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“Suppose we take our dinner with us to the beach, and spend the day.” The Sylvesters and Ann Maria then would find them on the beach, where her travelling-dress would be quite appropriate. “I am a little tired,” she added, “of going back and forward over the same road; but when the rest come we can vary it.”

The plan was agreed to, but Mr. Peterkin and the little boys remained to go over the farm again.

They had an excellent picnic on the beach, under the shadow of a ledge of sand. They were just putting up their things when they saw a party of people approaching from the other end of the beach.

“I am glad to see some pleasant-looking people at last,” said Elizabeth Eliza, and they all turned to walk toward them.

As the other party drew near she recognized Ann Maria Bromwick! And with her were the Sylvesters,–so they proved to be, for she had never seen them before.

“What! you have come in our absence!” exclaimed Elizabeth Eliza.

“And we have been wondering what had become of you!” cried Ann Maria.

“I thought you would be at the farm before us,” said Elizabeth Eliza to Mr. Sylvester, to whom she was introduced.

“We have been looking for you at the farm,” he was saying to her.

“But we are at the farm,” said Elizabeth Eliza.

“And so are we!” said Ann Maria.

“We have been there two days,” said Mrs. Peterkin.

“And so have we, at the ‘Old Farm,’ just at the end of the beach,” said Ann Maria.

“Our farm is old enough,” said Solomon John.

“Whereabouts are you?” asked Mr. Sylvester.

Elizabeth Eliza pointed to the road they had come.

A smile came over Mr. Sylvester’s face; he knew the country well.

“You mean the farm-house behind the hill, at the end of the road?” he asked.

The Peterkins all nodded affirmatively.

Ann Maria could not restrain herself, as broad smiles came over the faces of all the party.

“Why, that is the Poor-house!” she exclaimed.

“The town farm,” Mr. Sylvester explained, deprecatingly.

The Peterkins were silent for a while. The Sylvesters tried not to laugh.

“There certainly were some disagreeable old men and women there!” said Elizabeth Eliza, at last.

“But we have surely been made very comfortable,” Mrs. Peterkin declared.

“A very simple mistake,” said Mr. Sylvester, continuing his amusement. “Your trunks arrived all right at the ‘Old Farm,’ two days ago.”

“Let us go back directly,” said Elizabeth Eliza.

“As directly as our horse will allow,” said Agamemnon.

Mr. Sylvester helped them into the wagon. “Your rooms are awaiting you,” he said. “Why not come with us?”

“We want to find Mr. Peterkin before we do anything else,” said Mrs. Peterkin.

They rode back in silence, till Elizabeth Eliza said, “Do you suppose they took us for paupers?”

“We have not seen any ‘they,'” said Solomon John, “except Mr. Atwood.”

At the entrance of the farm-yard Mr. Peterkin met them.

“I have been looking for you,” he said. “I have just made a discovery.”

“We have made it, too,” said Elizabeth Eliza; “we are in the poor-house.”

“How did you find it out?” Mrs. Peterkin asked of Mr. Peterkin.

“Mr. Atwood came to me, puzzled with a telegram that had been brought to him from the station, which he ought to have got two days ago. It came from a Mr. Peters, whom they were expecting here this week, with his wife and boys, to take charge of the establishment. He telegraphed to say he cannot come till Friday. Now, Mr. Atwood had supposed we were the Peterses, whom he had sent for the day we arrived, not having received this telegram.”

“Oh, I see, I see!” said Mrs. Peterkin; “and we did get into a muddle at the station!”

Mr. Atwood met them at the porch. “I beg pardon,” he said. “I hope you have found it comfortable here, and shall be glad to have you stay till Mr. Peters’ family comes.”

At this moment wheels were heard. Mr. Sylvester had arrived, with an open wagon, to take the Peterkins to the “Old Farm.”

Martha was waiting within the door, and said to Elizabeth Eliza, “Beg pardon, miss, for thinking you was one of the inmates, and putting you in that room. We thought it so kind of Mrs. Peters to take you off every day with the other gentlemen, that looked so wandering.”

Elizabeth Eliza did not know whether to laugh or to cry.

Mr. Peterkin and the little boys decided to stay at the farm till Friday. But Agamemnon and Solomon John preferred to leave with Mr. Sylvester, and to take their electrical machine and camera when they came for Mr. Peterkin.

Mrs. Peterkin was tempted to stay another night, to be wakened once more by the guinea-hens. But Elizabeth Eliza bore her off. There was not much packing to be done. She shouted good-by into the ears of the deaf old lady, and waved her hand to the foreign one, and glad to bid farewell to the old men with their pipes, leaning against the porch.

“This time,” she said, “it is not our trunks that were lost”–

“But we, as a family,” said Mrs. Peterkin.