It was bitter weather--so bitter that that street was deserted, almost.

A light dry snow was blowing here and there on the ground and on the pavement, swirling this way and that way and making all sorts of beautiful figures, but very chilly to look at.

The wind blew a piece of paper past me and it lodged against a wall of a house.

Something about the look of it attracted my attention and I gathered it in.

It was a fifty-dollar bill, the only one I had ever seen, and the largest assemblage of money I had ever encountered in one spot.