tural History Club, in spite of my aversion for bugs. I
suppose she tried me in various girls' clubs, and found that I did not
fit, any more than I fitted in the dancing-club that I attempted years
before. I dare say she decided that I was an old maid, and urged me to
come to the meetings of the Natural History Club, which was composed
of adults. The members of this club were not people from the
neighborhood, I understood, but workers at Hale House and their
friends; and they often had eminent naturalists, travellers, and other
notables lecture before them. My curiosity to see a real live
naturalist probably induced me to accept Mrs. Black's invitation in
the end; for up to that time I had never met any one who enjoyed the
creepy society of snakes and worms, except in books.

The Natural History Club sat in a ring around the reception room,
facing the broad doorway of the adjoining room. Mrs. Black introduced
me, and I said "Glad to meet you" all around the circle, and sat down
in a kindergarten chair beside the piano. It was Friday evening, and I
had the sense of leisure which pervades the school-girl's
consciousness when there is to be no school on the morrow. I liked the
pleasant room, pleasanter than any at home. I liked the faces of the
company I was in. I was prepared to have an agreeable evening, even if
I was a little bored.

The tall, lean gentleman with the frank blue eyes got up to read the
minutes of the last meeting. I did not understand what he read, but I
noticed that it gave him great satisfaction. This man had greeted me
as if he had been waiting for my coming all his life. What did Mrs.
Black call him? He looked and spoke as if he was happy to be alive. I
liked him. Oh, yes! this was Mr. Winthrop.

I let my thoughts wander, with my eyes, all around the circle, trying
to read the characters of my new friends in their faces. But suddenly
my attention was arrested by a word. Mr. Winthrop had finished reading
the minutes, and was introducing the speaker of the evening. "We are
very fortunate in having with us Mr. Emerson, whom we all know as an
authority on spiders."

_Spiders!_ What hard luck! Mr. Winthrop pronounced the word "spiders"
with unmistakable relish, as if he doted on the horrid creatures; but
I--My nerves contracted into a tight knot. I gripped the arms of my
little chair, determined _not_ to run, with all those strangers
looking on. I watched Mr. Emerson, to see when he would open a box o