‘Smuggling is carried on here by some of the people,’ she said in a gentle, apologetic voice. ‘It has been their practice for generations, and they think it no harm. Now, will you roll out one of the tubs?’ ‘What to do with it?’ said the minister. ‘To draw a little from it to cure your cold,’ she answered. ‘It is so ‘nation strong that it drives away that sort of thing in a jiffy. O, it is all right about our taking it. I may have what I like; the owner of the tubs says so. I ought to have had some in the house, and then I shouldn’t ha’ been put to this trouble; but I drink none myself, and so I often forget to keep it indoors.’ ‘You are allowed to help yourself, I suppose, that you may not inform where their hiding-place is?’ ‘Well, no; not that particularly; but I may take any if I want it. So help yourself.’ ‘I will, to oblige you, since you have a right to it,’ murmured the minister; and though he was not quite satisfied with his part in the performance, he rolled one of the ‘tubs’ out from the corner into the middle of the tower floor. ‘How do you wish me to get it out—with a gimlet, I suppose?’ ‘No, I’ll show you,’ said his interesting companion; and she held up with her other hand a shoemaker’s awl and a hammer. ‘You must never do these things with a gimlet, because the wood-dust gets in; and when the buyers pour out the brandy that would tell them that the tub had been broached. An awl makes no dust, and the hole nearly closes up again. Now tap one of the hoops forward.’ Stockdale took the hammer and did so. ‘Now make the hole in the part that was covered by the hoop.’ He made the hole as directed. ‘It won’t run out,’ he said. ‘O yes it will,’ said she. ‘Take the tub between your knees, and squeeze the heads; and I’ll hold the cup.’ Stockdale obeyed; and the pressure taking effect upon the tub, which seemed, to be thin, the spirit spirted out in a stream. When the cup was full he ceased pressing, and the flow immediately stopped. ‘Now we must fill up the keg with water,’ said Lizzy, ‘or it will cluck like forty hens when it is handled, and show that ’tis not full.’ ‘But they tell you you may take it?’ ‘Yes, the _smugglers_: but the _buyers_ must not know that the smugglers have been kind to me at their expense.’ ‘I see,’ said Stockdale doubtfully. ‘I much question the honesty of this proceeding.’ By her direction he held the tub with the hole upwards, and while he went through the process of alternately pressing and ceasing to press, she produced a bottle of water, from which she took mouthfuls, conveying each to the keg by putting her pretty lips to the hole, where it was sucked in at each recovery of the cask from pressure. When it was again full he plugged the hole, knocked the hoop down to its place, and buried the tub in the lumber as before. ‘Aren’t the smugglers afraid that you will tell?’ he asked, as they recrossed the churchyard. ‘O no; they are not afraid of that. I couldn’t do such a thing.’