Jessie by Walter Aimwell — Read

Four months in the county jail, was the sentence passed upon Sam Hapley, Jessie's oldest brother, for a robbery which he committed in a neighboring town. Sam entered upon his imprisonment during the last week of the year, and his sentence had now expired. Those were four very long and weary months to the boy-prisoner, but he could scarcely realize the change they had brought about in his once happy home. Since the key first turned upon him in his little cell, his youngest brother, the flower and pet of the household, had been carried to his long home, and was soon followed by his father, who met with an awful fate one winter's night, while he was stupefied with liquor. The rest of the family had been scattered, strangers gathered around the fireside where they used to meet, and not one of them could now claim a home.

A few days before Sam's release from jail, Jessie wrote to him an affectionate letter, inviting him, in behalf of Mrs. Page and Marcus, to come and see them, before going elsewhere, and promising him a kind reception. His mother had also written to him, informing him that she had the promise of a good situation for him on a farm, in the town where she was living, and urging him to come to her at once, on his discharge from jail. Sam did not reply to either of these letters; but the day after the expiration of his sentence, just as the academy bell was ringing for the afternoon session, a little boy put into the hands of Jessie a note, which he said a strange young man, whom he met in the woods, had asked him to deliver. It was faintly written with a lead pencil, and was dirty and crumpled; but she soon ascertained that it was from Sam, and that it contained a request for her to meet him, that afternoon, at a certain retired spot on the banks of Round Hill Pond. It also apprised her that she must come alone, if she wished to see him.