The Minister's Charge

was robbed would not come now. He was trembling with famine and weakness, but he could not lie down; it would be like accepting his fate

When he came back, Lemuel could endure it no longer. "Say!" he called huskily through his door. "Won't you give me a cup of that coffee ups

eered in through the door at Lemuel's face. "Oh! that's y

I'm afraid I shall have a fit

Lemuel had given up the hope of his return, with a saucerless cup of coffee, and a slice of butt

d drop the cup, his hand shook so when he took it. He

e said, as he passed the em

sitated a moment. "I shall be round at the court in the m

," said Lemuel,

e officer. "We shan't put a

d, and settle with that hussy; then she would come back willingly. Sometimes she sang, sometimes she swore; but with the coffee still sensibly hot in his stomach, and the comfort of it in every vein, her uproar turned into an agreeable fantastic medley for Lemuel, and he

that he struck his head against the shelf above him,

groans and sighs with which people pull themselves together after a bad night; and he heard the voice of the drunken woman, now sober, poured out in voluble remorse, and in voluble promise of amendment for the future, to every one who passed, if they would let her off easy. She said aisy, of course, and it was in her native accent that she bewailed the fate of the little ones whom her arrest had left motherless at home. No one seemed to answer her, but pre

ng to pay for it wit

e it." He passed on, and Lemuel gathered up his breakfast, and arranged

bolted his door from the outside. "H

eated Lemuel

Other name's Black. She don't

e officers took in charge and conducted upstairs to the door of the station. He

was a lady waiting to see me. Maria Black," he a

not help putting his head in at

roduce him," called

m down the steps. "It's Black Maria you're looking for. There she is," he continued, pointing to the omnibu

ved with salmon, as Lemuel had time to notice before he w

at two of them were the saucy girls who had driven him from his seat in the Common that day, and laughed so at him. They knew him too, and one of them set up a shrill laugh. "Hello, Johnny! That you? You don't sa

the severity that was native to him. "

reath, one of them said, "Pshaw! I know what he's up for: preaching on th

so wild and shrill that the driver rapped on

k after the passengers. Go and set on hi

ence. The girl appealed to remai

ye!" sai

y seemed to clothe him with authority in her eyes. She told him about her children, left alone with no one to look after them; the two little girls, the boy o

church at Willoughby Pastures, only the church steps were wood, and the columns painted pine. Here more officers took charge of them, and put them in

who crept up to an officer at the door from time to time, and begged him to tell the judge to let her have it easy this time. Lemuel could not help se

sat a grey-haired man in spectacles, and Lemuel knew that he was in the court-room, and that this must be the judge. He could not see much of the room over the top of the railing, but there was a buzz of voices and a stir of feet beyond, that made him think the place was full. But full or empty, it was the same to him; his shame could not b

it aisy for me this time, judge, and ye'll never catch me in it again. I've three helpless chil

form outside the rail, and gave his testimony against her. It was very conclusive, and it was not affected by the denials with which the poor woman gave herself away more and more. She had nothing to say when invited

r three

nd amidst the amusement of the spectators, which the co

blic investigation; the judge and some other elderly gentleman talked it over together; and the girls, who had each wept in pleading guilty, were put on

on the village green; and hitherto he had made it respected and even honoured, and had tried all the harder to keep it so because his family was poor, and his mother had such queer ways and dressed so. He dragged himself to the stand which he knew he must mount, and stole from under his eyelashes a glance at the court-room, which took it all in. There were some people, whom he did not know for reporters, busy with their pencils next the railings; and there was a semicircular table in the middle of the room at which a large number of policemen sat, and they had thei

. "Young man, do you understand? Are you guilty of a

's desk, blushing to find herself there up to her wide-flung blue eyes. Lemuel blushed too, and dropped his eyes; and it seemed to him in a crazy kind of

regard to the assaul

can do it, very wel

the glimmer of a smile, which spread to a laugh among the specta

mebody pulled my hat down over my eyes, and tore the brim half off, so I don't suppose I can ever wear it again, it's such a lookin' thing; any rate it ain't the one I've got on, though it's some like it; and then the next thing, somebody grabbed away the satchel I'd got on my arm; and as soon as I could get my eyes clear again, I see two fellows chasin'

u?" interrupted the judge, nodding his head toward Lemuel, who now l

d. "The first thing I knew, he

im as one of those y

one of them,"

u think he ha

turned the girl, with logic that appar

you think he

see him run

hat he was the one wh

im running. And I don't know as he was the one, no

who I was, and how much I weighed, and what my height was; and he didn't say anything; and I got to thinkin' may be it was; and when th

the amusement of the bar. The judge put up his hand to hide a laug

d at each other, and both

r permission, and at a nod from

xtremity. He told it from the beginning, and his adventure with the two beats in the Common made the audience laugh again. Even then, Lemuel could not see the fun of it; he stopped, and the stout ushers in blue flannel sacks commanded silence. Then Lemuel related how he had twice seen one of the beats since

ee. The officer who had arrested him shook his hand in congratulation and excuse, and the lawyers and the other policemen gave him a friendly glance. The loafers and beats of the audience did not s

, who looked older. Lemuel walked fast, to get out of their way; he did not know why, but he did not want to speak to th

's I do about it; and I tell her she's got to say so. It's the least she can do, I tell her, after what she got you in for. My name's 'Manda

lipping her words with a rapid play of her whopper-jaw till there was nothing but the bare bones left of them. Statira was crying, and Lemuel could not bear t

fford to buy another book, well enough. B't I tell her she's done 'n awful thing, and a thing 't

It was just a mistake." Then, not knowing what more to say, he said, be

she thrust her elbow sharply into Statira D

on the witness-stand and in the police stati

eshold of the court-house, not know

o Lemuel. He took it, and, "Wel

rning," repeat

h civility they parted. He went one way and they another. He did not look back, but the two girls, marching off with locked arms

d 'Manda Grier, and t

im; but he did not care. He wandered on, he did not know whit