Mrs. Comstock put on her hat and went at once,
which surprised Elnora. She did not know that her mother was anxious
for an opportunity to speak with Sinton alone. Elnora knew why she
was repeatedly cautioned not to leave their land, if she went specimen
hunting.
She studied two hours and was several lessons ahead of her classes.
There was no use to go further. She would take a walk and see if she
could gather any caterpillars or find any freshly spun cocoons. She
searched the bushes and low trees behind the garden and all around the
edge of the woods on their land, and having little success, at last
came to the road. Almost the first thorn bush she examined yielded a
Polyphemus cocoon. Elnora lifted her head with the instinct of a hunter
on the chase, and began work. She reached the swamp before she knew
it, carrying five fine cocoons of different species as her reward. She
pushed back her hair and gazed around longingly. A few rods inside she
thought she saw cocoons on a bush, to which she went, and found several.
Sense of caution was rapidly vanishing; she was in a fair way to
forget everything and plunge into the swamp when she thought she heard
footsteps coming down the trail. She went back, and came out almost
facing Pete Corson.
That ended her difficulty. She had known him since childhood. When she
sat on the front bench of the Brushwood schoolhouse, Pete had been one
of the big boys at the back of the room.
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