in her head. Her mother had known
about the books and the tuition, and had not told her when she agreed to
her coming.

At noon Elnora took her little parcel of lunch and started to the home
of the Bird Woman. She must know about the specimens first and then she
would walk to the suburbs somewhere and eat a few bites. She dropped
the heavy iron knocker on the door of a big red log cabin, and her heart
thumped at the resounding stroke.

"Is the Bird Woman at home?" she asked of the maid.

"She is at lunch," was the answer.

"Please ask her if she will see a girl from the Limberlost about some
moths?" inquired Elnora.

"I never need ask, if it's moths," laughed the girl. "Orders are to
bring any one with specimens right in. Come this way."

Elnora followed down the hall and entered a long room with high panelled
wainscoting, old English fireplace with an overmantel and closets of
peculiar china filling the corners. At a bare table of oak, yellow as
gold, sat a woman Elnora often had watched and followed covertly around
the Limberlost. The Bird Woman was holding out a hand of welcome.

"I heard!" she laughed. "A little pasteboard box, or just the mere
word 'specimen,' passes you at my door. If it is moths I hope you have
hundreds. I've been very busy all summer and unable to collect, and I
need so many. Sit down and lunch with me, while we talk it over. From
the Limberlost, did you say?"

"I live near the swamp," replied Elnora. "Since it's so cleared I dare
go around the edge in daytime, though we are all afraid at night."

"What have you collected?" asked the Bird Woman, as she helped Elnora to
sandwiches unlike any she ever before had tasted, salad that seemed to
be made of many familiar things, and a cup of hot chocolate that would
have delighted any hungry schoolgirl.

"I am afraid I am bothering you for nothing, and imposing on you," she
said. "That 'collected' frightens me. I've only gathered. I always loved
everything outdoors, so I made friends and playmates of them. When I
learned that the moths die so soon, I saved them especially, because
there seemed no wickedness in it."

"I have thought the same thing," said the Bird Woman encouragingly. Then
because the girl could not eat until she learned about the moths, the
Bird Woman asked Elnora if she knew what kinds she had.

"Not all of them," answered Elnora. "Before Mr. Duncan moved away he
often saw me near the edge of the swamp and he showed me the