s own property. Upon finding
of this bullet, the examining magistrate refused to listen to
any farther testimony, and immediately committed the prisoner for
trial-declining resolutely to take any bail in the case, although
against this severity Mr. Goodfellow very warmly remonstrated, and
offered to become surety in whatever amount might be required. This
generosity on the part of "Old Charley" was only in accordance with the
whole tenour of his amiable and chivalrous conduct during the entire
period of his sojourn in the borough of Rattle. In the present instance
the worthy man was so entirely carried away by the excessive warmth of
his sympathy, that he seemed to have quite forgotten, when he offered to
go bail for his young friend, that he himself (Mr. Goodfellow) did not
possess a single dollar's worth of property upon the face of the earth.

The result of the committal may be readily foreseen. Mr. Pennifeather,
amid the loud execrations of all Rattleborough, was brought to trial at
the next criminal sessions, when the chain of circumstantial evidence
(strengthened as it was by some additional damning facts, which Mr.
Goodfellow's sensitive conscientiousness forbade him to withhold from
the court) was considered so unbroken and so thoroughly conclusive, that
the jury, without leaving their seats, returned an immediate verdict
of "Guilty of murder in the first degree." Soon afterward the unhappy
wretch received sentence of death, and was remanded to the county jail
to await the inexorable vengeance of the law.

In the meantime, the noble behavior of "Old Charley Goodfellow," had
doubly endeared him to the honest citizens of the borough. He became
ten times a greater favorite than ever, and, as a natural result of the
hospitality with which he was treated, he relaxed, as it were, perforce,
the extremely parsimonious habits which his poverty had hitherto
impelled him to observe, and very frequently had little reunions at his
own house, when wit and jollity reigned supreme-dampened a little, of
course, by the occasional remembrance of the untoward and melancholy
fate which impended over the nephew of the late lamented bosom friend of
the generous host.

One fine day, this magnanimous old gentleman was agreeably surprised at
the receipt of the following letter:-

Charles Goodfellow, Esq., Rattleborough
From H.F.B. & Co.
Chat. Mar. A--No. 1.--6 doz. bottles (1/2 Gross)

"Charles Goodfellow, Esquire.

"Dear Si