"And is the road fairly good from here?"
"Oh, yes; you can get along very well."
"Then we will continue," returned Andy. "By the way," he went on, "do you know anything of the negroes that live in the cottage back a ways?"
The woman"s face lost its smile and she sighed.
"Yes, I know them only too well," she replied. "They have stolen so many of our chickens and so much garden truck that my husband is going to make a complaint against them. I wish they would leave the neighborhood."
"I trust your husband succeeds in having them all locked up," put in Matt, "for they richly deserve it." And after a few words more with the farmer"s wife they pa.s.sed on.
It was getting on toward noon when they finally arrived at Bethlehem, that pretty little town on the Lehigh River. They drove past several of the silk mills, and finally found a livery stable, at which Billy and the wagon were put up.
"It looks as if we might do some business here," said Andy, as they started for a restaurant for dinner. "Let us open up this afternoon if possible."
"Shall we hire a store?"
"Let us try to sell from the wagon first."
Immediately after dinner they procured a license and found a suitable corner. They did all in their power to attract a crowd, and finally, toward evening, when the working people were on their way home, succeeded in bringing quite an a.s.semblage around them.
But, strange to say, they could not make a single sale, try their best. Both used up all their eloquence; Matt played on the banjo and mouth harmonica, and Andy told funny stories. It was no use; the crowd merely smiled or frowned, and then one after another drifted away.
"This is the worst luck yet," whispered Andy to Matt. "I never dreamed that we would strike anything like this."
A stout German who stood in the crowd saw the look of wonder and disappointment on Andy"s face, and he laughed heartily.
"You ton"t vos caught der same pirds twice alretty!" he chuckled to several bystanders.
"What"s that?" questioned Matt, who overheard the remark.
"You ton"t vos caught der same pirds twice mit der same salt,"
returned the German, and he laughed heartily at what he considered a good joke, while those around smiled and nodded approvingly.
"I must say I don"t see the joke," said Matt cheerfully. "Won"t you let me in the secret?"
"Dose udder fellers vos schwindle us, put you can"t do it twice times!" was the reply.
"Other fellows swindled you?" repeated Matt.
"Yes, dose fellers mit dot wagon vot vas here all last week. I don"t d.i.n.k but vot you vos der same crowd of fellers!"
CHAPTER x.x.xI.
DANGEROUS MOUNTAIN TRAVELING.
Both Matt and Andy began to smell a mouse, as the saying is, and they lost no time in questioning not only the German, but several other people that remained around the wagon.
The young auctioneers soon learned that a rival party of auctioneers with a large two-horse wagon had stopped at the town during the entire previous week, and sold goods which were next to worthless, for the highest prices to be obtained. They had been cool and shrewd men, thoroughly dishonest, and they had swindled every one who had had dealings with them.
"And where did they go to?" asked Andy, of the German, after the matter had been talked over for some time.
"Ve ton"t know. Of ve did ve vould tar an" fedder dem, py chiminy!"
was the emphatic reply.
"That settles it, we won"t be able to do any business here," said Matt, and though they remained in Bethlehem the remainder of that day and all of the next, his words proved true. Only a few trifles were sold, and these at prices that did not reimburse them for the trouble of handling.
Seeing that it would not pay to remain in the town longer, they started once more on the road, and by the end of the week found themselves established in a store in Allentown, and doing quite a good business.
While in this city Andy made a trip to Philadelphia, and had several more cases of goods shipped on, which Matt was careful to procure before they might be stolen from the freight depot. The wagon was also sent to a repair shop and thoroughly overhauled, for the roads beyond Allentown promised to be rougher than those heretofore traversed.
Both Matt and Andy were curious to know more about the rival auctioneers, and they wondered if they would meet the men. Nothing had been heard of them in Allentown, so that their business in that city was not injured. They did fairly well, although a strike in some of the mills made business duller than it would otherwise have been.
But both of the partners thought they had no cause for complaint.
During the time they had been away from home they had cleared, above all expenses, one hundred and seventy-two dollars, which, equally divided, was eighty-six dollars apiece--not a fortune, but still an amount which Matt at least viewed with considerable satisfaction.
"If we do as well right straight through," he said, as he and Andy talked it over on their way to Lehighton and Mauch Chunk, "we will have quite an amount to place to our credit in the bank by the time we reach New York again."
"I am in hopes that we will do even better as cold weather comes on,"
returned Andy. "Folks seem to buy more then--I don"t know why. And besides, after stopping at Mauch Chunk, we will only go to large places, for I think it will pay to skip the smaller ones."
"I don"t know but what you are right. I know one thing that I am going to do when I get to Mauch Chunk--that is, if business continues good."
"And what is that?"
"I am going to buy a post-office order and send Miss Bartlett the money she so kindly loaned me. Won"t she be surprised to get it back so soon?"
"No doubt of it, Matt. It was very kind of her to loan it to you. I suppose you are going to pay her the interest----"
"For the full year," finished the boy. "And at Christmas, if I can do it, I"m going to make her some sort of a nice present. She is the only friend I had left in New York."
"A very nice young lady," returned Andy, and then he went on, with a short laugh: "I wonder what old Caleb Gulligan would say if he knew of our prosperity?"
"And I wonder what Mr. Randolph Fenton would say if he knew how I was doing? I hope when I write to Miss Bartlett that she lets him know,"
went on Matt. "I suppose he thought that after he discharged me I would go to the dogs."
"Yes, men like him very often imagine the world cannot possibly get along without them. I reckon you are glad that you are no longer in his employ."
"Glad isn"t a strong enough word, Andy. It makes me shudder to look back at the times I spent in his offices, being bossed around and scolded from morning to night."
"I think traveling around has done us both a deal of good, Matt. I feel stronger than I have in years, and you look the picture of health, barring those bruises you received from Barberry and his companions."
"Oh, I feel fine! Outdoor life always did agree with me. When I was in Fenton"s offices I felt very much like a prisoner in a jail. I wouldn"t go back to that life again for the world!"