taken from the mail-bag, and
it contained seventy-five dollars, and by looking at the post-mark, you
will observe that it was mailed on the very next day after the hundred
dollars were taken from Mrs. Naseby's drawer. I will read it to you, if
you please."

The court nodded assent, and I read the following, which was without
date, save that made by the post-master upon the outside. I give it here
verbatim:

"SISTER DORCAS: I cend yu heer sevente fiv dolers, which i want yu
to kepe for me till i cum hum. I can't kepe it heer coz ime afrade
it will git stole. don't speke wun word tu a livin sole bout this
coz I don't want nobodi tu kno i hav got enny mony. yu wont now wil
yu. i am first rate heer, only that gude fur nuthin snipe of liz
madwurth is heer yit--but i hop tu git red ov her now. yu no i rote
yu bout her. give my luv to awl inquiren friends. this is from your
sister til deth. NANCY LUTHER."

"Now, your honor," I said, as I handed him the letter, and also the
receipts, "you will see that the letter is directed to 'Dorcas Luther,
Somers, Montgomery County.' And you will also observe that one hand
wrote that letter and signed those receipts. The jury will also observe.
And now I will only add: It is plain to see how the hundred dollars were
disposed of. Seventy-five were put into that letter and sent off for
safe-keeping, while the remaining twenty-five were placed in the
prisoner's trunk for the purpose of covering the real criminal."

The case was given to the jury immediately following their examination
of the letter. Without leaving their seats, they returned a verdict
of--"Not Guilty."

The youth, who had first asked me to defend the prisoner, caught me by
the hand, but he could not speak plainly. He simply looked at me through
his tears for a moment, and then rushed to the fair prisoner. He seemed
to forget where he was, for he flung his arms about her, and as she laid
her head upon his bosom, she wept aloud.

I will not attempt to describe the scene that followed; but if Nancy
Luther had not been immediately arrested for theft, she would have been
obliged to seek the protection of the officers, or the excited people
would surely have maimed her, if they had done no more. On the next
morning, I received a note, very handsomely written, in which I was told
that "the within" was but a slight token of the gratitude due me for my
effort in behalf of a poor, defensele