en, taking her stick.

Meanwhile Mrs. Peterkin was getting quite impatient for her coffee.

As soon as the little old woman came she had it set over the fire, and
began to stir in the different herbs. First she put in a little hop for
the bitter. Mrs.

Peterkin said it tasted like hop-tea, and not at all like coffee. Then
she tried a little flagroot and snakeroot, then some spruce gum, and
some caraway and some dill, some rue and rosemary, some sweet marjoram
and sour, some oppermint and sappermint, a little spearmint and
peppermint, some wild thyme, and some of the other tame time, some
tansy and basil, and catnip and valerian, and sassafras, ginger, and
pennyroyal. The children tasted after each mixture, but made up dreadful
faces. Mrs. Peterkin tasted, and did the same. The more the old woman
stirred, and the more she put in, the worse it all seemed to taste.

So the old woman shook her head, and muttered a few words, and said
she must go. She believed the coffee was bewitched. She bundled up her
packets of herbs, and took her trowel, and her basket, and her stick,
and went back to her root of sassafras, that she had left half in the
air and half out. And all she would take for pay was five cents in
currency.

Then the family were in despair, and all sat and thought a great while.
It was growing late in the day, and Mrs. Peterkin hadn't had her cup
of coffee. At last Elizabeth Eliza said, "They say that the lady from
Philadelphia, who is staying in town, is very wise. Suppose I go and ask
her what is best to be done." To this they all agreed, it was a great
thought, and off Elizabeth Eliza went.

She told the lady from Philadelphia the whole story,--how her mother had
put salt in the coffee; how the chemist had been called in; how he tried
everything but could make it no better; and how they went for the little
old herb-woman, and how she had tried in vain, for her mother couldn't
drink the coffee. The lady from Philadelphia listened very attentively,
and then said, "Why doesn't your mother make a fresh cup of coffee?"
Elizabeth Eliza started with surprise.

Solomon John shouted with joy; so did Agamemnon, who had just finished
his sum; so did the little boys, who had followed on. "Why didn't we
think of that?" said Elizabeth Eliza; and they all went back to their
mother, and she had her cup of coffee.

ABOUT ELIZABETH ELIZA'S PIANO.

ELIZABETH ELIZA had a present of a piano, and she was to take lesso