wing shouted, "O-ka-lee!" to her. Mrs. Comstock paused and looked
intently at the slime-covered quagmire, framed in a flower riot and
homed over by sweet-voiced birds. Then she gazed at the thing of
incomparable beauty clinging to her fingers and said softly: "If you
had known about wonders like these in the days of your youth, Robert
Comstock, could you ever have done what you did?"

Elnora missed her mother, and turning to look for her, saw her standing
beside the pool. Would the old fascination return? A panic of fear
seized the girl. She went back swiftly.

"Are you afraid she is going?" Elnora asked. "If you are, cup your other
hand over her for shelter. Carrying her through this air and in the hot
sunshine will dry her wings and make them ready for flight very quickly.
You can't trust her in such air and light as you can in the cool dark
woods."

While she talked she took hold of her mother's sleeve, anxiously smiling
a pitiful little smile that Mrs. Comstock understood. Philip set his
load at the back door, returning to hold open the garden gate for Elnora
and Mrs. Comstock. He reached it in time to see them standing together
beside the pool. The mother bent swiftly and kissed the girl on the
lips. Philip turned and was busily hunting moths on the raspberry
bushes when they reached the gate. And so excellent are the rewards of
attending your own business, that he found a Promethea on a lilac in a
corner; a moth of such rare wine-coloured, velvety shades that it almost
sent Mrs. Comstock to her knees again. But this one was fully developed,
able to fly, and had to be taken into the cabin hurriedly. Mrs. Comstock
stood in the middle of the room holding up her Regalis.

"Now what must I do?" she asked.

Elnora glanced at Philip Ammon. Their eyes met and both of them smiled;
he with amusement at the tall, spare figure, with dark eyes and white
crown, asking the childish question so confidingly; and Elnora with
pride. She was beginning to appreciate the character of her mother.

"How would you like to sit and see her finish development? I'll get
dinner," proposed the girl.

After they had dined, Philip and Elnora carried the dishes to the
kitchen, brought out boxes, sheets of cork, pins, ink, paper slips and
everything necessary for mounting and classifying the moths they had
taken. When the housework was finished Mrs. Comstock with her ruffle
sat near, watching and listening. She remembered all they said that