garden hedge went along the field adjoining till
he reached the back of her aunt's dwelling. The moon struck bright and
flat upon the walls, 'twas said, and every shiny leaf of the creepers was
like a little looking-glass in the rays. From long acquaintance Jack
knew the arrangement and position of everything in Mrs. Palmley's house
as well as in his own mother's. The back window close to him was a
casement with little leaded squares, as it is to this day, and was, as
now, one of two lighting the sitting-room. The other, being in front,
was closed up with shutters, but this back one had not even a blind, and
the moonlight as it streamed in showed every article of the furniture to
him outside. To the right of the room is the fireplace, as you may
remember; to the left was the bureau at that time; inside the bureau was
Harriet's work-box, as he supposed (though it was really her aunt's), and
inside the work-box were his letters. Well, he took out his
pocket-knife, and without noise lifted the leading of one of the panes,
so that he could take out the glass, and putting his hand through the
hole he unfastened the casement, and climbed in through the opening. All
the household--that is to say, Mrs. Palmley, Harriet, and the little maid-
servant--were asleep. Jack went straight to the bureau, so he said,
hoping it might have been unfastened again--it not being kept locked in
ordinary--but Harriet had never unfastened it since she secured her
letters there the day before. Jack told afterward how he thought of her
asleep upstairs, caring nothing for him, and of the way she had made
sport of him and of his letters; and having advanced so far, he was not
to be hindered now. By forcing the large blade of his knife under the
flap of the bureau, he burst the weak lock; within was the rosewood work-
box just as she had placed it in her hurry to keep it from him. There
being no time to spare for getting the letters out of it then, he took it
under his arm, shut the bureau, and made the best of his way out of the
house, latching the casement behind him, and refixing the pane of glass
in its place.

'Winter found his way back to his mother's as he had come, and being dog-
tired, crept upstairs to bed, hiding the box till he could destroy its
contents. The next morning early he set about doing this, and carried it
to the linhay at the back of his mother's dwelling. Here by the hearth
he opened the box, and began burning one