"
Elizabeth Eliza objected to having the whole ceiling raised,
because her room was over the back parlor, and she would have
no floor while the alteration was going on, which would be very
awkward. Besides, her room was not very high now, and, if the
floor were raised, perhaps she could not walk in it upright.
Mr. Peterkin explained that he didn't propose altering the whole
ceiling, but to life up a ridge across the room at the back part
where the tree was to stand.
This would make a hump, to be sure, in Elizabeth Eliza's room; but
it would go across the whole room.
Elizabeth Eliza said she would not mind that. It would be like the
cuddy thing that comes up on the deck of a ship, that you sit
against, only here you would not have the sea-sickness. She
thought she should like it, for a rarity. She might use it for a
divan.
Mrs. Peterkin thought it would come in the worn place of the
carpet, and might be a convenience in making the carpet over.
Agamemnon was afraid there would be trouble in keeping the
matter secret, for it would be a long piece of work for a carpenter;
but Mr. Peterkin proposed having the carpenter for a day or two,
for a number of other jobs.
One of them was to make all the chairs in the house of the same
height, for Mrs. Peterkin had nearly broken her spine by sitting
down in a chair that she had supposed was her own rocking-chair,
and it had proved to be two inches lower.
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