“But we know it can’t be that!” exclaimed Elizabeth Eliza, in agony. “How can we act the whole if we don’t know it ourselves?”
“Oh, I see it!” said Ann Maria, clapping her hands. “Get your whole family in for the last scene.”
Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin were summoned to the stage, and formed the background, standing on stools; in front were Agamemnon and Solomon John, leaving room for Elizabeth Eliza between; a little in advance, and in front of all, half kneeling, were the little boys, in their india-rubber boots.
The audience rose to an exclamation of delight, “The Peterkins!” “P-Turk-Inns!”
It was not until this moment that Elizabeth Eliza guessed the whole.
“What a tableau!” exclaimed Mr. Bromwick; “the Peterkin family guessing their own charade.”
THE PETERKINS ARE OBLIGED TO MOVE.
AGAMEMNON had long felt it an impropriety to live in a house that was called a “semi-detached” house, when there was no other “semi” to it. It had always remained wholly detached, as the owner had never built the other half. Mrs.
Peterkin felt this was not a sufficient reason for undertaking the terrible process of a move to another house, when they were fully satisfied with the one they were in.