e he did not have to explain
that the only interest he ever did have in the matter was when, as a
very small boy, he used to chase after the fluttering insects as they
went from flower to flower, until shown by his mother how cruel it was
to destroy the life of such wonderfully beautiful things, that he could
not restore again.

Sallie took the bait, Andy knew from the eager light that flashed upon
her face. And when he saw her step over to a window, and look quickly
down the lane, he turned to his cousin, and made a grimace as much as to
say, "See how she fell to my little game, will you, old fellow?"

"Well," said Sallie, flitting back again, "Professor Whitesides hasn't
got a very large collection; and the new specimens he gathers day after
day he kept in some place, because he has no time just now to do
anything with them, he says; but come up with me, and I'll show you the
little case he brought with him."

"Sure we will, and I'm glad of the chance to see what valuable
butterflies look like," Andy went on to remark.

"He says this little collection is a very rare one, and worth an awfully
large sum of money," Sallie went on to remark, in something of a
confidential tone, as if getting the boys ready to be surprised when
they looked upon the possessions of the industrious professor. "And oh!
if you could only hear all the queer things he's been telling us that
happened to him in foreign lands, when he was spending ever so much
money, and long weary months, finding these very rare specimens. Why, I
just stand there, and look at them, and wonder how people can be so
foolish, when it seems to me I've seen much prettier butterflies right
out there in our fields where the thistles are blooming."

It seemed that the room they had given the wonderful man of science was
on the ground floor, and opened off the parlor.

The two boys followed Sallie in, and noted her rather awed manner 5
evidently the professor, whether he turned out to be a fraud or the
genuine article, had succeeded in arousing both her admiration and
wonder.

The room was plainly yet comfortably furnished, but evidently the
professor, like so many other learned savants, did not know such a thing
as "order" existed, for things were simply topsy-turvy.

"He just won't let us sweep in here, or do the least thing," explained
Sallie, as if she feared the boys would blame her for the looks of the
room, "you know, he's so queer, and he says we might lose