When she returned she handed her mother an oblong
frame, hand carved, enclosing Elnora’s picture,
taken by a schoolmate’s camera. She wore
her storm-coat and carried a dripping umbrella.
From under it looked her bright face; her books and
lunchbox were on her arm, and across the bottom of
the frame was carved, “Your Country Classmate.”
Then she offered another frame.
“I am strong on frames,” she said.
“They seemed to be the best I could do without
money. I located the maple and the black walnut
myself, in a little corner that had been overlooked
between the river and the ditch. They didn’t
seem to belong to any one so I just took them.
Uncle Wesley said it was all right, and he cut and
hauled them for me. I gave the mill half of each
tree for sawing and curing the remainder. Then
I gave the wood-carver half of that for making my
frames. A photographer gave me a lot of spoiled
plates, and I boiled off the emulsion, and took the
specimens I framed from my stuff. The man said
the white frames were worth three and a half, and
the black ones five. I exchanged those little
framed pictures for the photographs of the others.
For presents, I gave each one of my crowd one like
this, only a different moth. The Bird Woman gave
me the birch bark. She got it up north last summer.”
Elnora handed her mother a handsome black-walnut frame
a foot and a half wide by two long. It finished
a small, shallow glass-covered box of birch bark,
to the bottom of which clung a big night moth with
delicate pale green wings and long exquisite trailers.
“So you see I did not have to be ashamed of
my gifts,” said Elnora. “I made them
myself and raised and mounted the moths.”
“Moth, you call it,” said Mrs. Comstock.
“I’ve seen a few of the things before.”
“They are numerous around us every June night,
or at least they used to be,” said Elnora.
“I’ve sold hundreds of them, with butterflies,
dragonflies, and other specimens. Now, I must
put away these and get to work, for it is almost June
and there are a few more I want dreadfully. If
I find them I will be paid some money for which I have
been working.”
She was afraid to say college at that time. She
thought it would be better to wait a few days and
see if an opportunity would not come when it would
work in more naturally. Besides, unless she could
secure the Yellow Emperor she needed to complete her
collection, she could not talk college until she was
of age, for she would have no money.
WHEREIN MARGARET SINTON REVEALS A SECRET, AND MRS. COMSTOCK POSSESSES
THE LIMBERLOST
“Elnora, bring me the towel, quick!” cried
Mrs Comstock.
“In a minute, mother,” mumbled Elnora.
She was standing before the kitchen mirror, tying
the back part of her hair, while the front turned
over her face.
“Hurry! There’s a varmint of some
kind!”
