THE LAST OF THE PETERKINS,
With Others of their kin.
BY LUCRETIA P. HALE.
BOSTON:
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
1906.
Copyright, 1886,
BY ROBERTS BROTHERS.
Printers
S.J. PARKHILL & CO., BOSTON, U.S.A.
TO
THE LADY FROM PHILADELPHIA,
BELOVED BY THE PETERKIN FAMILY,
This Book is Dedicated.
PREFACE.
The following Papers contain the last records of the Peterkin Family,who unhappily ventured to leave their native land and have neverreturned. Elizabeth Eliza's Commonplace Book has been found among thefamily papers, and will be published here for the first time. It isevident that she foresaw that the family were ill able to contend withthe commonplace struggle of life; and we may not wonder that they couldnot survive the unprecedented, far away from the genial advice offriends, especially that of the Lady from Philadelphia.
It is feared that Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin lost their lives after leavingTobolsk, perhaps in some vast conflagration.
Agamemnon and Solomon John were probably sacrificed in some effort tojoin in or control the disturbances which arose in the distant placeswhere they had established themselves,—Agamemnon in Madagascar, SolomonJohn in Rustchuk.
The little boys have merged into men in some German university, whileElizabeth Eliza must have been lost in the mazes of the Russian language.
CONTENTS.
The Last of the Peterkins.
I. ELIZABETH ELIZA WRITES A PAPER
II. ELIZABETH ELIZA'S COMMONPLACE-BOOK
III. THE PETERKINS PRACTISE TRAVELLING
IV. THE PETERKINS' EXCURSION FOR MAPLE SUGAR
VII. MRS. PETERKIN FAINTS ON THE GREAT PYRAMID
VIII. THE LAST OF THE PETERKINS
Others of their Kin.
IX. LUCILLA'S DIARY
XII. "WHERE CAN THOSE BOYS BE?"
XIII. A PLACE FOR OSCAR
XIV. THE FIRST