Laurie, unconsciously rubbing a wrist, smiled as he listened to the comments of the dissolving audience. "Well, but there's no getting around the fact that it was the same boy," declared a pompous little gentleman to his companion. "Same hair and eyes and everything! Couldn't be two boys as much alike, eh? Not possibly! Very clever!"
Laurie chuckled as he made his way to Polly's booth. That young lady looked a little tired, and, by the same token, so did the Yale booth! Only a bare dozen framed pictures and a small number of post-cards remained of her stock. "Don't you think I've done awfully well?" asked Polly, a trifle pathetically. She seemed to need praise, and Laurie supplied it.
"Corking, Polly," he assured her. "I guess you've sold more than any of the others, haven't you?"
"N-no, I guess some of the others have done better, Nod; but I think they had more attractive articles, don't you? Anyhow, I've taken in twelve dollars and thirty cents since supper, and I made four dollars and eighty-five cents this afternoon; only I must have dropped a dime somewhere, for I'm ten cents short. Or perhaps someone didn't give me the right amount."
"Why, that's seventeen dollars!" exclaimed Laurie. "I didn't think you had anywhere near seventeen dollars' worth of things here, Polly!"
"Oh, I didn't! Not nearly! Why, if I'd sold things at the prices marked on them, Nod, I wouldn't have had more than half as much! But lots of folks _wanted_ to pay more, and I let them. Mr. Conklin, the jeweler, bought a picture, one of the funny landscapes with the frames that didn't fit at the corners, and he said it was ridiculous to sell it for a quarter, and he gave me a dollar for it. Then he held the picture up and just laughed and laughed at it! I guess he just wanted to spend his money, don't you? You know, Ned said we were to get as much as we could for things, so I usually added ten cents to the price that was marked on them--sometimes more, if a person looked extravagant. One lady came back and said she'd paid twenty-five cents for a picture and it was marked fifteen on the back. I said I was sorry she was dissatisfied and I'd be very glad to buy it back from her for twenty."
Laurie laughed. "What did she say to that?" he asked.