e carriage again, and put in the currants and the
gooseberries and the flowers; and Elizabeth Eliza shook the reins, and
they all clucked; but still the horse would not go!

"We must either give up our ride," said Mrs. Peterkin, mournfully, "or
else send over to the lady from Philadelphia, and see what she will
say."

The little boys jumped out as quickly as they could; they were eager to
go and ask the lady from Philadelphia. Elizabeth Eliza went with them,
while her mother took the reins.

They found that the lady from Philadelphia was very ill that day, and
was in her bed. But when she was told what the trouble was, she very
kindly said they might draw up the curtain from the window at the foot
of the bed, and open the blinds, and she would see. Then she asked for
her opera-glass, and looked through it, across the way, up the street,
to Mrs. Peterkin's door.

After she had looked through the glass, she laid it down, leaned her
head back against the pillow, for she was very tired, and then said,
"Why don't you unchain the horse from the horse-post?"

Elizabeth Eliza and the little boys looked at one another, and then
hurried back to the house and told their mother. The horse was untied,
and they all went to ride.

THE PETERKINS AT HOME. AT DINNER.

ANOTHER little incident occurred in the Peterkin family. This was at
dinner-time.

They sat down to a dish of boiled ham. Now it was a peculiarity of the
children of the family, that half of them liked fat, and half liked
lean. Mr. Peterkin sat down to cut the ham. But the ham turned out to
be a very remarkable one. The fat and the lean came in separate
slices,--first one of lean, than one of fat, then two slices of lean,
and so on. Mr. Peterkin began as usual by helping the children first,
according to their age. Now Agamemnon, who liked lean, got a fat slice;
and Elizabeth Eliza, who preferred fat, had a lean slice. Solomon John,
who could eat nothing but lean, was helped to fat, and so on. Nobody had
what he could eat.

It was a rule of the Peterkin family, that no one should eat any of the
vegetables without some of the meat; so now, although the children saw
upon their plates apple-sauce and squash and tomato and sweet potato and
sour potato, not one of them could eat a mouthful, because not one was
satisfied with the meat. Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin, however, liked both fat
and lean, and were making a very good meal, when they looked up and saw
the childr