224 TROTTY'S WEDDING TOUR.

“ Nita and Nate— and Lill?” asked Trotty.

“ Perhaps so. On the whole—yes. Next Wednesday will
be your birthday. And you ’ve been sick and shut up so long.
Yes,— you may choose just the thing you would like the
best to do, and we will do it.”

“The ve-ry best?’ demanded Trotty, flushing again. “Any-
thing ?”’

“Yes ; for once.”

“Qh!” said Trotty, with a long, long sigh in which the
anguish of hope deferred and the dash of unexpected joy
struggled for utterance. “If I could do the thing I’d rather
like ve very best in all the world, I’d-—I’d— 0, 1’d go to
Boston, — in ve first train, and choose my own dinner, and
eat just as many pink ice-creams AS I COULD GET DowN!”

His mother was “in for it’ that time. There was no mistake
about it; nothing to do about it. She was in honor bound.

If Trotty lives through it, I will let you know some other
time.