is is a
magnificent mahogany side-board,--and you offer me--nineteen pound!"

"Twenty!" said Job.

"Twenty-one!" roared Adam, making his last bid, and then, turning, he
hissed in Job's unwilling ear,--"go any higher, an' I'll pound ye to a
jelly, Job!"

"Twenty-five!" said Parsons.

"Twenty-seven!"

"Twenty-eight!"

"Thirty!" nodded Grimes, scowling at Adam.

"Thirty-two!" cried Parsons.

"Thirty-six!"

"Thirty-seven!"

"Forty!" nodded Grimes.

"That drops me," said Parsons, sighing, and shaking his head.

"Ah!" chuckled the Corn-chandler, "well, I've waited years for that
side-board, Parsons, and I ain't going to let you take it away from
me--nor nobody else, sir!"

"At forty!" cried the Auctioneer, "at forty!--this magnifi--"

"One!" nodded Bellew, beginning to fill his pipe.

"Forty-one's the bid,--I have forty-one from the gent in the corner--"

"Forty-five!" growled the Corn-chandler.

"Six!" said Bellew.

"Fifty!" snarled Grimes.

"One!" said Bellew.

"Gent in the corner gives me fifty-one!" chanted the Auctioneer--"any
advance?--at fifty-one--"

"Fifty-five!" said Grimes, beginning to mop at his neck harder than
ever.

"Add ten!" nodded Bellew.

"What's that?" cried Grimes, wheeling about.

"Gent in the corner offers me sixty-five,--at sixty-five,--this
magnificent piece at sixty-five! What, are you all done?--at sixty-five,
and cheap at the price,--come, gentlemen, take your time, give it
another look over, and bid accordingly."

The crowd had dwindled rapidly during the last hour, which was scarcely
to be wondered at seeing that they were constantly out-bid--either by a
hoarse voiced, square-shouldered fellow in a neck-cloth, or a dreamy
individual who lolled in a corner, and puffed at a pipe.

But now, as Grimes, his red cheeks puffed out, his little eyes snapping
in a way that many knew meant danger (with a large D)--as the rich
Corn-chandler, whose word was law to a good many, turned and confronted
this lounging, long-legged individual,--such as remained closed round
them in a ring, in keen expectation of what was to follow. Observing
which, the Corn-chandler feeling it incumbent upon him now or never, to
vindicate himself as a man of property, and substance, and not to be put
down, thrust his hands deep into his pockets, spread his legs wide
apart, and stared at Bellew in a way that most people had found highly
disconcerting, before now. Bellew, however, seemed wholly un