WHEREIN MOTHER LOVE IS BESTOWED ON ELNORA,AND SHE FINDS AN ASSISTANT IN MOTH HUNTINGElnora awoke at dawn and lay gazing around the unfamiliar room.She noticed that every vestige of masculine attire and belongings was gone,and knew,without any explanation,what that meant.
For some reason every tangible evidence of her father was banished,and she was at last to be allowed to take his place.She turned to look at her mother.
Mrs.Comstock's face was white and haggard,but on it rested an expression of profound peace Elnora never before had seen.As she studied the features on the pillow beside her,the heart of the girl throbbed in tenderness.
She realized as fully as any one else could what her mother had suffered.Thoughts of the night brought shuddering fear.
She softly slipped from the bed,went to her room,dressed and entered the kitchen to attend the Emperors and prepare breakfast.
The pair had been left clinging to the piece of calico.
The calico was there and a few pieces of beautiful wing.
A mouse had eaten the moths!
"Well,of all the horrible luck!"gasped Elnora.
With the first thought of her mother,she caught up the remnants of the moths,burying them in the ashes of the stove.
She took the bag to her room,hurriedly releasing its contents,but there was not another yellow one.Her mother had said some had been confined in the case in the Limberlost.
There was still a hope that an Emperor might be among them.
She peeped at her mother,who still slept soundly.
Elnora took a large piece of mosquito netting,and ran to the swamp.Throwing it over the top of the case,she unlocked the door.She reeled,faint with distress.
The living moths that had been confined there in their fluttering to escape to night and the mates they sought not only had wrecked the other specimens of the case,but torn themselves to fringes on the pins.A third of the rarest moths of the collection for the man of India were antennaless,legless,wingless,and often headless.
Elnora sobbed aloud.
"This is overwhelming,"she said at last."It is making a fatalist of me.I am beginning to think things happen as they are ordained from the beginning,this plainly indicating that there is to be no college,at least,this year,for me.My life is all mountain-top or canon.
I wish some one would lead me into a few days of `green pastures.'
Last night I went to sleep on mother's arm,the moths all secured,love and college,certainties.This morning I wake to find all my hopes wrecked.I simply don't dare let mother know that instead of helping me,she has ruined my collection.
Everything is gone--unless the love lasts.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.""Wait until I get a knife and a pail and I will go along,"answered Mrs.Comstock."The dandelions are plenty tender for greens among the deep grasses,and I might just happen to see something myself.My eyes are pretty sharp.""I wish you could realize how young you are,"said Elnora.
"I know women in Onabasha who are ten years older than you,yet they look twenty years younger.So could you,if you would dress your hair becomingly,and wear appropriate clothes.""I think my hair puts me in the old woman class permanently,"said Mrs.Comstock.
"Well,it doesn't!"cried Elnora."There is a woman of twenty-eight who has hair as white as yours from sick headaches,but her face is young and beautiful.If your face would grow a little fuller and those lines would go away,you'd be lovely!""You little pig!"laughed Mrs.Comstock."Any one would think you would be satisfied with having a splinter new mother,without setting up a kick on her looks,first thing.Greedy!""That is a good word,"said Elnora."I admit the charge.
I am greedy over every wasted year.I want you young,lovely,suitably dressed and enjoying life like the other girls'mothers."Mrs.Comstock laughed softly as she pushed back her sunbonnet so that shrubs and bushes beside the way could be scanned closely.Elnora walked ahead with a case over her shoulder,a net in her hand.Her head was bare,the rolling collar of her lavender gingham dress was cut in a Vat the throat,the sleeves only reached the elbows.Every few steps she paused and examined the shrubbery carefully,while Mrs.Comstock was watching until her eyes ached,but there were no dandelions in the pail she carried.
