It was not the kind of auction sale that draws a crowd of people; there was only one piece of property to be sold, and that was an expensive one. Not more than twenty persons came to it--mostly prosperous farmers or lumbermen, who intended to buy the place as a speculation if it should go at a low price. The old Squire was not there; he had gone to Portland the day before; but Addison went over, as he had planned, and Willis Murch and I went with him.
Hilburn, the tax collector, was there, and two of the selectmen of the town, besides Cole, the auctioneer. At four o"clock Hilburn stood on the house steps, read the published notice of the sale and the court warrant for it. The town, he said, would deduct $114--the amount of unpaid taxes--from the sum received for the farm. Otherwise the place would be sold intact to the highest bidder.
The auctioneer then mounted the steps, read the Cranston warranty deed of the farm, as copied from the county records, describing the premises, lines, and corners. "A fine piece of property, which can soon be put into good shape," he added. "How much am I offered for it?"
After a pause, Zachary Lurvey, the owner of Lurvey"s Lumber Mills, started the bidding by offering $1,000.
"One thousand dollars," repeated the auctioneer. "I am offered one thousand dollars. Of course that isn"t what this farm is really worth.
Only one thousand! Who offers more?"
"Fifteen hundred," said a man named Haines, who had arrived from the southern part of the township while the deed was being read.
"Sixteen," said another: and presently another said, "Seventeen!"
I noticed that Addison was edging up nearer the steps, but I was amazed to hear him call out, "Seventeen fifty!"
"Ad!" I whispered. "What if Cole knocks it off to you? You have only $100 in the savings bank. You couldn"t pay for it."
I thought he had made a bid just for fun, or to show off. Addison paid no attention to me, but watched the auctioneer closely. The others, too, seemed surprised at Addison"s bid. Lurvey turned and looked at him sharply. I suppose he thought that Addison was bidding for the old Squire; but I knew that the old Squire had no thought of buying the farm.
After a few moments Lurvey called, "Eighteen hundred!"
"Eighteen fifty," said Addison; and now I grew uneasy for him in good earnest.
"You had better stop that," I whispered. "They"ll get it off on to you if you don"t take care." And I pulled his sleeve impatiently.
Willis was grinning broadly; he also thought that Addison was bluffing the other bidders.
Haines then said, "Nineteen hundred"; and Lurvey at once cried, "Nineteen twenty-five!"
It was now apparent that Lurvey meant to get the farm if he could, and that Haines also wanted it. The auctioneer glanced toward us. Much to my relief, Addison now backed off a little, as if he had made his best bid and was going away; but to my consternation he turned when near the gate and cried, "Nineteen fifty!"
"Are you crazy?" I whispered, and tried to get him to leave. He backed up against the gatepost, however, and stood there, watching the auctioneer. Lurvey looked suspicious and disgruntled, but after a pause, said in a low voice, "Nineteen seventy-five." Haines then raised the bid to $2,000, and the auctioneer repeated that offer several times. We thought Haines would get it; but Lurvey finally cried, "Two thousand twenty-five!" and the auctioneer began calling, "Going--going--going for two thousand twenty-five!" when Addison shouted, "Two thousand fifty!"
Lurvey cast an angry look at him. Haines turned away; and Cole, after waiting for further bids, cried, "Going--going--gone at two thousand fifty to that young man by the gate--if he has got the money to pay for it!"
"You"ve done it now, Ad!" I exclaimed, in distress. "How are you going to get out of this?"
I was frightened for him; I did not know what the consequences of his prank would be. To my surprise and relief, Addison went to Hilburn and handed him $100.
"I"ll pay a hundred down," he said, "to bind my bid, and the balance to-morrow."
The two selectmen and Hilburn smiled, but accepted it. I remembered then that Addison had gone to the village the day before, and guessed that he had drawn his savings from the bank. But I did not see how he could raise $1,950 by the next day. All the way home I wanted to ask him what he planned to do. However, I did not like to question him before Willis and two other boys who were with us. All the way home Addison seemed rather excited.
The family were at supper when we went in. The old Squire was back from Portland; grandmother and the girls had told him that we had gone to the auction. The first thing he did was to ask us whether the farm had been sold, and how much it had brought.
"Two thousand and fifty," said I, with a glance at Addison.
"That"s all it"s worth," the old Squire said. "Who bought it?"
Addison looked embarra.s.sed; and to help him out I said jocosely, "Oh, it was bid off by a young fellow we saw there."
"What was his name?" the old Squire asked in surprise.
"He spells it A-d-d-i-s-o-n," said I.
There was a sudden pause round the table.
"Yes," I continued, laughing, for I thought the best thing for Ad was to have the old Squire know the facts at once. "He paid $100 of it down, and he has to get round with nineteen hundred and fifty more by to-morrow noon."
Food was quite forgotten by this time. The old Squire, grandmother, and the girls were looking at Addison in much concern.
"Haven"t you been rather rash?" the old Squire said, gravely.
"Maybe I have," Addison admitted. "But the bank has promised to lend me the money to-morrow at seven per cent. if--if,"--he hesitated and reddened visibly,--"if you will put your name on the note with me, sir."
The old Squire"s face was a study. He looked surprised, grave, and stern; but his kind old heart stood the test.
"My son," he said, after a short pause, "what led you into this? You must tell me before we go farther."
"It was something I noticed over there in that wood-lot. I haven"t said anything about it so far; but I think I am right."
He went upstairs to his trunk and brought down a handful of those auger chips, and also a letter that he had received recently. He spread the chips on the table by the old Squire"s plate, and the latter, after a glance at them, put on his reading gla.s.ses. Dry as the chips had become, we could still see what looked like tiny bubbles and pits in the wood.
"Bird"s-eye, isn"t it?" the old Squire said, taking up a chip in his fingers. "Bird"s-eye maple. Was there more than one tree of this?"
"More than forty, sir, that I saw myself, and I"ve no doubt there are others," Addison replied.
"Ah!" the old Squire exclaimed, with a look of understanding kindling in his face. "I see! I see!"
During our three or four winters at the old Squire"s we boys had naturally picked up considerable knowledge about lumber and lumber values.
"Yes," Addison said. "That"s why I planned to get hold of that wood-lot.
I wrote to Jones & Adams to see what they would give for clear, kiln-dried bird"s-eye maple lumber, for furniture and room finish, and in this letter they offer $90 per thousand. I haven"t a doubt we can get a hundred thousand feet of bird"s-eye out of that lot."
"If Lurvey had known that," said I, "he wouldn"t have stopped bidding at two thousand!"
"You may be sure he wouldn"t," the old Squire remarked, with a smile.
"As for the quarreling heirs," said Addison, "they"ll be well satisfied to get that much for the farm."
The next day the old Squire accompanied Addison to the savings bank and indorsed his note. The bank at once lent Addison the money necessary to pay for the farm.
No one learned what Addison"s real motive in bidding for the farm had been until the following winter, when we cut the larger part of the maple-trees in the wood-lot and sawed them into three-inch plank at our own mill. Afterward we kiln-dried the plank, and shipped it to the furniture company.
Out of the three hundred or more sugar maples that we cut in that lot, eighty-nine proved to be bird"s-eye, from which we realized well over $7,000. We also got $600 for the firewood; and two years later we sold the old farm for $1,500, making in all a handsome profit. It seemed no more than right that $3,000 of it should go to Addison.
The rest of us more than half expected that Addison would retain this handsome bonus, and use it wholly for his own education, since the fine profit we had made was due entirely to his own sagacity.