Penny bought and sold and traded and, so rumour declared, made enough to nearly pay his tuition each year.

If you wanted a rug or a table or a chair or a picture or a broken-down bicycle or a pair of football pants you went to Penny, and it was a dollar to a dime that Penny either had in his possession, or could take you to someone else who had, the very thing you were looking for.

If you paid cash you got it reasonably cheap--or you did if you knew enough to bargain craftily--and if you wanted credit Penny charged you a whole lot more and waited on you promptly for the instalment at the first of each month.

And besides these activities Penny was a devoted student of music.
He was an odd-looking fellow, tall and thin, with a lean face from which a pair of pale and near-sighted eyes peered forth from behind rubber-rimmed spectacles.

His hair was almost black and was always in need of trimming, and his garments--he seldom wore trousers, coat and vest that matched--always seemed about to fall off him.