What if they had found them! What if they should think that--that--_I_ took them, and should send me to prison, and cut off my hair: and make me eat bread and water and mush, which I hate!' Arthur looked at her a moment, and then with a view to comfort her, said, laughingly: 'They would not send you to prison, for I would go in your stead.' 'Would you?
Could you?
I mean could somebody go for another somebody, if they wanted to ever go much ?' Jerry asked, eagerly, as she lifted her tear-stained face to Arthur's.
Without clearly understanding her meaning, and with only a wish to quiet her, Arthur answered, at random: 'Certainly.

Have you never heard of people who gave life for another's?
So, why not be a substitute, and go to prison, if necessary ?' 'Yes,' Jerry answered, with a long-drawn breath, and the cloud lifted a little from her face.
After a moment, however, she asked, abruptly: 'Suppose the one who took the diamonds will not give them up, and somebody else knows where they are, ought that somebody else tell ?' 'Certainly, or be an accessory to the crime,' was Arthur's reply.
Jerry did not at all know what an accessory was, but it had an awful sound to her, and she asked: 'What do they do to an accessory?
Punish her--him, I mean--just the same ?' 'Yes, of course,' Arthur said, scarcely heeding what she was asking him, and never dreaming of the wild fancy which had taken possession of her.
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.