"Ach! them is a great
bargain. I let you have them cheap. And see, not a chip or a crack on
'em. Good china, too! Very valuable, but they is all I have left. I
sells 'em cheap."
Bert took the sugar bowl and looked closely at it, while Nan took the
pitcher. The children felt sure these were the same pieces that would
fill out Miss Pompret's set.
"Look at the mark on the bottom," whispered Nan to Bert, as the
storekeeper hurried to the other side of the room to rescue a pile of
chairs which Freddie seemed bent on pulling down. "Is the blue lion
there?"
"Yes," answered Bert, "it is."
"And the letters 'J. W.'?"
"Yes," Bert replied. "But, somehow, it doesn't look like the one on Miss
Pompret's plates."
"Oh, I'm sure it's the same one!" insisted Nan. "We've found the missing
pieces, Bert, and we'll get--"
"Hush!" cautioned Billy, for the old man was coming back.
"You want to buy them?" he asked. "I sell cheap. It's a great bargain."
"Where did they come from?" asked Bert.
"Come from? How shoulds I know. Maybe I get 'em at a fire sale, or maybe
all the other dishes in that set get broken, and these all what are
left.
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