The Peterkin Papers Part 13

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--I am sorry enough I lost the exhibition, and seeing you take the diploma, Amanda. I never got the diploma myself. I came near it.

MRS. PETERKIN.--Somehow, Elizabeth Eliza never succeeded. I think there was partiality about the promotions.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--I never was good about remembering things. I studied well enough, but when I came to say off my lesson I couldn't think what it was. Yet I could have answered some of the other girls'

questions.

JULIA.--It's odd how the other girls always have the easiest questions.

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--I never could remember poetry. There was only one thing I could repeat.

AMANDA.--Oh, do let us have it now; and then we'll recite to you some of our exhibition pieces.

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--I'll try.

MRS. PETERKIN.--Yes, Elizabeth Eliza, do what you can to help entertain Amanda's friends.

[_All stand looking at_ ELIZABETH ELIZA, _who remains silent and thoughtful._]

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--I'm trying to think what it is about. You all know it. You remember, Amanda,--the name is rather long.

AMANDA.--It can't be Nebuchadnezzar, can it?--that is one of the longest names I know.

ELIZABETH ELIZA. Oh, dear, no!

JULIA.--Perhaps it's Cleopatra.

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--It does begin with a "C,"--only he was a boy.

AMANDA.--That's a pity, for it might be "We are seven," only that is a girl. Some of them were boys.

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--It begins about a boy--if I could only think where he was. I can't remember.

AMANDA.--Perhaps he "stood upon the burning deck"?

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--That's just it; I knew he stood somewhere.

AMANDA.--Casabianca! Now begin--go ahead.

ELIZABETH ELIZA.--

"The boy stood on the burning deck, When--when"--

I can't think who stood there with him.

JULIA.--If the deck was burning, it must have been on fire. I guess the rest ran away, or jumped into boats.

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"--

[_She hesitates._] Then I think he went--

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.--Oh, 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.

AMANDA.--She has left out ever so much!

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!

[_Exeunt omnes singing._]

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.