{"product_id":"2940013500327","title":"The Stories of the Three Burglars","description":"THE STORIES OF THE THREE BURGLARS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI am a householder in a pleasant country neighbourhood, about twenty\u003cbr\u003emiles from New York. My family consists of myself and wife, our boy,\u003cbr\u003eGeorge William, aged two, two maid-servants, and a man; but in the\u003cbr\u003esummer we have frequent visitors, and at the time of which I am about to\u003cbr\u003ewrite my Aunt Martha was staying with us.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy house is large and pleasant, and we have neighbours near enough for\u003cbr\u003esocial purposes and yet not too near or too many to detract from the\u003cbr\u003erural aspect of our surroundings. But we do not live in a paradise; we\u003cbr\u003eare occasionally troubled by mosquitoes and burglars.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAgainst the first of these annoyances we have always been able to guard\u003cbr\u003eourselves, at least in a measure, and our man and the cook declare that\u003cbr\u003ethey have become so used to them that they do not mind them; but to\u003cbr\u003eguard against burglars is much more difficult, and to become used to\u003cbr\u003ethem would, I think, require a great deal of practice.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor several months before the period of this narrative our neighbourhood\u003cbr\u003ehad been subject to visits from burglars. From time to time houses had\u003cbr\u003ebeen entered and robbed, and the offenders had never been detected.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWe had no police force, not even a village organization. There was a\u003cbr\u003esmall railway station near our house, and six miles away was the county\u003cbr\u003etown. For fire and police protection each household was obliged to\u003cbr\u003edepend upon itself.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBefore the beginning of the burglarious enterprises in our midst, we had\u003cbr\u003enot felt the need of much protection in this direction; sometimes\u003cbr\u003epoultry was stolen, but this was a rare occurrence, and, although\u003cbr\u003ewindows and doors were generally fastened for the night, this labour was\u003cbr\u003eoften considered much more troublesome than necessary. But now a great\u003cbr\u003echange had taken place in the feelings of our community. When the first\u003cbr\u003erobbery occurred the neighbours were inclined to laugh about it, and to\u003cbr\u003esay that Captain Hubbard's habit of sitting up after the rest of his\u003cbr\u003efamily had gone to bed and then retiring and forgetting to close the\u003cbr\u003efront door had invited the entrance of a passing tramp. But when a\u003cbr\u003esecond and a third house, where windows and doors had not been left\u003cbr\u003eopen, had been entered, and, in a measure, despoiled, people ceased to\u003cbr\u003elaugh; and if there had been any merriment at all on the subject, it\u003cbr\u003ewould have been caused by the extraordinary and remarkable precautions\u003cbr\u003etaken against the entrance of thieves by night. The loaded pistol became\u003cbr\u003ethe favourite companion of the head of the house; those who had no\u003cbr\u003ewatch-dogs bought them; there were new locks, new bolts, new fastenings.\u003cbr\u003eAt one time there was a mounted patrol of young men, which, however, was\u003cbr\u003esoon broken up by their mothers. But this trouble was unavailing, for at\u003cbr\u003eintervals the burglaries continued.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs a matter of course a great many theories were broached as to the\u003cbr\u003ereasons for this disturbance in our hitherto peaceful neighbourhood. We\u003cbr\u003ewere at such a distance from the ordinary centres of crime that it was\u003cbr\u003egenerally considered that professional burglars would hardly take the\u003cbr\u003etrouble to get to us or to get away from us, and that, therefore, the\u003cbr\u003eoffences were probably committed by unsuspected persons living in this\u003cbr\u003epart of the country who had easy means of determining which houses were\u003cbr\u003eworth breaking into and what method of entrance would be most feasible.\u003cbr\u003eIn this way some families, hitherto regarded as respectable families,\u003cbr\u003ehad fallen under suspicion.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSo far, mine was the only house of any importance within the distance of\u003cbr\u003ea mile from the station which had not in some way suffered from\u003cbr\u003eburglars. In one or two of these cases the offenders had been frightened\u003cbr\u003eaway before they had done any other injury than the breaking of a\u003cbr\u003ewindow-shutter; but we had been spared any visitation whatever. After a\u003cbr\u003etime we began to consider that this was an invidious distinction. Of\u003cbr\u003ecourse we did not desire that robbers should break into our house and\u003cbr\u003esteal, but it was a sort of implied insult that robbers should think\u003cbr\u003ethat our house was not worth breaking into. We contrived, however, to\u003cbr\u003ebear up under this implied contempt and even under the facetious\u003cbr\u003eimputations of some of our lively neighbours, who declared that it\u003cbr\u003elooked very suspicious that we should lose nothing, and even continue to\u003cbr\u003eadd to our worldly goods, while everybody else was suffering from\u003cbr\u003eabstractions.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI did not, however, allow any relaxation in my vigilance in the\u003cbr\u003eprotection of my house and family. My time to suffer had not yet\u003cbr\u003earrived, and it might not arrive at all; but if it did come it should\u003cbr\u003enot be my fault.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079567818992,"sku":"2940013500327","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013500327_p0.jpg?v=1763582035","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013500327","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}