KATY AND MASTER SIMON SNEED VISIT THE PAWNBROKER'S SHOP.
The court in which Katy lived had once been the abode of many very
respectable families, to use a popular word, for respectable does not
always mean worthy of respect on account of one's virtues, but worthy
of respect on account of one's lands, houses, and money. In the former
sense it was still occupied by very respectable families, though none
of them possessed much of the "goods that perish in the using" Mrs.
Redburn, the seamstress, was very respectable; Mrs. Colvin, the
washer-woman, was very respectable, so were Mrs. Howard, the tailoress,
Mr. Brown, the lumper, and Mr. Sneed, the mason.
Katy's mother lived in a small house, with three other families. She
occupied two rooms, for which she paid four dollars a month, the amount
of rent now due and unpaid. Dr. Flynch took a great deal of pleasure in
telling Mrs. Redburn how his humanity and his regard for the welfare of
the poor had induced him to fix the rent at so cheap a rate; but he
always finished by assuring her that this sum must be promptly paid,
and that no excuses could ever have any weight.
The next house to Mrs. Redburn was tenanted by Mr. Sneed, the mason. I
don't know whether I ought to say that Mr. Sneed had a son, or that
Master Simon Sneed had a father, being at a loss to determine which was
the more important personage of the two; but I am not going to say
anything against either of them, for the father was a very honest mason
and the son was a very nice young man.
Katy knocked at the door of this house, and inquired for Master Simon
Sneed. She was informed that he had not yet finished his dinner; and
she decided to wait in the court till he made his appearance. Seating
herself on the door stone, she permitted her mind to wander back to the
narrative her mother had related to her. She glanced at her coarse
clothes, and could hardly believe that her grandfather was a rich
merchant, and lived in a fine house. How nice it would be if she could
only find the old gentleman! He could not be cross to her; he would
give her all the money she could spend, and make a great lady of her.
"Pooh! what a fool I am to think of such a thing!" exclaimed she
impatiently, as she rose from the door stone. "I am a beggar, and what
right have I to think of being a fine lady, while my poor sick mother
has nothing to eat and drink? It is very hard to be so poor, but I
suppose it is all for the best."
"Do you want me, Katy?" said a voice from the door, which Katy
recognized as that of Master Simon Sneed.
"I want to see you very much," replied Katy.
"Wait a moment, and I will join you."
And in a moment Master Simon Sneed did join her; but he is so much of a
curiosity, and so much of a character, that I must stop to tell my
young readers all about him.
Master Simon Sneed was about fifteen years old, and tall enough to have
been two years older. He was very slim, and held his head very
straight. In 1843, the period of which I write, it was the fashion for
gentlemen to wear straps upon their pantaloons; and accordingly Master
Simon Sneed wore straps on his pantaloons, though, it is true, the boys
in the street used to laugh and hoot at him for doing so; but they were
very ill-mannered boys, and could not appreciate the dignity of him
they insulted.
Master Sneed's garments were not of the finest materials, but though he
was a juvenile dandy, it was evident that it required a great deal of
personal labor to make him such.
Clearly those straps were sewed on by himself, and clearly those
cowhide shoes had been thus elaborately polished by no other hands than
his own. In a word, the appearance of his clothes, coarse as was their
texture, and unfashionable as was their cut, indicated the most
scrupulous care. It was plain that he had a fondness for dress, which
his circumstances did not permit him to indulge to any very great
extent.
Master Simon Sneed was a great man in his own estimation; and, as he
had read a great many exciting novels, and had a good command of
language, he talked and acted like a great man. He could hold his own
in conversation with older and wiser persons than himself. He could
astonish almost any person of moderate pretensions by the largeness of
his ideas; and, of late years, his father had not pretended to hold an
argument with him, for Simon always overwhelmed him by the force and
elegance of his rhetoric. He spoke familiarly of great men and great
events.
His business relations--for Master Sneed was a business man--were not
very complicated. According to his own reckoning, he was the chief
person in the employ of Messrs. Sands & Co., wholesale and retail dry
good Washington Street; one who had rendered immense service to the
firm, and one without whom the firm could not possibly get along a
single day; in short, a sort of Atlas, on whose broad shoulders the
vast world of the Messrs. Sands & Co.'s affairs rested. But according
to the reckoning of the firm, and the general understanding of people,
Master Simon was a boy in the store, whose duty it was to make fires,
sweep out, and carry bundles, and, in consideration of the fact that
he boarded himself to receive two dollars and a half a week for his
services. There was a vast difference between Master Simon Sneed's
estimate of Masters Simon Sneed, and the Messrs. Sands & Co.'s idea of
Master Simon Sneed.
But I beg my young friends not to let anything I have written create a
prejudice against him, for he was really a very kind-hearted young man,
and under certain circumstances would have gone a great way to oblige a
friend. He had always been exceedingly well disposed towards Katy;
perhaps it was because the simple-hearted little girl used to be so
much astonished when he told her about his mercantile relations with
the firm of Sands & Co.; and how he managed all their business for them
after the store was closed at night, and before the front door was
unlocked in the morning; how he went to the bank after immense sums of
money; and how the firm would have to give up business if he should
die, or be obliged to leave them. Katy believed that Master Simon was a
great man, and she wondered how his long, slim arms could accomplish so
much labor, and how his small head could hold such a heap of
magnificent ideas. But Master Simon, notwithstanding his elevated
position in the firm, was condescending to her; he had more than once
done her a favor and had always expressed a lively interest in her
welfare. Therefore she did not scruple to apply to him in the present
emergency.
"Well, Katy, in what manner can I serve you?" inquired Simon, as he
elevated his head, and stood picking his teeth before her.
"I want you to do something for me very much indeed."
"State your business, Katy."
"Dr. Flynch has been to our house to-day, and wants the rent; mother
hasn't any money----"
"And you wish me to lend you the amount?" continued Simon, when Katy
hesitated to reveal the family trouble. "It is really unfortunate,
Katy; it is after bank hours now, and I don't see that I can
accommodate you."
"O, I don't want to borrow the money."
"Ah, you don't."
"I have got a watch here, which belonged to my father; and I want to
pawn it for the money to pay the rent."
"Well, it is rather out of our line of business to lend money on
collateral."
"I don't want you to lend it. I want you to take it to the
pawnbroker's. Mother says I am so young and so small that they might
cheat me; and I thought perhaps, may be, you'd be so kind as to go with
me."
"Go with you!" exclaimed Master Simon, as he eyed her coarse, ill-made
garments.
"I thought you would," replied Katy, with a look of disappointment.
"Well, Katy, I shall be very glad to assist you in this matter, but----"
Master Simon paused, and glanced again at the unfashionable dress of
the suppliant. He was, as he said, willing to aid her; but the idea of
the principal personage of the house of Sands & Co. walking through the
streets of the great city with such an ill-dressed young lady was
absurd, and not to be tolerated. Master Sneed reflected. It is
undoubtedly true that "where there is a will there is a way."
"Where do you wish to go?" demanded he.
"I don't know."
"Do you know where Brattle Street is?"
"I don't, but I can find it."
"Very well; important business in another street requires my personal
attention for a moment, but I will join you in Brattle Street in a
quarter of an hour, and attend you to a pawnbroker's."
"Thank you."
Master Sneed gave her directions so that she could find the street, and
at the end of the court, as she turned one way, he turned the other.
Katy was first at the appointed place of meeting, where Simon soon
joined her; and directing her to follow him, he led the way into
another street, and entered a shop.
"This young person wishes to raise some money on a watch," said Simon,
as he directed the attention of the astonished broker to Katy, who was
scarcely tall enough to be seen over the high counter.
"Let me see it."
Katy handed up the watch, which the money lender opened and carefully
examined. His practised eye soon discovered that the works of the watch
were of the best quality.
"Where did you get this?" asked the broker.
"My mother gave it to me;" and Katy told without reserve the pitiful
story of want and destitution which compelled Mrs. Redburn to part with
the cherished memento of the past.
"I will give you three dollars for the watch," added the broker.
"Come, come, sir," interposed Master Simon, with a smile; "that is a
little too bad. A gentleman of your judgment and discretion has already
assured himself that the article is worth at least twenty."
The broker drew a long breath after this speech, and seemed very much
impressed by the style of the remark. But Katy declared she did not
want to sell the watch, only to pawn it.
"Your story is not a very plausible one," said the broker, "and there
is some risk in taking it."
"I give you my personal assurance, on honor that her story is all
true," added Simon.
The broker burst out into a loud laugh. He could not stand Simon's fine
speeches, and would not take the watch at any rate; so they departed to
find another place, and entered a shop close by.
"Where did you get this?" asked the broker sourly, and Katy repeated
her story, and Simon vouched for its truth.
"It is all a lie," exclaimed the broker, "I will put the watch into my
safe and hand it over to the police."
"This is a most extraordinary proceeding," protested Master Simon.
"Get out of the shop, both of you, or I will hand you over to the
police! You stole the watch, and have the audacity to bring it into the
shop of an honest man. I don't buy stolen goods."
Katy began to cry, as the last hope of redemption from the fangs of Dr.
Flynch fled. Even Master Simon Sneed was alarmed at the idea of being
handed over to the police; but his sense of dignity compelled him to
enter his earnest protest, against the proceeding of the broker, and
even to threaten him with the terrors of the law. The money-lender
repeated his menace, and even went to the door, for the apparent
purpose of putting it into execution.
"Come, Katy, let us go; but I assure you I will represent this outrage
to my friend the mayor, in such a manner that entire justice shall be
done you," whispered Simon. "I cannot remain any longer away from my
business, or I would recover the watch at once."
"O, dear! my poor mother!" sobbed Katy.
"Don't cry, my child; leave it all to me, and run home as fast as you
can. You shall have the watch again, for I will call in the whole
police force of Boston to your aid;" and Master Simon ran away to
attend to the affairs of Sands & Co., which Katy innocently concluded
must be suffering by this time from his absence.
Poor Katy! with a heavy heart she wandered home to tell her mother of
this new misfortune.