PATHETIC SCENE IN AN AUCTION ROOM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12609, 25 June 1904, Page 5 (Supplement)

PATHETIC SCENE IN AN AUCTION ROOM.

Tone was an auction at one of ; the sabnrban auction rooms of London 'recently..' A pale, sad-faced women, in » plain, calico gown, ; stood •in a crowd. The loud-voiced auctioneer finally came to a lot of plain" and; somewhat worn furniture-. It. bad belonged to the pale woman, and was.being sold'to satisfy the bill of sale on it. • One by one : the articles were sold, the old bureau to on®, the easy rocker to another, and a bedstead to a third;? Final! the auctioneer hauled out a" child 1 ;; - high chair. It was old and rickety, arid as the auctioneer held it up, everybody laughed—everybody excepting the. rale-faced woman. A tear trickled down her cheek.. The auctioneer saw it, and somehow, a lump seemed to"come up in bis throat, and his gruff voice grew soft. He remembered a little high chair at home, and how it had once fined hie life with sunshine. . It was empty now. The baby laugh, the two little hands that were once held out to greet " papa" from that high I chair ■ ware gone for ever, tie saw that pale-faced woman's i piteous looks, : . and ' knew <■~ what $it meant— 'that in'» her eyes the rickety high chair was more precious thai'if it had been made of gold and studded with diamonds. ' ' In imagination he could see the title dimpled cherub which it once held, could see the chubby fist grasping the tin ratths-box, and> pounding the chair full of nicks; could see the .little' feet which had • rubbed the paint off the legs";, could hear the crowing and laughing in glee—and nowthe Little high chair was empty. knew,there.was.an aching void in the pale-faced woman's heartthere was in his own. Somehow the day may come at.d go, but you never get over it. There is no one to dress in the morning, no one 'bo put to bed at night. . . .&&&. " Don't laugh 1" said the auctioneer, softly, as somebody facetiously offered twopence, " many of you have empty high chairs ,at home which money would not tempt you to part with." Then he handed the «lerk half-a-crown out of his own pocket, and remarked i-?" • >.} ;.,*; llr "Sold to the lady over there.","' .; ,:;: Arid as the pale-faced woman walked out with ; the little high chair clasped Vin her. arms, and tears streaming down her cheeks, the crowd stood back respectfully, and there was a suspicions moisture in the eyes "of the man who had bid ninepeace.