ers they should take.
Elizabeth Eliza was pleased with this thought. She remembered an old
turban of white mull muslin, in an old bandbox, and why should not her
mother wear it?

Mrs. Peterkin supposed that she should then go as her own grandmother.

Agamemnon did not approve of this. Turbans are now worn in the East, and
Mrs.

Peterkin could go in some Eastern character. Solomon John thought she
might be Cleopatra, and this was determined on. Among the treasures
found were some old bonnets, of large size, with waving plumes.
Elizabeth Eliza decided upon the largest of these.

She was tempted to appear as Mrs. Columbus, as Solomon John was to take
the character of Christopher Columbus; but he was planning to enter
upon the stage in a boat, and Elizabeth Eliza was a little afraid of
sea-sickness, as he had arranged to be a great while finding the shore.

Solomon John had been led to take this character by discovering a
coal-hod that would answer for a helmet; then, as Christopher Columbus
was born in Genoa, he could use the phrases in Italian he had lately
learned of his teacher.

As the day approached the family had their costumes prepared.

Mr. Peterkin decided to be Peter the Great. It seemed to him a happy
thought, for the few words of Russian he had learned would come in play,
and he was quite sure that his own family name made him kin to that of
the great Czar. He studied up the life in the Encyclopaedia, and decided
to take the costume of a ship-builder. He visited the navy-yard and
some of the docks; but none of them gave him the true idea of dress for
ship-building in Holland or St. Petersburg.

But he found a picture of Peter the Great, representing him in a
broad-brimmed hat. So he assumed one that he found at a costumer's,
and with Elizabeth Eliza's black waterproof was satisfied with his own
appearance.

Elizabeth Eliza wondered if she could not go with her father in some
Russian character. She would have to lay aside her large bonnet, but she
had seen pictures of Russian ladies, with fur muffs on their heads, and
she might wear her own muff.

Mrs. Peterkin, as Cleopatra, wore the turban, with a little row of false
curls in front, and a white embroidered muslin shawl crossed over her
black silk dress. The little boys thought she looked much like the
picture of their great-grandmother. But doubtless Cleopatra resembled
this picture, as it was all so long ago, so the rest of the family
decided.