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- 



