Chapter 6: Another Auction Another Day

During breakfast on Friday morning, Colleen asked, "Father, are we still on for the auction this evening? Billy is so excited I believe he is almost ready to pass out.

Billy, his manners had improved almost daily, chewed and swallowed the food in his mouth before answering. "She has been after me to remind you about that durned auction. But I say, if you seen one, you seen 'em all."

Millicent asked him, "Have you been to an auction before last Friday, Billy?"

"Nope," he answered as he placed another bite of food in his mouth.

"Billy Joe, you exasperate me when you say things like that. You know you are even more anxious than I to attend the auction." She frowned at him.

He stared at nothing in particular as he chewed and thought. After he swallowed he looked at Colleen and answered, "Nope, I don't know if I want to go more than you because I don't know how bad you want to go. Us men, now, well us men we just don't show how we feel because it's not manly. But I wouldn't mind going since I was invited to go." Martin wiped a hand over his mouth to stifle the laughter he tried to hold inside him.

Millicent smiled at the two feuding children. "Well, since you have both been invited to attend the auction, isn't it a bit futile to bicker over how much you wish to go?"

"No ma'am," Billy told her seriously, "The princess just needs to pick a fight. Some times I wish she was easy to get along with like you are." He grinned and added, "Besides I like to pop her bubble when she gets all puffed up like right now."

Very princess like, Colleen asked, "May we be excused. This conversation is so pointless. Come Billy, you may accompany me outside."

When Martin nodded his assent, Billy winked at him and declared, "Now that is what I been waiting for ever since I got up. I just love it when she bosses me around and tells me to do what I was going to do any way."

As the two young people hurried outside, both Millicent and Martin lost themselves to laughter. Martin told her, "That little scamp has brightened our lives in more ways than I can count. He is the medicine we all three have needed and never knew it until he happened to us."

As Martin slid his chair back from the table, Millicent hurried around and sat on his lap. "Oh, Martin, I am so thankful for the miracle he has wrought in our lives."

She laid her head against her husband's chest and closed her eyes to savor the moment. Her next words titillated Martin's imagination. "Perhaps we could bathe more than one time a week? I felt so wonderful when you washed my back."

Martin was delighted with his wife. "Millicent, If this wanton behavior continues, I might even order one of those shower things built over the bath tub."

"Dearest husband, do you feel I am a wanton?" She pressed herself closer against him.

"Well, you got me wanton." He laughed at his own joke. "I have begun to realize you are the rose of my life, complete with all the thorns, stems and petals that come with someone as wonderful as you. Thank you my wife..."

As Billy pushed her in the swing, Colleen became cross with him, "Billy you make me so angry I could just ... just..."

"Spit," he finished her sentence for her.

"No, ladies never 'spit.' That would be unladylike." She corrected him. "But you do, you take great pleasure in aggravating me."

"Princess, you know something? If I didn't like you a whole lot I would never tease you at all." He stopped pushing and stepped around in front of her. In his most solemn voice he told her, "And you know what? Well I like you a whole lot. I really do."

"Let's go for a walk," she told him and slipped out of the swing seat.

Millicent saw them go hand in hand toward the gate. She hurried to the front door and called, "Don't go too far, children." As Martin came up beside her and placed an arm around her she added, "Those are words I never thought I would say to our daughter."

"Yes," he answered quietly.

Sissy brought his suit coat to and held it for him to slip his arms in the sleeves. She brought his brief case and stood waiting for him to take it. He nodded his thanks and hurried down the steps to his waiting Stutz. The custom designed and built vehicle was his one affectation, his status symbol.

That evening after an early supper, the four drove to the auction in the Packard sedan this time. There were gusts of wind and some dust in the air.

Billy and Colleen sat quiet in the back seat as they waited to arrive at the auction barn south of town. Millicent marveled at how much Colleen changed as her health improved. She had started to become a young girl instead of the elderly child she had been most of her life.

"This time there will be everything for sale there from horses to harrows," Billy exclaimed to Colleen. "There will even be some goats, you just wait and see. Did you know that goats can pull carts with people in them?"

"Yes, Billy," Colleen answered him with exaggerated patience, "I have seen pictures of people as they rode in carts pulled by a team of goats."

"Well, if I had any money I'd buy you a goat," he told her in a solemn voice.

"Would you really, Billy? Would you really?" she asked, all impatience gone from her voice, pleased at his generous thoughts.

"Your durn tootin' I would. After all, you're my princess and because of you a whole lot of good things have happened to me. I would do anything in the world for you."

He grinned at her and added, "Course, you might sweeten the pot and give me more chicken some time."

"And you shall always be my own sir knight." Colleen patted his cheek, kissed it and gave him her very best princess smile. Then she added, "It is still impolite to beg for chicken." She an Billy laughed together.

In the front seat, both Martin and Millicent had some moisture in their eyes as they listened to Billy and Colleen in the back seat. She patted her husband's knee and sighed their happiness. Martin sighed a deep sigh of contentment and placed his free right arm around his wife to hug her.

The crowd, two hundred strong, was noisy and restless as neighbors called greetings to friends from neighboring farms. In a community like theirs, an auction was as much a social event as a commercial enterprise to the people.

Buck brought two different men with him. They held seven folding chairs in the front row for the Summers family. Martin let Millicent go first, followed by Colleen and then Billy. As soon as Martin was seated Buck and the two he brought with him sat in the three seats nearest the aisle

Billy watched everything with keen eyes, while Colleen stared at all the people attending, Billy's eyes were on the bidding, who bid on the items and how much. Finally he saw a pattern and sat back with a secretive smile on his face. He kept watching and nodded his head each time he made a correct guess. Martin noticed Billy's antics and wondered what the boy was up to.

Finally the stock was offered up for sale. Buck conferred with Martin. "Boss, that first offering of six mixed milkers is a bad investment. They look sickly to me. But the ten Guernsey heifers might be worth a second look, if the price is right. You buy 'em this year and turn them out with a good bull and you would have that much more milk next year. The Bull and the Swiss milkers behind him might be a good addition. Those Swiss are not as good as what your present stock is over on Number Two, but they will produce. And we do need a new bull." Buck spoke with the authority of long experience.

"Handle the bidding, Buck. I'll rely on your judgment. So far I have been hearing nothing but good about you." Martin did not turn his head, he was looking beyond at yet another offering of six cows. "What about those cows behind the ones you plan to bid on? They were just moved in."

Buck exclaimed, "Hey! Those are your cows. I'll be right back." He motioned to his two men and the three half ran to the holding pen where the cows in question were held. He ran up to a man standing by the gate.

Martin followed close behind. His pulse quickened. He arrived in time to see a man knock Buck down and kick him in the head. Another man slipped up behind Buck's two men and laid them low with an axe handle. "You want to try that on someone facing you?" Martin asked in a soft voice.

The one with the axe handle smirked and stood waiting. Suddenly he raised the weapon and tried to bring it down across Martin's head. Martin leaped forward and smashed the man in the face. He grabbed the handle from a now loosened grasp and tossed it over his shoulder.

Suddenly he heard a scream of pain behind him. A man had fallen forward, a pitchfork tine stuck through his rear end. Billy had hold of the handle, "Don't you move," he yelled, "Or I'll stick you again where it really hurts." His victim moaned aloud from the pain.

"Billy, what are you doing here?" Martin exclaimed.

"Well, someone has to cover your back. You're my dad and I got to protect you." Words Martin would have considered foolish sounding from another boy did not, when they came from Billy's lips.

Almost like the previous Friday, Colleen rushed up and scolded Billy, "Billy, how can I protect you if you run away all the time. We are supposed to be a team. From now on you wait for me."

"Well, you better tell the bad guys to slow down for you. I got to watch my dad's back." Billy stood straight and firm as he looked up at Martin.

Martin helped the bruised Buck back up and then the two groggy farm hands. The three thieves were arrested and taken away. Two policemen dragged the man with the wounded back side away from the scene. One look at the damage Billy had done him was enough to tell Martin the man might never walk with ease again. It appeared to Martin one tine of the pitchfork had penetrated a hip joint. He shook his head.

The auction house owner came up to them, "Would it be alright to start the sale going again, Mister Summers?"

"Don't you have any way of validating ownership of the goods you put on sale here?" Martin asked in a loud voice. It galled him that in two auctions in two weeks he recovered twelve head of cows he was not aware were stolen.

The apologetic auction house owner told him, "Mister Summers, livestock is not like cars and trucks. When they are born you don't automatically get an owner's title with each one. Brands can be altered. Most dairy cows around here are only tagged and not branded, anyway. It's not like we try to find stolen goods, believe me, we don't. I'm sorry this happened but it did.

Buck had trouble talking through swollen lips as he said, "Boss, this started before I ever come to work for you. I'm sorry to say that you brought a lot of this on yourself because you didn't pay enough attention to details and the bad apples took over."

Martin told the auction owner, "I apologize for my intemperate remarks. I spoke from anger, not suspicion."

"That's okay, sir, could we start the sale again?"

"Yes, please do so." He led the way back to their seats.

Buck and his two helpers sat in silence as they endured their hurts and aches. Martin told him, "Buck, you are in no condition to bid, tell me what to do and I'll do the bidding for us."

"Just stay under twenty-five dollars a head for the milk cows we want. At a penny over, let them go. There are more auctions and prices are way down."

When the six they were interested in went on the auction block, Martin opened the bidding at twenty dollars to show his interest. Another man bid twenty-five and martin went to thirty. At one hundred dollars for the six cows, Martin paused to look at Buck.

Billy stood up on his seat and yelled in a loud voice, "Henry Carson, you are a shill. If you open your mouth one more time I'm going to ask my dad here to make you show your money. You don't have the price of a quart of shine in your pockets, I bet."

The man Billy yelled at turned red in the face and walked away. Martin's one hundred dollar bid carried. He hurried up to pay the cashier sitting at a table next to the auctioneer. The auctioneer frowned at Martin but said nothing. Martin paid and returned to his seat. "What about that bull?" he asked Buck.

"At today's prices, you should get it for under about forty or so. Hard as times are, that bull won't go for any more, not around here," Buck answered.

"What is the bull truly worth?" Martin asked.

"A hundred and fifty dollars easy. But nobody has that to spare.

Martin nodded. As the auctioneer opened the bidding, Martin called out in a clear voice, "I bid one hundred fifty dollars. That's it. All anyone has to do to get it is to bid one dollar more." He sat down.

The auctioneer tried to get the bidding started again but nobody offered more. "Sold to Mister Summers for one hundred fifty dollars."

"Oh, Father!" Colleen exclaimed. A matched pair of gray and cream Appaloosa colts were brought out and offered. "Father," she almost begged, "could we?"

Taken aback, Martin blinked and nodded. Before he could speak, Colleen slipped out of her chair and hurried over to the auctioneer. She told him in a firm voice, "We'll take them, how much?"

"Other people have a right to bid on them also, young lady." He smiled at her.

Colleen walked over to the shill who had moved to another spot in the crowd and told him, "You better stay out of this, you hear?" Before the surprised man could answer her she stalked back to her seat.

Billy shook his head and told her, "You're something else, you sure are." She gave him her best princess smile and sat back to wait until her father had someone pick up "her" two ponies.

Josh told Martin to bid thirty for the pair. Martin called, "Same as before. I bid thirty dollars for the pair. Anyone bids a dollar more and they are his."

After the bidding closed, Buck told Martin, "Boss, you have set auctioneering back a hundred years. Nobody comes to an auction and bids a fair price."

"Perhaps they should," Martin told him. "Think of the wasted time that would be saved."