That actually
seemed true. I believe I will go see."
The love remained. Indeed, in the overflow of the long-hardened, pent-up
heart, the girl was almost suffocated with tempestuous caresses and
generous offerings. Before the day was over, Elnora realized that she
never had known her mother. The woman who now busily went through
the cabin, her eyes bright, eager, alert, constantly planning, was a
stranger. Her very face was different, while it did not seem possible
that during one night the acid of twenty years could disappear from a
voice and leave it sweet and pleasant.
For the next few days Elnora worked at mounting the moths her mother had
taken. She had to go to the Bird Woman and tell about the disaster, but
Mrs. Comstock was allowed to think that Elnora delivered the moths
when she made the trip. If she had told her what actually happened, the
chances were that Mrs. Comstock again would have taken possession of the
Limberlost, hunting there until she replaced all the moths that had been
destroyed. But Elnora knew from experience what it meant to collect such
a list in pairs. It would require steady work for at least two summers
to replace the lost moths. When she left the Bird Woman she went to the
president of the Onabasha schools and asked him to do all in his power
to secure her a room in one of the ward buildings.
The next morning the last moth was mounted, and the housework finished.
Elnora said to her mother, "If you don't mind, I believe I will go into
the woods pasture beside Sleepy Snake Creek and see if I can catch some
dragonflies or moths.
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