Bart.

"Ninety," said the farmer.

"Dollar!" mumbled the thirsty-looking man.

"Do I hear any more?" challenged Bart, gavel suspended, "once, twice,
and sold to--cash."

The inebriate paid his money, chuckled and took the box to one side,
hugging it like a pet child, reached over and picked up the hatchet
from inside the railing, and pried open the corner of the box.

A gleesome roar of merriment interrupted Bart as he called out the
second lot.

The inebriate stood disgustedly looking down at the label on the
demijohn he had brought to light: "Bubbly Spring Mineral Water."

Lot 943 was a cardboard box. The suggestion of millinery made the
farmer's wife a reckless bidder, and the lot brought two dollars.

Another roar went up from the crowd as she eagerly inspected her
purchase. It turned out to be a man's silk hat.

She looked spiteful enough to throw it out of the window, but her
husband, laughing at her, doffed his worn straw, coolly put on the
elaborate headgear, and became thenceforward a target for the quips of
the merry idlers about the door.

An oblong crate brought four dollars. Bob Haven got this. He did not
inspect his purchase at once, but with glowing eyes whispered to his
brother as he pushed it to one side that he knew it was a new bicycle.

Bart hustled the various packages up for sale and disposition with
briskness and dispatch, and Darry was more than busy keeping tab on his
record book and piling the cash into the tin box.

One fuming, perspiring man, looking too fat to ever get cool, found the
prize he had drawn was a moth-eaten fur overcoat.

Peter Grimm, notoriously the stingiest man in Pleasantville, who raised
the sourest apples in the town and spent most of his time watching the
boys and picking up what fruit rolled outside of the fence, bided his
time with watchful ferret eyes until a promising-looking package came
along.

It was bid up pretty high, and the crowd urged him to disclose his
treasure, but Grimm was not responsive to any mutual human sentiment and
sat down with the package in his lap.

He began a secret inspection, however, gradually working off the paper
covering at one end, and with snapping eyes worming his fingers inside
the parcel.

Suddenly a sharp click echoed out, followed by a frightful yell.

Grimm sprang to his feet, jumping quickly about and swinging one arm
wildly through the air, the parcel dangling from it like a bulldog
hanging on to a coat tai