the edge. With a sudden jerk Herbert threw it on the floor.

Rosie picked it up and replaced it, saying: "Can't you let things
alone?"

"Rosie, why can't you let the poor boy alone?" whined her cousin, Lora
Howard. "No one has ever known me to be guilty of such an exhibition of
temper; it's positively wicked."

"Oh, you're very good, Lora," sniffed Zoe. "I can't pretend to be half so
perfect."

"Certainly I can't," said Eva.

"I can't."

"I can't," echoed Lulu, Max, and several others.

"Come now, children, can't you be quiet a bit?" asked Harold. "I can't
auction off these goods unless you are attending and ready with your
bids."

Setting down a basket he had brought in with him, he took an article
from it and held it high in air.

"We have here an elegant lace veil worth perhaps a hundred dollars; it
is to be sold now to the highest bidder. Somebody give us a bid for this
beautiful piece of costly lace, likely to go for a tithe of its real
value."

"One dollar," said Rosie.

"One dollar, indeed! We could never afford to let it go at so low a
figure; we can't sell this elegant and desirable article of ladies'
attire so ridiculously low."

"Ten dollars," said Maud.

"Ten dollars, ten dollars! This elegant and costly piece of lace going
at ten dollars!" cried the auctioneer, holding it higher still and
waving it to and fro. "Who bids higher? It is worth ten times that
paltry sum; would be dirt cheap at twenty. Somebody bid twenty; don't
let such a chance escape you; you can't expect to have another such. Who
bids? Who bids?"

"Fifteen," bid Zoe.

"Fifteen, fifteen! this lace veil, worth every cent of a hundred
dollars, going at fifteen? Who bids higher? Now's your chance; you can't
have it much longer. Going, going at fifteen dollars--this elegant veil,
worth a cool hundred. Who bids higher? Going, going at fifteen dollars,
not a quarter of its value. Will nobody bid higher? Going, going, gone!"

"Can't," exclaimed several of the audience, as the veil was handed to
Zoe, and the whole company of players retired.

They shortly returned, all dressed in shabby clothing, some with wallets
on their backs, some with old baskets on their arms, an unmistakable
troop of beggars, passing round among the spectators with whining
petitions for cold victuals and pennies.

A low growl instantly followed by a loud, fierce bark, startled players
and spectators alike, and called forth a slight scream from some of t