a pikestaff!

MRS. PETERKIN.--No; we had the horse faced in the wrong
direction,--toward Providence.

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--And mother was afraid to have me turn, and we kept
on and on till we should reach a wide place.

MRS. PETERKIN.--I thought we should come to a road that would veer off
to the right or left, and bring us back to the right direction.

MOTHER.--Could not you all get out and turn the thing round?

MRS. PETERKIN.--Why, no; if it had broken down we should not have been
in anything, and could not have gone anywhere.

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--Yes, I have always heard it was best to stay in the
carriage, whatever happens.

JULIA.--But nothing seemed to happen.

MRS. PETERKIN.--Oh, yes; we met one man after another, and we asked
the way to Boston.

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--And all they would say was, "Turn right round,--you
are on the road to Providence."

MRS. PETERKIN.--As if we could turn right round! That was just what we
couldn't.

MOTHER.--You don't mean you kept on all the way to Providence?

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--Oh, dear, no! We kept on and on, till we met a man
with a black hand-bag,--black leather, I should say.

JULIA.--He must have been a book-agent.

MRS. PETERKIN.--I dare say he was; his bag seemed heavy. He set it on
a stone.

MOTHER.--I dare say it was the same one that came here the other day.
He wanted me to buy the "History of the Aborigines, Brought up from
Earliest Times to the Present Date," in four volumes. I told him I
hadn't time to read so much. He said that was no matter, few did, and
it wasn't much worth it; they bought books for the look of the thing.

AMANDA.--Now, that was illiterate; he never could have graduated. I
hope, Elizabeth Eliza, you had nothing to do with that man.

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--Very likely it was not the same one.

MOTHER.--Did he have a kind of pepper-and-salt suit, with one of the
buttons worn?

MRS. PETERKIN.--I noticed one of the buttons was off.

AMANDA.--We're off the subject. Did you buy his book?

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--He never offered us his book.

MRS. PETERKIN.--He told us the same story,--we were going to
Providence; if we wanted to go to Boston we must turn directly round.

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--I told him I couldn't; but he took the horse's head,
and the first thing I knew--

AMANDA.--He had yanked you round!

MRS. PETERKIN.--I screamed; I couldn't help it!

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--I was glad when it was over!

MOTHER.--Well, well; it shows the di