Portrait of Elmbury by John Moore

Author:John Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Turkey Trouble

However, I did not leave his office at once; for it was late autumn, a season when auctioneers are generally busy, and I volunteered to stay on until the Christmas markets were over. I therefore took part in one more Grand Christmas Fat Stock Show and Sale at Elmbury; and I unwittingly enlivened the occasion with a great comedy.

I had graduated, during three years, from sticking labels on the behinds of cattle to selling cattle myself. At Christmas Market, however, it was my uncle’s custom to mount the rostrum and with due dignity auction the finest fat beasts; when he grew tired one of the partners took on the job. So I was relegated to that part of the market occupied by the poultry. Fat turkeys, geese, ducks, cockerels and the like, even rabbits, guinea-pigs, and ferrets were my humble merchandise that day.

I must explain that all this miscellaneous livestock was housed in little pens or hutches arranged in tiers along a wall, and numbered from 1 to 200. As each lot arrived before the sale it was taken out of its hamper and placed in one of the pens. That curious old man, Fred Pullin, who had been my grandfather’s coachman, had the job of doing this and also of writing down, on a sheet, the owner’s name, the description of the lot, and the reserve price, if any, thus:

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