12 TROTTY'S WEDDING TOUR.

It was not until Miss Merle Higgins came into Fourth
Reader that he went to Indiana to apply for a divorce.

Miss Merle Higgins was the belle of the School at the time
when she honored Fourth Reader by her presence. At least,
so Nate said, and one or two of the other boys ; and Trotty
supposed they ought to know, though it was something of a
perplexity to him in his thoughtful moods, there being one in
the belfry already ; though, to be sure, that was cracked.

Miss Merle Higgins’s mother did up Miss Merle’s hair in
papers over night, and Miss Merle’s hair — unless it was
damp weather — hung about her eyes and her little (pug)
nose in so many curls that she looked like a basket of beau-
tiful, fresh shavings. Miss Merle wore a blue dress, and a
pink overskirt. She had a necklace of large pearl beads,
and a brass ring. She wrote little notes to the boys on pink
paper. Besides these irresistible attractions, she kept a bottle
of Lubin’s perfumery in her desk, and her father kept an
oyster-saloon and candy-shop.

At this time Mrs. Nita was recovering from the chicken-
pox, and wearing out her old brown gingham.

It was on a Wednesday morning that Miss Merle came
into Fourth, and that she lost her book, and Trotty stood by
her and lent her his.

It was on Saturday that he proposed to her.

They were cating a corn-ball at recess. Trotty took one
bite, and Merle took one. They sat on the little wood-pile in
the sun.