The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1867-11-28

W AOCAf III III SAOE =
and superior household furniture and
effects had been on view all day.
ToWnsfolk who bad never crossed the
threshold before had been through
every room IL the house save one.
Brokers from Shiretown had sounded
all the chairs. and tables and bed
steads. Everything was tieketed and
numbered for the sale on the NOR
row! Lot 342 was the gilded cage
with .Ada's love- birds, and Lot $40
was" Nelly g. Lot 420 was her harp,
and Lot 421 her piano. These things
Imarked for my Gown. Lots DIN, to
574 inclusive, were my uncle,s books,
done mp in bundles of about half a
dozen, irrespective of subject. L
looked through these, and noted a
few parcels which contained his ia
vorite authors. | noted the numbers
OF some few choice pieces Of furnl-
ture, and then we returned to the little
room where my uncle sat looking into
the fire. He and Ada had sat there
all day, keeping the door locked,
while the tramp of footsteps went on
outside. 5G
We did not sit long, however, be-
fore my uncle went off in low spirits
enough to his bed. But Ada and [
sat later, side by side Con favorite
little couch), and there we had a
conversation we are not likely soon to
forget. Indeed, we sat and talked so
long that it was no-ning before [
went off to my resting-place, which
she told me l should find In Lot LII
And | wish | may never have a
worse lot than | found it. It was a
good bed, in which / had slept many
a time before, and / jotted it down as
one of the things / must try to buy,
along with the little couch. But
man does not find sleep in the down
lest pillow, unless he takes it with
him. and | did not sleep that night.
z Indeed, at breakfast time, we none
of US looked much refreshed. And
when the toWnsfok began to come in
again for their final view, it cost us
some little effort to rouse ourselves
into decent spirits. Ada went off to
a neighbors's to be out of the sound
of the auctioneer's hammer. My
uncle, however, put on a cheerful,
brave face, stayed at home, and went,
stick in hand, from room to room,
and told the real value OF this piece
of furniture, and that to friends
who wished to purchase, and won
goodwill and sympathy In his mis-
fortune, as he had won respect and
esteem IN his prosperity. Iai
Amongst Others came in old Miss
Bellamy. My uncle saw her coming
up the stairs, and drew me back into
a bedroom till she passed, and so
kept out of her sight till she had
gone from room to room, slowly,
through all the house, and left it
again.
After her came, in little while,
two respectable looking men,
strangers to the town--brOkers, it was
whispered, from London-and these
having also gone. the round of the
house, note book in band, chose for
themselves seSls in front, near the
desk, and, the hour of
sale being. close at hand, made it very
clear that they had come with de-
cided intentions of doinr business.
Strange, how elastic is the spirit
under trouble. As the sale went on,
and my uncle saw first one favorite
piece of furniture and then another
fall under the hammer. his spirits rose,
and he became very cheerful and
lively. He ehuckled and rubbed his
hands when things went for more
than he had given for them, although
it put no. penny.in his pocket. lie
took it-as a high personal compliment
that the two London brokers should
have come down to ID ddipg5on.
{ There isnot another house in the
town they would have come to-" he
said. And when he founG that nearly
everything was being knocked down
either to them or to other strangers
whom no e. one knew, he be-
gan to think the fame of his gool
taste mustshave spread very NiGelv.
In fact the townfolks got hardly
1t soon became apparant
that the strangers meant to have it
all their own way, and W hen once or
twice toWnsman, having set his mind
on some particular article, was al
lowed to get it only after it had been
run up to about double its value,
townspeopie- became verysshy Of bid
ding, and had it not been that there
were two or three sets of these foreign
brokers, the front-seat couple would
have had all at their own price. In
deed, as it was, the prices of the
early part of the. sale we're not main
tanned. For the strangers played into
each Others hands after a while, and
spared each others purses. s.
1t was some little surprise to me
that none of them bid against me for
the few lots [ had marked. and that
they all=feH to me at lesssthan half
their value.
Hopkins, the butler, who had lived
with my uncle forty years (having
come as stable boy), made two or