ill he let me have the
collection. Such specimens! No end of foreign ones we know
nothing about, and I am having a case made. I found a little
book with his notes in. We are quite at sea to go flaring
about with nets and bruising the specimens. The way is to
dig for chrysalises. Mind you do; and how I envy you! For I
have to be in this horrid town, when I long to be grubbing
at the roots of trees. Polly quite agrees with me. She hates
London; and says the happiest time in her life was when she
was at Dacrefield. My only comfort is to go to the old
bookstalls and look for books about moths and butterflies.
Imagine! The other day when your aunt was out, I took Polly
with me. She said she would give anything on earth to go. So
we went. We went into some awful streets, and had some
oysters at a stall, and came back carrying no end of books;
and just as we got in at the door there were your aunt and
Lady Chelmsfield coming out. What a rage your aunt was in! I
tried to take all the blame, but she shut Polly up for a
fortnight. It's a beastly shame, but Polly says the
expedition was worth it; her spirit is splendid. I never
wrote such a long letter in my life before, but I am in the
blues, and have no one to talk to. I wish my poor governor
had lived. I wish I were in the country. I wish your aunt
was a moth. Wouldn't I pin her to a cork! Mind you work up
old Mother Hubbard to a sumptuous provision of grub for next
half, and don't forget the other grubs. Would that I could
dig with thee for them. _Vale_!

"Thine ever,

"LIONEL DAMER."

Of course this ended in Leo's being invited to Dacrefield. He came,
and, wonderful to relate, we got Polly too. My father invited her and
my aunt to visit us, and they came. As Leo said, Aunt Maria "behaved
better than we expected." Indeed, Leo had no reason to complain of her
treatment of him as a rule, for he was constantly at the Ascotts'
house during his holidays.

And so we rambled and scrambled about together, Leo, and Polly, and I.
And we added largely to our collections, and made a fernery (the
Rector helping us), and rode about the country, and were thoroughly
happy. We generally went to the nursery for a short time before
dressing for dinner, where we teased and coaxed Mrs. Bundle, and ate
large slices of an excellent species of gingerbread called
"p