sit against, only
here you would not have the sea-sickness. She thought she should like
it, for a rarity. She might use it for a divan.

Mrs. Peterkin thought it would come in the worn place of the carpet, and
might be a convenience in making the carpet over.

Agamemnon was afraid there would be trouble in keeping the matter
secret, for it would be a long piece of work for a carpenter; but Mr.
Peterkin proposed having the carpenter for a day or two, for a number of
other jobs.

One of them was to make all the chairs in the house of the same height,
for Mrs. Peterkin had nearly broken her spine by sitting down in a chair
that she had supposed was her own rocking-chair, and it had proved to
be two inches lower. The little boys were now large enough to sit in
any chair; so a medium was fixed upon to satisfy all the family, and the
chairs were made uniformly of the same height.

On consulting the carpenter, however, he insisted that the tree could be
cut off at the lower end to suit the height of the parlor, and demurred
at so great a change as altering the ceiling. But Mr. Peterkin had set
his mind upon the improvement, and Elizabeth Eliza had cut her carpet in
preparation for it.

So the folding-doors into the back parlor were closed, and for nearly a
fortnight before Christmas there was great litter of fallen plastering,
and laths, and chips, and shavings; and Elizabeth Eliza's carpet was
taken up, and the furniture had to be changed, and one night she had
to sleep at the Bromwicks', for there was a long hole in her floor that
might be dangerous.

All this delighted the little boys. They could not understand what was
going on.

Perhaps they suspected a Christmas-tree, but they did not know why a
Christmas-tree should have so many chips, and were still more astonished
at the hump that appeared in Elizabeth Eliza's room. It must be a
Christmas present, or else the tree in a box.

Some aunts and uncles, too, arrived a day or two before Christmas, with
some small cousins. These cousins occupied the attention of the little
boys, and there was a great deal of whispering and mystery, behind
doors, and under the stairs, and in the corners of the entry.

Solomon John was busy, privately making some candles for the tree. He
had been collecting some bayberries, as he understood they made very
nice candles, so that it would not be necessary to buy any.

The elders of the family never all went into the back parlor togethe