"Dan," said Ned, laying down his fork, and looking steadily at his nephew across the table, "do you know what a lie is?"
The boy was taken aback by the sudden question, and his eyes sunk under the gaze that was fixed upon him.
Receiving no answer, the sailor went on—"A lie is a mean thing—a senseless, a wicked: a habitual liar is a sneak, a coward, and a fool!"
"A fool! I don't see how you can make that out," muttered Dan, who was secretly not a little proud of his cunning, and who thought the name of fool a great deal worse than that of knave.
"It's easy enough to make out," said Ned; "a liar is a fool as regards this life; for, look ye, he's sure to be found out afore long, and a good character is worth more than anything that he could get in exchange for it. Is it nothing to be trusted, is it nothing to be able to look any man in the face?"
Dan was at the moment uneasily peering down at the crumbs on the floor.
"Would a man not be called a fool who should put to sea in a vessel whose timbers were all rotten, however gaily painted she might be, or however fine a figure-head she might carry? She must be stove in when the first storm came, she must soon show that she was not seaworthy."
Ned had spoken with the fiery energy of one who, as he often owned, carried "too much gunpowder in his cargo;" but his tone softened to quiet earnestness as he went on.
"And if we come to speak of another world, my lad, what shall we say of the folly of lying, whatever the temptation to do so may be? Was it without reason, think you, that St. Paul, when telling how a Christian man should be armed to fight against the devil, bade him first be 'girt about with truth.' * Why, we couldn't so much as set a foot in the golden city without it; you've heard what's said in God's Word of that matter; outside, shut out of glory, in company with murderers and idolaters will be 'whosoever loveth and maketh a lie'! † The devil himself is the father of lies, ‡ such as make them, follow him; and they who choose their portion with him are fools, whatever the world may give, or whatever the world may call them!"
* Eph. vi. 14. † Rev. xxii. 15. ‡ John viii. 44.