I
_Dear Kate_:
Two years! Only two years, what do you think of it! Why, when I heard
the judge say two years, I nearly fell off the bench. You were caught
with the goods, and he had your record with its two stretches right
before him, yet he only gave you two years. You told me yourself you
thought you would get at least five. We tried to dope it out up to the
room, and kind of figured that he had it in for the prosecuting
attorney, and you got the benefit. Well, if you ain't singing to-night
in the tombs, you orter be. And two years, old girl, will go by so quick
that when you see the lights of Broadway again, you won't even see a
change. You can get a lot off for good behavior, and you know how to
work all the con games there is to be worked, so as it will make it easy
for you, cause it ain't as if it was your first time. Put on a good
face, and don't get sulky and you will be out before you have time to
remember you was ever sent up.
Now, I will come up and see you just as often as I can, and I will get
you a letter regular once a month anyway, and I will tell you all that
is doing. Oh, Kate, it kinda breaks me all up to think of you being put
away again. You're all I got, and I don't know what I will do without
you. That last stretch of yours I nearly died. You and me have just got
each other and we have been mighty close, more so than most sisters I
think. You have not always treated me white, sometimes you have been
mean, but it was not your fault. I suppose it is hard in a girl like you
to have a sister left on her hands, and I was only a kid when you had to
take me over and was lots of trouble to you. You have been good in your
way, and Kate, I want you to know when you are setting alone at night,
that I am just counting the days till you come back to me.
Yours,
_Nan_.