, her high,
strident worried voice ordering a helper about. Such a hard-favoured
woman!

It is the studied and profitable psychology of the auction that the
rubbish must be sold first--pots and bottles and jugs at five-cent bids,
and hoes at ten--and after that, the friction of the contest having
warmed in the bidders an amiable desire to purchase goods they do not
want and cannot use, the auctioneer gradually puts forth the treasures
of the day.

As I came out of the old house I could see that the mystic web had been
spun, that the great moment of the sale was arriving. The auctioneer was
leaning forward now upon the tall cupboard with an air of command, and
surveying the assembled crowd with a lordly eye.

"Now, Jake, careful there--pass it along--steady.... We come now to the
cheff dooves of the day, the creem delly creems of this sale. Gentleman
_and_ ladies, it is a great moment in the life of an auctioneer when he
can offer, for sale, free and without reservation, such treasures as
these...."

I could feel the warming interest of the crowd gathering in more closely
about Mr. Harpworth, the furtive silences of shrewd bargainers,
eagerness masked as indifference, and covetousness cloaking itself with
smiling irony. It is in the auction that trade glorifies itself finally
as an Art.

"Here, gentlemen _and_ ladies, is a genuine antique, hand-wrought and
solid all the way through. Just enough worn to give the flavour and
distinction of age. Well built in the first place, plain, simple lines,
but, ladies, _beautiful_."

It was the tall four-post bed he was selling and he now put his hand
upon this object--a hardy service with a cunningly simulated air of
deference. It was to be profaned by no irreverent handling!

"What am I offered for this heirloom of the Templeton family? Ten? Ten!
Fifteen over there, thank you, Mr. Cody. Why, gentlemen, that bed cannot
be duplicated in America! A real product of Colonial art! Look at the
colour of it! Where will you find such depth of colour in any modern
piece? Age varnished it, gentlemen, age and use--the use of a hundred
years.... Twenty over there, twenty I hear, twenty, twenty, make it
thirty.... Speak up now, Ike, we know you've come here to-day to make
your fortune--do I hear thirty?"

No sooner had the great bed been sold ("it's yours, Mrs. Craigie, a
treasure and dirt cheap") there came an ancient pair of hand-wrought
andirons, and a spider-legged table, and a br