en all sitting eating nothing, and looking dissatisfied into
their plates.

"What is the matter now?" said Mr. Peterkin.

But the children were taught not to speak at table. Agamemnon, however,
made a sign of disgust at his fat, and Elizabeth Eliza at her lean, and
so on, and they presently discovered what was the difficulty.

"What shall be done now?" said Mrs. Peterkin.

They all sat and thought for a little while.

At last said Mrs. Peterkin, rather uncertainly, "Suppose we ask the lady
from Philadelphia what is best to be done."

But Mr. Peterkin said he didn't like to go to her for everything; let
the children try and eat their dinner as it was.

And they all tried, but they couldn't. "Very well, then." said Mr.
Peterkin, "let them go and ask the lady from Philadelphia."

"All of us?" cried one of the little boys, in the excitement of the
moment.

"Yes," said Mrs. Peterkin, "only put on your india-rubber boots."
And they hurried out of the house.

The lady from Philadelphia was just going in to her dinner; but she
kindly stopped in the entry to hear what the trouble was. Agamemnon
and Elizabeth Eliza told her all the difficulty, and the lady from
Philadelphia said, "But why don't you give the slices of fat to those
who like the fat, and the slices of lean to those who like the lean?"

They looked at one another. Agamemnon looked at Elizabeth Eliza, and
Solomon John looked at the little boys. "Why didn't we think of that?"
said they, and ran home to tell their mother.

WHY THE PETERKINS HAD A LATE DINNER.

THE trouble was in the dumb-waiter. All had seated themselves at the
dinner-table, and Amanda had gone to take out the dinner she had sent up
from the kitchen on the dumb-waiter. But something was the matter; she
could not pull it up. There was the dinner, but she could not reach
it. All the family, in turn, went and tried; all pulled together, in
vain; the dinner could not be stirred.

"No dinner!" exclaimed Agamemnon.

"I am quite hungry," said Solomon John.

At last Mr. Peterkin said, "I am not proud. I am willing to dine in the
kitchen."

This room was below the dining-room. All consented to this. Each one
went down, taking a napkin.

The cook laid the kitchen table, put on it her best table-cloth, and the
family sat down. Amanda went to the dumb-waiter for the dinner, but she
could not move it down.

The family were all in dismay. There was the dinner, half-way between
the kitch