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!"