " said my mother, giving
me a push to the door. " We shall be caught
because you won't mind your watch. Now,
hold your tongue about the fog. 'Tis noon,
and the fog is breaking away. If the boat
does not come quick, the sea will be clear.
There, go, and keep a look-out."

She thrust a piece of bread and a lump of
cheese into my hand, and put her gin-bottle
to my mouth, giving me a sup which almost
strangled me. I think she must have been
paid for her services partly in the gin which
came over with every batch of goods; for,
however hungry and ragged we might be,
there seemed to be always plenty of gin on
the shelf. I ran up the rock, rather giddy,
and sat down to sober myself with my bread
and cheese. The music was playing again—
sweet and lulling from so great a distance.
The sun was coming out warm. Where the
fog had flaked away, the calm sea was glittering.
The sloop was bending away from the
land, and the boat was fast making for the
beach. I was very sleepy; and I should
have been fast asleep in another minute but
for the usual noonday plague,—the multitude
of flies, which were one of the worries of my
life. I know now that they were one of the
punishments of our own dirt. I have seen
many dirty places since swarming with flies;
but I never saw anything to compare with the
myriads that teased us, almost the whole year
round. The offal on the shore was covered
with black clouds of them; and so was the
cleanest looking sand; for the fact was, the
sand itself was poisoned. As for ourselves,
we let them cover us when we were awake
and busy; but they would not let us go to
sleep. I was now fighting with them, somewhat
passionately, when I suddenly discovered
that they had done us a very great service, by
keeping me awake.

My heavy eyes were struck with the sight
of two red coats in the marsh, where few coats
of any colour were ever seen. This marsh
was a long stretch of shore, into which the
sea flowed twice a day, leaving it fit for no
purposes, for either land or sea. It was
possible, for those who knew it as well as Jos
and I did, to cross it. We knew where the
rock came up, here and there, to afford a
foothold, and could skip through it in pretty good
time, much as we saw the whinchat hop from
stone to stone. But it was never with my
mother's good-will that we went into it. It
was not only dangerous for young children,
from being plashy and spongy, and with a
considerable depth of bog in some places, but
few people went into it—at least in the warm
months of the year—without being ill
afterwards. This was the real reason why the
townspeople at the inner end of it got no fish,
while we got no custom. In that town of
Dunridge there were (as I have since seen)
whole courts and alleys full of poor people,
who would have feasted cheaply on pilchards
and mackerel in the season; and gentry, who
were always wishing for cod, and soles, and
whitings, but could never get any; while, on
the other side of the marsh, we were burying
whole cart-loads of fish, because we could not
sell them while they were good. The gentry
got such fish as they chose to have from more
distant places, and the poor went without, and
we had no sale—all on account of this foul
tract of waste land. My mother used to say,
that all the illness we ever had was caught
there; and the doctors at Dunridge said
nearly the same of the sickness in the town.
If the wind blew into the town from the
marsh side, the doctors were sure to be busy;
and at last, as the bog grew deeper, and the
salt made a thicker crust upon the stones, and
the slime of rotting weeds was more offensive,
and the osprey hovered more frequently in
that part of the sky, showing that there was
animal death below, people left off crossing
the marsh altogether, for such an object as
buying or selling fish. Jos and I could not
always resist the temptation of going to play
there. We liked to blow the thistle-down,
and to pull out the marsh-cotton from its
catkins; and to get bundles of rushes; and to
look for gaping mussels and crawling crabs on
the slime, while the sea-gulls were wheeling
over our heads. We did not remember till
the headache and sickness came, that they
would be sure to come after that particular
frolic. After this account, any one may
understand how strange it was to me to see
two soldiers in the marsh.

They were picking their way, striding or
hopping from one bit of rock to another, but
certainly tending towards me. I was wide
awake in a moment, and saw that it would
not do to let them come within sight of our
smuggling transactions. I gave the childish
sort of whoop which was our concerted signal.
Jos popped up his head.

"Soldiers! " said I. " Make haste, Jos; I 'll
go, and lead them out on the moor."

When once children have tasted the pleasure
of misleading grown people, they are,
perhaps, more sly than their elders. I well
remember the satisfaction with which I
now set forth to mislead the soldiers. No
peewit on the moor could more cleverly entice
away the stranger from her nest of young,
than I now set about diverting these red-
coats from the place where my mother was
in sore dread of visitors, I slipped down
upon the marsh, and turned north, when the
strangers went south-east. When they saw
me stooping, and apparently busy gathering