inheritance.

Two days later an advertisement appeared in the newspaper. It proclaimed a giant auction, at the Smith estate, of all his household goods. The auction was open to all members of the public, so of course the boys decided to go to it, along with Mum.

"What about granny?" said Jodey, "Do you think she would like to go too?"

"She might?" said Mum, "I'll give her a ring."

When granny heard about the auction she had to be told all over again about who Mr. Smith was, and how he had died. It took Mum about ten minutes to get back to the point.

"Yes," said granny, "I'd love to come."

So Mum drove round to the 'Everglades' and picked her up. Jodey and Nip sat in the back seat, blowing bubbles with their gum and elbowing each other.

When they reached the gates there were cars parked all down the road, both sides. People were still arriving and walking in, so Mum had to find a park as near as possible, then she and Jodey took an arm and helped granny walk slowly to the auction. They moved like snails, as granny shuffled along.

"Oh my," said the bent old woman, "I remember when I was a girl, I used to run all the way up this hill from the bottom."

By the time they got to the house, the auction was well under way. The auctioneer was standing on the top step, shouting, with a bundle of papers in one hand, and all around him were the treasures from the house. Statues, paintings, cutlery, rugs, ornaments of every shape and size; in one section a pile of books, in another a box of ancient toys; carvings, tools, a rusty gun; a lawn mower, bits of machinery, the mudguard off a vintage car, deer's antlers and heaps of linen.

Granny managed to get into a gap in the crowd of people. Mum held her so she wouldn't fall over, and Nip stayed nearby, just in case. Some of the items were valuable, and fetched very high prices, while other things were sold off cheap.

"I can't understand a word of what he's saying," chuckled granny, "That man ought to learn how to talk slowly!"

The auctioneer moved across to a pile of picture frames and started the bidding at a hundred dollars. Nobody wanted them. The bid dropped to fifty. Still there were