he idea.

"That's the bookcase part," said Elizabeth Eliza; "but where are the
books?"

So they sat and thought a little while, when Solomon John exclaimed,
"I will make a book!"

They all looked at him in wonder.

"Yes," said Solomon John, "books will make us wise; but first I must
make a book."

So they went into the parlor, and sat down to make a book. But there
was no ink. What should he do for ink? Elizabeth Eliza said she had
heard that nutgalls and vinegar made very good ink. So they decided to
make some. The little boys said they could find some nutgalls up in
the woods. So they all agreed to set out and pick some. Mrs. Peterkin
put on her cape-bonnet, and the little boys got into their
india-rubber boots, and off they went.

The nutgalls were hard to find. There was almost everything else in
the woods,--chestnuts and walnuts, and small hazel-nuts, and a great
many squirrels; and they had to walk a great way before they found any
nutgalls. At last they came home with a large basket and two nutgalls
in it. Then came the question of the vinegar. Mrs. Peterkin had used
her very last on some beets they had the day before. "Suppose we go
and ask the minister's wife," said Elizabeth Eliza. So they all went
to the minister's wife. She said if they wanted some good vinegar they
had better set a barrel of cider down in the cellar, and in a year or
two it would make very nice vinegar. But they said they wanted it that
very afternoon. When the minister's wife heard this she said she
should be very glad to let them have some vinegar, and gave them a
cupful to carry home.

So they stirred in the nutgalls, and by the time evening came they had
very good ink.

[Illustration]

[Illustration: SOLOMON JOHN'S BOOK--Page 26.]

Then Solomon John wanted a pen. Agamemnon had a steel one, but Solomon
John said, "Poets always used quills." Elizabeth Eliza suggested that
they should go out to the poultry-yard and get a quill. But it was
already dark. They had, however, two lanterns, and the little boys
borrowed the neighbors'. They set out in procession for the
poultry-yard. When they got there the fowls were all at roost, so
they could look at them quietly. But there were no geese! There were
Shanghais, and Cochin-Chinas, and Guinea hens, and Barbary hens, and
speckled hens, and Poland roosters, and bantams, and ducks, and
turkeys, but not one goose! "No geese but ourselves," said Mrs.
Peterkin, wittily, as they returned