s harder to take it out. But, with the help of the driver, and Mr.
Peterkin, and old Mr. Bromwick, it was got up the hill.

[Illustration]

And at last all was arranged. Mr. Peterkin was seated in his chair.
The other was offered to the lady from Philadelphia, but she preferred
the carriage cushions; so did old Mr. Bromwick. And the table-cloth
was spread,--for they did bring a table-cloth,--and the baskets were
opened, and the picnic really began. The pickles had tumbled into the
butter, and the spoons had been forgotten, and the Tremletts' basket
had been left on their front door-step. But nobody seemed to mind.
Everybody was hungry, and everything they ate seemed of the best. The
little boys were perfectly happy, and ate of all the kinds of cake.
Two of the Tremletts would stand while they were eating, because they
were afraid of the ants and the spiders that seemed to be crawling
round. And Elizabeth Eliza had to keep poking with a fern-leaf to
drive the insects out of the plates. The lady from Philadelphia was
made comfortable with the cushions and shawls, leaning against a rock.
Mrs. Peterkin wondered if she forgot she had been forgotten.

John Osborne said it was time for conundrums, and asked, "Why is a
pastoral musical play better than the music we have here? Because one
is a grasshopper, and the other is a grass-opera!"

Elizabeth Eliza said she knew a conundrum, a very funny one, one of
her friends in Boston had told her. It was, "Why is----" It began,
"Why is something like----"--no, "Why are they different?" It was
something about an old woman, or else it was something about a young
one. It was very funny, if she could only think what it was about, or
whether it was alike or different.

The lady from Philadelphia was proposing they should guess Elizabeth
Eliza's conundrum, first the question, and then the answer, when one
of the Tremletts came running down the hill, and declared she had just
discovered a very threatening cloud, and she was sure it was going to
rain down directly. Everybody started up, though no cloud was to be
seen.

There was a great looking for umbrellas and waterproofs. Then it
appeared that Elizabeth Eliza had left hers, after all, though she had
gone back for it twice. Mr. Peterkin knew he had not forgotten his
umbrella, because he had put the whole umbrella-stand into the wagon,
and it had been brought up the hill, but it proved to hold only the
family canes!

[Illustration]