Under Sealed Orders | Page 5

this
effort on his part, and several wondered and spoke about it afterwards.

At first the old man did not seem to realise the purpose of the gathering.
But when he saw the auctioneer mount a box alongside of him and call
for bids, the truth of the entire situation dawned upon him. He was to
be sold as a pauper to the lowest bidder, so he heard the auctioneer say.
For an instant a deep feeling of anger stirred within his bosom, and he
lifted his head as if to say something. But seeing the eyes of all fixed
upon him, he desisted.
"What am I offered for the keep of this old man?" the auctioneer cried.
"The lowest bid gets him."
"Two hundred dollars," came from a man not far off.
"Two hundred dollars!" and the auctioneer turned fiercely upon him.
"You're out for a bargain, Joe Tippits. Why, he's worth that to any man
for a year's work. He'll be able to do many an odd job. Come, you can
do better than that."
"One seventy-five," came from another.
"Too much," the auctioneer cried. "The parish can't stand that."
"One fifty, then."
"That's better, Joe. Try again. You're a long way off yet."
"I'll take the critter fer one hundred dollars, and not a cent less."
At these emphatic words all turned and stared hard at the speaker. A
perceptible shiver passed through the bystanders, while several
muttered protests were heard.
"Oh, I hope he won't get him, anyway," Mrs. Munson whispered to a
neighbour. "Jim Goban isn't a fit man to look after a snake, and if he
gets Crazy David in his clutches may God have mercy upon the poor
old man."
"One hundred dollars I am offered," again the voice of the auctioneer
rang out. "Can any one do better than that? One hundred dollars. Going

at one hundred dollars. I shan't dwell. One--hundred--dollars--and--sold
to Jim Goban for one hundred dollars."
This inhuman traffic did not seriously affect the people who had
gathered for the auction. When it was over, they quickly dispersed, to
discuss with one another about the life Jim Goban would lead Crazy
David. It was an incident of only a passing moment, and mattered little
more to them than if it had been a horse or a cow which had been sold
instead of a poor feeble old man.
It was the custom which had been going on for years, and it was the
only way they could see out of the difficult problem of dealing with
paupers.
When Jim Goban reached home with his purchase, dinner was ready.
There were five young Gobans who stared curiously upon David as he
took his seat at the table. Mrs. Goban was a thin-face, tired looking
woman who deferred to her husband in everything. There was nothing
else for her to do, as she had found out shortly after their marriage what
a brute he was.
David was pleased at the presence of the children and he often turned
his eyes upon them.
"Nice children," he at length remarked, speaking for the first time since
his arrival.
"So ye think they're nice, do ye?" Jim queried, leaning over and looking
the old man in the eyes.
"Why, yes," David replied, shrinking back somewhat from the coarse
face. "All children are nice to me, but yours are especially fine ones.
What nice hair they have, and such beautiful eyes. I suppose the oldest
go to school."
"Naw. They never saw the inside of a school house."
"You don't say so!" and David looked his astonishment. "Surely there

must be a school near here."
"Oh, yes, there's a school all right, but they've never gone. I don't set
any store by eddication. What good is it to any one, I'd like to know?
Will it help a man to hoe a row of pertaters, or a woman to bake bread?
Now, look at me. I've no eddication, an' yit I've got a good place here,
an' a bank account. You've got eddication, so I understand, an' what
good is it to you? I'm one of the biggest tax-payers in the parish, an'
you, why yer nothing but a pauper, the Devil's Poor."
At this cruel reminder David shrank back as from a blow, and never
uttered another word during the rest of the meal. The iron was entering
into his soul, and he was beginning to understand something of the
ignominy he was to endure at this house.
"Now look here," Jim began when they were through with dinner, "I've
a big pile of wood out there in the yard, an' I want ye to tote it into the
wood-house an' pile it up. I'll show ye where to put it. I'm gittin' mighty
little fer yer