58 TROTTY'S WEDDING TOUR.

“ What did she say?” asked the furniture-dealer, after a
silence.

“Jt’s no matter, sir, if you please,” said the poor little
dunce, after another. For her mother was a sickly woman,
not a very happy one, and sometimes — to tell the truth — a
cross one. She was mortified and surprised, and Jem was
mortified and tired, and whatever welcome home she had had
in the house, I suspect she found that in the store an im-
provement.

“¢ Well, well,” said her father, taking up his hammer again.
“Never mind. Just run and get me those nails on the low
shelf, will you? and never mind!”

But he said to himself, “ So my poor little girl is stupid, is
she? Ill see if I can’t make one place for her where she ’Il
forget it.”

So it happened that Jem, after she left off writing compo-
sitions, used to run in and out of the shop so much. In
consequence, two things came about. She did indeed very
nearly forget the composition on Jearus. And there will be
another chapterful of her.

PART IT.

“ Jem has sent to Chicago for a declining-chair ! ”’

“ What ?”

“A declining-chair. I heard her. Yes, I did. You bet.
Jem has sent to Chicago for a declining-chair.”’