Elizabeth Eliza and the little boys looked at one another, and then
hurried back to the house and told their mother. The horse was
untied, and they all went to ride.

THE PETERKINS AT HOME. AT DINNER. ANOTHER little
incident occurred in the Peterkin family. This was at dinner-time.

They sat down to a dish of boiled ham. Now it was a peculiarity of
the children of the family, that half of them liked fat, and half
liked lean. Mr. Peterkin sat down to cut the ham. But the ham
turned out to be a very remarkable one. The fat and the lean came
in separate slices,­first one of lean, than one of fat, then two slices
of lean, and so on. Mr. Peterkin began as usual by helping the
children first, according to their age. Now Agamemnon, who liked
lean, got a fat slice; and Elizabeth Eliza, who preferred fat, had a
lean slice. Solomon John, who could eat nothing but lean, was
helped to fat, and so on. Nobody had what he could eat.

It was a rule of the Peterkin family, that no one should eat any of
the vegetables without some of the meat; so now, although the
children saw upon their plates apple-sauce and squash and tomato
and sweet potato and sour potato, not one of them could eat a
mouthful, because not one was satisfied with the meat. Mr. and
Mrs. Peterkin, however, liked both fat and lean, and were making
a very good meal, when they looked up and saw the children all
sitting eating nothing, and looking dissatisfied into their plates.

"What is the matter now?" said Mr. Peterkin.

But the children were taught not to speak at table. Agamemnon,