If that were a good rule for the inferior officers and prisoners, why might it not apply with propriety to the Head Matron and Master? The city or state might be saved the large item of expense, in "supporting the institution," of cultivating handsome grounds exclusively for their benefit? It was a deed of mercy to break that window pane. Many a time when I have seen the lowering brow, or heard the angry remark, I have saved a war of words, perhaps of hands, by sending one of the belligerents to that broken pane to see if the Doctor were on his way to the hospital, or if the bread or meat were coming round. If I saw the dissatisfaction to be deep-rooted, I gave the command,-- "Stand there and watch a few moments!" That broken pane, on that visiting day, was an outlet for much anxiety. One of the women stood sentinel there all day--sometimes one, sometimes another. The steam woman, in her anxiety to discover the approach of her "old man," forgot the care of her boiler, and created quite a scene. She turned the water into it and went to the broken pane to look a moment, forgot to turn it off, and the consequence was an overflow which put out her fire and flooded the floor,--created what McMullins called an "explosion." This she did twice in the forenoon. The hurry and scurry which was created to relight the fire, and sweep the water down the hatches, diverted the attention of all for a few moments, and passed away the wearisome time of waiting. I pitied the poor old thing as the day wore away, and there was no call for her to go out and see her husband. "What time is it, if you please, ma'am?" was the continually repeated question when I went near her. "I don't expect any one to see me," was the remark of the volatile O'Brien. "Then why do you stand at the window so much to watch?" I asked. "I want to see who comes to see the others. I want to see if anybody comes in that I know." Then, the restless thing would mount the window seat. "There goes Johnny, or Charley, or Jimmy, or Dolan." She either saw some of her old associates, with her "two eyes," or through the vision of her imagination. Her suppositions, as to whom they came to see, were as active as her curiosity to see who came. For the last time the steam woman asked,-- "It is five yet, ma'am?" I looked at my watch. "Yes, Allen, and five minutes past." She dropped upon a low table, by which she stood, and burst into tears. I walked round the kitchen a few times to let her fret spend itself; then I went back, and stood by her side. "How many children have you, Allen?" "Three, ma'am; two boys and a girl." "If they were not all right your husband would have come, or sent some one to tell you." "That's what I'm afraid of, ma'am. The little girl has had a fever. I'm afraid she is worse, or has died, and my husband hates to tell me." "Perhaps he couldn't leave his work. What does he do?"