“Got home this morning!” they said. “And so glad to be in time to see everybody,--a little tired, to be sure, after forty-eight hours in a sleeping-car!”
“Forty-eight!” repeated Mrs. Peterkin; and wondered if there were forty-eight people, and why they were all so glad to come, and whether all could sit down.
Old Mr. and Mrs. Bromwick came. They thought it would not be neighborly to stay away. They insisted on getting into the most uncomfortable seats.
Yet there seemed to be seats enough while the Gibbons boys preferred to stand.
But they never could sit round a tea-table. Elizabeth Eliza had thought they all might have room at the table, and Solomon John and the little boys could help in the waiting.
It was a great moment when the lady from Philadelphia arrived with her daughters. Mr. Peterkin was talking to Mr. Bromwick, who was a little deaf. The Gibbons boys retreated a little farther behind the parlor door. Mrs. Peterkin hastened forward to shake hands with the lady from Philadelphia, saying:--“Four Gibbons girls and Mary Osborne’s aunt,--that makes nineteen; and now”--It made no difference what she said; for there was such a murmuring of talk that any words suited. And the lady from Philadelphia wanted to be introduced to the Bromwicks.
It was delightful for the little boys. They came to Elizabeth Eliza, and asked:--
“Can’t we go and ask more? Can’t we fetch the Larkins?”
“Oh, dear, no!” answered Elizabeth Eliza. “I can’t even count them.”
Mrs. Peterkin found time to meet Elizabeth Eliza in the side entry, to ask if there were going to be cups enough.
“I have set Agamemnon in the front entry to count,” said Elizabeth Eliza, putting her hand to her head.
The little boys came to say that the Maberlys were coming.
“The Maberlys!” exclaimed Elizabeth Eliza. “I never asked them.”
“It is your father’s doing,” cried Mrs. Peterkin. “I do believe he asked everybody he saw!” And she hurried back to her guests.
“What if father really has asked everybody?” Elizabeth Eliza said to herself, pressing her head again with her hand.
There were the cow and the pig. But if they all took tea or coffee, or both, the cups could not go round.
Agamemnon returned in the midst of her agony.
He had not been able to count the guests, they moved about so, they talked so; and it would not look well to appear to count.