THE FRUITS OP CRIME. 227 



bery, and the jury without going out, said he was 

 guilty. I saw his wife, sittin' beside him, with a little 

 child in her arms, and I heard her sob and cry, as she 

 covered her face with her shawl, when she saw there 

 was no hope. By and by, the judge told him to stand 

 up, and gave him the sentence that sent him to State's 

 Prison for years. I never shall forget the sorrowful 

 voice, nor the great tears that rolled down the cheeks 

 of his wife, as she parted in her desolation from him. 

 Then I thought to myself, Squire, what a wonderful 

 foolishness is crime. Here was a man, and there are 

 and always have been hundreds and thousands like 

 him, who broke the heart of his wife, and destroyed 

 the promise of his little one, brought shame upon his 

 kindred, and a great blight upon his own name, be- 

 sides being shut up in a prison, and havin' long years 

 carved out of a life, short at best, for a chance of 

 gettin' by crime what he would have squandered in a 

 month, and what he might have earned by honest 

 labor in a year. No dumb animal, would have been 

 guilty of such folly. 



" Eeason, Squire, is a great thing, but it don't save 

 human nater from great and wonderful foolishness ' ; 



