"[...]cheery flower plot to be made, and now, in April, many-hued crocuses already brightened its borders. It was just before the establishment of the beautiful and helpful Flower Mission that I undertook, not without some discouragement, to try the gracious effect of violets, roses, pinks, and heartsease, behind the bars. In my then limited experience, to be locked out of the friendly guard-room, and sent alone across the prison yard, had not been agreeable to me; and, in deference to my groundless fears, an officer had been detailed to accompany me from the main prison to the hospital wing. As the years went on, my social popularity in the State Prison became well assured, and some surprise at this needless precaution was expressed to me by the convicts; and one attached prison friend (a highway robber) had even assured me that "if anybody in that prison should lay a finger on me, he'd be torn to pieces by the men, afore you could say Jack Robinson." Though scarcely convinced that the entire demolition of a fellow-being would indemnify me for such "scaith and scart" as might in the mêlée accrue to my own poor person, it was on this assurance that I decided to dispense with official escort to the[...]".