ll the family came out to greet them, for they had been
seen approaching. There was great questioning, but no Elizabeth Eliza!

It was sunset; the view was wide and fine. Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin stood
and looked out from the north to the south. Was it too late to send back
for Elizabeth Eliza? Where was she?

Meanwhile the little boys had been informing the family of the object
of their visit, and while Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin were looking up and down
the road, and Agamemnon and Solomon John were explaining to each other
the details of their journeys, they had discovered some facts.

"We shall have to go back," they exclaimed. "We are too late! The
maple-syrup was all made last spring."

"We are too early; we shall have to stay two or three months,--the cider
is not made till October."

The expedition was a failure! They could study the making of neither
maple-syrup nor cider, and Elizabeth Eliza was lost, perhaps forever!
The sun went down, and Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin still stood to look up and
down the road.

... Elizabeth Eliza meanwhile, had sat upon her trunk, as it
seemed for ages. She recalled all the terrible stories of prisoners,--how
they had watched the growth of flowers through cracks in the pavement.
She wondered how long she could live without eating. How thankful she
was for her abundant breakfast!

At length she heard the door-bell. But who could go to the door to
answer it? In vain did she make another effort to escape; it was
impossible!

How singular!--there were footsteps. Some one was going to the door; some
one had opened it. "They must be burglars." Well, perhaps that was a
better fate--to be gagged by burglars, and the neighbors informed--than
to be forever locked on her trunk. The steps approached the door. It
opened, and Amanda ushered in the expressman.

Amanda had not gone. She had gathered, while waiting at the
breakfast-table, that there was to be an expressman whom she must
receive.

Elizabeth Eliza explained the situation. The expressman turned the key
of her trunk, and she was released!

What should she do next? So long a time had elapsed, she had given up
all hope of her family returning for her. But how could she reach them?

She hastily prevailed upon the expressman to take her along until she
should come up with some of the family. At least she would fall in with
either the walking party or the carryall, or she would meet them if they
were on their return.

She mounted the