Early on the ensuing morning, just
as the day began to dawn, the slumbers
of the inmates of the lock-up were rudely
broken by a loud voice at the grating of
the door, calling out—

`Turn up, turn out. Bear a hand
and get rigged in less than no time to
go to Court.'

This command was instantly followed
by a general movement in the apartment
occupied by the female prisoners.
As they had all turned in without removing
an article of clothing, their
toilet was soon arranged. Bess and her
young protege grumbled a little at being
called so early, and the former told the
officer that she would not stir her stumps
without a naggin of bitters.

`You'll get your bitters, old 'un after
you get to the p'lice-court,' said the
officer with a laugh. `No stopping
now for such things, Come, move on,
for the carriage is waiting.'

`Bless us! am I to be a lady and
ride in my coach. Hear that, Juley.'

We are ladies and they knows how to
treat us,' answered the young girl, as
she passed out.

`Come, woman,' said the officer,
looking at poor Mrs. Wilson, who after
a restless night had awaked to the painful
consciousness of her situation, and
was now weeping violently at the thought
of her family, and her own disgrace.—
`Come, you must not stay here. `You
will be like to get only sixty days on
that matter, if it was only a shutter you
stole.'

These words were spoken by the officer
in tones of kindness, as if he felt the
woman was far from being depraved
like the most of those who were placed
there, and really deserved sympathy.

Mrs. Wilson raised her head, and
wiping away her tears advanced tremblingly,
for she was really weak from
hunger and sorrow, and went out into
the office where all the other women
were gathered with several watchmen
about the stove, for the cold of the morning
was intense. The old hacks at the
door, drawn by wretched horses, received
the captives of the night, and
went off with them to the court of justice.
Mrs. Wilson sat in one corner,
covering her face with her hands, and
paying no regard to the opprobrious

[figure description] Page 098.[end figure description]

epithets with which the others saw fit
to notice her.

At length they alighted at the court
house and were ushered into the presence
of the judge. It was past sunrise
and he was then in the act of taking
his seat.

The cases of the prisoners who had
accompanied Mrs. Wilson were soon
disposed of, and sentences given. Her
case was resumed last, as old Jarvey the
miser, had not yet come to appear
against her. At length he entered muffled
to the eyes in furs and woolen comforters
out of which his long peaked
nose protruded with remarkable conspicuousness.
The case was called and
the old man entered his complaint
charging her with stealing his shutter
from the street with which the wind had
blown it during the storm of the night
before.

`What have you to say, woman, to
this charge of theft?' demanded the justice,
sternly, eyeing the shrinking, trembling
form before him.

`Sir, I have nothing to say. If the
gentleman says that it was stealing, I
then have stolen; but sir,' she continued
with touching earnestness; `but,
sir, God above knows that I was innocent
of any intention to steal from him,
or from any other living person in the
world! I and my family at our poor
home were perishing for a fire both to
warm us and to cook what little food we
had left. I was the only one that could
bear the storm and I went out to gather
wood!'

`Where did you expect to find wood,
woman? It does not grow in the
streets!' said the Justice, sternly.

`No, sir! But I was in hopes the
wind would have torn off some old
shingles or bits of boards or broken a
branch from some of the trees by the
side-walks, so that I could bring home
a little something!'

`I dare say; and if you had not found
any of these things, doubtless you were
ready to tear off the shingles or boards
and break off the branches if you
thought you could do it safely. I have
had enough of your quality here before
now!'

`Indeed, sir, I am no thief. I would
not have taken a shingle new or old
from any man's house. I hoped to find
somewhat in the street. So I went
along scarcely able to bear up against
the wind and snow, and was near perishing
and had almost resolved in my
heart to go home again and die there
rather than in the streets, when I saw
before me half buried in the snow what
I thought was a piece of board. I flew
to get it, when I saw that it was an old
shutter much broken and fit only for
fire-wood!'

`Fit only for fire-wood, hey?' repeated
old Jarvey, making a step towards
her and shaking his cane in her
face. Impudent huzzy! Do you dare
to say that my window shutters are fit
only for fire-wood! You won't get off
this way. Your honor, I hope that you
see that she is a liar as well as a thief.'

`You live in a very old house, I believe,
Mr. Jarvey,' said a man who sat
near the prisoners and towards whose
benevolent face poor Mrs. Wilson's eyes
had been more than once turned with
an undefined feeling that he would not
see her wronged if he had power there.

`Yes, Mr 'Gustus, but that is nothing.
You'll please let the justice go on, and
not intermeddle here. This is a case
that don't come under your province, so
you will oblige me by keeping quiet.
The woman is a thief! She stole my
shutter! I followed her home! I saw
her break it up and throw it in her fire!
No matter if the shutter was not worth
more than a sixpence, that sixpence
worth I'll have justice for!'

`That will do, Mr. Jarvey,' said the
Justice. `I will pursue the examination
myself. So, then Madam, you acknowledge
that you stole the shutter?'

`I did not steal it sir! I took it, not
thinking it was good for any thing.'

`Except to burn,' said the Justic with
a slight sneer.

`That is all, sir!'

`And that is all wood is good for.'
If you had gone to my wood-pile and
stolen half a cord of wood, you might
have offered the same plea with equal
justice, that it was only fit to be burned!
The shutter then being acknowledged
by you to be fire-wood, has a value like

[figure description] Page 099.[end figure description]

other fire-wood! you are therefore guilty
of theft!'

`Good? There you have her, Mr.
Justice, like a rat in a pair of tongs!'
exclaimed the little miser rubbing his
hands together partly from glee, and
partly from cold, for the court room
was something chilly.

`But sir,' plead the poor woman who
thought of her family and their wretchedness
and the danger too that would
befal one of them if she were sent to
prison,' but sir, the shutter was in the
street. I found it half buried in the
snow!'

`No excuse! Is what is found in the
street the property of the finder's, answer
me that?'

`N—n—no, sir,' said the poor woman
with hesitation, feeling her perfect
helplessness under the subtle power of
the law. `No, sir, if it is valuable like
money.'

`Or like wood!' responded the justice
with a look of ironical triumph upon
his face. `You see that you can't better
the matter, woman. If a dozen
sticks of wood had fallen from a cart,
would you have been at liberty to pick
them up and carry them home as your
own?'

`No, sir, but —'

`But to pick up a shutter and carry
it home and burn it, is a far greater offence.
It is true the shutter had been
blown from the building to which it appertained
and lay in the street half-buried
in the-snow. But this accident
did not destroy the owner's property in
the shutter. It was his still, and would
have been his where ever he could have
found and identified it. He saw you
pick up the shutter!'

`Yes, with my own eyes, and so did
this honest watchman,' cried Jarvey,
giving this appellation to David Dalton
out of gratitude at his having consented
to appear in the Court against her; but
the reader has seen with what reluctance
the kind hearted man had yielded
to circumstances he could not control.
David was present. He stood a little
back from the box in which Mrs. Wilson
stood to go through her examination
before committal. He leaned upon the
top of one of the seats, wrapped in his
watch-coat, his arms folded across his
breast, his tall, athletic form conspicuous,
and overtowering the diminutive
miser, who was a pace or two in advance
of him, leaning upon his staff.—
Directly in front of the miser was seated
the benevolent looking man, who was
closely and shrewdly watching the progress
of events. Jarvey carefully evaded
this person's calm, clear eye, and more
than once shifted his position to avoid
its penetrating glances. David also
watched the progress of the examination
with painful interest. He could not
help hating the man who had compelled
him to bear testimony to condemn the
poor woman whose poverty should have
opened every heart to compassionate
her.

The words of the miser drew all eyes
upon David. He could not help colouring
with shame at the idea that they
would think he had voluntarily given
his testimony or arrested the woman at
first, for so slight an offence, if offence
it could be called. Having done his
duty in arresting and appearing against
her, he now resolved to yield to the dictates
of his honest nature. So when the
Justice turned to him and said,

`So; you are the watchman that
caught her stealing the shutter!' he
answered firmly,

`I am the watchman, your honor,
that arrested the poor woman; but if I
had my own way, I would not have
done it. But I had to do it, or lose my
place, and I am not rich enough to lose
it; so I thought I would arrest her and
leave it to the humanity of this court to
have her honestly discharged from custody!
'

`Honestly discharged! What! Did
she not steal the shutter?' demanded
the judge with a look of surprise. `Mr.
Jarvey, did you not say this man saw her
do it?'

`Yes, I did, your honor,' answered
Mr. Jarvey, his face glowing with indignation
at the bold position which David
had now taken; for he saw that he
having performed his painful duty to the
letter was beyond his power. `He can't
deny it.'

`I do not deny, your honor, that I

[figure description] Page 100.[end figure description]

saw the poor creature take the shutter
and bear it off.'

`And you did not follow her?'

`Not till I came down stairs and compelled
him to do so, yer honor,' yelled
Jarvey in his cracked, squeaking voice.
`I told him if he refused to pursue and
arrest her, I would have him complained
of and discharged!'

`And you would have only done your
duty, Mr. Jarvey,' said the justice. `It
is well for you, watchman, that you
obeyed him. You should have acted
promptly at first. Your duty is to protect
the property of citizens!'

`I know it, your honor,' answered
David firmly. `I have never been once
complained of in the years I have been
a watchman for neglect of duty. I have
arrested more rogues than any other
man in the corps, though I say it!'

`I am aware of your good character,
Dalton,' said the justice. `I am, therefore,
surprised that you should wait until
a citizen calls upon you, before you
perform your duty. Nay, until that
citizen threatens you.'

`Your honor, I did not consider that
my services were called for. It was a
bleak, fierce night as ever I walked my
beat in. The snow and wind were
driving through the streets with terrible
violence. As I was wrapped in my
warm coat and partly sheltered, I was
thinking of the sufferings of the poor at
such a time, when I saw a dim-looking
figure struggling along through the
tempest. As it came nearer, I saw
that it was a woman thinly clad. There
lay in the street, half hidden by the
snow, a fragrant of a window shutter
which the wind had a few minutes before
hurled from the shackly old building
on the corner where I was standing.'

`Shackly old building!' repeated the
miser in a rage, and shaking his stick at
David.

`Why did you not pick it up?' asked
the justice, paying no attention to the
miser's angry vehemence.

`Because, your honor, I did not regard
it as of any value. I should not
have thought of it again, but that I saw
the woman run to it, draw it from the
snow, and hurry off with it.'

`And what did you say?' asked the
justice.

`I said in my heart, Go, poor woman.
The wind has been God's angel
to thee and thy cheerless hearth!'

`Humph! And did you not think of
following her?' continued the justice
with a frown, for the noble sentiments
of humanity are not always welcome in
a halt of `Justice.'

`I did, your honor, think of following
her to place a little money in her hand
to buy food and fuel, for I thought that
one of her sex who was forced to go
abroad on such a night to seek winddrifts
must be poor indeed. But she
was gone before I could pursue her.'

`You see this, your honor,' cried
Jarvey. `You see that by his own confession
he is her partner in the crime!'

`It looks very like it, Dalton,' said
the justice, compressing his lips and
looking very severely. `It is well for
you you went after her, even at Mr.
Jarvey's threats; for you would not
only have lost your place, but I tell you
plainly I should have committed you.
You have just saved yourself. A narrow
escape.'

`I think he ought to he committed as
it is, your honor,' said Jarvey. `However,
if I get the woman sent up for six
months, (it ought to be State's prison for
three years) I will let it pass. The city
should employ watchmen that haven't
soft places in their hearts.'

`Mr. Jarvey,' said David, `I would
rather have that soft place in my heart
which led me to pity this poor woman,
and be begging by the highway, than
have that hard place in your heart and
own the mines of Mexico!'

`Silence,' said the justice, rapping
upon the desk before him. `David
Dalton, you testify that you arrested this
woman in the act of breaking up and
burning the shutter which you saw her
steal out of the street soon after it fell
from the house occupied by the plaintiff?
'

`I arrested her burning the old shutter
I saw her take out of the snow in
the street,' answered David, laying a
strong emphasis upon the word `take'
in contradiction to the term `steal.'