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 drive them, that day, and Mrs. Fabian escorted them, in the seven-passenger car. They took the turnpike road as far as White Plains and then turned to the left to follow a country road that would lead past the farm. The sale was advertised for eleven o'clock, but the girls did not arrive on the premises until twelve. Still no auctioneer was to be seen or heard. Groups of farmers stood around, gossiping about their crops that season, and their wives sat indoors exchanging notes on canning, new neighbors, or babies. Polly gazed curiously at the types assembled for that sale, and whispered to Eleanor: "Wouldn't you say these farmers had been picked up from Oak Creek ranches and dropped down here in this front door-yard?" Eleanor smiled and nodded. Then she said in a low voice: "They don't look as if they were here to buy. We seem to be the only folks here with a pocket-book." A young farmer who had been leaning against the old well now came forward to welcome the strangers who stood looking about.