52 DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



before swine, and my purchase, if I made any, must be 

 some farming utensil, I thought, and I remained by the 

 rubbish only out of curiosity to see if the scattered cranks 

 would now come to the fore as purchasers. Unfortunate 

 curiosity ! 



After waiting impatiently for a bid and getting but a 

 penny as a starter, the auctioneer suddenly eyed me so 

 searchingly that my head bobbed in spite of me, and I 

 was announced the buyer of a brown jug for a nickel. Now 

 I have never had need for a brown jug. But I was not to 

 be caught again, I inwardly vowed, and braced my head 

 against a tall chest of drawers, so that if the searching eye 

 of that wicked auctioneer singled me out I could resolutely 

 turn my face toward the ceiling. This scheme availed 

 me nothing, for that upward glance was too pronounced, 

 and taken as legal evidence of assent, and I was saddled 

 with a panful of bladeless knives and tineless forks. Now 

 I was half angry, and turned my back upon the auctioneer. 

 " Don't go," he screamed, and as I turned to declare that 

 I would, I became the bewildered owner of a startling 

 array of globular, capacious, aged, if not antique crockery, 

 yellow, blue, and white. This last decision of the fiendish 

 auctioneer provoked an audible smile throughout the 

 crowd in which I could not join ; for had I not come to 

 see cranks, and, by helplessly buying all the rubbish, was 

 crowned the champion crank for so doing! I have no 

 longer a kindly feeling toward vendues. 



"While a plant or an animal remains, there will doubt- 

 less be coupled with it some sign of the season either 

 the time of its arrival or its general character. Its value 

 need not be discussed. So far as spring plants are con- 

 cerned, there is a host of them that sleep throughout the 

 winter " with one eye open," and stretch themselves, re- 

 gardless of the almanac, if chance favors them with sun- 



