"Make haste, Aunt Judy!" cried No. 8. "But what?"

"BUT," resumed Aunt Judy, in her most impressive tone, "they had to
wait between the courses."

Again Aunt Judy paused, and there was a looking hither and thither
among the little ones, and a shuffling about on the small Derby
chairs, while one or two pairs of eyes were suddenly turned to the
fire, as if watching it relieved a certain degree of embarrassment
which their owners began to experience.

"It is not every little boy or girl," was Aunt Judy's next remark,
"who knows what the courses of a dinner are."

"_I_ don't," interposed No. 8, in a distressed voice, as if he had
been deeply injured.

"Oh, you think not? Well, not by name, perhaps," answered Aunt Judy.
"But I will explain. The courses of a dinner are the different sorts
of food, which follow each other one after the other, till dinner is
what people call 'over.' Thus, supposing a dinner was to begin with
pea-soup, as you have sometimes seen it do, you would expect when it
was taken away to see some meat put upon the table, should you not?"

The little ones nodded assent.

"And after the meat was gone, you would expect pie or pudding, eh?"

They nodded assent again, and with a smile.