Adam, had been a tramp as long as he could remember, having had a very poor education and with ageing parents who heavily relied on him to do many chores in and around the house, he never had time for girls as he had a full time job looking after his parents, it seemed they were becoming very frail. But being as he was their only child he felt honour bound to do as much as he could for them, which he did,
one day he had retuned home from a shopping errand and found that his father had passed away, it was sudden, then it was two weeks later that his mother followed her husband, Adam felt utterly lost, the little world he knew had gone, gone for ever, after the funeral to which his parents had wisely prepared and covered for that expense,
ever since he could remember , his father was a more active sort of man who had luckily passed on his own skills to Adam, he had been a poacher, for best part of his life, adam being born a country boy, soon learned the art of growing all types of vegetables, hunting for rabbits, foraging for wild mushrooms, and the occasional treat of finding raspberries, and black currents, living off the land came easy to him, and occasionally fishing, he had known a few friendly people who, felt sorry for him being they had allotments, and often gave him home grown vegetables ,
It was after he reluctantly decided to go through all his parents belongings
he found hidden away several tins, which contained the few possessions Adam kept his dads almost empty wallet, which had lasted well over the years.
rummaging again through the tins ,he found mementoes , old photos of people he didn't know, but one, picturing a little girl presumably his mother.
some more photos of his mum and dad, others again of other unknown people again not long after they had he guessed,been married, he found lots of bits and pieces of folded papers, and even more photos all strangers to him, then he found a metal broach with a pin and clasp , it was in the shape of a cat, it was black,
he felt pleased that he had his dads wallet, and his mums broach, the lucky black cat and felt they would always be with him whereever he went.
the house which his parents had rented was taken back by the land lord, and Adam was now a vagrant, home less, but luckily with little money that he had from selling his parents furniture and odds and ends helped fill up the wallet. so now with no home, but with a little money at least he had to think about pastures new,
so decided to do odd jobs, where ever he found the work, cash in hand work, and finding somewhere to sleep at nights, in the summer was fine but in winter became another problem. eventually he found work on a farm,
the farmer felt sorry for him, gave him a chance, within a few weeks thought him a good worker, who did what he was asked.so Adam could sleep in one of the barns,
the barn had a loft built into the roof, the farmers wife decided if Adam was going to stay on then she would cook and extra meals, as part of his employment, over time he found the farmer and his wife a lovely couple,they were childless, it was when they were all sitting at the table that the farmer mentioned about another farmer, who had several children one of whom had a metal detector, finding very little or any thing else of value, bits of metal, and tins, etc,
adam thought thats an idea, so after talking it over the farmer, agreed that he could do metal detecting in his spare time if and when he wasn't needed, a week later he had bought a second hand detector, a bit rusty but working fine, it had been reconditioned,
it was some time later when adam started getting in the feel of detecting,
over the next three months he gradually worked his way around the first field, then much later started on the second one, it was while he was nearing the end of the field, that the detector started buzzing, gradually getting louder and louder as he got near to the hedge, by now it was really buzzing , so he marked the spot , and went back to get the farmer.,
The farmer puzzled a little confused, wondered what all the excitement could be, as far as he knew the farm had been in the family for at least a hundred years, adam started to dig at first finding nothing, then as the hole got larger, and then deeper, his shovel hit something, a muffled sound , something soft but with a chinking sound, his excitement and energy grew, more digging, and with purpose, by now Adams arms ached, as he was sweating, and getting tired, then suddenly the shovel unearthed what he thought was cloth, but on closer examination found it to be a leather bag, although softened over the years it was virtually in tact,
as the shovel got underneath the bag and as it was being raised up, coins started to fall out, all over the place a few at first, then many as the bag opened out. the farmer held the shovel to steady it and together adam, and the farmer, laid it carefully on the ground next to the hole, and bent down to examine the coins, they looks at many pieces, and were a little confused and bewildered as to what they had found,
Back at the farm house they had cleaned up as many coins as they could,
the farmers wife busy rubbing and brushing away clay, and thick dust that the coins had collected being in the ground so long.
then the farmer made a couple of phone calls ,
a week later a man arrived who it seemed was an expert in coins and after examination decided they were in fact roman, he then made a few phone calls and put the wheels into motion, within the next few weeks other people had called and after examing the find, it seemed that adam had found some rare roman coins, most likely buried in the ground hidden, away from thieves,and robbers the pile must worth a considerable sum, to which the crown had rights to half the proceeds, the farmer was entitled to the other half,
the find ran into many thousands of pounds , to which adam was given a considerable sum, by the farmer, having found the hoard in the first place,
months later adam now owned his own house, and one summers evening sat in the garden hammock .watching the beautiful sun set, he drank a toast to his parents looking up at the sky saying quietly to himself, thanks dad for the wallet, and thank you too mum for the lucky black cat,
the end,
