220 TROTTY’S WEDDING TOUR.

in no wise taken by surprise by it, and the boys in no wise
loath. So they went to the picnic at five o’clock, and the
sky threw away her silver-soap, for the clouds shone so that
the crippled woodchuck, panting and resting under a great
soft mullein-leaf, could have seen his own ugly little face in
them if he had been tall enough.

And that is how the Great Woodchuck Society came to an
end in that school forevermore.

The red and gold covers were produced, when this story
was printed, with great ceremony. The children’s mother
came up herself and trimmed and stitched for them. It was a
‘gorgeous book. 'To be sure, Max said it looked like a turkey-
cock, and somebody asked if it had the scarlet-fever, and
Trotty was driven out of his senses by inquiries as to how
large his advance orders had been ; — but it was a gorgeous
book.

They swept out the printing-office; they put away the
press ; they wheeled Trotty’s chair down stairs. Trotty was
able to walk now,— almost as well as ever. He made a
procession of his compositors, and solemnly marched down
stairs at its head, with his book on Ais head. I have had the
book photographed by the most expensive (and the crossest)
photographer whom I could find, and engraved by the most
conscientious engraver who was to be heard of for love or
money. She (it was a lady, as all conscientious people are)
read all the stories through from beginning to end, before she