swer before he spoke.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but Mr. Hann doesn't recognize your name. You are
not a customer of ours, and he feels that he can't take the risk."

Elnora clumped out of the store, the thump of her heavy, shoes beating
as a hammer on her brain. She tried two other dealers with the same
result, and then in sick despair came into the street. What could she
do? She was too frightened to think. Should she stay from school that
day and canvass the homes appearing to belong to the wealthy, and try
to sell beds of wild ferns, as she had suggested to Wesley Sinton? What
would she dare ask for bringing in and planting a clump of ferns? How
could she carry them? Would people buy them? She slowly moved past the
hotel and then glanced around to see if there were a clock anywhere, for
she felt sure the young people passing her constantly were on their way
to school.

There it stood in a bank window in big black letters staring straight at
her:

WANTED: CATERPILLARS, COCOONS, CHRYSALIDES, PUPAE CASES, BUTTERFLIES,
MOTHS, INDIAN RELICS OF ALL KINDS. HIGHEST SCALE OF PRICES PAID IN CASH

Elnora caught the wicket at the cashier's desk with both hands to brace
herself against disappointment.

"Who is it wants to buy cocoons, butterflies, and moths?" she panted.

"The Bird Woman," answered the cashier. "Have you some for sale?"

"I have some, I do not know if they are what she would want."

"Well, you had better see her," said the cashier. "Do you know where she
lives?"

"Yes," said Elnora. "Would you tell me the time?"

"Twenty-one after eight," was the answer.

She had nine minutes to reach the auditorium or be late. Should she
go to school, or to the Bird Woman? Several girls passed her walking
swiftly and she remembered their faces. They were hurrying to school.
Elnora caught the infection. She would see the Bird Woman at noon.
Algebra came first, and that professor was kind. Perhaps she could slip
to the superintendent and ask him for a book for the next lesson, and at
noon--"Oh, dear Lord make it come true," prayed Elnora, at noon possibly
she could sell some of those wonderful shining-winged things she had
been collecting all her life around the outskirts of the Limberlost.

As she went down the long hall she noticed the professor of mathematics
standing in the door of his recitation room. When she passed him he
smiled and spoke to her.

"I have been watching for you," he said, and Elnora stopped