ere perfectly
happy, and ate of all the kinds of cake. Two of the Tremletts would
stand while they were eating, because they were afraid of the ants and
the spiders that seemed to be crawling round. And Elizabeth Eliza had to
keep poking with a fern leaf to drive the insects out of the plates.
The lady from Philadelphia was made comfortable with the cushions and
shawls, leaning against a rock. Mrs. Peterkin wondered if she forgot she
had been forgotten.

John Osborne said it was time for conundrums, and asked: "Why is a
pastoral musical play better than the music we have here? Because one is
a grasshopper, and the other is a grass-opera!"

Elizabeth Eliza said she knew a conundrum, a very funny one, one of her
friends in Boston had told her. It was, "Why is--" It began, "Why is
something like--no, Why are they different?" It was something about an
old woman, or else it was something about a young one. It was very
funny, if she could only think what it was about, or whether it was
alike or different.

The lady from Philadelphia was proposing they should guess Elizabeth
Eliza's conundrum, first the question, and then the answer, when one
of the Tremletts came running down the hill, and declared she had just
discovered a very threatening cloud, and she was sure it was going to
rain down directly.

Everybody started up, though no cloud was to be seen.

There was a great looking for umbrellas and water-proofs. Then it
appeared that Elizabeth Eliza had left hers, after all, though she had
gone back for it twice.

Mr. Peterkin knew he had not forgotten his umbrella, because he had put
the whole umbrella-stand into the wagon, and it had been brought up the
hill, but it proved to hold only the family canes!

There was a great cry for the "emergency basket," that had not been
opened yet.

Mrs. Peterkin explained how for days the family had been putting into
it what might be needed, as soon as anything was thought of. Everybody
stopped to see its contents. It was carefully covered with newspapers.
First came out a backgammon-board. "That would be useful," said Ann
Maria, "if we have to spend the afternoon in anybody's barn." Next, a
pair of andirons. "What were they for?" "In case of needing a fire
in the woods," explained Solomon John. Then came a volume of the
Encyclopaedia. But it was the first volume, Agamemnon now regretted, and
contained only A and a part of B, and nothing about rain or showers.
Next, a bag of pea