ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT COLLECTING
Although the trip planned for the Dobb's Ferry territory had ended so
disastrously, the girls were not discouraged. Dodo secured a license
without any difficulty, and was equipped to drive Mr. Dalken's car
without being fined a second time. But the wise owner of the car
considered it wiser to send Carl out on these excursions, instead of
trusting to Fate to bring the girls back home again without broken bones
or a damage suit.
Mr. Fabian had had a brilliant idea, too, after he heard his wife's story
of the country auction where the old antiques had been secured by Mrs.
Tomlinson. He suggested that they subscribe to several country papers,
both daily and weekly, and in that way they would learn of any vendue
advertised in its columns.
Eagerly following his advice, the four girls--Nancy was not interested in
antiques but was willing to go around with her friends when they hunted
for them--subscribed for the Yonkers papers, the White Plains papers,
several weeklies in New Jersey, and others, in order to learn of any
country auctions advertised for the following week.
Through this medium, they read of a country sale advertised for the
following Thursday, to take place at an old farm home-stead way back in
the hills of Westchester. The items mentioned included a mahogany
four-poster bed, and other old bits.
Polly and Eleanor had not attended an auction since the days in Paris,
and neither of them had ever heard of, or witnessed a back-farm country
auction, so they were not prepared for what they really experienced.
Carl was detailed to drive them, that day, and Mrs. Fabian escorted them,
in the seven-passenger car. They took the turnpike road as far as White
Plains and then turned to the left to follow a country road that would
lead past the farm.
The sale was advertised for eleven o'clock, but the girls did not arrive
on the premises until twelve. Still no auctioneer was to be seen or
heard. Groups of farmers stood around, gossiping about their crops that
season, and their wives sat indoors exchanging notes on canning, new
neighbors, or babies.
Polly gazed curiously at the types assembled for that sale, and whispered
to Eleanor: "Wouldn't you say these farmers had been picked up from Oak
Creek ranches and dropped down here in this front door-yard?"
Eleanor smiled and nodded. Then she said in a low voice: "They don't look
as if they were here to buy. We seem to be the only folks here with a
pocket-book."
A young farmer who had been leaning against the old well now came forward
to welcome the strangers who stood looking about.
"I be the clerk fer the auctionair, but he hain't come, yit. His baby
swallered a shet safety-pin an' they had an orful time wid ippycak tryin'
to git it that way. Now the doctor's thar sayin' that stuff is all wrong.
He'll git the pin, all right, 'cause I swallered a quarter, onct, and he
got it, but it costed me a hull dollar extra to pay him fer his
docterin'. Ye's kin go in and peer aroun' to see ef you wants anything."
Mrs. Fabian expressed her sympathy for the parents of the baby and said
she knew just how frightened the mother must be.
"Not much!" was the clerk's astonishing reply. "She's young Kit Morehouse
what ain't got a grain of sense in her bean. This baby's mother died when
it was a week old, and Lem had to have someone look affer it. Thar warn't
no sensible woman about what would hev him, 'cause he don't make salt fer
a red herrin', seein' his professhun is auctionin' an' folks ain't
sellin' out like-as-much as they ust to be, years ago. But this crazy Kit
was onny nineteen, with no fam'ly, er no payin' job, so she hired out to
take keer of the kid. Don't it allus end like this? The gal marries the
father an' gets mad cause another woman's kid is cryin' around!"
The girls were intensely interested in this bit of local gossip, but Mrs.
Fabian thought they had heard enough about "Kit," so she bid the clerk
good-by and started for the low one-story-and-a-half house.
The interior presented a different appearance from the home of Mrs.
Tomlinson's. Every conceivable object ever used in the house was brought
out and placed in the front rooms. Women and children sat about on
various sorts of seats, waiting for the sale to begin. As most of the
assembly were neighbors and acquainted with each other, the entrance of
Mrs. Fabian and her girls caused quite a surprise.
Audible whispers of "Who air they?" and "Where did they come from?" or
"What d'ye s'pose they come to bid on?" were heard on all sides as the
strangers passed through the "settin' room."
The moment Mrs. Fabian's party left the clerk, outside, he hurried over
to the automobile where Carl sat enjoying a quiet smoke.
"Howde," began Abner Clark, the clerk.
Carl removed his pipe and nodded nonchalantly.
"Do you-all hail from about these parts?" asked Abner.
"I should say _not_!" declared Carl, emphatically.
"From whar abouts are you?" continued the clerk.
"New York City--and that's some town, let me tell you."
"Yeh--so I've heran say. How did yeh get to come here to this vendue?"
persisted Abner.
"_I_ don't know--I'm only the chauffeur. Why don't you ask the ladies if
you are so anxious to know?" Carl was growing angry.
"All right--no harm meant," replied Abner, soothingly, as he turned away.
Carl resumed his pipe, and Abner strolled over to the group of men
sitting on wheel-barrows, ploughs, chicken-coops, etc. With a furtive
look over his shoulder, to make sure the city driver was not listening,
Abner began to explain to his interested friends who the strangers were.
But he had not quite ended his tale before an old buggy drove up and the
auctioneer got out. He glanced over the assembled farmers with an
appraising eye, and then carefully hitched the old nag to a tree. This
done, he broke off a great chunk of tobacco from a cake kept in a blue
paper, and popped it into his mouth.
Abner walked over to the white-washed fence to greet his superior. "How's
the kid?" were his first words.
"All right, now. He diden' swaller the pin, after all. The doctor found
it down inside his shirt, an' it cost me a dollar besides all that good
mustard and eppicac, fer nuthin'!"
"Well, well!" sympathized Abner, not knowing what would be best to say in
such a delicate case.
"Did yuh keep all the folks about when I sent word over?" continued the
auctioneer.
"Shure! An' we've got some swell city buyers, this time."
"City! You don't mean anyone from the city'd want to buy old Morrisey's
trash?" exclaimed Lemuel, in disbelief.
"I dunno what they want, but thar's their man what steers the
autermobile," and Abner directed a thumb over his left shoulder.
"Wall, wall! Come along; we'll hurry up to get some of their coin afore
they git tired awaitin'!" declared the wise man, as he made haste to
reach the house.
Mrs. Fabian and the girls had made a cursory visit to the rooms on the
ground floor, and while they stood in the small kitchen examining various
old dishes and glassware in the cupboard, Polly spied a very narrow
staircase leading to the attic.
"I'm going up to see if there's anything up there," said she. So without
another word, she ran up the creaky steps.
The girls heard her walking overhead, and then heard her pull a heavy
object across the floor. In another minute she came racing down the steps
at a break-neck speed, her face all streaked with dirt and her dress
covered with cob-webs and the dust of ages.
"Oh, folks! Do come up and see what I found in an old box under the
eaves!"
They needed no second invitation, and soon all were up beside the box.
There were many other empty boxes standing about and in some way this
particular box had escaped the attention of Abner, who had taken the
inventory of the contents of the house and barns.
Polly had removed the first object on top of the box which was an old
woven coverlet in rare colorings of blue and white. In one corner was the
name of the weaver and the date it was completed. Polly was not aware
that old woven coverlets were considered very desirable by collectors,
but she had read the date which showed the spread was more than a hundred
years old, so she judged it was worth bidding on at the coming sale.
Directly under this woven coverlet was a white spread. It was very old
and torn at the corners, but the rest of it was in good condition. Mrs.
Fabian saw at once that it was a spread of the finest candle-wicking
style she had ever seen. It must have dated back to the early part of the
eighteenth century.
Under this white bed-spread were small bundles of hand-spun linen towels,
yellow with age but in perfect condition as to wear. But the greatest
find of all, in this box, were the old brasses in the bottom.
Wrapped in papers to keep them clean, Polly found a long-handled
warming-pan; a set of fire-irons--the tongs, shovel, and andirons of the
famous "acorn-top" design; and a funny old foot-warmer. A pair of ancient
bellows was the last article found in the box, but the leather was so dry
and old that pieces fell out when Polly tried to make the bellows work.
"I must go right down and tell that clerk about these wonderful things.
They must have overlooked them when they listed all the other articles in
the house," said Mrs. Fabian.
Eleanor held her back and said: "You'd better not tell him the news in
that excited manner. He'll understand at once, that these things are
desirable, and then we'll have to pay well for them."
"You're right, Nolla!" laughed Nancy, and her mother admitted as much.
"Why couldn't we just take them down to the kitchen and pile them on the
table. No one will know that we want them, and should anyone ask what we
were doing up here and by what right we carried them down from the attic,
we can honestly say that Abner said we could go over the house and see if
there was anything we liked to buy," said Polly, with a collector's
instinct for not paying extortionate prices for what she wanted.
The girls laughed, but each one caught up some object, and having
gathered all safely in their arms, they started down. The kitchen, being
the least desirable room to visit in the farmer's wife's judgment, no one
was there when Mrs. Fabian and the girls returned to it. Their
discoveries were piled on the old drop-leaf table, and they grouped
themselves at the doorways to keep guard over the prizes.
A loud voice was shouting at the open front door, saying: "This are the
terms of the sale: Everything bid on 's got to be paid fer the same day
and removed from the premises in twenty-four hours--all but th'
barn-stock. You'se kin take forty-eight hours fer them. I expecks
everyone to pay cash fer anything they buy, 'cause I got enough trouble
at that last sale at Hubbells' when a lot of you folks bid on stuff an'
then went home an' left it on my hands. Hubbell's son had to give 'em
away at last, and I lost all that commission. So, none of that, at this
vendue!"
Some of the assembled people looked guilty, and the auctioneer rode
rough-shod over their feelings. "Anudder thing: Don't haggle on a cent!
When I call out a decent bid on a thing, raise it a nickel, at least, if
you wants it. This cent business--and at Hubbell's vendue, some of you'se
even bid half a cent at a time--makes me tired! If a thing ain't wuth a
cent more to yeh, then let it go to the other feller what wants it!"
The girls laughed at this frank statement of _sense_, and Lemuel turned
to see who had appreciated his speech. When he saw the city people Abner
had mentioned, he felt warmed all through, for he felt sure he would earn
some commissions that day.
"Our first number is in th' kitchen. Ab, kin we get in thar, er had we
better hold the stuff out here?" asked Lemuel.
"I can't hold up the kitchen stove, kin I?" asked Abner, in an injured
tone.
The people laughed heartily, Mrs. Fabian's party joining more
appreciatively than anyone.
"All right," answered the auctioneer, in a matter-of-fact voice. "We'll
try to crowd in. But don't anyone what don't want to bid on kitchen
stuff, come and use the room from others!"
It seemed that his very warning acted contrariwise for, to the girls, it
looked as if everyone on the premises tried to crowd into that small
room. Being first on the ground, they fared best for place. Mrs. Fabian
mounted the steps leading to the attic and advised the girls to get up on
the table, chairs, or other solid objects, to be able to look over the
heads of the crowd.
"Now, Ab, what you got first?" asked the auctioneer.
Abner had his little book of items, and finding the table the first
number inventoried, he called out: "Deal table and contents!"
Now Polly stood on the table, and all the covers had been thrown upon it,
also, so when Abner shouted out "table and contents" Lemuel laughed
loudly.
"Say, one of them contents is a mighty pooty gal, I kin tell yuh! I'll
begin bidding myself, on such a bargain!"
The country-folks laughed wildly at such a fine joke, and Polly, eager to
own the other valuable contents, smiled with them and nodded her head at
the salesman. He was not aware that she meant she would bid, for his
customers always shouted forth their bids. Then a man asked: "What sort
of contents is thar?"
Abner pushed his way through the crowd to open the drawer in the table
and enumerate the small ware mentioned as "contents," when he saw, to his
surprise, that there was a heap of covers on the table.
He picked them up and stared at them in dumbfounded amazement, then said:
"Say, Lem, here's them old bed-quilts we had sech a job huntin' up. Whar
the heck'd they come from, I'm sure I dunno!"
"You got 'em, eh? Well, they ain't listed, so sell 'em fust. I'll mark
them an 'A' lot. Who wants to bid on a ole bed-spread?" called Lemuel.
Had the women-folk known of bedding to be sold in the kitchen, there
would have been a mad rush for it. But most of them were waiting for the
blankets and comfortables found in the two small bed-rooms annexed to the
parlor. So but few were in the kitchen when the old candle-wicking spread
was bid on by Polly, and knocked down to her for a dollar-ninety.
Eleanor got the blue and white woven coverlet for a dollar and a half,
and Mrs. Fabian bought the linen towels "in a lot" for two dollars. The
old brasses that were also listed as an "A" lot were knocked down as
follows: Polly bought the ancient foot-warmer for sixty cents; Eleanor
secured the warming-pan for a dollar, and Dodo, the set of fire-irons
with acorn tops, for three dollars. These undreamed-of bargains elated
the girls so that they lost all discretion for a time.
"Now that we've cleared them things out of our way, we'll sell the
table," said Lemuel, and forthwith he gave the table to a farmer for
fifty cents.
"What 'che got next, Ab?" asked he.
"Some kitchen dishes," replied Abner, as he opened the cupboard and
displayed several samples of blue ware.
Eleanor saw the familiar pattern of the pagodas and willows that are
found on old willow-ware, and instantly decided that these must be rare
antiques because they were found in the same house as the ancient objects
just acquired by her and her friends. So she raised the first bid of ten
cents for eight odd pieces, to a dollar.
The auctioneer gasped. He gazed at Eleanor and said faintly: "Did you bid
a dollar?"
"Of course!"
"All right, Miss, you kin have them, but pay me now fer them, and don't
come back naggin' me to say I stuck you wid cracked plates, and nicked
saucers. You saw'd them afore you bid!"
Eleanor laughed, and handed over a dollar bill, but Mrs. Fabian tried to
catch her eye to warn her not to bid recklessly on other things. Polly
stood up on the table wondering why Eleanor got the old kitchen dishes.
The moment Lemuel had the dollar safely in his pocket, he remarked: "Gee!
I'm goin' out of this second-hand sellin' and lay in a stock of ten-cent
blue dishes to sell!"
One of the farmers haw-hawed and said: "That's how Coolworth made so much
money! Gettin' so much cheap stuff and findin' a pack of silly women to
buy 'em."
Eleanor tossed her head, but had she kept quiet she would not have been
the object of pity she found herself, afterward. In self-justification of
her purchase, she called out: "You people don't know genuine old
Wedgewood when you see it. I've got a big bargain in those eight plates!"
At that statement, a quiet young fellow, who had been standing about
watching progress and noting the bids on a paper, laughed. "I don't want
anyone to say they was taken in at my folk's sale; but I got'ta tell that
young lady that I bought them blue dishes _myself_, last year, at the
tea-store in White Plains fer ten cents each."
Even Polly had to join in the laugh at Eleanor's expense now, and poor
Nolla felt like selling herself for a nickel. But the auctioneer had
scant time for jokes or reckless buyers as he was there for business. So
he finished the kitchen and called them into the parlor. Here Polly
secured a china dog such as were common sixty to eighty years ago;
Eleanor got a real bargain, this time, in buying two century old
flower-vases for fifty cents. Mrs. Fabian saw an old engraving of
"Washington Crossing the Delaware," as it was taken from the wall behind
the door, and offered for a quarter. On the spur of the moment she raised
the bid five cents and got the picture which later proved to be one of
the rare old originals, worth several hundred dollars.
Dodo ran up a pair of girandoles that stood on the narrow mantel-shelf in
the front room, and finally got them for three dollars. Such an
unheard-of price made the buyers look at her in pity, and Lemuel
remarked:
"Well, some folks has more money than sense!"
Dodo's friends laughed heartily at this criticism, but she cared little
for them all, because she knew what she had obtained for her money.
The two bed-rooms were so small that few people could get in, so the
auctioneer ordered Abner to carry the articles for sale, out on the lawn
where everyone could see them. Had it not been for this sensible advice,
Polly would never have seen or secured the fine old set of Staffordshire
toilet-ware that was knocked down to her for four dollars.
It consisted of ewer in quaint shape, basin deep enough to be a huge
punch-bowl, a soap-plate, a mug, and a commode. The rich deep coloring of
the design on the china was lovely, and every piece was in good order.
The young man who had told the truth about the eight dishes from the
tea-store, congratulated Polly and said: "That set has been in our family
for more'n a hundred years. My grandmother used to keep it fer show, er
when we had fine comp'ny comin' to see us. That's how it kept so good."
"Oh, don't you want to keep it, then?" asked Polly, regretfully.
"Nah, I'm goin' west on the money I git outen this sale, an' I'd ruther
see someone what likes it own it, than any old clod-hopper about these
parts!"
Polly felt sure the owner had not been lovingly treated by the people he
glanced at as he spoke. But she learned, just before leaving the place
that afternoon, that he felt so antagonistic against his neighbors
because of their frank criticism of his habit of spending his
inheritance.
Because of this unwise recklessness, he had had to mortgage the old farm,
and when the proceeds of that had been spent, he had to sell out.
"Perhaps his going west, where he would have to work hard for his living,
would be his salvation, after this," thought Polly.
Mrs. Fabian allowed the girls to watch the sale until the contents of the
house were sold out and then she suggested that they start back home. The
bargains were carefully placed between the coverlets purchased, and then
the buyers got in the car.
The country-people were all crowding to the barns to bid on stock and
farm-utensils when Carl started the engine. With a last look at the
little house where they had found their interesting antiques, the
collectors left.