Page 471 - for-the-term-of-his-natural-life

the gaolers, even, in the munificence of his heart, bestowed
tobacco on the sick.
With such graceful rattlings of dry bones, they got by
and by to Point Puer, where a luncheon had been provided.
An unlucky accident had occurred at Point Puer that
morning, however, and the place was in a suppressed fer-
ment. A refractory little thief named Peter Brown, aged
twelve years, had jumped off the high rock and drowned
himself in full view of the constables. These ‘jumpings off’
had become rather frequent lately, and Burgess was en-
raged at one happening on this particular day. If he could
by any possibility have brought the corpse of poor little Pe-
ter Brown to life again, he would have soundly whipped it
for its impertinence.
‘It is most unfortunate,’ he said to Frere, as they stood in
the cell where the little body was laid, ‘that it should have
happened to-day.’
‘Oh,’ says Frere, frowning down upon the young face that
seemed to smile up at him. ‘It can’t be helped. I know those
young devils. They’d do it out of spite. What sort of a char-
acter had he?’
‘Very bad—Johnson, the book.’
Johnson bringing it, the two saw Peter Brown’s iniquities
set down in the neatest of running hand, and the record of
his punishments ornamented in quite an artistic way with
flourishes of red ink
‘20th November, disorderly conduct, 12 lashes. 24th No-
vember, insolence to hospital attendant, diet reduced. 4th
December, stealing cap from another prisoner, 12 lash-

0 For the Term of His Natural Life