“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.  Somebody bring ’em in, and I buys ’em, or my wife she buys ’em.  How can I tells so long ago?”

“Oh, well, maybe we might take ’em for the girls to have a play party with their own set of dishes,” went on Billy.  “But I wish you had a toy ship.  How much for these dishes—­this sugar bowl and pitcher?”

“How much?  Oh, I let you have these very cheap.  They is worth five dollars—­very rare china—­very thin but hard to break.  These is a good bargain—­a great bargain.  You shall have them for—­two dollars!”

Chapter XXI

Just Suppose

Nan Bobbsey gave gasp, just as if she had fallen into a bath tub full of cold water.  Bert quickly glanced at his friend Billy.  Nell had hurried over to the other side of the room to stop Flossie from pulling a pile of dusty magazines from a shelf down on top of herself.  Billy seemed to be the only one who was not excited.

“Two dollars?” he repeated.  “That’s a lot of money.”  “What?  A lot of money for rich childrens?  Ha!  Ha!  That’s only a little moneys!” laughed the man, rubbing his hands.

“We aren’t rich,” said Bert.  “And I don’t believe we have two dollars.”  He was pretty sure he and Nan had not that much, at any rate.

“How much you got?” asked the man eagerly.  “Maybe I let you have these dishes cheaper, but they’s worth more as two dollars.  How much you all got?”

“How much have you?” asked Billy of Bert.  Bert pulled some change from his pocket.  The two boys counted it.

“Eighty-seven cents,” announced Bert, when they had counted it twice.

“Oh, that isn’t half enough!” cried the old man.

“I have some money,” announced Nan, bringing out her little purse.

“How much?” asked the man.  That seemed to be all he could think about.

Nan and Nell counted the change.  It amounted to thirty-two cents.

“How much is thirty-two and eighty-seven?” asked Nell.

Bert and Billy figured it on a piece of paper.

“A dollar and twenty-nine cents,” announced, Bert.

“No, it’s only a dollar and nineteen,” declared Billy, who was a little better at figures than was his chum.

“How much?” asked the old man, for the children had done their counting on the other side of the room, and in whispers.

“A dollar and nineteen cents!” announced Billy.

“Oh, I couldn’t let you have these dishes, for that,” said the old man, and he seemed about to take them from the counter where they had been put, to place them back in the window.