if they have done anything wrong, why can't
they be ordered to wear a fool's cap for a week, going about their
ordinary work? Our eyes would be on them, and they would not have a
chance of picking and stealing again; it would give us a little more
trouble at first, but not in the long run, and save taxes for prisons.
People would say, 'There goes a poor thief,' and they would be sorry for
him, and wonder why he did it; and we ought to look after our own
things. And then, if they turned out incorrigible, they might be shut up
or sent out of the way of temptation. Oh, if those who have the power
were only a little more considerate, and would learn to put themselves
in their place!"

Mr. Carnegie said that Miss Wort's queer suggestion was capable of
development, and there was too much sending of poor and young people to
prison for light offences--offences of ignorance often, for which a
reprimand and compensation would be enough. Bessie had never seen him
more saddened.

Their next and last visit was to Littlemire. Mr. Moxon was in his
garden, working without his coat. He came forward, putting the
threadbare garment on, and begged Miss Fairfax to go up stairs and see
his wife. This was one of her good days, as she called the days when the
aching weariness of her perpetual confinement was a degree abated, and
she welcomed her visitor with a cry of plaintive joy, kissed her, gazed
at her fondly through glittering tears.

Bessie did not know that she had been loved so much. Girl-like, she had
brought her tribute of flowers to the invalid's room, had wondered at
this half-paralyzed life that was surrounded by such an atmosphere of
peace; and when, during her last visit, she had realized what a
compensation for all sorrow was this peace, she had not yet understood
what an ardor of sympathy kept the poor sufferer's heart warm towards
those whose brighter lot had nothing in common with her own.

"Oh, my love," she said in a sweet, thrilling voice, "dear Harry
Musgrave has been to tell me of his happiness. I am so glad for you
both--so very, very glad!" She did not pause to let Bessie respond, but
ran on with her recollections of Harry since he was a boy and came first
to read with her husband. "His thoughtfulness was really quite
beautiful; he never forgot to be kind. Oh, my dear, you may thoroughly
rely on his fine, affectionate temper. Rarely did he come to a lesson
without bringing me some message from his mother and littl