ction."

"O, it is not so bad there," answered another; "they sing and are merry
there the whole day long, and have no need to trouble themselves about
victuals."

"Yes, but that is prison fare."

"It is not so bad--many a poor body would thank God for it; and Johanne
Marie would get the best of it. Her aunt is the head-cook, and the cook
and the inspector they hang together. It's my opinion, however, that
this affair will take the life out of the old man. He got a right
good bump as he fell on the stone-pavement; one could hear how it rung
again."

The crowd separated.

The last malicious voice had prophesied truth.

Three weeks afterward six soldiers bore a woven, yellow straw coffin
from a poor house in East Street. The old Gevaldiger lay, with closed
eyes and folded hands, in the coffin. Within the chamber, upon the
bedstead, sat Johanne Marie, with a countenance pale as that of the dead
which had been carried away. A compassionate neighbor took her hand, and
mentioned her name several times before she heard her.

"Johanne, come in with me; eat a mouthful of pease and keep life in
you; if not for your own sake, at least for that of the child which lies
under your heart."

The girl heaved a wonderfully deep sigh. "No, no!" said she, and closed
her eyes.

Full of pity, the good neighbor took her home with her.

A few days passed on, and then one morning two policemen entered the
poor room in which the Gevaldiger had died. Johanne Marie was again
summoned before the judge.

A fresh robbery had taken place at the Colonel's. Rosalie said that it
was a long time since she had first missed that which was gone, but that
she thought it best to try to forget it. The Colonel's violent temper
and his exasperation against Johanne Marie, who, as he asserted, by
her bad conduct, had brought her old, excellent father to the grave,
insisted on summoning her before the tribunal, that the affair might be
more narrowly inquired into.

Rosalie, who had been captivated by the beauty of the girl and by her
modest demeanor, and who was very fond of her, was this time quite calm,
feeling quite sure that she would deny everything, because, in fact,
the theft had only occurred within the last few days. The public became
aware of this before long, and the opinion was that Johanne Marie could
not possibly have been an actor in it; but, to the astonishment of the
greater number, she confessed that she was the guilty person, and t