Poor and Proud or the Fortunes of Katy Redburn Part 3

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 coa.r.s.e 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 fas.h.i.+on 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, coa.r.s.e as was their texture, and unfas.h.i.+onable as was their cut, indicated the most scrupulous care. It was plain that he had a fondness for dress, which his circ.u.mstances 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 Was.h.i.+ngton 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 circ.u.mstances 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 p.a.w.n 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 p.a.w.nbroker'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 coa.r.s.e, ill-made garments.

"I thought you would," replied Katy, with a look of disappointment.

"Well, Katy, I shall be very glad to a.s.sist you in this matter, but----"

Master Simon paused, and glanced again at the unfas.h.i.+onable dress of the suppliant. He was, as he said, willing to aid her; but the idea of the princ.i.p.al 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 p.a.w.nbroker'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 dest.i.tution 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 a.s.sured 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 p.a.w.n 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 a.s.surance, 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.