en and dining-room, and there were they all hungry to eat it!

"What is there for dinner?" asked Mr. Peterkin.

"Roast turkey," said Mrs. Peterkin.

Mr. Peterkin lifted his eyes to the ceiling.

"Squash, tomato, potato, and sweet potato," Mrs. Peterkin continued.

"Sweet potato!" exclaimed both the little boys.

"I am very glad now that I did not have cranberry," said Mrs. Peterkin,
anxious to find a bright point.

"Let us sit down and think about it," said Mr. Peterkin.

"I have an idea," said Agamemnon, after a while.

"Let us hear it," said Mr. Peterkin. "Let each one speak his mind."

"The turkey," said Agamemnon, "must be just above the kitchen door. If I
had a ladder and an axe, I could cut away the plastering and reach it."

"That is a great idea," said Mrs. Peterkin.

"If you think you could do it," said Mr. Peterkin.

"Would it not be better to have a carpenter?" asked Elizabeth Eliza.

"A carpenter might have a ladder and an axe, and I think we have
neither," said Mrs. Peterkin.

"A carpenter! A carpenter!" exclaimed the rest.

It was decided that Mr. Peterkin, Solomon John, and the little boys
should go in search of a carpenter.

Agamemnon proposed that, meanwhile, he should go and borrow a book; for
he had another idea.

"This affair of the turkey," he said, "reminds me of those buried cities
that have been dug out,--Herculaneum, for instance."

"Oh, yes," interrupted Elizabeth Eliza, "and Pompeii."

"Yes," said Agamemnon, "they found there pots and kettles. Now,
I should like to know how they did it; and I mean to borrow a book and
read. I think it was done with a pickaxe."

So the party set out. But when Mr. Peterkin reached the carpenter's
shop, there was no carpenter to be found there.

"He must be at his house, eating his dinner," suggested Solomon John.

"Happy man," exclaimed Mr. Peterkin, "he has a dinner to eat!"

They went to the carpenter's house, but found he had gone out of town
for a day's job. But his wife told them that he always came back at
night to ring the nine-o'clock bell.

"We must wait till then," said Mr. Peterkin, with an effort at
cheerfulness.

At home he found Agamemnon reading his book, and all sat down to hear of
Herculaneum and Pompeii.

Time passed on, and the question arose about tea. Would it do to have
tea when they had had no dinner? A part of the family thought it would
not do; the rest wanted tea.

"I suppose you remember the wise lady