t very spicy. All around hung
little bags full of catnip, and peppermint, and all kinds of herbs;
and dried stalks hung from the ceiling; and on the shelves were jars
of rhubarb, senna, manna, and the like.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

But there was no little old woman. She had gone up into the woods to
get some more wild herbs, so they all thought they would follow
her,--Elizabeth Eliza, Solomon John, and the little boys. They had to
climb up over high rocks, and in among huckleberry-bushes and
blackberry-vines. But the little boys had their india-rubber boots. At
last they discovered the little old woman. They knew her by her hat.
It was steeple-crowned, without any vane. They saw her digging with
her trowel round a sassafras bush. They told her their story,--how
their mother had put salt in her coffee, and how the chemist had made
it worse instead of better, and how their mother couldn't drink it,
and wouldn't she come and see what she could do? And she said she
would, and took up her little old apron, with pockets all round, all
filled with everlasting and pennyroyal, and went back to her house.

[Illustration]

There she stopped, and stuffed her huge pockets with some of all the
kinds of herbs. She took some tansy and peppermint, and caraway-seed
and dill, spearmint and cloves, pennyroyal and sweet marjoram, basil
and rosemary, wild thyme and some of the other time,--such as you have
in clocks,--sappermint and oppermint, catnip, valerian, and hop;
indeed, there isn't a kind of herb you can think of that the little
old woman didn't have done up in her little paper bags, that had all
been dried in her little Dutch-oven. She packed these all up, and
then went back with the children, taking her stick.

Meanwhile Mrs. Peterkin was getting quite impatient for her coffee.

As soon as the little old woman came she had it set over the fire, and
began to stir in the different herbs. First she put in a little hop
for the bitter. Mrs. Peterkin said it tasted like hop-tea, and not at
all like coffee. Then she tried a little flag-root and snakeroot, then
some spruce gum, and some caraway and some dill, some rue and
rosemary, some sweet marjoram and sour, some oppermint and sappermint,
a little spearmint and peppermint, some wild thyme, and some of the
other tame time, some tansy and basil, and catnip and valerian, and
sassafras, ginger, and pennyroyal. The children tasted after each
mixture, but made up dreadful fac