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[242] and were well pleased to deliver to the poor inmates, with their own small hands, such little comforts as their father had provided for the purpose. He was accustomed to say that there was not one among the convicts, however desperate they might be, with whom he should be afraid to trust himself alone at midnight with large sums of money in his pocket. An acquaintance once cautioned him against a prisoner, whose temper was extremely violent and revengeful, and who had been heard to swear that he would take the life of some of the keepers. Soon after this warning, Friend Hopper summoned the desperate fellow, and told him he was wanted to pile a quantity of lumber in the cellar. He went down with him to hold the light, and they remained more than an hour alone together, out of hearing of everybody. When he told this to the man who had cautioned him, he replied, ‘Well, I confess you have good courage. I would n't have done it for the price of the prison and all the ground it stands upon; for I do assure you he is a terrible fellow.’

‘I don't doubt he is,’ rejoined the courageous inspector; ‘but I knew he would n't kill me. I have always been a friend to him, and he is aware of it. What motive could he have for harming me?’

One of the prisoners, who had been convicted of man-slaughter, became furious, in consequence of

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Isaac T. Hopper (1)
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