e it!" exclaimed the chemist,--"a little ammonia is just
the thing!" No, it wasn't the thing at all.

Then he tried, each in turn, some oxalic, cyanic, acetic, phosphoric,
chloric, hyperchloric, sulphuric, boracic, silicic, nitric, formic,
nitrous nitric, and carbonic acids. Mrs. Peterkin tasted each, and
said the flavor was pleasant, but not precisely that of coffee. So
then he tried a little calcium, aluminum, barium, and strontium, a
little clear bitumen, and a half of a third of a sixteenth of a grain
of arsenic. This gave rather a pretty color; but still Mrs. Peterkin
ungratefully said it tasted of anything but coffee. The chemist was
not discouraged. He put in a little belladonna and atropine, some
granulated hydrogen, some potash, and a very little antimony,
finishing off with a little pure carbon. But still Mrs. Peterkin was
not satisfied.

The chemist said that all he had done ought to have taken out the
salt. The theory remained the same, although the experiment had
failed. Perhaps a little starch would have some effect. If not, that
was all the time he could give. He should like to be paid, and go.
They were all much obliged to him, and willing to give him $1.37-1/2
in gold. Gold was now 2.69-3/4, so Mr. Peterkin found in the
newspaper. This gave Agamemnon a pretty little sum. He sat himself
down to do it. But there was the coffee! All sat and thought awhile,
till Elizabeth Eliza said, "Why don't we go to the herb-woman?"
Elizabeth Eliza was the only daughter. She was named after her two
aunts,--Elizabeth, from the sister of her father; Eliza, from her
mother's sister. Now, the herb-woman was an old woman who came round
to sell herbs, and knew a great deal. They all shouted with joy at the
idea of asking her, and Solomon John and the younger children agreed
to go and find her too. The herb-woman lived down at the very end of
the street; so the boys put on their india-rubber boots again, and
they set off. It was a long walk through the village, but they came at
last to the herb-woman's house, at the foot of a high hill. They went
through her little garden. Here she had marigolds and hollyhocks, and
old maids and tall sunflowers, and all kinds of sweet-smelling herbs,
so that the air was full of tansy-tea and elder-blow. Over the porch
grew a hop-vine, and a brandy-cherry tree shaded the door, and a
luxuriant cranberry-vine flung its delicious fruit across the window.
They went into a small parlor, which smel