MRS.PETERKIN'Snerves were so shaken by the excitement of the fall of the three little boys into the enclosure where the cow was kept that the educational breakfast was long postponed.The little boys continued at school, as before, and the conversation dwelt as little as possible upon the subject of education.
Mrs.Peterkin's spirits, however, gradually recovered.The little boys were allowed to watch the cow at her feed.A series of strings were arranged by Agamemnon and Solomon John, by which the little boys could be pulled up, if they should again fall down into the enclosure.These were planned something like curtain-cords, and Solomon John frequently amused himself by pulling one of the little boys up or letting him down.
Some conversation did again fall upon the old difficulty of questions.Elizabeth Eliza declared that it was not always necessary to answer; that many who could did not answer questions,-the conductors of the railroads, for instance, who probably knew the names of all the stations on a road, but were seldom able to tell them.
"Yes," said Agamemnon, "one might be a conductor without even knowing the names of the stations, because you can't understand them when they do tell them!""I never know," said Elizabeth Eliza, "whether it is ignorance in them, or unwillingness, that prevents them from telling you how soon one station is coming, or how long you are to stop, even if one asks ever so many times.It would be useful if they would tell."Mrs.Peterkin thought this was carried too far in the horse-cars in Boston.The conductors had always left you as far as possible from the place where you wanted to stop; but it seemed a little too much to have the aldermen take it up, and put a notice in the cars, ordering the conductors "to stop at the farthest crossing."Mrs.Peterkin was, indeed, recovering her spirits.She had been carrying on a brisk correspondence with Philadelphia, that she had imparted to no one, and at last she announced, as its result, that she was ready for a breakfast on educational principles.
A breakfast indeed, when it appeared! Mrs.Peterkin had mistaken the alphabetical suggestion, and had grasped the idea that the whole alphabet must be represented in one breakfast.
This, therefore, was the bill of fare: Apple-sauce, Bread, Butter, Coffee, Cream, Doughnuts, Eggs, Fish-balls, Griddles, Ham, Ice (on butter), Jam, Krout (sour), Lamb-chops, Morning Newspapers, Oatmeal, Pepper, Quince-marmalade, Rolls, Salt, Tea Urn, Veal-pie, Waffles, Yeast-biscuit.
Mr.Peterkin was proud and astonished."Excellent!" he cried.
"Every letter represented except Z." Mrs.Peterkin drew from her pocket a letter from the lady from Philadelphia."She thought you would call it X-cellent for X, and she tells us," she read, "that if you come with a zest, you will bring the Z."Mr.Peterkin was enchanted.He only felt that he ought to invite the children in the primary schools to such a breakfast; what a zest, indeed, it would give to the study of their letters!
It was decided to begin with Apple-sauce.
"How happy," exclaimed Mr.Peterkin, "that this should come first of all! A child might be brought up on apple-sauce till he had mastered the first letter of the alphabet, and could go on to the more involved subjects hidden in bread, butter, baked beans, etc."Agamemnon thought his father hardly knew how much was hidden in the apple.There was all the story of William Tell and the Swiss independence.The little boys were wild to act William Tell, but Mrs.Peterkin was afraid of the arrows.Mrs.
Peterkin proposed they should begin by eating the apple-sauce, then discussing it, first botanically, next historically; or perhaps first historically, beginning with Adam and Eve, and the first apple.
Mrs.Peterkin feared the coffee would be getting cold, and the griddles were waiting.For herself, she declared she felt more at home on the marmalade, because the quinces came from grandfather's, and she had seen them planted; she remembered all about it, and now the bush came up to the sitting-room window.
She seemed to have heard him tell that the town of Quincy, where the granite came from, was named from them, and she never quite recollected why, except they were so hard, as hard as stone, and it took you almost the whole day to stew them, and then you might as well set them on again.
Mr.Peterkin was glad to be reminded of the old place at grandfather's.In order to know thoroughly about apples, they ought to understand the making of cider.
Now, they might some time drive up to grandfather's, scarcely twelve miles away, and see the cider made.Why, indeed, should not the family go this very day up to grandfather's, and continue the education of the breakfast?
"Why not indeed?" exclaimed the little boys.A day at grandfather's would give them the whole process of the apple, from the orchard to the cider-mill.In this way they could widen the field of study, even to follow in time the cup of coffee to Java.
It was suggested, too, that at grandfather's they might study the processes of maple-syrup as involved in the griddle-cakes.
Agamemnon pointed out the connection between the two subjects:
they were both the products of trees-the apple-tree and the maple.
Mr.Peterkin proposed that the lesson for the day should be considered the study of trees, and on the way they could look at other trees.
Why not, indeed, go this very day? There was no time like the present.Their breakfast had been so copious, they would scarcely be in a hurry for dinner, and would, therefore, have the whole day before them.
Mrs.Peterkin could put up the remains of the breakfast for luncheon.
But how should they go? The carryall, in spite of its name, could hardly take the whole family, though they might squeeze in six, as the little boys did not take up much room.
Elizabeth Eliza suggested that she could spend the night at grandfather's.
