“I should say you have had luck,” said Wesley, striving to make his voice natural.  “But I thought you were not coming to the swamp?”

“Well, I wasn’t,” said Elnora, “but I couldn’t find many anywhere else, honest, I couldn’t, and just as soon as I came to the edge I began to see them here.  I kept my promise.  I didn’t come in alone.  Pete came with me.  He’s so strong, he isn’t afraid of anything, and he’s perfectly splendid to locate cocoons!  He’s found half of these.  Come on, Pete, it’s getting dark now, and we must go.”

They started toward the trail, Pete carrying the cocoons.  He left them at the case, while Elnora and Wesley went on to the carriage together.

“Elnora Comstock, what does this mean?” demanded her mother.

“It’s all right, one of the neighbours was with her, and she got several dollars’ worth of stuff,” interposed Wesley.

“You oughter seen my pa,” shouted Billy.  “He was ist all whited out, and he laid as still as anything.  They put him away deep in the ground.”

“Billy!” breathed Margaret in a prolonged groan.

“Jimmy and Belle are going to be together in a nice place.  They are coming to see me, and Snap is right down here by the wheel.  Here, Snap!  My, but he’ll be tickled to get something to eat!  He’s ’most twisted as me.  They get new clothes, and all they want to eat, too, but they’ll miss me.  They couldn’t have got along without me.  I took care of them.  I had a lot of things give to me ’cause I was the littlest, and I always divided with them.  But they won’t need me now.”

When she left the carriage Mrs. Comstock gravely shook hands with Billy.  “Remember,” she said to him, “I love boys, and I love dogs.  Whenever you don’t have a good time up there, take your dog and come right down and be my little boy.  We will just have loads of fun.  You should hear the whistles I can make.  If you aren’t treated right you come straight to me.”

Billy wagged his head sagely.  “You ist bet I will!” he said.

“Mother, how could you?” asked Elnora as they walked up the path.

“How could I, missy?  You better ask how couldn’t I?  I just couldn’t!  Not for enough to pay, my road tax!  Not for enough to pay the road tax, and the dredge tax, too!”

“Aunt Margaret always has been lovely to me, and I don’t think it’s fair to worry her.”

“I choose to be lovely to Billy, and let her sweat out her own worries just as she has me, these sixteen years.  There is nothing in all this world so good for people as taking a dose of their own medicine.  The difference is that I am honest.  I just say in plain English, ’if they don’t treat you right, come to me.’  They have only said it in actions and inferences.  I want to teach Mag Sinton how her own doses taste, but she begins to sputter before I fairly get the spoon to her lips.  Just you wait!”

“When I think what I owe her——­” began Elnora.