ther. Hu! how it
looked! I can't tell you how horrid it was! Snails, caterpillars,
beetles, every sort of ugly living creature crawled out of every
place,--it was all dirty and nasty and abominable! I cleaned and brushed
and washed and scrubbed as well as I could; but it was so dirty and so
sticky! Ugh! And it was done on purpose, too; that's the worst of it;
and the nasty things have got into my clothes and my hair and all over
me! That stupid young gentleman did it just to frighten whoever came and
found them there! I know he did!"

"No, Lina, you're mistaken," said Clarissa, when she could get in a
word. "Come with me, and I'll see what can be done with the room. The
boy didn't mean to frighten any one. I'm only afraid he was trying to
hide them where they wouldn't be found. Let's go and see."

The aspect of Fred's room was indeed alarming. All the drawers and
shelves in the different pieces of furniture were pulled out, and all
were dirty and bore the marks of the creatures who had been kept in
them. On the floor lay the remains of the spiders and worms that Lina
had destroyed. The windows also were spotted with the dead bodies of
insects. Clarissa shook her head sadly.

"Call the lad to come up here," she said. "But do not make any more fuss
about the matter. Listen to me, Lina; we must make this all clean and
nice again without letting Mrs. Stanhope know anything about it. Do you
understand?"

Lina muttered something to herself and went to call Fred. When the poor
lad entered his room and saw the destruction of all his carefully
preserved treasures, he turned as white as chalk, and spoke not one
word.

"My dear boy," said Clarissa very gently, "you need not be frightened,
but I must tell you that you cannot use these drawers nor this desk for
this purpose. Now, we will clean them all out, but remember that no more
creatures must be brought into the house."

"Oh, my collection! my whole collection!"

"Yes, you see this is not the way to go to work to make a collection.
Don't be unhappy. I will see about your getting some more creatures. But
the first thing is to get this room cleaned up, and I'm sure you won't
want to give us so much trouble again."

Fred glanced at the places where his most cherished treasures had been
stored. His rare oleander-worms and his priceless beetles all were
destroyed. The drawers all opened, the creatures all killed and spoiled.
He went down stairs again, but he could not go b