Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1857-08-15
NJ IS c f L L A N Y.
From Dickens Household Words.
TWO HUNDRED POUNDS REWARD.

"If were to tell you all, sir they cannot
drag me from my dealh-bed here and hanl me,
can they? Besides, am innocent. But what
does thai matter! More innocent men than |
have heen hung ior less crimes than murder be-
fore this | will not tell YOU
Murder 7" SAID | with unfeigned astonish-
ment Murder, Carlton I" For this man ]
was attending IN my capacity as housesurgeon
of the Ienborough workho ouse. ] had known
him for years, and OF all my present patients he
had seemed the simplest and least violent; his
anxious eycs-whch closed So lightly even III
Sleep-his avcrted looks when spoken TO- his
nervous ilmitly at the sight OF any strange face,
had set down as the outward sign of a broken
spirit and waning brain for he had enough OF
SORROWS to shake stronger mind than hls. !
could remember him With wife and children
about him, in respectable if not an extensive
way of business ; and why it suddenly fell oft
and was given up. and what misfortune had
changed the couple who had been before 50
blithc, had often wondered. Their so %. Robert,
was now in the C-imea, sergeant their daugh-
ter, Clara, mllliner apprentice in the North
Mrs. Carlton had died n few months after the
failure of their trade, OF lingering and some
what strange disease ; her husband was indeed,
as he had said upon his dea,h'bed. had offer
ed to sead for Cara at my own charge, but he
would not hear OF it,
81 would not have soul at my bedside, save
You, DOCTOR for works. he sad.
lie was quite fricn less, too. His chamber
was common to five other workhousc inlk, but
1t was a July day. and they were summing them
selves in the paved court outside; the MONDAY
| beams which poured into The long bare room
found nothing fair to rest upon no print upon
the whewashcd wall, no commnnest wild ll'w-
] ,,f bn t.M lrnl-rOlpIpI that
strrwed the table 10 sign of comfort anywhere
| The sick nan lay Ipon his hale iron bed, aud |
was sitiinr upon the wooden stool beside il his
! hand ay upon mine, and his face WAS turned
toward ihe door. listening. | rose, aud locked
il aud it was then that lac began, as have said,
to speak Of muidrr, and his innoccnce-t0 ash
! ifit would be dangerous to confess all
said, " No; nothing can harm you row.
What YOU say to me is Il secret as long as you
shall live You may speak as it ] was the clcr-
gyman"-whom he had refused for some reason,
| knew not what to see. II it will ease your
mind 10 tell me anything, say on
You have Known me, doctor, this twenty
years, aud will easily believe me when say that
no more expected 10 become dependent on
the parish aud to de in this worhhuusc, than
dlreamt OF the p ,s.lbiliiy of my committing any
very terrible crime. | was young To the world
then, and foolish; and my wife was not older OF
WISER We were not stron.-minlrd iok-nor,
alas even straightforward through plausible
story of dear time, coming which may yet have
been partly uue--wc sold many pound OF but
ter and ounce of tea and if it was II 1t alwaysa
pound nor always an ounce, it was never oven
the Just weight, but under. Spirits also-therC
being no public house close hy-wliich we W
cour had no license to sell, we would let Oul
best customers purchase, and drink in our back
pa,lor, which appeared in their weekly bills un
der the head OF candles, or what not; s0 tina
speaking before our own children, we had tc
) fibrcate strange stories, and give things then
wrong names and many other devices we had
which, thouah they got us little gains, seemed
not much, on the whole, to benefit MS | have
nuruosplv told YOU the worst of us, because il
will explain uur future conduct the more easily
; but YOU must not suppose that we were thieves
or very wicked people we scarcely knew what
wrona we were doing to others, and far less lC
ourselves and don't think in other respects
We were bad pair. know Sarah loved me
and her aud our two children, dearly. Oul
shop, as you remember, was between lienborougf
and SwaiTlan', which were then quite separate
towns, with Struggling houses and lcng lines o
railing to connect their. Our house was the
,lrthest Of the last row, not detached Here
the sick man raised himself on his hands, and
whispered " Are you sure there's nobody a
The keyh"e ?-nobody at any crack or Granny
nor at the skylight?"
assured him that there was not; aud ther
the wreched creature pulled out from a sort o