The excursion was one Grandma had planned
several weeks before, and I had no intention of making it the opportunity
which I finally did.
As we were passing a dingy-looking establishment, where some doubtful
articles of _virtu_ appeared in the window, an idea seized me, as new as
it was comprehensive of my difficulties.
I went in, ostensibly to purchase a watch-key, really to engage in
negotiations of a more serious and complicated nature. The proprietor of
the shop became the temporary guardian of my watch, while I was invested
with the funds necessary for my homeward journey. I learned, afterwards,
that this man had made an exception in the usually limited range of his
operations, in my favor, his establishment not being, by any means, that
of a pawnbroker, but, in every sense, of the most highly moral and
respectable nature.
He gave me such "ready cash" as his coffers would yield, with an
improvised pawnbroker's check, at the composition of which we had both
seriously and ingeniously labored. I can testify both to his honesty
and obligingness. He insisted on my taking with me, "jest to tell the
time o' day," a very large watch in a tarnished silver case.
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