Finally, she nodded.
“All right.”
May gasped.
“Really?”
“You may use your savings, but your aunt will be the registered bidder, and she must agree before the final bid.”
May hugged her.
“Thank you!”
Her mother smiled.
“And May?”
The girl looked up.
“Don't let those auction men push you into spending more than you've planned.”
“I won't.”
“Promise?”
May nodded solemnly.
“Promise.”
The next afternoon, May's aunt agreed to accompany her.
She was a practical woman who worked at a local farm-supply store and knew how auctions operated.
When May explained the plan, her aunt laughed.
“Fifty-five dollars on a broken tractor?”
May nodded.
“That's my limit.”
The aunt studied the notebook.
Then she asked, “What happens if somebody bids sixty?”
“Then I stop.”
The answer pleased her.
“Good.”
The aunt handed the notebook back.
“An auction isn't a place to let your feelings make your decisions.”
May nodded.
Her aunt continued.
“If you go over your limit because somebody laughs at you, they've already won.”
May considered that.
Then she smiled.
“I won't.”
On the Thursday before the auction, the catalog arrived.
May opened it at the kitchen table.
There were pages of equipment photographs, descriptions, and lot numbers.
She skipped past grain wagons, plows, and pickup trucks until she found Lot 47.
The photograph showed the same rusted green tractor.
The description was short.
John Deere Model B, nonrunning, heavily weathered, engine condition unknown, sold as-is for parts or restoration. No reserve.
May read it twice.
Then she frowned.
There was no mention of the unusual steering housing.
No reference to the identification plate.
Nothing about experimental components.
She showed the catalog to her father.
“Why didn't they put the real number in?”
He examined the listing.
“Maybe they didn't know.”
May looked skeptical.
“But I found it in five minutes.”
Her father smiled.
“You were looking for it.”
She considered that.
Then she asked, “Can we tell them?”
He nodded.
“We can ask whether they know.”
That afternoon, he called the auction office.
The person who answered was the auctioneer himself.
May's father explained that he had inspected the tractor and found an unusual identification plate.