He Bought The Hay

The man who goes to an auction sober is often tempted to purehase things he does not want and cannot afford to buy. But such temptation ia much stronger when it comes to one who has been imbibing over freely, particularly if he is of a speculative nature. Yet there are a few who have sufflcient wit to get them out of difficulties of this character, even when their braina are more or less befuddled. An amusing occurrence took place at an auction in one of the rural towns of Pennsylvania, where a house, barn and farm were offered for sale. Farmers came from all the surrounding country with a view of making a day of it and aome of them imbibed too muoh corn juice In honor of the occasion. In the barn were stored between 2,000 and 3,000 weight of hay- prime timothy- on which the bidding started at four cents' and gradualiy rose a quarter of a cent at a time, until it neared the market value of 7% or 8 cents per pound. The auctioneer was annoyed by the reckless bidding of a typical old hayseed who was so drunk that he could hardly stand. He was determined to buy that hay, regardless oL its cost, and when the last sober bidder feebly crieci "8 cents" he shouted "ten!" Of course nobody would go higher than that and the farmers chuckled to think how their neighbor wa3 to be taken in. "Do you mean to pay cash for this hay?" asked the auctioneer, who began to believe he had a good thing. "Well, I reckon," replied the inebriated hayseed. "And how many hundredweight are you going to take?" "Dunno as I keer 'bout takin' a hundredwelght," said the purchaser; "you might gimme 'bout one pound." What the auctioneer said will long be remembered by the