Going Going Gone by Phoebe Atwood Taylor

Author:Phoebe Atwood Taylor [Taylor, Phoebe Atwood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-08T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIVE

“HE bought it, and it was a clump!” Mrs. Turnover concluded.

“A clump? What was a clump?” Asey wanted to know. “You mean that the knife was a clump?”

“Yes, a big clump.”

“I’m afraid, ma’am,” Asey said, “that I don’t quite understand this!”

“Why, Al bought it, and it was a clump! A clump! A batch. A packet – oh, what do you call it when things won’t sell by themselves, and so auctioneers stick them all together into a stack?”

“A lot, you mean?”

“That’s it! A clump. A lot. Well, it was a lot. It had pails with holes in the bottoms, and old fish lines, and fishhooks, and a clam hoe without all its teeth – or was it that other thing? I don’t know why I can’t remember,” Mrs. Turnover seemed annoyed with herself for forgetting, “if it was a clam hoe or a quahaug rake. Anyway, its teeth were missing. And some of those wooden bird things, too.”

“Er – decoys?” Asey felt that he was beginning to catch on to her sudden mental leaps. “Duck decoys, perhaps?”

“Three big ones, and two little ones. Then there were some of those things you put into a hole in the side of a boat to rest your oars in. And then that fish knife, with a leather case. And Alden Dorking bought the lot!”

“No, dear aunt!” Al said. “He didn’t buy it, either! He bid on it. Because Sharp threw in half a dozen of Uncle John’s books – for good measure, and to read while you fished, as he put it – and they were books I recognized and would have liked to own. So I bid, but I did not buy the lot!”

“You did, too! Because I know you bought books!” Mrs. Turnover said. “You told me you got those directions for finding the money box on a slip of paper in some books you’d bought at the auction!”

“I did. But that was two other books.” Al turned to Asey. “I did bid on that lot that had the knife. It was going at – oh, at around fifty cents, as I remember. Then Sharp threw in a Currier and Ives print of some kittens – what did you say, Mr. Mayo?”

“Nothin’. I just coughed,” Asey told him. “Go on, please.”

“Well, then the bidding jumped to six or eight dollars,” Al said. “That woman antique dealer, Miss Pitkin, wanted the print, and Mrs. Madison bid, too. Sharp apparently thought he could run them up, because he horsed around and told a story about a cat in Truro who always had striped kittens and brought home large fish for the family dinner, and then he threw in a little walnut whatnot – why, it was the same little one that Aunt Harriet pitched through the window a while ago!”

“Uh-huh,” Asey said. “An’ then the biddin’ took another jump?”

“Miss Pitkin and Mrs. Madison and someone else got it up to eleven or twelve. I didn’t want the books that badly, so I dropped out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.