Oh! if I had had the courage to tell her then and there, how much misery
and trouble it would have saved me in after life! But I was a moral
coward, and I said, "No, mother; where did you put it?" I had her
guessing whether she really put it in the pitcher or not.
There was a regular hunt for that check, and I hunted as much as any
one, but it could not be found. Mother did not know much about banks in
those days, but some one told her about a week after that she ought to
go to the bank and stop payment on the check. That sounded good to
mother, and she said, "Dave, you and I will go to the bank and stop
payment on that check." I was in it for fair this time. The only chance
I had was in the teller not recognizing me.
We went to the bank, and mother told the teller about the
lost--stolen--check, and for him to see that it wasn't paid. He said,
"All right, madam, I'll not pay it if it is not already paid." He looked
over the books and brought back the lost check. I had stood in the
background all this time. Then my mother asked him whom he paid it to.
He said it was hard for him to recall just then, "But I think I paid it
to a boy," he said.
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