Ella arose from her bed pale and nervous. She took her accustomed seat at the table, but she could not eat; and at length, with a gush of tears, sobbed out, "O, mamma, isn't it dreadful!"
Just at this moment a shadow crossed the window, and the poor girl, with a look of horror, sank back in her chair, trembling like a leaf, while even her mother shook visibly. But it was only the postman with letters.
"This will never do," said the lady, glancing at her daughter's cheeks, which alternately flushed and turned pale. "We will leave the cottage and hide ourselves from him. I hope we may never see him again, unless God in his infinite mercy converts his soul."
Through the day they watched with trembling anxiety; but he whom they much dreaded to see did not return. They would have been relieved could they have known that he had passed the time in close confinement, his board and expenses being paid by the State.
At the close of the third day, however, Hannah, who had been sent by her mistress on an errand, was returning home, when she was suddenly caught by a man who had come softly up behind her, and before she could release herself he had beat her unmercifully upon the head. Her screams at length brought a gentleman from his house who caught the drunken brute, and detained him until assistance could be procured to take him to a station-house. The next morning Hannah was summoned to appear in court, and state his offense. She was delighted to go, for though she said not a word of her suspicions, yet she was sure she had recognized the voice of the loathsome fellow who had tried to impose himself upon her mistress as a son.
Having narrated the circumstances to the judge in her own quaint manner, which had caused a smile to run all round the court-room, his honor was beginning to state the sum which the criminal was fined, when she suddenly interrupted him. "Sure, yer honor, it's not money I want from the rascal."
"And how should you like him to be punished," asked the gentleman, much amused at her earnestness.
"Och, yer honor, if ye'd have the goodness to bid some one to howld the man, and let me whip him forenenst the court, I'd pay him his dues, I'm thinking. I would have done it at wonct hadn't he come upon me so unknowst and treacherous like."
A burst of laughter followed this unusual plea.
The prisoner was fined the cost of court, and was bound over to keep the peace for six months. Failing to produce the sum, he was put in prison for a certain term, his honor gravely remarking that it was, indeed, sad to witness the moral degradation of one so young, and that, as his countenance had become quite too familiar in court, he was recommended to commence at once a thorough reformation.