“Sure, we hear you. Want us to clap?” answered impudent Sammy Larkins.
“Now see here,” Ruth attempted to order. “If you boys really want to buy anything you have got to stand back and take turns—”
No sooner had that order been given than everybody made a dash for the first place in line, and the tumult that followed all but drove Nancy under the counter.
“Say, look here! Want us to put you all out?” demanded Ted, in unassumed indignation.
“Try it!” tempted Buster, pretending to roll up sleeves he didn’t have.
“But don’t you want to see the things?” cried out Ruth in desperation, for those boys were tumbling around the floor and actually fighting, at least they made that kind of noise, it seemed to the girls.
“Su-ure!” came a chorus.
Then Nancy had an inspiration. She got up on the high stool that stood by what used to be Miss Townsend’s desk and she immediately commanded attention.
“I’ll tell you,” she began, “if you all sit down on the floor just where you are, the window sills or any place, I’ll tell you about some of the most interesting things we’ve got here. They are not for sale, but they belonged to a sea captain—”
The magic word had the desired effect. At the word “sea captain” that crowd of boys, dropped “in their traces,” and it was then Nancy’s duty to unfold to them some wondrous tale.