So I waited trembling (for contraband goods subject the whole trunk to seizure), but the custom-house officer, being very good-natured and clever, saw them and took them up.

I told him they were only for my own smoking and there were so few that they were not worth seizing.

'Oh,' says he, 'I shan't touch them; I won't know they are here,' and then shut down the trunk again.

As he smoked, I gave him a couple of dozen for his kindness." What a curious commentary on human nature it is that even the most pious, up to our own time, can see no harm in smuggling and bribery.

And, as another instance of how the standards of right and wrong change with the changing years, further on in this same letter to his strict and pious parents young Morse says:-- "I have just received letters and papers from you by the Galen which has arrived.