s with a pewter plate in his hand--let's hear what he has to say
about it."

The old man's cracked harsh voice rose above the confusion of other
sounds as he leaned against a table near Phoebe and Phares and spoke to
another man:

"Here now, Eph, is one of them pewter plates that folks fuss so about
just now, and I hear they put them in their dinin'-rooms along the wall!
Why, when I was a boy my granny had a lot of 'em and we'd knock 'em
around any way. Ha, ha," he laughed loudly, "I can tell you a good one,
Eph, about one of them pewter dishes."

He slapped the plate against his knee, but the thud was instantly
drowned by his quick, "Ach, Jimminy, I hit myself pretty hard that time!
But I'll tell you about it, Eph. You heard of the fellows from the city
who go around the country hunting up old relics, all old truck, and sell
it again in the city? Well, one of them fellows come to my house the
other week and asked if I had anything old-fashioned I would sell. Now
if Lizzie'd been home we might got rid of some of the old things we have
on the garret, but I was alone and I didn't know what I dared sell--you
know how the women is. So I said, 'What kind of old things do you want?'

"'Oh,' he said, 'I buy old furniture, dishes, linen, pewter----'

"'Pewter?' I said. 'Who wants that?'

"'There is a great demand for it,' he said, 'and I will give you a good
price for any you have.'

"'Well,' I laughed, 'I have just one piece of pewter.'

"'Where is it?'

"'Why, the cats have been eating out of it for a few years.'

"'May I see it?' he asks.

"So I took him out to the barn and showed him the big pewter bowl the
cats eat out of and he said, 'I'll give you fifty cents for that dish.'

"Gosh, I said to him, 'Mister, I was just fooling with you. I know you
don't want a cat-dish.'

"But he said again, 'I'll give you fifty cents for that dish.'

"So when I saw that he really meant it and wanted the dish I wrapped
the old pewter dish in a paper and he gave me half a dollar for it. When
I told Lizzie about it she laughed good and said the city folks must be
dumb if they want pewter dishes when you can buy such nice ones for ten
cents. Yes, Eph, that's the fellow's going to auctioneer. He's a good
one, you bet; he keeps things lively all the time. All his folks is good
talkers. Lizzie says his mom can talk the legs off an iron pot. But then
he needs a good tongue in this business; it takes a lot of wind to be an
auction