, returned to bed and fell
asleep instantly with a smile on her lips.

She was on the floor with the first tinkle of the alarm, and hastily
dressing, she picked up the basket and a box to fit it, crept down the
stairs, and out to the violet patch. She was unafraid as it was growing
light, and lining the basket with damp mosses she swiftly began picking,
with practised hands, the best of the flowers. She scarcely could
tell which were freshest at times, but day soon came creeping over the
Limberlost and peeped at her. The robins awoke all their neighbours, and
a babel of bird notes filled the air. The dew was dripping, while the
first strong rays of light fell on a world in which Elnora worshipped.
When the basket was filled to overflowing, she set it in the stout
pasteboard box, packed it solid with mosses, tied it firmly and slipped
under the cord a note she had written the previous night.

Then she took a short cut across the woods and walked swiftly to
Onabasha. It was after six o'clock, but all of the city she wished to
avoid were asleep. She had no trouble in finding a small boy out, and
she stood at a distance waiting while he rang Dr. Ammon's bell and
delivered the package for Philip to a maid, with the note which was to
be given him at once.

On the way home through the woods passing some baited trees she
collected the captive moths. She entered the kitchen with them so
naturally that Mrs. Comstock made no comment. After breakfast Elnora
went to her room, cleared away all trace of the night's work and was out
in the arbour mounting moths when Philip came down the road. "I am tired
sitting," she said to her mother. "I think I will walk a few rods and
meet him."

"Who's a trump?" he called from afar.

"Not you!" retorted Elnora. "Confess that you forgot!"

"Completely!" said Philip. "But luckily it would not have been fatal. I
wrote Polly last week to send Edith something appropriate to-day, with
my card. But that touch from the woods will be very effective. Thank you
more than I can say. Aunt Anna and I unpacked it to see the basket, and
it was a beauty. She says you are always doing such things."

"Well, I hope not!" laughed Elnora. "If you'd seen me sneaking out
before dawn, not to awaken mother and coming in with moths to make
her think I'd been to the trees, you'd know it was a most especial
occasion."

"Then Philip understood two things: Elnora's mother did not know of the
early morning trip to the