“ ‘And don’t run out, and blow him up,’ said Tom; ‘because I’ll do all that for you. You had better not exert yourself.’

“ ‘Well, well,’ said the widow, ‘let me see it.’

“ ‘I will,’ replied Tom Smart; and, with these words, he placed the letter in the widow’s hand.

“Gentlemen, I have heard my uncle say, that Tom Smart said the widow’s lamentations when she heard the disclosure would have pierced a heart of stone. Tom was certainly very tenderhearted, but they pierced his, to the very core. The widow rocked herself to and fro, and wrung her hands.