they all were. Their trunks, to be
sure, had not arrived; but the wagon was to be sent back for them, and,
wonderful to tell, they had all their hand-baggage safe.

Agamemnon had brought his Portable Electrical Machine and Apparatus, and
the volumes of the Encyclopaedia that might tell him how to manage it,
and Solomon John had his photograph camera. The little boys had used
their india-rubber boots as portmanteaux, filling them to the brim, and
carrying one in each hand,--a very convenient way for travelling they
considered it; but they found on arriving (when they wanted to put their
boots directly on for exploration round the house), that it was somewhat
inconvenient to have to begin to unpack directly, and scarcely room
enough could be found for all the contents in the small chamber allotted
to them.

There was no room in the house for the electrical machine and camera.
Elizabeth Eliza thought the other boarders were afraid of the machine
going off; so an out-house was found for them, where Agamemnon and
Solomon John could arrange them.

Mrs. Peterkin was much pleased with the old-fashioned porch and
low-studded rooms, though the sleeping-rooms seemed a little stuffy at
first.

Mr. Peterkin was delighted with the admirable order in which the farm
was evidently kept. From the first moment he arrived he gave himself
to examining the well-stocked stables and barns, and the fields and
vegetable gardens, which were shown to him by a highly intelligent
person, a Mr. Atwood, who devoted himself to explaining to Mr. Peterkin
all the details of methods in the farming.

The rest of the family were disturbed at being so far from the sea, when
they found it would take nearly all the afternoon to reach the beach.
The advertisements had surely stated that the "Old Farm" was directly on
the shore, and that sea-bathing would be exceedingly convenient; which
was hardly the case if it took you an hour and a half to walk to it.

Mr. Peterkin declared there were always such discrepancies between the
advertisements of seaside places and the actual facts; but he was more
than satisfied with the farm part, and was glad to remain and admire it,
while the rest of the family went to find the beach, starting off in a
wagon large enough to accommodate them, Agamemnon driving the one horse.

Solomon John had depended upon taking the photographs of the family in
a row on the beach; but he decided not to take his camera out the first
aft