AMANDA.--That’s just it:--“Whence all but him had fled.”
ELIZABETH ELIZA.--I think I can say it now.
“The boy stood on the burning deck, Whence all but him had fled---”
JULIA.--Of course, he fled after the rest.
AMANDA.--Dear, no! That’s the point. He didn’t.
“The flames rolled on, he would not go Without his father’s word.”
ELIZABETH ELIZA.--O yes. Now I can say it.
“The boy stood on the burning deck, Whence all but him had fled; The flames rolled on, he would not go Without his father’s word.”
But it used to rhyme. I don’t know what has happened to it.
MRS. PETERKIN.--Elizabeth Eliza is very particular about the rhymes.
ELIZABETH ELIZA.--It must be “without his father’s head,” or, perhaps, “without his father said” he should.
JULIA.--I think you must have omitted something.
MOTHER.--Perhaps it’s as well to omit some, for the ice-cream has come, and you must all come down.
AMANDA.--And here are the rest of the girls; and let us all unite in a song!
THE PETERKINS CELEBRATE THE FOURTH OF JULY.
THE day began early. A compact had been made with the little boys the evening before.
They were to be allowed to usher in the glorious day by the blowing of horns exactly at sunrise. But they were to blow them for precisely five minutes only, and no sound of the horns should be heard afterward till the family were downstairs.
It was thought that a peace might thus be bought by a short, though crowded, period of noise.
The morning came. Even before the morning, at half-past three o’clock, a terrible blast of the horns aroused the whole family.
Mrs. Peterkin clasped her hands to her head and exclaimed: “I am thankful the lady from Philadelphia is not here!” For she had been invited to stay a week, but had declined to come before the Fourth of July, as she was not well, and her doctor had prescribed quiet.
And the number of the horns was most remarkable! It was as though every cow in the place had arisen and was blowing through both her own horns!
“How many little boys are there? How many have we?” exclaimed Mr. Peterkin, going over their names one by one mechanically, thinking he would do it, as he might count imaginary sheep jumping over a fence, to put himself to sleep. Alas!
the counting could not put him to sleep now, in such a din.