aid to Amanda. "Do they come
back to you round through the piazza? Surely there are more cups than
there were!"

Her surprise was greater when some of them proved to be coffee-cups
that matched the set! And they never had had coffee-cups.

Solomon John came in at this moment, breathless with triumph.

"Solomon John!" Elizabeth Eliza exclaimed; "I cannot understand the
cups!"

"It is my doing," said Solomon John, with an elevated air. "I went to
the lady from Philadelphia, in the midst of her talk. 'What do you do
in Philadelphia, when you haven't enough cups?' 'Borrow of my
neighbors,' she answered, as quick as she could."

"She must have guessed," interrupted Elizabeth Eliza.

"That may be," said Solomon John. "But I whispered to Ann Maria
Bromwick,--she was standing by,--and she took me straight over into
their closet, and old Mr. Bromwick bought this set just where we
bought ours. And they had a coffee-set, too"--

"You mean where our father and mother bought them. We were not born,"
said Elizabeth Eliza.

"It is all the same," said Solomon John. "They match exactly."

So they did, and more and more came in.

Elizabeth Eliza exclaimed:--

"And Agamemnon says we are not a family for emergencies!"

"Ann Maria was very good about it," said Solomon John; "and quick,
too. And old Mrs. Bromwick has kept all her set of two dozen coffee
and tea cups!"

Elizabeth Eliza was ready to faint with delight and relief. She told
the Gibbons boys, by mistake, instead of Agamemnon and the little
boys. She almost let fall the cups and saucers she took in her hand.

"No trouble now!"

She thought of the cow, and she thought of the pig, and she poured on.

No trouble, except about the chairs. She looked into the room; all
seemed to be sitting down, even her mother. No, her father was
standing, talking to Mr. Jeffers. But he was drinking coffee, and the
Gibbons boys were handing things around.

The daughters of the lady from Philadelphia were sitting on shawls on
the edge of the window that opened upon the piazza. It was a soft,
warm evening, and some of the young people were on the piazza.
Everybody was talking and laughing, except those who were listening.

Mr. Peterkin broke away, to bring back his cup and another for more
coffee.

"It's a great success, Elizabeth Eliza," he whispered. "The coffee is
admirable, and plenty of cups. We asked none too many. I should not
mind having a tea-party every week."

[Illu