ON THE TRAMP. 211 



amounted to the same as the sum named on the sign. 

 Thus a dime was the same as a twelve and a half cent 

 piece. If you bought an article worth ten cents and ten- 

 dered a quarter they gave you a dime in change. This was 

 the minimum coin in use. So I felt emboldened to enter the 

 " lodgings," and with my comrade by my side ascended a 

 pair of rickety stairs to a set of shabby apartments. We had 

 hardly reached the landing before the keeper came to meet 

 us. He turned out to be a good-hearted Irishman, who liad 

 apparently seen better days. On making known our business 

 he showed us to a sort of a pen about five feet by eight in size, 

 containing a bed of suspicious appearance. This room we 

 engaged, and paying for one night's use of it in advance, we 

 started out to see what we could raise on our watches, each of 

 us having one. Mine was put on to me at Leavenworth by a 

 sharper, he getting in exchange a fair silver timepiece. His he 

 professed to be gold, which metal, he said, was more liked by 

 the Indians than silver, a fact he knew by experience, and 

 that they would gladly trade me a pony for a gold watch like 

 that. So I took it, and the first day I carried it showed it to 

 be the vilest of brass. I was so tried by the discovery that I 

 could have thrown it away, thinking I could never realize on 

 it. " Scottie's " was of silver and worth much more. When 

 we started out the streets were intensely dark, but as we could 

 get nothing to eat until we sold these watches we pushed on 

 till we came to a watchmaker's shop, and entering, made known 

 our errand to the proprietor. He astonished me with an off'er 

 of tliree dollars for mine, while to my comrade he off'ered eight. 

 We gladly accepted these, and with the proceeds of the trans- 

 action in our pockets emerged to the streets, made muddy 

 from recent rains, and took our way towards our roosting 

 place. At the first bakery we stopped, and buying two loaves 

 of bread made a light supper thereon. Arriving at last at 

 the " Pacific Lodgings " we went to bed. It was long before I 



