"I won't have anything to do with what's not my own," said the man, "although you tell me I'm not an honest man. I'm off. I was to meet the young chap again to-morrow at the same time and place. If you had any small love-token now, or any words which might not anger the young fellow, why, I shouldn't mind taking 'em; but if you haven't any, why then I'll tell him you didn't care anything about him or his present. So good-bye to you." The fellow took up his hat and stick to depart. "Hold!" said Margaret--"hold!" and taking her father's hat down from its peg, she tore off the crape, and folding it up, she approached the disguised seaman, saying--"Give him this--do give him this--and tell him, I'd rather we all wore the like for him, than the rich things he has sent us. Will you tell him this?" "No doubt he'll be much obliged to you: but you won't be long in this mind. So, good-bye to you all." And the man departed, leaving that spirited girl to think with pain of the dreaded words of Susan--"Margaret, you will never marry William Laud!" CHAPTER III MISFORTUNES Well would it have been for the Catchpoles and the Cracknells, had they burnt every bit of valuable stuff which the smuggler had that day brought. What years of anguish would it have spared them!--what miseries! what agonies! Nothing unlawful can long prosper. Sorrow and bitterness follow the days of unjust gain, and whosoever thinks to be happy by the sudden influx of ill-gotten wealth, will find himself grievously mistaken. Wealth gotten by honest industry and fair dealing may enable a good man to soothe the sufferings of others, but even when obtained, men find that it is not the being rich, but the regular employment in a prosperous line of life, that gives the pleasure. Sudden prosperity is too often destructive of a man's peace of mind; but sudden prosperity, by evil means, is sure to bring its own ruin. Had but that first bale of goods been burnt, Margaret might have continued the happy, cheerful child of Nature, respected and received as the honest, good-hearted girl she really was. It may fairly be said of Margaret, that she had no covetous hankering after any of the goods which were that day presented to her eye. She told all her friends what they were, and consulted with them what should be done with them. She would have given them up to the government officers, but she saw that it would involve her lover. She would have sent them to Laud's father, but again the idea of causing him distress deterred her. Oh! that she had cast them upon the broad sea, and let who would have caught them! But they were goodly things to look upon; they were costly--too good to throw away. And as Mrs. Cracknell said they might all be serviceable, and it was a sin to waste them, she persuaded Margaret to let her have them.