all. So he proposed they should
all begin with Sanscrit. They would thus require but one teacher, and
could branch out into the other languages afterward.

But the family preferred learning the separate languages. Elizabeth
Eliza already knew something of the French. She had tried to talk it,
without much success, at the Centennial Exhibition, at one of the
side-stands. But she found she had been talking with a Moorish
gentleman who did not understand French. Mr. Peterkin feared they
might need more libraries if all the teachers came at the same hour;
but Agamemnon reminded him that they would be using different
dictionaries. And Mr. Peterkin thought something might be learned by
having them all at once. Each one might pick up something beside the
language he was studying, and it was a great thing to learn to talk a
foreign language while others were talking about you. Mrs. Peterkin
was afraid it would be like the Tower of Babel, and hoped it was all
right.

Agamemnon brought forward another difficulty. Of course they ought to
have foreign teachers, who spoke only their native languages. But, in
this case, how could they engage them to come, or explain to them
about the carryall, or arrange the proposed hours? He did not
understand how anybody ever began with a foreigner, because he could
not even tell him what he wanted.

Elizabeth Eliza thought a great deal might be done by signs and
pantomime. Solomon John and the little boys began to show how it might
be done. Elizabeth Eliza explained how "_langues_" meant both
"languages" and "tongues," and they could point to their tongues. For
practice, the little boys represented the foreign teachers talking in
their different languages, and Agamemnon and Solomon John went to
invite them to come out and teach the family by a series of signs.

Mr. Peterkin thought their success was admirable, and that they might
almost go abroad without any study of the languages, and trust to
explaining themselves by signs. Still, as the bridge was not yet made,
it might be as well to wait and cultivate the languages.

Mrs. Peterkin was afraid the foreign teachers might imagine they were
invited out to lunch. Solomon John had constantly pointed to his mouth
as he opened it and shut it, putting out his tongue; and it looked a
great deal more as if he were inviting them to eat than asking them to
teach. Agamemnon suggested that they might carry the separate
dictionaries when they went to se