But it's all mere bosh I've been reading these long six months I've been chained up here--after I was committed for trial.

When I came out of the hospital after curing me of that wound--for I was hit bad by that black tracker--they gave me some books to read for fear I'd go mad and cheat the hangman.

I was always fond of reading, and many a night I've read to poor old mother and Aileen before I left the old place.

I was that weak and low, after I took the turn, and I felt glad to get a book to take me away from sitting, staring, and blinking at nothing by the hour together.

It was all very well then; I was too weak to think much.