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trifle no more with the feelings of poor girls; not even with those whom others have betrayed and deserted.’
When the girl was arrested, she had sufficient presence of mind to assume a false name, and by that means, her true name had been kept out of the newspapers.
‘I did this,’ said she, ‘for my poor mother's sake.’
With the money given by Lord Stuart, the silk was paid for, and she was sent home to her mother well provided with clothing.
Her name and place of residence forever remained a secret in the breast of her benefactor.
Years after these events transpired, a lady called at Friend Hopper's house, and asked to see him. When he entered the room, he found a handsomely dressed young matron, with a blooming boy of five or six-years old. She rose quickly to meet him, and her voice choked as she said, ‘Friend Hopper, do you know me?’
He replied that he did not. She fixed her tearful eyes earnestly upon him, and said, ‘You once helped me when in great distress.’
But the good missionary of humanity had helped too many in distress, to be able to recollect her without more precise information.
With a tremulous voice, she bade her son go into the next room for a few minutes; then dropping on her knees, she hid her face in his lap, and sobbed out, ‘I am the girl who stole ’
Boston, J. P. Jewett and Company; Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor and Worthington; London; Low and Company, 1854.
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