They looked at one another. Agamemnon looked at Elizabeth
Eliza, and Solomon John looked at the little boys. "Why didn't we
think of that?" said they, and ran home to tell their mother.

WHY THE PETERKINS HAD A LATE DINNER. THE trouble
was in the dumb-waiter. All had seated themselves at the
dinner-table, and Amanda had gone to take out the dinner she had
sent up from the kitchen on the dumb-waiter. But something was
the matter; she could not pull it up. There was the dinner, but she
could not reach it. All the family, in turn, went and tried; all
pulled together, in vain;the dinner could not be stirred.

"No dinner!" exclaimed Agamemnon.

"I am quite hungry," said Solomon John.

At last Mr. Peterkin said, "I am not proud. I am willing to dine in
the kitchen."

This room was below the dining-room. All consented to this. Each
one went down, taking a napkin.

The cook laid the kitchen table, put on it her best table-cloth, and
the family sat down. Amanda went to the dumb-waiter for the
dinner, but she could not move it down.

The family were all in dismay. There was the dinner, half-way
between the kitchen and dining-room, and there were they all
hungry to eat it!