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.
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