vor as to extort a remonstrance from Aunt Fannie, the old
colored woman who was the head factotum of the kitchen.

"You all jest a gwine to kill yerse'f," she said reprovingly. "'Tain't
no mannah ob use to scrub an' scour twel a fly can't stan' up nowhar.
Take hit easy, Miss Bee."

"It's all that I can do for father," responded Bee, and the old woman
was silenced.

So the days went by. Every morning she saw her father at breakfast, and
received his formal greeting as gracefully as she could. The meal over,
Doctor Raymond disappeared in his study to be seen no more until
evening. He was never a demonstrative man, and his reserve seemed like
indifference to his daughter. Beatrice pondered upon his unconcern until
she became possessed with the one idea that somehow, some way, she must
do something to attract his attention.

"It's all because I'm not pretty," thought the unhappy child one morning
when this state of things had gone on for a week. "I must do something
to make him like me; but what?"

Listlessly she took up her butterfly book and turned the pages idly. All
at once her eye was caught by these words:

"One of the most singular and interesting facts in the animal kingdom is
what has been styled mimicry. Certain colors and forms are possessed by
animals which adapt them to their surroundings in such wise that they
are in a greater or less degree secured from observation and attack....

"A good illustration of this fact is found in the Disipsus Butterfly,
which belongs to a group which is not especially protected, but is often
the prey of insect-eating creatures. This butterfly has assumed almost
the exact color and markings of the milkweed butterfly, which is
distasteful to birds, and hence enjoys peculiar freedom from the attacks
of enemies. Because this adaption of one form to another evidently
serves the purpose of defense this phenomenon has been called
'protective mimicry.'"

"'Protective mimicry,'" mused the girl thoughtfully, leaning back in her
chair and clasping her hands above her head. "That means if an animal
wishes to defend himself from another he just puts on the form of one
that his enemy doesn't like. 'Actor bugs,' Professor Lawrence calls
them. If that can be done why couldn't any creature put on any form he
liked? Wouldn't it be funny if a girl could change her appearance every
morning just like she does her dress? I could get up then looking just
like Adele. Why!--"

Bee sat up sudde