TWAS important to have a tea-party, as they had all been invited by
everybody,--the Bromwicks, the Tremletts, and the Gibbonses. It would be
such a good chance to pay off some of their old debts, now that the lady
from Philadelphia was back again, and her two daughters, who would be
sure to make it all go off well.
But as soon as they began to make out the list, they saw there were too
many to have at once, for there were but twelve cups and saucers in the
best set.
“There are seven of us, to begin with,” said Mr. Peterkin.
“We need not all drink tea,” said Mrs. Peterkin.
“I never do,” said Solomon John. The little boys never did.
“And we could have coffee, too,” suggested Elizabeth Eliza.
“That would take as many cups,” objected Agamemnon.
“We could use the every-day set for the coffee,” answered Elizabeth
Eliza; “they are the right shape. Besides,” she went on, “they would not
all come. Mr. and Mrs. Bromwick, for instance; they never go out.”
“There are but six cups in the every-day set,” said Mrs. Peterkin.
The little boys said there were plenty of saucers; and Mr. Peterkin
agreed with Elizabeth Eliza that all would not come. Old Mr. Jeffers
never went out.
“There are three of the Tremletts,” said Elizabeth Eliza; “they never
go out together. One of them, if not two, will be sure to have the
headache. Ann Maria Bromwick would come, and the three Gibbons boys, and
their sister Juliana; but the other sisters are out West, and there is
but one Osborne.”
It really did seem safe to ask “everybody.” They would be sorry, after
it was over, that they had not asked more.
“We have the cow,” said Mrs. Peterkin, “so there will be as much cream
and milk as we shall need.”
“And our own pig,” said Agamemnon. “I am glad we had it salted; so we
can have plenty of sandwiches.”
“I will buy a chest of tea,” exclaimed Mr. Peterkin. “I have been
thinking of a chest for some time.”
Mrs. Peterkin thought a whole chest would not be needed: it was as well
to buy the tea and coffee by the pound. But Mr. Peterkin determined on a
chest of tea and a bag of coffee.
So they decided to give the invitations to all. It might be a stormy
evening and some would be prevented.
The lady from Philadelphia and her daughters accepted.
And it turned out a fair day, and more came than were expected. Ann
Maria Bromwick had a friend staying with her, and brought her over, for
the Bromwicks were opposite neighbors. And the Tremletts had a niece,
and Mary Osborne an aunt, that they took the liberty to bring.
The little boys were at the door, to show in the guests, and as each
set came to the front gate, they ran back to tell their mother that more
were coming.
Mrs. Peterkin had grown dizzy with counting those who had come, and
trying to calculate how many were to come, and wondering why there were
always more and never less, and whether the cups would go round.
The three Tremletts all came, with their niece. They all had had their
headaches the day before, and were having that banged feeling you always
have after a headache; so they all sat at the same side of the room on
the long sofa.
All the Jefferses came, though they had sent uncertain answers. Old Mr.
Jeffers had to be helped in, with his cane, by Mr. Peterkin.
The Gibbons boys came, and would stand just outside the parlor door.
And Juliana appeared afterward, with the two other sisters, unexpectedly
home from the West.
“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.
“What shall we do?” exclaimed Elizabeth Eliza.
“We are not a family for an emergency,” said Agamemnon.
“What do you suppose they did in Philadelphia at the Exhibition, when
there were more people than cups and saucers?” asked Elizabeth Eliza.
“Could not you go and inquire? I know the lady from Philadelphia is
talking about the Exhibition, and telling how she stayed at home to
receive friends. And they must have had trouble there! Could not you go
in and ask, just as if you wanted to know?”
Agamemnon looked into the room, but there were too many talking with the
lady from Philadelphia.
“If we could only look into some book,” he said,--“the encyclopaedia or
the dictionary, they are such a help sometimes!”
At this moment he thought of his “Great Triumphs of Great Men,” that he
was reading just now. He had not reached the lives of the Stephensons,
or any of the men of modern times. He might skip over to them,--he knew
they were men for emergencies.
He ran up to his room, and met Solomon John coming down with chairs.
“That is a good thought,” said Agamemnon. “I will bring down more
upstairs chairs.”
“No,” said Solomon John; “here are all that can come down; the rest of
the bedroom chairs match bureaus, and they never will do!”
Agamemnon kept on to his own room, to consult his books. If only he
could invent something on the spur of the moment,--a set of bedroom
furniture, that in an emergency could be turned into parlor chairs! It
seemed an idea; and he sat himself down to his table and pencils,
when he was interrupted by the little boys, who came to tell him that
Elizabeth Eliza wanted him.
The little boys had been busy thinking. They proposed that the
tea-table, with all the things on, should be pushed into the front room,
where the company were; and those could take cups who could find cups.
But Elizabeth Eliza feared it would not be safe to push so large a
table; it might upset, and break what china they had.
Agamemnon came down to find her pouring out tea, in the back room. She
called to him:--“Agamemnon, you must bring Mary Osborne to help, and
perhaps one of the Gibbons boys would carry round some of the cups.”
And so she began to pour out and to send round the sandwiches, and the
tea, and the coffee. Let things go as far as they would!
The little boys took the sugar and cream.
“As soon as they have done drinking bring back the cups and saucers to
be washed,” she said to the Gibbons boys and the little boys.
This was an idea of Mary Osborne’s.
But what was their surprise, that the more they poured out, the more
cups they seemed to have! Elizabeth Eliza took the coffee, and Mary
Osborne the tea.
Amanda brought fresh cups from the kitchen.
“I can’t understand it,” Elizabeth Eliza said to Amanda. “Do they come
back to you, round through the piazza? Surely there are more cups than
there were!”
Her surprise was greater when some of them proved to be coffee-cups that
matched the set! And they never had had coffee-cups.
Solomon John came in at this moment, breathless with triumph.
“Solomon John!” Elizabeth Eliza exclaimed; “I cannot understand the
cups!”
“It is my doing,” said Solomon John, with an elevated air. “I went to
the lady from Philadelphia, in the midst of her talk. ‘What do you do in
Philadelphia, when you haven’t enough cups?’ ‘Borrow of my neighbors,’
she answered, as quick as she could.”
“She must have guessed,” interrupted Elizabeth Eliza.
“That may be,” said Solomon John. “But I whispered to Ann Maria
Bromwick,--she was standing by,--and she took me straight over into
their closet, and old Mr. Bromwick bought this set just where we bought
ours. And they had a coffee-set, too”--“You mean where our father and
mother bought them. We were not born,” said Elizabeth Eliza.
“It is all the same,” said Solomon John. “They match exactly.”
So they did, and more and more came in.
Elizabeth Eliza exclaimed:
“And Agamemnon says we are not a family for emergencies!”
“Ann Maria was very good about it,” said Solomon John; “and quick, too.
And old Mrs. Bromwick has kept all her set of two dozen coffee and tea
cups!”
Elizabeth Eliza was ready to faint with delight and relief. She told the
Gibbons boys, by mistake, instead of Agamemnon, and the little boys. She
almost let fall the cups and saucers she took in her hand.
“No trouble now!”
She thought of the cow, and she thought of the pig, and she poured on.
No trouble, except about the chairs. She looked into the room; all
seemed to be sitting down, even her mother. No, her father was standing,
talking to Mr.
Jeffers. But he was drinking coffee, and the Gibbons boys were handing
things around.
The daughters of the lady from Philadelphia were sitting on shawls on
the edge of the window that opened upon the piazza. It was a soft, warm
evening, and some of the young people were on the piazza. Everybody was
talking and laughing, except those who were listening.
Mr. Peterkin broke away, to bring back his cup and another for more
coffee.
“It’s a great success, Elizabeth Eliza,” he whispered. “The coffee is
admirable, and plenty of cups. We asked none too many. I should not mind
having a tea-party every week.”
Elizabeth Eliza sighed with relief as she filled his cup. It was going
off well.
There were cups enough, but she was not sure she could live over another
such hour of anxiety; and what was to be done after tea?