“Charlton, the warden wants to see you in the office.”

Out through the vestibule of the main building Charlton passed with a heart full of hope, alternating with fear of a great disappointment.  He noticed, as he passed, how heavy the bolts and bars were, and wondered if these two doors would ever shut him in again.  He walked across the yard, feeble and faint, and then ascended the long flight of steps which went up to the office-door.  For the office was so arranged as to open out of the prison and in it also, and was so adapted to the uneven ground as to be on top of the prison-wail.  Panting with excitement, the convict Charlton stopped at the top of this flight of steps while the guard gave an alarm, and the door was opened from the office side.  Albert could not refrain from looking back over the prison-yard; he saw every familiar object again, he passed through the door, and stood face to face with the firm and kindly Warden Proctor.  He saw Lurton standing by the warden, he was painfully alive to everything; the clerks had ceased to write, and were looking at him expectantly.

“Well, Charlton,” said the warden kindly, “I am glad to tell you that you are pardoned.  I never was so glad at any man’s release.”

“Pardoned?” Charlton had dreamed so much of liberty, that now that liberty had come he was incredulous.  “I am very much obliged to you, Mr. Proctor,” he gasped.

“That is the man to thank,” said the warden, pointing to Lurton.  But Charlton couldn’t thank Lurton yet.  He took his hand and looked in his face and then turned away.  He wanted to thank everybody—­the guard who conducted him out, and the clerk who was recording the precious pardon in one of the great books; but, in truth, he could say hardly anything.

“Come, Charlton, you’ll find a change of clothes in the back-room.  Can’t let you carry those off!” said the warden.

Charlton put off the gray with eagerness.  Clothes made all the difference.  When once he was dressed like other men, his freedom became a reality.  Then he told everybody good-by, the warden first, and then the guard, and then the clerks, and he got permission to go back into the prison, as a visitor, now, and tell the prisoners farewell.

Then Lurton locked arms with him, and Charlton could hardly keep back the tears.  Human fellowship is so precious to a cleansed leper!  And as they walked away down the sandy street by the shore of Lake St. Croix, Charlton was trying all the while to remember that walls and grates and bars and bolts and locks and iron gates and armed guards shut him in no longer.  It seemed so strange that here was come a day in which he did not have to put up a regular stint of eight vinegar-barrels, with the privilege of doing one or two more, if he could, for pay.  He ate some breakfast with Lurton.  For freedom is a great tonic, and satisfied hopes help digestion.  It is a little prosy to say so, but Lurton’s buttered toast and coffee was more palatable than the prison fare.  And Lurton’s face was more cheerful than the dark visage of Ball, the burglar, which always confronted Charlton at the breakfast-table.