ld hang him without benefit of clergy.

_Worthy._ Hark ye, Mr. Bragwell, he that deals in smuggled brandy
is the man who takes to himself the king's money in its way to the
treasury, and he as much robs the government as if he dipped his
hand into a bag of guineas in the treasury chamber. It comes to the
same thing exactly. Here Bragwell seemed a little offended, and
exclaimed, "What, Mr. Worthy! do you pretend to say I am not an
honest man because I like to get my brandy as cheap as I can? and
because I like to save a shilling to my family? Sir, I repeat it; I
do my duty to God and my neighbor. I say the Lord's prayer most
days, I go to church on Sundays, I repeat my creed, and keep the ten
commandments; and though I now and then get a little brandy cheap,
yet upon the whole, I will venture to say, I do as much as can be
expected of any man, and more than the generality."

_Worthy._ Come then, since you say you keep the commandments, you
can not be offended if I ask you whether you understand them.

_Bragwell._ To be sure I do. I dare say I do: look ye, Mr. Worthy, I
don't pretend to much reading, I was not bred to it as you were. If
my father had been a parson, I fancy I should have made as good a
figure as some other folks, but I hope good sense and _a good heart_
may teach a man his duty without much scholarship.

_Worthy._ To come to the point; let us now go through the ten
commandments, and let us take along with us those explanations of
them which our Saviour gave us in his sermon on the mount.

_Bragwell._ Sermon on the mount! why the ten commandments are in the
20th chapter of Exodus. Come, come, Mr. Worthy, I know where to find
the commandments as well as you do; for it happens that I am
churchwarden, and I can see from the altar-piece where the ten
commandments are, without your telling me, for my pew directly faces
it.

_Worthy._ But I advise you to read the sermon on the mount, that you
may see the full meaning of them.

_Bragwell._ What! do you want to make me believe there are two ways
of keeping the commandments?

_Worthy._ No; but there may be two ways of understanding them.

_Bragwell._ Well, I am not afraid to be put to the proof; I defy any
man to say I do not keep at least all the four first that are on the
left side of the altar-piece.

_Worthy._ If you can prove that, I shall be more ready to believe
you observe those of the other table; for he who does his duty to
God, will be likely