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We thought Haines would get it; but Lurvey finally cried, "Two thousand twenty-five!" and the auctioneer began calling, "Going going going for two thousand twenty-five!" when Addison shouted, "Two thousand fifty!" Lurvey cast an angry look at him.
"They'll get it off on to you if you don't take care." And I pulled his sleeve impatiently. Willis was grinning broadly; he also thought that Addison was bluffing the other bidders. Haines then said, "Nineteen hundred"; and Lurvey at once cried, "Nineteen twenty-five!" It was now apparent that Lurvey meant to get the farm if he could, and that Haines also wanted it.
After he began to do sums in multiplication on his slate, he was likely to burst forth singing in school hours: "Seven times eight are fifty-six and carry five. Seven times nine are sixty-three and carry seven. No, no, no, no, carry six!" "But, Mr. Lurvey, you must keep quiet in school!" the afflicted master remonstrated for the hundredth time. "No one else can study."
Two winters before he had contracted with old Zack Lurvey to cut three hundred thousand feet of hemlock logs and draw them to the bank of a small river where in the spring they could be floated down to Lurvey's Mills. For hauling the logs he had two yokes of oxen, the yoke of large eight-year-olds that I have already described, and another yoke of small, white-faced cattle.
But in December of that second winter John Lurvey died suddenly of pneumonia. His property passed into the hands of his wife, who was by no means easy-going. She overhauled this note-book agreement, took legal advice of a sharp lawyer, and on February 21st sent us legal notification that the agreement would expire on February 28th, the last day of winter, according to the calendar.
When Zack's turn came, the old fellow replied promptly: "Zack Lurvey, fifty-eight years, five months and eighteen days." "Zack?" the master queried in some perplexity. "Does that stand for Zachary? How do you spell it?" "I never spelled it," old Zack replied with a grin. "I'm here to larn how. Fact is, I'm jest a leetle backward."
"Yes, Joseph, they're chips of the old block!" grandmother chimed in. "And we've beaten that wicked woman!" Mrs. Lurvey, as I may add here, was far from sharing in our exultation. She was a person of violent temper. It was said that she shook with rage when she heard what we boys had done. But her lawyer advised her to keep quiet.
This same week, I think, there was a commotion throughout the town on account of exciting incidents in what was known as the "Mills" school district, four miles from the old Squire's, where a "pupil" nearly sixty years old was bent on attending school contrary to law! For ten or fifteen years Zachary Lurvey had been the old Squire's rival in the lumber business.
The others, too, seemed surprised at Addison's bid. Lurvey turned and looked at him sharply. I suppose he thought that Addison was bidding for the old Squire; but I knew that the old Squire had no thought of buying the farm. After a few moments Lurvey called, "Eighteen hundred!" "Eighteen fifty," said Addison; and now I grew uneasy for him in good earnest. "You had better stop that," I whispered.
Lurvey looked suspicious and disgruntled, but after a pause, said in a low voice, "Nineteen seventy-five." Haines then raised the bid to $2,000, and the auctioneer repeated that offer several times.
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