RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30839, 26 August 1965, Page 24

RANDOM REMINDER

TREASURE TROVE

There it lay, the springs sagging, the material tired and worn, the legs bearing the marks of a quartercentury of careless feet. But he put the rule over it and there was no doubt that it would fit the sunny spot on the veranda to perfection. He imagined the idle hours he would spend reclining on it in the warmer days ahead, of the post-prandial Sunday doze there, of the idle mornings with a cup of tea. a cigarette and the paper. Yes, he told the man, yes, he thought he would take it. How much was he asking? The man rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. He said he thought a couple of quid

for the lot would hold it. The lot? Oh yes, there were two lounge chairs with the couch. It was a complete suite. The chairs might not be up to much, but by golly they matched.

He haggled. He said the chairs were no use to him, or anyone else, but he could use the couch—the couch alone. And no doubt there were other second-hand dealers about „ the city with couches the same size they were willing to sell solo. The man said that per- ' haps he was right. The suite had been there for a long time without attracting much attention. To be quite frank. he had intended to dispose of it For the couch alone then, £l. He said that if the man was going to dump it anything would be better than nothing, wouldn’t it so how about a dollar? If you mean a new dollar, the man said, it’s yours. He handed over the 10s, put the couch aboard his trailer and went home. The road had recently been unzipped and was

rough and the couch, bouncing heavily, began to disintegrate. But in the bottom of the trailer when he stopped were a florin and two sixpences. He eased the seat away from its moorings excitedly. Some eccentrics, he rt called, stuffed the seats of sold sofas with bank notes He plunged his hand into the recesses and drew out the hoard. There were buttons, matches, hairclips, two knitting needles, a nail file, old bus tickets, dust, debris—and money. There were seven pennies, green with age. There were tired, thin threepenny bits, too feeble to work a parking meter. And there were coins of every other denomination. In toto, there was 13s 7|d. He feels, even allowing for the cost of petrol, that the couch was a bargain, no matter how decrepit and how short-lived its stay on the veranda.