That one could go to prison in another’s stead, and that an accessory would be punished equally with the criminal, were the two ideas distinct in her mind when she at last arose to go, saying to Arthur, as she stood in the door: 

’You are sure you are not afraid to have them come here again, if they take it into their heads to do so?’

’Not in the least; they can search my rooms every day and welcome, if they like,’ was Arthur’s reply.

‘Well, that beats me!’ Jerry said aloud to herself, with a nod for every word, as she went down the stairs and started for home, taking the Tramp House on her way.  ‘I guess I’ll go in there and think about it,’ she said, and entering the deserted building, she sat down upon the bench and began to wonder if she could do it, if worst came to worst, as it might.

’Yes, I could for him, and I’ll never tell; I’ll be that thing he said, and a substitute, too, if I can,’ she thought, ’though I guess it would kill me.  Oh, I hope I shan’t have to do it!  I mean to say a prayer about it, anyway.’

And kneeling down in the damp, dark room, Jerry prayed, first, that it might never be found out, and second, that if it were she might not be called to account as an accessory, but might have the courage to be the substitute, and stand by him forever and ever, amen!’

‘I may as well begin to practice, and see if I can bear it,’ she thought, as she walked slowly home, where she astonished Mrs. Crawford by asking her to make some mush for dinner.

‘Mush!  Why, child, I thought you hated it’ Mrs. Crawford exclaimed.

‘I did hate it,’ Jerry replied, ’but I want it now real bad.  Make it for me, please.  Harold likes it, don’t you, Hally?’

Harold did like it very much; and so the mush was made, and Jerry forced herself to swallow it in great gulps, and made up her mind that she could not stand that any way.  She preferred bread and water.  So, for supper she took bread and water and nothing else, and went up to bed us unhappy and nervous as a healthy, growing child well could be.

She had tried the mush, and the bread and water, and now she meant to try the shorn head, which was the hardest of all, for she had a pride in her hair, which so many had told her was beautiful.

Standing before her little glass, with the lamp beside her, she looked at it admiringly for a while, turning her head from side to side to see the bright ringlets glisten; then, with an unsteady hand the severed, one by one, the shining tresses, on which her tears fell like rain as she gathered them in a paper and put them away, wondering if the prison shears would cut closer or shorter, and wondering if it would make any difference that she was only a substitute, or at most an accessory.

It was a strange idea which had taken possession of her, and a senseless one, but it was terribly real to her, and that little shorn head represented as noble and complete a sacrifice as was ever made by older and wiser people.  There was no hard board to sleep upon, and so she took the floor, with a pillow under her head and a blanket over her, wondering the while if this were not a more luxurious couch than convicts, who had stolen diamonds, were accustomed to have.