“What luck!” she cried.  “I promised mother I would not go inside the swamp alone, and will you look at the cocoons I’ve found!  There are more just screaming for me to come get them, because the leaves will fall with the first frost, and then the jays and crows will begin to tear them open.  I haven’t much time, since I’m going to school.  You will go with me, Pete!  Please say yes!  Just a little way!”

“What are those things?” asked the man, his keen black eyes staring at her.

“They are the cases these big caterpillars spin for winter, and in the spring they come out great night moths, and I can sell them.  Oh, Pete, I can sell them for enough to take me through high school and dress me so like the others that I don’t look different, and if I have very good luck I can save some for college.  Pete, please go with me?”

“Why don’t you go like you always have?”

“Well, the truth is, I had a little scare,” said Elnora.  “I never did mean to go alone; sometimes I sort of wandered inside farther than I intended, chasing things.  You know Duncan gave me Freckles’s books, and I have been gathering moths like he did.  Lately I found I could sell them.  If I can make a complete collection, I can get three hundred dollars for it.  Three such collections would take me almost through college, and I’ve four years in the high school yet.  That’s a long time.  I might collect them.”

“Can every kind there is be found here?”

“No, not all of them, but when I get more than I need of one kind, I can trade them with collectors farther north and west, so I can complete sets.  It’s the only way I see to earn the money.  Look what I have already.  Big gray Cecropias come from this kind; brown Polyphemus from that, and green Lunas from these.  You aren’t working on Sunday.  Go with me only an hour, Pete!”

The man looked at her narrowly.  She was young, wholesome, and beautiful.  She was innocent, intensely in earnest, and she needed the money, he knew that.

“You didn’t tell me what scared you,” he said.

“Oh, I thought I did!  Why you know I had Freckles’s box packed full of moths and specimens, and one evening I sold some to the Bird Woman.  Next morning I found a note telling me it wasn’t safe to go inside the swamp.  That sort of scared me.  I think I’ll go alone, rather than miss the chance, but I’d be so happy if you would take care of me.  Then I could go anywhere I chose, because if I mired you could pull me out.  You will take care of me, Pete?”

“Yes, I’ll take care of you,” promised Pete Corson.

“Goody!” said Elnora.  “Let’s start quick!  And Pete, you look at these closely, and when you are hunting or going along the road, if one dangles under your nose, you cut off the little twig and save it for me, will you?”

“Yes, I’ll save you all I see,” promised Pete.  He pushed back his hat and followed Elnora.  She plunged fearlessly among bushes, over underbrush, and across dead logs.  One minute she was crying wildly, that here was a big one, the next she was reaching for a limb above her head or on her knees overturning dead leaves under a hickory or oak tree, or working aside black muck with her bare hands as she searched for buried pupae cases.  For the first hour Pete bent back bushes and followed, carrying what Elnora discovered.  Then he found one.