Peterkin Papers — The Peterkins Decide to Learn the Languages / Modern Improvements at the Peterkins

THE PETERKINS DECIDE TO LEARN THE LANGUAGES.

CERTAINLY now was the time to study the languages.

The Peterkins had moved into a new house, far more convenient than their old one, where they would have a place for everything and everything in its place.

Of course they would then have more time.

Elizabeth Eliza recalled the troubles of the old house, how for a long time she was obliged to sit outside of the window upon the piazza, when she wanted to play on her piano.

Mrs. Peterkin reminded them of the difficulty about the table-cloths.

The upper table-cloth was kept in a trunk that had to stand in front of the door to the closet under the stairs.

But the under table-cloth was kept in a drawer in the closet.

So, whenever the cloths were changed, the trunk had to be pushed away under some projecting shelves to make room for opening the closet-door (as the under table-cloth must be taken out first), then the trunk was pushed back to make room for it to be opened for the upper table-cloth, and, after all, it was necessary to push the trunk away again to open the closet-door for the knife-tray.

This always consumed a great deal of time.

Now that the china-closet was large enough, everything could find a place in it.

Agamemnon especially enjoyed the new library.

In the old house there was no separate room for books.

The dictionaries were kept upstairs, which was very inconvenient, and the volumes of the Encyclopædia could not be together.

There was not room for all in one place.

So from A to P were to be found downstairs, and from Q to Z were scattered in different rooms upstairs.

And the worst of it was, you could never remember whether from A to P included P. “I always went upstairs after P,” said Agamemnon, “and then always found it downstairs, or else it was the other way.

” Of course now there were more conveniences for study.

With the books all in one room, there would be no time wasted in looking for them.

Mr. Peterkin suggested they should each take a separate language.

If they went abroad, this would prove a great convenience.

Elizabeth Eliza could talk French with the Parisians; Agamemnon, German with the Germans; Solomon John, Italian with the Italians; Mrs. Peterkin, Spanish in Spain; and perhaps he could himself master all the Eastern Languages and Russian.

Mrs. Peterkin was uncertain about undertaking the Spanish, but all the family felt very sure they should not go to Spain (as Elizabeth Eliza dreaded the Inquisition), and Mrs. Peterkin felt more willing.

Still she had quite an objection to going abroad.

She had always said she would not go till a bridge was made across the Atlantic, and she was sure it did not look like it now.

Agamemnon said there was no knowing.

There was something new every day, and a bridge was surely not harder to invent than a telephone, for they had bridges in the very earliest days.

Then came up the question of the teachers.

Probably these could be found in Boston.

If they could all come the same day, three could be brought out in the carryall.

Agamemnon could go in for them, and could learn a little on the way out and in.

Mr. Peterkin made some inquiries about the Oriental languages.

He was told that Sanscrit was at the root of all.

So he proposed they should all begin with Sanscrit.

They would thus require but one teacher, and could branch out into the other languages afterward.

But the family preferred learning the separate languages.

Elizabeth Eliza already knew something of the French.

She had tried to talk it, without much success, at the Centennial Exhibition, at one of the side-stands.

But she found she had been talking with a Moorish gentleman who did not understand French.

Mr. Peterkin feared they might need more libraries, if all the teachers came at the same hour; but Agamemnon reminded him that they would be using different dictionaries.

And Mr. Peterkin thought something might be learned by having them all at once.

Each one might pick up something beside the language he was studying, and it was a great thing to learn to talk a foreign language while others were talking about you.

Mrs. Peterkin was afraid it would be like the Tower of Babel, and hoped it was all right.

Agamemnon brought forward another difficulty.

Of course they ought to have foreign teachers, who spoke only their native languages.

But, in this case, how could they engage them to come, or explain to them about the carryall, or arrange the proposed hours?

He did not understand how anybody ever began with a foreigner, because he could not even tell him what he wanted.

Elizabeth Eliza thought a great deal might be done by signs and pantomime.

Solomon John and the little boys began to show how it might be done.

Elizabeth Eliza explained how “langues” meant both “languages” and “tongues,” and they could point to their tongues.

For practice, the little boys represented the foreign teachers talking in their different languages, and Agamemnon and Solomon John went to invite them to come out, and teach the family by a series of signs.

Mr. Peterkin thought their success was admirable, and that they might almost go abroad without any study of the languages, and trust to explaining themselves by signs.

Still, as the bridge was not yet made, it might be as well to wait and cultivate the languages.

Mrs. Peterkin was afraid the foreign teachers might imagine they were invited out to lunch.

Solomon John had constantly pointed to his mouth as he opened it and shut it, putting out his tongue; and it looked a great deal more as if he were inviting them to eat, than asking them to teach.

Agamemnon suggested that they might carry the separate dictionaries when they went to see the teachers, and that would show that they meant lessons, and not lunch.

Mrs. Peterkin was not sure but she ought to prepare a lunch for them, if they had come all that way; but she certainly did not know what they were accustomed to eat.

Mr. Peterkin thought this would be a good thing to learn of the foreigners.

It would be a good preparation for going abroad, and they might get used to the dishes before starting.

The little boys were delighted at the idea of having new things cooked.

Agamemnon had heard that beer-soup was a favorite dish with the Germans, and he would inquire how it was made in the first lesson.

Solomon John had heard they were all very fond of garlic, and thought it would be a pretty attention to have some in the house the first day, that they might be cheered by the odor.

Elizabeth Eliza wanted to surprise the lady from Philadelphia by her knowledge of French, and hoped to begin on her lessons before the Philadelphia family arrived for their annual visit.

There were still some delays.

Mr. Peterkin was very anxious to obtain teachers who had been but a short time in this country.

He did not want to be tempted to talk any English with them.

He wanted the latest and freshest languages, and at last came home one day with a list of “brand-new foreigners.

” They decided to borrow the Bromwicks’ carryall to use, beside their own, for the first day, and Mr. Peterkin and Agamemnon drove into town to bring all the teachers out.

One was a Russian gentleman, travelling, who came with no idea of giving lessons, but perhaps he would consent to do so.

He could not yet speak English.

Mr. Peterkin had his card-case, and the cards of the several gentlemen who had recommended the different teachers, and he went with Agamemnon from hotel to hotel collecting them.

He found them all very polite, and ready to come, after the explanation by signs agreed upon.

The dictionaries had been forgotten, but Agamemnon had a directory, which looked the same, and seemed to satisfy the foreigners.

Mr. Peterkin was obliged to content himself with the Russian instead of one who could teach Sanscrit, as there was no new teacher of that language lately arrived.

But there was an unexpected difficulty in getting the Russian gentleman into the same carriage with the teacher of Arabic, for he was a Turk, sitting with a fez on his head, on the back seat!

They glared at each other, and began to assail each other in every language they knew, none of which Mr. Peterkin could understand.

It might be Russian, it might be Arabic.

It was easy to understand that they would never consent to sit in the same carriage.

Mr. Peterkin was in despair; he had forgotten about the Russian war!

What a mistake to have invited the Turk!

Quite a crowd collected on the sidewalk in front of the hotel.

But the French gentleman politely, but stiffly, invited the Russian to go with him in the first carryall.

Here was another difficulty.

For the German professor was quietly ensconced on the back seat!

As soon as the French gentleman put his foot on the step and saw him, he addressed him in such forcible language that the German professor got out of the door the other side, and came round on the sidewalk, and took him by the collar.

Certainly the German and French gentlemen could not be put together, and more crowd collected!

Agamemnon, however, had happily studied up the German word “Herr,” and he applied it to the German, inviting him by signs to take a seat in the other carryall.

The German consented to sit by the Turk, as they neither of them could understand the other; and at last they started, Mr. Peterkin with the Italian by his side, and the French and Russian teachers behind, vociferating to each other in languages unknown to Mr. Peterkin, while he feared they were not perfectly in harmony, so he drove home as fast as possible.

Agamemnon had a silent party.

The Spaniard by his side was a little moody, while the Turk and the German behind did not utter a word.

At last they reached the house, and were greeted by Mrs. Peterkin and Elizabeth Eliza, Mrs. Peterkin with her llama lace shawl over her shoulders, as a tribute to the Spanish teacher.

Mr. Peterkin was careful to take his party in first, and deposit them in a distant part of the library, far from the Turk or the German, even putting the Frenchman and Russian apart.

Solomon John found the Italian dictionary, and seated himself by his Italian; Agamemnon, with the German dictionary, by the German.

The little boys took their copy of the “Arabian Nights” to the Turk.

Mr. Peterkin attempted to explain to the Russian that he had no Russian dictionary, as he had hoped to learn Sanscrit of him, while Mrs. Peterkin was trying to inform her teacher that she had no books in Spanish.

She got over all fears of the Inquisition, he looked so sad, and she tried to talk a little, using English words, but very slowly, and altering the accent as far as she knew how.

The Spaniard bowed, looked gravely interested, and was very polite.

Elizabeth Eliza, meanwhile, was trying her grammar phrases with the Parisian.

She found it easier to talk French than to understand him.

But he understood perfectly her sentences.

She repeated one of her vocabularies, and went on with--“J’ai le livre.

” “As-tu le pain?

” “L’enfant a une poire.

” He listened with great attention, and replied slowly.

Suddenly she started after making out one of his sentences, and went to her mother to whisper, “They have made the mistake you feared.

They think they are invited to lunch!

He has just been thanking me for our politeness in inviting them to déjeûner,--that means breakfast!

” “They have not had their breakfast!

” exclaimed Mrs. Peterkin, looking at her Spaniard; “he does look hungry!

What shall we do?

” Elizabeth Eliza was consulting her father.

What should they do?

How should they make them understand that they invited them to teach, not lunch.

Elizabeth Eliza begged Agamemnon to look out “apprendre” in the dictionary.

It must mean to teach.

Alas, they found it means both to teach and to learn!

What should they do?

The foreigners were now sitting silent in their different corners.

The Spaniard grew more and more sallow.

What if he should faint?

The Frenchman was rolling up each of his mustaches to a point as he gazed at the German.

What if the Russian should fight the Turk?

What if the German should be exasperated by the airs of the Parisian?

“We must give them something to eat,” said Mr. Peterkin, in a low tone.

“It would calm them.

” “If I only knew what they were used to eating,” said Mrs. Peterkin.

Solomon John suggested that none of them knew what the others were used to eating, and they might bring in anything.

Mrs. Peterkin hastened out with hospitable intents.

Amanda could make good coffee.

Mr. Peterkin had suggested some American dish.

Solomon John sent a little boy for some olives.

It was not long before the coffee came in, and a dish of baked beans.

Next, some olives and a loaf of bread, and some boiled eggs, and some bottles of beer.

The effect was astonishing.

Every man spoke his own tongue, and fluently.

Mrs. Peterkin poured out coffee for the Spaniard, while he bowed to her.

They all liked beer, they all liked olives.

The Frenchman was fluent about “les moeurs Américaines.

” Elizabeth Eliza supposed he alluded to their not having set any table.

The Turk smiled, the Russian was voluble.

In the midst of the clang of the different languages, just as Mr. Peterkin was again repeating, under cover of the noise of many tongues, “How shall we make them understand that we want them to teach?

”--at this very moment the door was flung open, and there came in the lady from Philadelphia, that day arrived, her first call of the season!

She started back in terror at the tumult of so many different languages!

The family, with joy, rushed to meet her.

All together they called upon her to explain for them.

Could she help them?

Could she tell the foreigners they wanted to take lessons?

Lessons?

They had no sooner uttered the word than their guests all started up with faces beaming with joy.

It was the one English word they all knew!

They had come to Boston to give lessons!

The Russian traveller had hoped to learn English in this way.

The thought pleased them more than the déjeûner.

Yes, gladly would they give lessons.

The Turk smiled at the idea.

The first step was taken.

The teachers knew they were expected to teach.

MODERN IMPROVEMENTS AT THE PETERKINS’.

AGAMEMNON felt that it became necessary for him to choose a profession.

It was important on account of the little boys.

If he should make a trial of several different professions he could find out which would be the most likely to be successful, and it would then be easy to bring up the little boys in the right direction.

Elizabeth Eliza agreed with this.

She thought the family occasionally made mistakes, and had come near disgracing themselves.

Now was their chance to avoid this in future by giving the little boys a proper education.

Solomon John was almost determined to become a doctor.

From earliest childhood he had practiced writing recipes on little slips of paper.

Mrs. Peterkin, to be sure, was afraid of infection.

She could not bear the idea of his bringing one disease after the other into the family circle.

Solomon John, too, did not like sick people.

He thought he might manage it if he should not have to see his patients while they were sick.

If he could only visit them when they were recovering, and when the danger of infection was over, he would really enjoy making calls.

He should have a comfortable doctor’s chaise, and take one of the little boys to hold his horse while he went in, and he thought he could get through the conversational part very well, and feeling the pulse, perhaps looking at the tongue.

He should take and read all the newspapers, and so be thoroughly acquainted with the news of the day to talk of.

But he should not like to be waked up at night to visit.

Mr. Peterkin thought that would not be necessary.

He had seen signs on doors of “Night Doctor,” and certainly it would be as convenient to have a sign of “Not a Night Doctor.

” Solomon John thought he might write his advice to those of his patients who were dangerously ill, from whom there was danger of infection.

And then Elizabeth Eliza agreed that his prescriptions would probably be so satisfactory that they would keep his patients well,--not too well to do without a doctor, but needing his recipes.

Agamemnon was delayed, however, in his choice of a profession, by a desire he had to become a famous inventor.

If he could only invent something important, and get out a patent, he would make himself known all over the country.

If he could get out a patent he would be set up for life, or at least as long as the patent lasted, and it would be well to be sure to arrange it to last through his natural life.

Indeed, he had gone so far as to make his invention.

It had been suggested by their trouble with a key, in their late moving to their new house.

He had studied the matter over a great deal.

He looked it up in the Encyclopædia, and had spent a day or two in the Public Library, in reading about Chubb’s Lock and other patent locks.

But his plan was more simple.

It was this: that all keys should be made alike!

He wondered it had not been thought of before; but so it was, Solomon John said, with all inventions, with Christopher Columbus, and everybody.

Nobody knew the invention till it was invented, and then it looked very simple.

With Agamemnon’s plan you need have but one key, that should fit everything!

It should be a medium-sized key, not too large to carry.

It ought to answer for a house door, but you might open a portmanteau with it.

How much less danger there would be of losing one’s keys if there were only one to lose!

Mrs. Peterkin thought it would be inconvenient if their father were out, and she wanted to open the jam-closet for the little boys.

But Agamemnon explained that he did not mean there should be but one key in the family, or in a town,--you might have as many as you pleased, only they should all be alike.

Elizabeth Eliza felt it would be a great convenience,--they could keep the front door always locked, yet she could open it with the key of her upper drawer; that she was sure to have with her.

And Mrs. Peterkin felt it might be a convenience if they had one on each story, so that they need not go up and down for it.

Mr. Peterkin studied all the papers and advertisements, to decide about the lawyer whom they should consult, and at last, one morning, they went into town to visit a patent-agent.

Elizabeth Eliza took the occasion to make a call upon the lady from Philadelphia, but she came back hurriedly to her mother.

“I have had a delightful call,” she said; “but--perhaps I was wrong--I could not help, in conversation, speaking of Agamemnon’s proposed patent.

I ought not to have mentioned it, as such things are kept profound secrets; they say women always do tell things; I suppose that is the reason.

” “But where is the harm?

” asked Mrs. Peterkin.

“I’m sure you can trust the lady from Philadelphia.

” Elizabeth Eliza then explained that the lady from Philadelphia had questioned the plan a little when it was told her, and had suggested that “if everybody had the same key there would be no particular use in a lock.

” “Did you explain to her,” said Mrs. Peterkin, “that we were not all to have the same keys?

” “I couldn’t quite understand her,” said Elizabeth Eliza, “but she seemed to think that burglars and other people might come in if the keys were the same.

” “Agamemnon would not sell his patent to burglars!

” said Mrs. Peterkin, indignantly.

“But about other people,” said Elizabeth Eliza; “there is my upper drawer; the little boys might open it at Christmas-time,--and their presents in it!

” “And I am not sure that I could trust Amanda,” said Mrs. Peterkin, considering.

Both she and Elizabeth Eliza felt that Mr. Peterkin ought to know what the lady from Philadelphia had suggested.

Elizabeth Eliza then proposed going into town, but it would take so long she might not reach them in time.

A telegram would be better, and she ventured to suggest using the Telegraph Alarm.

For, on moving into their new house, they had discovered it was provided with all the modern improvements.

This had been a disappointment to Mrs. Peterkin, for she was afraid of them, since their experience the last winter, when their water-pipes were frozen up.

She had been originally attracted to the house by an old pump at the side, which had led her to believe there were no modern improvements.

It had pleased the little boys, too.

They liked to pump the handle up and down, and agreed to pump all the water needed, and bring it into the house.

There was an old well, with a picturesque well-sweep, in a corner by the barn.

Mrs. Peterkin was frightened by this at first.

She was afraid the little boys would be falling in every day.

And they showed great fondness for pulling the bucket up and down.

It proved, however, that the well was dry.

There was no water in it; so she had some moss thrown down, and an old feather-bed, for safety, and the old well was a favorite place of amusement.

The house, it had proved, was well furnished with bath-rooms, and “set- waters” everywhere.

Water-pipes and gas-pipes all over the house; and a hack-, telegraph-, and fire-alarm, with a little knob for each.

Mrs. Peterkin was very anxious.

She feared the little boys would be summoning somebody all the time, and it was decided to conceal from them the use of the knobs, and the card of directions at the side was destroyed.

Agamemnon had made one of his first inventions to help this.

He had arranged a number of similar knobs to be put in rows in different parts of the house, to appear as if they were intended for ornament, and had added some to the original knobs.

Mrs. Peterkin felt more secure, and Agamemnon thought of taking out a patent for this invention.

It was, therefore, with some doubt that Elizabeth Eliza proposed sending a telegram to her father.

Mrs. Peterkin, however, was pleased with the idea.

Solomon John was out, and the little boys were at school, and she herself would touch the knob, while Elizabeth Eliza should write the telegram.

“I think it is the fourth knob from the beginning,” she said, looking at one of the rows of knobs.

Elizabeth Eliza was sure of this.

Agamemnon, she believed, had put three extra knobs at each end.

“But which is the end, and which is the beginning,--the top or the bottom?

” Mrs. Peterkin asked hopelessly.

Still she bravely selected a knob, and Elizabeth Eliza hastened with her to look out for the messenger.

How soon should they see the telegraph boy?

They seemed to have scarcely reached the window, when a terrible noise was heard, and down the shady street the white horses of the fire-brigade were seen rushing at a fatal speed!

It was a terrific moment!

“I have touched the fire-alarm,” Mrs. Peterkin exclaimed.

Both rushed to open the front door in agony.

By this time the fire-engines were approaching.

“Do not be alarmed,” said the chief engineer; “the furniture shall be carefully covered, and we will move all that is necessary.

” “Move again!

” exclaimed Mrs. Peterkin, in agony.

Elizabeth Eliza strove to explain that she was only sending a telegram to her father, who was in Boston.

“It is not important,” said the head engineer; “the fire will all be out before it could reach him.

” And he ran upstairs, for the engines were beginning to play upon the roof.

Mrs. Peterkin rushed to the knobs again hurriedly; there was more necessity for summoning Mr. Peterkin home.

“Write a telegram to your father,” she said to Elizabeth Eliza, “to ‘come home directly.

’” “That will take but three words,” said Elizabeth Eliza, with presence of mind, “and we need ten.

I was just trying to make them out.

” “What has come now?

” exclaimed Mrs. Peterkin, and they hurried again to the window, to see a row of carriages coming down the street.

“I must have touched the carriage-knob,” cried Mrs. Peterkin, “and I pushed it half-a-dozen times I felt so anxious!

” Six hacks stood before the door.

All the village boys were assembling.

Even their own little boys had returned from school, and were showing the firemen the way to the well.

Again Mrs. Peterkin rushed to the knobs, and a fearful sound arose.

She had touched the burglar-alarm!

The former owner of the house, who had a great fear of burglars, had invented a machine of his own, which he had connected with a knob.

A

wire attached to the knob moved a spring that could put in motion a number of watchmen’s rattles, hidden under the eaves of the piazza.

All these were now set a-going, and their terrible din roused those of the neighborhood who had not before assembled around the house.

At this moment Elizabeth Eliza met the chief engineer.

“You need not send for more help,” he said; “we have all the engines in town here, and have stirred up all the towns in the neighborhood;

there’s no use in springing any more alarms.

I can’t find the fire yet, but we have water pouring all over the house.

” Elizabeth Eliza waved her telegram in the air.

“We are only trying to send a telegram to my father and brother, who are in town,” she endeavored to explain.

“If it is necessary,” said the chief engineer, “you might send it down in one of the hackney carriages.

I see a number standing before the door.

We’d better begin to move the heavier furniture, and some of you women might fill the carriages with smaller things.

” Mrs. Peterkin was ready to fall into hysterics.

She controlled herself with a supreme power, and hastened to touch another knob.

Elizabeth Eliza corrected her telegram, and decided to take the advice of the chief engineer and went to the door to give her message to one of the hackmen, when she saw a telegraph boy appear.

Her mother had touched the right knob.

It was the fourth from the beginning; but the beginning was at the other end!

She went out to meet the boy, when, to her joy, she saw behind him her father and Agamemnon.

She clutched her telegram, and hurried toward them.

Mr. Peterkin was bewildered.

Was the house on fire?

If so, where were the flames?

He saw the row of carriages.

Was there a funeral, or a wedding?

Who was dead?

Who was to be married?

He seized the telegram that Elizabeth Eliza reached to him, and read it aloud.

“Come to us directly--the house is NOT on fire!

” The chief engineer was standing on the steps.

“The house not on fire!

” he exclaimed.

“What are we all summoned for?

” “It is a mistake,” cried Elizabeth Eliza, wringing her hands.

“We touched the wrong knob; we wanted the telegraph boy!