"Not you!"retorted Elnora."Confess that you forgot!""Completely!"said Philip."But luckily it would not have been fatal.I wrote Polly last week to send Edith something appropriate to-day,with my card.But that touch from the woods will be very effective.Thank you more than I can say.Aunt Anna and I unpacked it to see the basket,and it was a beauty.She says you are always doing such things.""Well,I hope not!"laughed Elnora."If you'd seen me sneaking out before dawn,not to awaken mother and coming in with moths to make her think I'd been to the trees,you'd know it was a most especial occasion.""Then Philip understood two things:Elnora's mother did not know of the early morning trip to the city,and the girl had come to meet him to tell him so.
"You were a brick to do it!"he whispered as he closed the gate behind them."I'll never forget you for it.
Thank you ever so much."
"I did not do that for you,"said Elnora tersely."I did it mostly to preserve my own self-respect.I saw you were forgetting.If I did it for anything besides that,I did it for her.""Just look what I've brought!"said Philip,entering the arbour and greeting Mrs.Comstock."Borrowed it of the Bird Woman.And it isn't hers.A rare edition of Catocalae with coloured plates.I told her the best Icould,and she said to try for Sappho here.I suspect the Bird Woman will be out presently.She was all excitement."Then they bent over the book together and with the mounted moth before them determined her family.The Bird Woman did come later,and carried the moth away,to put into a book and Elnora and Philip were freshly filled with enthusiasm.
So these days were the beginning of the weeks that followed.
Six of them flying on Time's wings,each filled to the brim with interest.After June,the moth hunts grew less frequent;the fields and woods were searched for material for Elnora's grade work.The most absorbing occupation they found was in carrying out Mrs.Comstock's suggestion to learn the vital thing for which each month was distinctive,and make that the key to the nature work.They wrote out a list of the months,opposite each the things all of them could suggest which seemed to pertain to that month alone,and then tried to sift until they found something typical.Mrs.Comstock was a great help.Her mother had been Dutch and had brought from Holland numerous quaint sayings and superstitions easily traceable to Pliny's Natural History;and in Mrs.
Comstock's early years in Ohio she had heard much Indian talk among her elders,so she knew the signs of each season,and sometimes they helped.Always her practical thought and sterling common sense were useful.When they were afield until exhausted they came back to the cabin for food,to prepare specimens and classify them,and to talk over the day.Sometimes Philip brought books and read while Elnora and her mother worked,and every night Mrs.Comstock asked for the violin.
Her perfect hunger for music was sufficient evidence of how she had suffered without it.So the days crept by,golden,filled with useful work and pure pleasure.
The grosbeak had led the family in the maple abroad and a second brood,in a wild grape vine clambering over the well,was almost ready for flight.The dust lay thick on the country roads,the days grew warmer;summer was just poising to slip into fall,and Philip remained,coming each day as if he had belonged there always.
One warm August afternoon Mrs.Comstock looked up from the ruffle on which she was engaged to see a blue-coated messenger enter the gate.
"Is Philip Ammon here?"asked the boy.
"He is,"said Mrs.Comstock.
"I have a message for him."
"He is in the woods back of the cabin.I will ring the bell.
Do you know if it is important?"
"Urgent,"said the boy;"I rode hard."
Mrs.Comstock stepped to the back door and clanged the dinner bell sharply,paused a second,and rang again.
In a short time Philip and Elnora ran down the path.
"Are you ill,mother?"cried Elnora.
Mrs.Comstock indicated the boy."There is an important message for Philip,"she said.
He muttered an excuse and tore open the telegram.
His colour faded slightly."I have to take the first train,"he said."My father is ill and I am needed."He handed the sheet to Elnora."I have about two hours,as I remember the trains north,but my things are all over Uncle Doc's house,so I must go at once.""Certainly,"said Elnora,giving back the message.
"Is there anything I can do to help?Mother,bring Philip a glass of buttermilk to start on.I will gather what you have here.""Never mind.There is nothing of importance.I don't want to be hampered.I'll send for it if I miss anything I need."Philip drank the milk,said good-bye to Mrs.Comstock;thanked her for all her kindness,and turned to Elnora.
"Will you walk to the edge of the Limberlost with me?"he asked.Elnora assented.Mrs.Comstock followed to the gate,urged him to come again soon,and repeated her good-bye.Then she went back to the arbour to await Elnora's return.As she watched down the road she smiled softly.
"I had an idea he would speak to me first,"she thought,"but this may change things some.He hasn't time.
Elnora will come back a happy girl,and she has good reason.He is a model young man.Her lot will be very different from mine."She picked up her embroidery and began setting dainty precise little stitches,possible only to certain women.
On the road Elnora spoke first."I do hope it is nothing serious,"she said."Is he usually strong?""Quite strong,"said Philip."I am not at all alarmed but I am very much ashamed.I have been well enough for the past month to have gone home and helped him with some critical cases that were keeping him at work in this heat.I was enjoying myself so I wouldn't offer to go,and he would not ask me to come,so long as he could help it.I have allowed him to overtax himself until he is down,and mother and Polly are north at our cottage.
