Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction; Girls -- Juvenile fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Juvenile fiction
And Eleanor laughingly remarked: "Sell your flat out like so many New
Yorkers do, and start in again on another."
In the low-ceiled, wide dining-room, they found the typical round
mahogany table with twelve chairs--two arm and ten side chairs. The seats
were covered with rep, but must have had haircloth on them at one time.
The backs were very low and curved away from the small of the back in a
frightened manner. There was but one cross-piece in the back and that was
curved also.
The side-board was nearly eight feet long, with six claw feet, and a high
top. On it stood a tea-caddy of mahogany, a knife-box, and several silver
boxes. All of them must have been over a hundred years old. Very old
china and glassware stood on the large table, ready to be sold. The
collectors saw many desirable pieces there, but they were too anxious to
visit the upstairs to stop, then, and examine the plates and other
pieces.
There were four large square rooms on the second floor and in each one,
stood a wonderful four-poster bed--two with canopy-tops and two without.
Empire work-tables were in two rooms, and besides the high chests of
mahogany drawers, and low dressing-tables with tiny front drawers to hold
the comb and brush, there were also ottomans, foot-stools, and ornamental
pieces. Mirrors hung over each mantel, and old-fashioned prints and
paintings were on the walls.
By the time Mrs. Fabian and the girls went downstairs again, they were
dumbfounded to find that a farm-house so near to Morristown and railroad
stations, should have preserved such a wonderful lot of old mahogany
furniture without having been discovered by collectors. But being
strangers to the other people now gathering for the sale, they did not
speak of their wonderment.
Mr. Van Styne was late, and as soon as he arrived he began in the
kitchen, without any greeting to his followers. There seemed to be a far
different type of buyer at this sale, than the girls had found at any of
the little sales in Westchester; and once the auctioneer began on the
antique pieces, the prices ran up alarmingly.
"That man standing over there just paid a hundred and sixty dollars for
that Colonial secretary," whispered Polly, annoyance expressed in her
tone for she had been bidding on the same piece.
"He doesn't look as if he had sixty cents in his purse," said Eleanor,
scornfully.
A lady standing beside her, looked at the buyer and smiled. "That man is
one of the buyers of one of the largest antique collectors in New York."
"He is!" gasped Eleanor.
"Who is the collector?" asked Polly, but the woman saw a little Toby put
up for sale, just then, and she wanted to bid on it, so Polly never
heard.
Anything that could boast of being a hundred years old, or more, brought
fabulous prices, and the girls were amazed to hear names that they had
read of in the columns of the New York papers, called out by the cashier,
but never dreamed they would come face to face with the owners thereof.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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