The Peterkin Papers | Page 6

and
pennyroyal. The children tasted after each mixture, but made up
dreadful faces. Mrs. Peterkin tasted, and did the same. The more the old
woman stirred, and the more she put in, the worse it all seemed to taste.
So the old woman shook her head, and muttered a few words, and said
she must go. She believed the coffee was bewitched. She bundled up
her packets of herbs, and took her trowel, and her basket, and her stick,

and went back to her root of sassafras, that she had left half in the air
and half out. And all she would take for pay was five cents in currency.
Then the family were in despair, and all sat and thought a great while.
It was growing late in the day, and Mrs. Peterkin hadn't had her cup of
coffee. At last Elizabeth Eliza said, "They say that the lady from
Philadelphia, who is staying in town, is very wise. Suppose I go and
ask her what is best to be done." To this they all agreed, it was a great
thought, and off Elizabeth Eliza went.
She told the lady from Philadelphia the whole story,-how her mother
had put salt in the coffee; how the chemist had been called in; how he
tried everything but could make it no better; and how they went for the
little old herb-woman, and how she had tried in vain, for her mother
couldn't drink the coffee. The lady from Philadelphia listened very
attentively, and then said, "Why doesn't your mother make a fresh cup
of coffee?" Elizabeth Eliza started with surprise.
Solomon John shouted with joy; so did Agamemnon, who had just
finished his sum; so did the little boys, who had followed on. "Why
didn't we think of that?" said Elizabeth Eliza; and they all went back to
their mother, and she had her cup of coffee.
ABOUT ELIZABETH ELIZA'S PIANO. ELIZABETH ELIZA had a
present of a piano, and she was to take lessons of the postmaster's
daughter.
They decided to have the piano set across the window in the parlor, and
the carters brought it in, and went away.
After they had gone the family all came in to look at the piano; but they
found the carters had placed it with its back turned towards the middle
of the room, standing close against the window.
How could Elizabeth Eliza open it? How could she reach the keys to
play upon it?
Solomon John proposed that they should open the window, which

Agamemnon could do with his long arms. Then Elizabeth Eliza should
go round upon the piazza, and open the piano. Then she could have her
music-stool on the piazza, and play upon the piano there.
So they tried this; and they all thought it was a very pretty sight to see
Elizabeth Eliza playing on the piano, while she sat on the piazza, with
the honeysuckle vines behind her.
It was very pleasant, too, moonlight evenings. Mr. Peterkin liked to
take a doze on his sofa in the room; but the rest of the family liked to
sit on the piazza.
So did Elizabeth Eliza, only she had to have her back to the moon.
All this did very well through the summer; but, when the fall came, Mr.
Peterkin thought the air was too cold from the open window, and the
family did not want to sit out on the piazza.
Elizabeth Eliza practiced in the mornings with her cloak on; but she
was obliged to give up her music in the evenings the family shivered
so.
One day, when she was talking with the lady from Philadelphia, she
spoke of this trouble.
The lady from Philadelphia looked surprised, and then said, "But why
don't you turn the piano round?"
One of the little boys pertly said, "It is a square piano."
But Elizabeth Eliza went home directly, and, with the help of
Agamemnon and Solomon John, turned the piano round.
"Why did we not think of that before?" said Mrs. Peterkin. "What shall
we do when the lady from Philadelphia goes home again?"
THE PETERKINS TRY TO BECOME WISE. THEY were sitting
round the breakfast-table, and wondering what they should do because
the lady from Philadelphia had gone away. "If," said Mrs. Peterkin, "we

could only be more wise as a family!" How could they manage it?
Agamemnon had been to college, and the children all went to school;
but still as a family they were not wise. "It comes from books," said
one of the family. "People who have a great many books are very
wise." Then they counted up that there were very few books in the
house,-a few school-books and Mrs. Peterkin's cook-book were all.
"That's the thing!" said Agamemnon. "We want a library."
"We