ing. Two Joans of Arc were talking to Charles I., who had
found his head. All things seemed double to Mrs. Peterkin as they
floated before her.

"Was she eating her own supper or somebody's else? Were they Peterkins,
or were they not?"

Strains of dance-music sounded from the library. Yes, they were giving a
fancy ball! The Peterkins were "At Home" for the last time before
leaving for Egypt!

VI.

MRS. PETERKIN IN EGYPT.

The family had taken passage in the new line for Bordeaux. They supposed
they had; but would they ever reach the vessel in New York? The last
moments were terrific. In spite of all their careful arrangements, their
planning and packing of the last year, it seemed, after all, as if
everything were left for the very last day. There were presents for the
family to be packed, six steamer-bags for Mrs. Peterkin, half a dozen
satchels of salts-bottles for Elizabeth Eliza, Apollinaris water,
lunch-baskets. All these must be disposed of.

On the very last day Elizabeth Eliza went into Boston to buy a bird, as
she had been told she would be less likely to be sea-sick if she had a
bird in a cage in her stateroom. Both she and her mother disliked the
singing of caged birds, especially of canaries; but Mrs. Peterkin argued
that they would be less likely to be homesick, as they never had birds
at home. After long moments of indecision, Elizabeth Eliza determined
upon two canary-birds, thinking she might let them fly as they
approached the shore of Portugal, and they would then reach their native
islands. This matter detained her till the latest train, so that on her
return from Boston to their quiet suburban home, she found the whole
family assembled in the station, ready to take the through express train
to New York.

She did not have time, therefore, to go back to the house for her own
things. It was now locked up and the key intrusted to the Bromwicks; and
all the Bromwicks and the rest of the neighbors were at the station,
ready to bid them good-by. The family had done their best to collect all
her scattered bits of baggage; but all through her travels, afterward,
she was continually missing something she had left behind, that she
would have packed and had intended to bring.

They reached New York with half a day on their hands; and during this
time Agamemnon fell in with some old college friends, who were going
with a party to Greece to look up the new excavations. They were to
leave the nex