said Patty, "all of them," and as the old woman lifted the plate
in from the window, Patty added, "And if you care to part with it, I'll
buy the plate too."

"Land, Miss, that 'ere old plate ain't no good; it's got a crack in it,
but if so be's you admire that pattern, I've got another in the
keeping-room that's just like it, only 'tain't cracked. 'Tain't even
chipped."

"Would you care to part with them both?" asked Patty, remembering that
this phrase was the preferred formula of all china hunters.

"Laws, yes, Miss, if you care to pay for 'em. Of course, I can't sell 'em
for nothin', for there's sometimes ladies as comes here, as has a fancy
to them old things. But these two plates is so humbly, that I didn't have
the face to show 'em to anybody as was lookin' for anteeks."

Patty's sense of honesty would not allow her to ignore the old woman's
mistake.

"They may seem homely to you," she said, "but I think it only right to
tell you that these plates are probably the most valuable of any you have
ever owned."

"Well, for the land o' goodness, ef you ain't honest! 'Tain't many as
would speak up like that! Jest come in the back room, and look at the
other plate."

The girls followed the old woman as she raised a calico curtain of a
flowered pattern, and let them through into the "keeping-room."

"There," she said with some pride as she took down a plate from the high
mantel. "There, you can see for yourself, there ain't no chip or crack
into it."

Sure enough, Patty held in her hand a perfect specimen of the Millennium
plate, so highly prized by collectors, and there was also the one she had
seen in the window, which though slightly cracked, was still in fair
condition.

"How much do you want for them?" asked Patty.

The old woman hesitated. It was not difficult to see that, although she
wanted to get as high a price as possible for her plates, yet she did not
want to ask so much that Patty would refuse to take them.

"You tell me," she said, insinuatingly, "'bout what you think them plates
is worth."

"No," said Patty, firmly, "I never buy things that way. You tell me your
price, and then I will buy them or not as I choose."

"Well," said the old woman, slowly, "the last lady that I sold plates to,
she give me fifty cents apiece for three of 'em, and though I think they
was purtier than these here, yet you tell me these is more vallyble, and
so," here the old woman made a great show of firmness, "and