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 Sloane 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 . To add insult to injury this was the second dasher churn Pa had bought at auction . That settled it . Ma decreed that henceforth she would chaperon Pa when he went to auctions . But this was the day of Pa 's good angel .
When he drove up to the door where Ma was waiting , a breathless , hatless imp XXXXX ten flew into the yard , and hurled himself between Ma and the wagon-step .
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