ne of those boys now
visiting you, is anything like Jack Baxter who drove me home, this
afternoon, we won't have any trouble in amusing them."

But Polly never told Mr. Dalken that Jack declared himself so deeply in
love with her, before she had been in his car ten minutes, that she had
all she could do to keep him at the wheel instead of placing an arm about
her, and thus stalling the engine in the ditch alongside the main road to
the city.

That evening, after the girls returned from Mr. Dalken's party, Eleanor
remarked: "My goodness! Polly has another scalp to hang to her belt of
trophies. If she keeps on piercing hearts, as she has done this past
year, she'll have to discard some of her old scalps and loan them to us,
to make room for her new ones."

But Polly sniffed loftily at such foolishness, and made no reply.

CHAPTER VIII

ANOTHER ATTEMPT AT COLLECTING

Although the trip planned for the Dobb's Ferry territory had ended so
disastrously, the girls were not discouraged. Dodo secured a license
without any difficulty, and was equipped to drive Mr. Dalken's car
without being fined a second time. But the wise owner of the car
considered it wiser to send Carl out on these excursions, instead of
trusting to Fate to bring the girls back home again without broken bones
or a damage suit.

Mr. Fabian had had a brilliant idea, too, after he heard his wife's story
of the country auction where the old antiques had been secured by Mrs.
Tomlinson. He suggested that they subscribe to several country papers,
both daily and weekly, and in that way they would learn of any vendue
advertised in its columns.

Eagerly following his advice, the four girls--Nancy was not interested in
antiques but was willing to go around with her friends when they hunted
for them--subscribed for the Yonkers papers, the White Plains papers,
several weeklies in New Jersey, and others, in order to learn of any
country auctions advertised for the following week.

Through this medium, they read of a country sale advertised for the
following Thursday, to take place at an old farm home-stead way back in
the hills of Westchester. The items mentioned included a mahogany
four-poster bed, and other old bits.

Polly and Eleanor had not attended an auction since the days in Paris,
and neither of them had ever heard of, or witnessed a back-farm country
auction, so they were not prepared for what they really experienced.

Carl was detailed to dr