But it was necessary to decide upon something, for they must leave their house directly.  So they were obliged to take Mr. Finch’s at the Corners.  It satisfied none of the family.  The porch was a piazza, and was opposite a barn.  There were three other doors,—­too many to please Mr. Peterkin, and not enough for the little boys.  There was no observatory, and nothing to observe, if there were one, as the house was too low, and some high trees shut out any view.  Elizabeth Eliza had hoped for a view, but Mr. Peterkin consoled her by deciding it was more healthy to have to walk for a view, and Mrs. Peterkin agreed that they might get tired of the same every day.

And everybody was glad a selection was made, and the little boys carried their India rubber boots the very first afternoon.

Elizabeth Eliza wanted to have some system in the moving, and spent the evening in drawing up a plan.  It would be easy to arrange everything beforehand, so that there should not be the confusion that her mother dreaded, and the discomfort they had in their last move.  Mrs. Peterkin shook her head, she did not think it possible to move with any comfort.  Agamemnon said a great deal could be done with a list and a programme.

Elizabeth Eliza declared if all were well arranged a programme would make it perfectly easy.  They were to have new parlor carpets, which could be put down in the new house the first thing.  Then the parlor furniture could be moved in, and there would be two comfortable rooms, in which Mr. and Mrs. Peterkin could sit, while the rest of the move went on.  Then the old parlor carpets could be taken up for the new dining-room and the down-stairs bedroom, and the family could meanwhile dine at the old house.  Mr. Peterkin did not object to this, though the distance was considerable, as he felt exercise would be good for them all.  Elizabeth Eliza’s programme then arranged that the dining-room furniture could be moved the third day, by which time one of the old parlor carpets would be down in the new dining-room, and they could still sleep in the old house.  Thus there would always be a quiet, comfortable place in one house or the other.  Each night when Mr. Peterkin came home, he would find some place for quiet thought and rest, and each day there should be moved only the furniture needed for a certain room.  Great confusion would be avoided and nothing misplaced.  Elizabeth Eliza wrote these last words at the head of her programme—­“Misplace nothing.”  And Agamemnon made a copy of the programme for each member of the family.

The first thing to be done was to buy the parlor carpets.  Elizabeth Eliza had already looked at some in Boston, and the next morning she went by an early train, with her father, Agamemnon, and Solomon John, to decide upon them.