made a stout fight for acquittal on some of the charges
brought against them; but when they found that further effort of this
kind would be unavailing, and that they would be sentenced to long terms
of imprisonment, they threw off their masks of outraged probity and
stood out in their true characters of violent and brutal ruffians.
Barney Fitch, the cracksman, was a senior warden compared to them.

It was a long time before my Aunt Martha recovered from her
disappointment in regard to the youngest burglar.

"Of course I was mistaken," she said. "That sort of thing will happen;
but I really had good grounds for believing him to be a truthful person,
so I am not ashamed for having taken him for what he said he was. I have
now no doubt before he fell in his wicked ways that he was a very good
writer, and might have become a novelist or a magazine author; but his
case is a very sad proof that the study of Realism may be carried too
far," and she heaved a sigh.

THE END.

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