know what I was
going to do to that horse.

"O, simply shoe him," I said.

This greatly increased the mirth of my former shopmates; but their
amusement speedily changed to amazement as they saw me make my nails,
turn the shoes and neatly put them on. In due time the horse was shod,
and I led him to the Warden for inspection; and before him and an
officer who stood by him, I led the horse up and down to show that he
did not interfere. The Warden's delight was unbounded; he never saw such
a set of shoes; he declared that they fitted as if they had grown to the
horse's hoofs. I need not say that from that day till the day I left the
prison, I had everything I wanted from the Warden's own table; I fared
as well as he did, and had favors innumerable.

About once a month I shod that horse, little thinking that he was to
carry me over my three years' imprisonment in just half that time. Yet
so it was. For talking now almost daily, in the hospital or in the
yard, with the Warden, he became interested in me, and in answer to his
inquiries I told him the whole story of my persecution, as I considered
it, my trial and my unjust and severe sentence. When he had heard all he
said:

"You ought not to be here another day; you ought to go out."

The good chaplain also interested himself in my case, and after hearing
the story, he and the Warden took a lawyer named Bemis, into their
counsel, laid the whole matter before him and asked his opinion. Mr.
Bemis, after hearing all the circumstances, expressed the belief that I
might get a pardon. He entered into the matter with his whole heart. He
sent for my son Henry and my first wife, and they came and corroborated
my statement about the mutual agreement for separation, and told how
long we had been parted. Mr. Bemis and they then went to Governor
Briggs, and told him the story, and that I had served out half of
my severe sentence, and pressed for a pardon. The Governor after due
deliberation consented to their request. They came back to Charlestown
with the joyful intelligence. Warden Robinson advised my son, that
considering my present mental and physical condition, he had better
break the intelligence gradually to me, and so Henry came to me and
said, simply, that he thought he would soon have "good news" for me. The
next day I was told that my pardon was certain. The day following, at 12
o'clock, I walked out, after eighteen months' imprisonment, a free man.
I was in the streets