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to the clubhouse this morning and lettered two signs to put on the side of the Model A. They might not be as artistic as the ones Honey and Di would have made, but at least they’re done.“
    “Oh, Jim, stop! Now you’re starting to make me feel guilty! You’ve done everything while we were forgetting all about the rummage sale because of the accident!” Trixie wailed.
    “Your turn is coming up,” Jim said. “Here’s what I started thinking: Our original plan was simply to put up posters around town telling people about the rummage sale and asking them to call us with donations. That would have been fine for a small sale. But now that it’s gotten big, I think we ought to go from door to door asking for donations. We have six days. I think we could cover most of the houses in Sleepyside.”
    “Of course we can!” Trixie said. “Why, almost everyone has a corner of a basement or an attic where they put things they don’t want anymore. When the pile gets big enough, or when they think of it, they call a charity to pick it up, or they have a rummage sale of their own. But if we get there first, I bet we could collect a ton of stuff!”
    “An exceedingly ingenious inspiration,” Mart told Jim approvingly.
    Jim inclined his head toward Mart in a mock bow. “I had time for just one more step,” he said. He reached into his shirt pocket and took out a folded map. “This is Sleepyside-on-the-Hudson,” he announced in the tone of a lecturer. “Notice that a series of heavy black lines have been added to the original cartography. These lines divide the town into roughly equal residential districts. Each district is numbered. My plan is that we divide into teams and cover the town, district by district.”
    “You seem to have thought of everything,” Brian said admiringly.
    “Oh, no, he hasn’t!” Trixie shouted. “I just thought of something else. Let’s divide into teams, as Jim said, but let’s keep the same teams for the next six days. And the team that collects the most wins a prize!”
    “What kind of prize?” Jim asked. “We can’t keep any of the proceeds from the auction for ourselves.“
    “Oh, no! I know that,” Trixie assured him. “But there must be something we could put up to make everyone work a little harder—and to make collecting more fun.”
    “Hmm,” Mart mused. “What if the reward for the most diligent team were not pecuniary but temporal?” he asked.
    Seeing that no one had entirely understood him, Mart hastened to explain. “Let us say that the winning team will earn five hours’ time from the team that comes in last—time to be spent in whatever travail the winners designate,” Mart said.
    “I like that idea,” Jim said. “That way, the prize is from the Bob-Whites to the Bob-Whites.”
    “I also can’t think of anything that would make me work as hard as the fear of being Mart’s slave for five hours,” Trixie added, wrinkling her nose.
    “Uh-oh. I just thought of a problem. How do we divide seven Bob-Whites into equal teams?” Jim asked.
    “Oh, woe!” Trixie moaned. “Math always ruins everything.”
    “Just your report card,” Brian teased. “I have an easy solution to this math problem. For the next five days, there are really eight Bob-Whites—if we count our friendly Model A. It and I will be a team. The attention I collect by driving through my districts in an antique car should more than offset the problems of working alone.”
    “Honey and I are the second team,” Trixie said.
    “I believe that my efforts would be most enhanced by the cooperation of the pulchritudinous Ms. Lynch,” Mart said.
    “That means that Dan and I will be partners,” Jim said. “That’s fine with me.”
    “Let’s get started!” Trixie said enthusiastically.
    “Mart, call Di. Jim, go tell Dan. I’ll go fill Honey in on the plan, and we’ll all meet back here after lunch.”
    “Should we assign districts now?” Jim asked.
    Trixie’s eyes lit up. “Yes,