THE PETERKINS' CHRISTMAS-TREE.

Early in the autumn the Peterkins began to prepare for their
Christmas-tree. Everything was done in great privacy, as it was to be
a surprise to the neighbors, as well as to the rest of the family. Mr.
Peterkin had been up to Mr. Bromwick's wood-lot, and, with his
consent, selected the tree. Agamemnon went to look at it occasionally
after dark, and Solomon John made frequent visits to it mornings, just
after sunrise. Mr. Peterkin drove Elizabeth Eliza and her mother that
way, and pointed furtively to it with his whip; but none of them ever
spoke of it aloud to each other. It was suspected that the little boys
had been to see it Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. But they came
home with their pockets full of chestnuts, and said nothing about it.

[Illustration]

At length Mr. Peterkin had it cut down and brought secretly into the
Larkins' barn. A week or two before Christmas a measurement was made
of it with Elizabeth Eliza's yard-measure. To Mr. Peterkin's great
dismay it was discovered that it was too high to stand in the back
parlor.

[Illustration]

This fact was brought out at a secret council of Mr. and Mrs.
Peterkin, Elizabeth Eliza, and Agamemnon.

Agamemnon suggested that it might be set up slanting; but Mrs.
Peterkin was very sure it would make her dizzy, and the candles would
drip.

But a brilliant idea came to Mr. Peterkin. He proposed that the
ceiling of the parlor should be raised to make room for the top of the
tree.

Elizabeth Eliza thought the space would need to be quite large. It
must not be like a small box, or you could not see the tree.

"Yes," said Mr. Peterkin, "I should have the ceiling lifted all across
the room; the effect would be finer."

Elizabeth Eliza objected to having the whole ceiling raised, because
her room was over the back parlor, and she would have no floor while
the alteration was going on, which would be very awkward. Besides, her
room was not very high now, and, if the floor were raised, perhaps
she could not walk in it upright.

Mr. Peterkin explained that he didn't propose altering the whole
ceiling, but to lift up a ridge across the room at the back part where
the tree was to stand. This would make a hump, to be sure, in
Elizabeth Eliza's room; but it would go across the whole room.

Elizabeth Eliza said she would not mind that. It would be like the
cuddy thing that comes up on the deck of a ship, that you sit against,
on