`` I dunno but what I might step over , seeing it 's so handy . But the sorrel mare really does need shoeing , Ma , '' protested Pa. . `` There 's always something needing to be done if it 's convenient , '' retorted Ma . `` Your mania for auctions will be the ruin of you yet , Pa. . A man of fifty-five ought to have grown out of such a hankering . But the older you get the worse you get . Anyway , if I wanted to go to auctions , I 'd select them as was something like , and not waste my time on little one-horse affairs like this of Garland 's . '' `` One might pick up something real cheap at Garland 's , '' said Pa defensively . `` Well , you are not going to pick up anything , cheap or otherwise , Pa Sloane , because I 'm going with you to see that you do n't . I know I ca n't stop you from going . I might as well try to stop the wind from blowing . But I shall go , too , out of self-defence . This house is so full now of old clutter and truck that you 've brought home from auctions that I feel as if I was made up out of pieces and left overs . '' Pa Sloane sighed again . It was not exhilarating to attend an auction with Ma . She would never let him bid on anything . But he realized that Ma 's mind was made up beyond the power of mortal man 's persuasion to alter it , so he went out to hitch up . Pa Sloane 's dissipation was going to auctions and buying things that nobody else would buy . Ma Sloane 's patient endeavours of over thirty years had been able to effect only a partial reform . Sometimes Pa heroically refrained from going to an auction for six months at a time ; then he would break out worse than ever , go to all that took place for miles around , and come home with a wagonful of misfits .
His last exploit had been to bid on an old dasher churn for five dollars -- the boys `` ran things up '' on Pa XXXXX for the fun of it -- and bring it home to outraged Ma , who had made her butter for fifteen years in the very latest , most up-to-date barrel churn .
Garland Sloane auctions clutter hankering months overs self-defence shoeing years