nd smell had departed, and no one now could
guess which was sage and which catnip; scrap-bundles, which made
Eyebright sigh and exclaim, "Oh dear, what lots of dresses I would
have made for Genevieve, if only I had known we had these!" There were
boxes full of useless things, screws without heads, and nails without
points, stopples which stopped nothing, bottles of medicine which had
lost their labels, and labels which had lost their bottles. Some
former inhabitant of the house had evidently been afflicted with mice,
for six mouse-traps were discovered, all of different patterns, all
rusty, and all calculated to discourage any mouse who ever nibbled
cheese. There were also three old bird-cages, in which, since the
memory of man, no bird had ever lived; a couple of fire-buckets of
ancient black leather, which Eyebright had seen hanging from a rafter
all her life without suspecting their use, and a gun of Revolutionary
pattern which had lost its lock. All these were to be sold, and so was
the hay in the barn, as also were the chickens and chicken-coops; even
Brindle and old Charley.

The day before the auction, a man came and pasted labels with numbers
on them upon all the things. Eyebright found "24" stuck on the side of
her own special little stool, which papa had said she might take to
the Island, but which had been forgotten. She tore off the label, and
hid the stool in a closet, but it made her feel as if every thing in
the house was going to be sold whether or no, and she half turned and
looked over her shoulder at her own back, as if she feared to find a
number there also. Wealthy, who was piling the chairs together by
twos, laughed.

"I guess they won't put you up to 'vandoo,'" she said; "or, if they
do, I'll be the first to bid. There, that's the last! I never did see
such a heap of rubbish as come out of that garret; your Ma, and your
Grandma, too, I reckon, never throwed away any thing in all their
days. Often and often I used to propose to clean out and kind of sort
over the things, but your Ma, she wouldn't ever let me. They was sure
to come in useful some day, she said; but that day never come,--and
there they be, moth-and-rust-corrupted, sure enough! Well, 'tain't no
use layin' up treasures upon earth. We all find that out when we come
to clear up after fifty years' savin'."

Next morning proved fine and sunny, and great numbers of people came
to the auction. Some of them brought their dinners in pails,