ollars. A "Hogarth chair-back settee" for two
hundred and ten dollars, and "four Hogarth side chairs" for three
hundred and fifteen dollars only darkened our visions still further.
Some of us had known that Hogarth was an artist, but not that he had
found time from his drawing to make furniture. Of Heppelwhite we had
heard not at all, although twelve arm-chairs said to be his had been by
some one thought to be worth around seven hundred dollars. Nor of any
Sheraton did we know, though one of his sideboards and a "pair of
Sheraton knife urns" fetched the incredible sum of five hundred and
fifty dollars. Chippendale was another name unfamiliar in Slocum County,
but Chippendale, it seemed, had once made a wing book-case which was now
worth two hundred and forty dollars of some enthusiast's money. After
that a Chippendale settee for a hundred and forty dollars and an "Empire
table with 1830 base" for ninety-three dollars seemed the merest trifles
of this insane outbreak.

The amount netted by the late owner of these things was reported with
various exaggerations, which I never saw any good reason to correct. As
I have said, the thing was, and promises to remain forever in Little
Arcady, a phenomenon to be explained by no known natural laws. For a
long time our ladies were too aghast even to marvel at it intelligibly.
When Aunt Delia McCormick in my hearing said, "Well, now, what a world
this is!" and Mrs. Westley Keyts answered, "That's very _true!_" I knew
they referred to the Lansdale furniture. It was typical of the
prevailing stupefaction.

"It seems that a collector _may_ be a gentleman," said Miss Caroline,
"but Mr. Cohen wasn't even a collector!"

Then I told her the considerable sum now to her credit. She drew a long
breath and said, "_Now!_" and Clem, who stood by, almost cried, "_Now_,
Little Miss!"

The Book of LITTLE MISS

CHAPTER XXII

THE TIME OF DREAMS

I had Clem to myself for a time. Little Miss, it seemed, was not yet
rugged enough for travel into the far Little Country. Nor was she at
once to be convinced that she might safely leave her work. I suspect
that she had found cause in the past to rank her mother with Clem as a
weigher and disburser of moneys. I noticed that she chose to accept Miss
Caroline's earliest letters about their good fortune with a sort of
half-tolerant attention, as an elder listens to the wonder-tales of an
imaginative child, or as I had long listened to Clem'