Fanny's grandma whispered to her, that the gentleman "was her papa," and that he had fallen down stairs and broken his neck--grandma did not say that he was drunk when he did it. Fanny crept up to him, for she had wanted so much to see her papa--so she put her little rosy face close to his, and said, "Wake up, please, papa, and see me." But he did not open his eyes at all; then she put her hand on his face, and then she seemed frightened--her little lip quivered, and she clung to her grandmother's dress--then some men came and carried papa up stairs, and the maid-servants laid the beautiful lady on the sofa, in the parlor; and she and grandma went back up into the attic--and all that day, grandma did not seem to see mamma's picture at all; and when Fanny came up to her, she wept and said, "God help you--my poor lamb."
The bell sounded at Bluff Hill Prison, to call the prisoners to their tasks. They passed out from their cells and crossed, two by two, the prison-yard to their workshops. Percy and a stout negro were the last couple in the file. Just as they were about passing in, the African, who had received the punishment of the douche the day previous, for dilatoriness at his task, sprang upon the officer in waiting, and seized him by the throat. Percy, whose pugilistic science was a match for the African's muscle, grappled with and secured him in an instant, receiving, as he did so, a severe bite from the fellow's teeth, in his left shoulder. The negro was handcuffed, and Percy carried to the hospital, to have his wound dressed. The officer, in the flush of his gratitude, assured him, as he left, that the case should be laid before the governor, and would undoubtedly result in his pardon.
Percy's eye brightened, as he bowed his head in reply, but in truth he took no credit for the deed; it was only following an irresistible impulse to save the life of a fellow-creature.
Liberty! it would be sweet! But, pshaw! why dream of it? Men were proverbially ungrateful. Ten to one, the officer would never think of his promise again; or if he did, the governor would lay it on the table, to be indefinitely postponed, or forgotten, or rejected, with a thousand other troublesome applications. No--suns would rise and set just as they had done, and time for him would be marked only by the prison-bell, with its clanging summons to labor. He should see, every day, as he had done, the poor lame prisoner sunning himself in his favorite corner in the yard--he should see the prisoners' mattresses, hung on the rails to air--he should see the gleam of the blacksmith's forge, and hear the stroke of the stonecutter's hammer; the shuttle would fly, and the wheel turn round. He should sit down to his wooden plate, his square bit of salt meat, and his one potato, and drink water out of his rusty tin cup. He should gasp out the starry nights in his stifling cell; he should hear the rustling of silken robes, as ladies went the prison rounds, and his heart would beat quick as he thought of Mary; he should burn forever with the fire of remorse and shame--yet never consume; the taper would flicker and flicker--yet never go out.