Honesty and Wealth (cross posting)

The path down from a small shrine on Rokko Mountain

In constructing the piece that will follow on the heels of this one—see, dogs already!—I was reminded of this quotation by Bertrand Russell:

No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest.

Poor, but honest?! Shouldn't that be the other way around? The truth conditions might be the same, but the implicatures are quite different. What was Bertie thinking of?!