He seemed disturbed, but said nothing.
The following forenoon, when he and I were making a hot-bed for early garden vegetables, he remarked that he meant to go to that auction.
It was not the kind of auction sale that draws a crowd of people; there was only one piece of property to be sold, and that was an expensive one.

Not more than twenty persons came to it--mostly prosperous farmers or lumbermen, who intended to buy the place as a speculation if it should go at a low price.

The old Squire was not there; he had gone to Portland the day before; but Addison went over, as he had planned, and Willis Murch and I went with him.
Hilburn, the tax collector, was there, and two of the selectmen of the town, besides Cole, the auctioneer.

At four o'clock Hilburn stood on the house steps, read the published notice of the sale and the court warrant for it.

The town, he said, would deduct $114--the amount of unpaid taxes--from the sum received for the farm.