rried her that
night in the rain?"

"No, sir!" Jack answered, "I am to wheel her and have heaps of fun,
while you mope at home."

Howard thought it very doubtful whether he should mope at home. It would
be worth something to see Jack wheeling Eloise, and worth a good deal
more to see her, as he knew she would look flushed and timid and
beautiful, with all the strangers around her. He had not felt much
interest in the Rummage. Old clothes were not to his fancy, but he had
promised a pair of half-worn boots to Ruby Ann, who had cornered him on
the street, and wrung from him not only his boots, but half a dozen or
more of the fifty neckties she heard he had strung on a wire around his
room, so as to have them handy when he wanted to choose one to wear.
Neckties were his weakness, and he never saw one which pleased him
without buying it, and his tailor had orders to notify him of the last
fashion as it came out. It was quite a wrench to part with any of them,
but as some were _passee_ he promised them to Ruby, but told her he
hardly thought he should attend the sale. Now, however, he changed his
mind. Eloise's presence would make a vast difference, and he should go;
and he thought of a second pair of boots, and possibly a vest and a few
more neckties he might add to the pile which he had heard from Peter was
to be sent the next day from the Crompton House to the Rummage.

CHAPTER XIII

GETTING READY FOR THE RUMMAGE SALE

Never had District No. 5 been so stirred on the subject of any public
entertainment as on the Rummage Sale. It was something entirely new and
unique, and the whole neighborhood entered into it with great
enthusiasm. Between the little village by the sea, which numbered about
two thousand, and the radius known as District No. 5, which could not
boast half that number, there was a kind of rivalry, the district
claiming that it excelled the village in the quality of its inhabitants,
if not in quantity. Its people were mostly well educated and
intelligent, and they had Col. Crompton, with his fine house and
grounds. He was gouty and rheumatic and past his prime it was true, but
he was still a power among them, and they were proud of him and proud of
themselves, and delighted that they had been the first to carry out the
idea of a Rummage Sale, which had been brought to them by a visitor from
western New York, who explained its workings, and gave almost fabulous
accounts of the money made by such s