round and round in this way."

"I am afraid we shall never reach home," said Agamemnon, who had been
silent for some time; "we may have to spend the night here. I find I
have lost our checks for our clothes in the cloak-room!"

"Spend the night in a booth, in Cleopatra's turban!" exclaimed Mrs.
Peterkin.

"We should like to come every night," cried the little boys.

"But to spend the night," repeated Mrs. Peterkin.

"I conclude the Carnival keeps up all night," said Mr. Peterkin.

"But never to recover our cloaks," said Mrs. Peterkin; "could not the
little boys look round for the checks on the floors?"

She began to enumerate the many valuable things that they might never
see again.

She had worn her large fur cape of stone-marten,--her grandmother's,--that
Elizabeth Eliza had been urging her to have made into a foot-rug. Now
how she wished she had! And there were Mr. Peterkin's new overshoes,
and Agamemnon had brought an umbrella, and the little boys had their
mittens. Their india-rubber boots, fortunately, they had on, in the
character of birds. But Solomon John had worn a fur cap, and Elizabeth
Eliza a muff. Should they lose all these valuables entirely, and go home
in the cold without them? No, it would be better to wait till everybody
had gone, and then look carefully over the floors for the checks; if
only the little boys could know where Agamemnon had been, they were
willing to look. Mr. Peterkin was not sure as they would have time to
reach the train.

Still, they would need something to wear, and he could not tell the
time. He had not brought his watch. It was a Waltham watch, and he
thought it would not be in character for Peter the Great to wear it.

At this moment the strains of "Home, Sweet Home" were heard from the
band, and people were seen preparing to go.

"All can go home, but we must stay," said Mrs. Peterkin, gloomily, as
the well-known strains floated in from the larger hall.

A number of marshals came to the refreshment-room, looked at them,
whispered to each other, as the Peterkins sat in a row.

"Can we do anything for you?" asked one at last. "Would you not like to
go?" He seemed eager they should leave the room.

Mr. Peterkin explained that they could not go, as they had lost the
checks for their wraps, and hoped to find their checks on the floor when
everybody was gone. The marshal asked if they could not describe
what they had worn, in which case the loss of the checks was no