“There’s one thing I do wish,” Florence said suddenly, after a time.  “I wish we could find some way to use the c’lection that would be useful for Noble Dill.”

Now, at this, her cousin’s face showed simple amazement.  “What on earth you talkin’ about?”

“Noble Dill,” she said dreamily.  “He’s the only one I like that comes to see Aunt Julia.  Anyway, I like him the most.”

“I bet Aunt Julia don’t!”

“I don’t care:  he’s the one I wish she’d get married to.”

Herbert was astounded.  “Noble Dill?  Why, I heard mamma and Aunt Hattie and Uncle Joe talkin’ about him yesterday.”

“What’d they say?”

“Most of the time,” said Herbert, “they just laughed.  They said Noble Dill was the very last person in this town Aunt Julia’d ever dream o’ marryin’.  They said he wasn’t anything:  they said he wasn’t handsome and he wasn’t distingrished-looking——­”

“I think he is,” Florence interposed.  “I think he’s very distingrished-looking.”

“Well, they said he wasn’t, and they know more’n you do.  Why, Noble Dill isn’t hardly any taller’n I am myself, and he hasn’t got any muscle partickyourly.  Aunt Julia wouldn’t look at him!”

“She does, too!  My goodness, how could he sit on the porch, right in front of her, for two or three hours at a time, without her lookin’ at him?”

“I don’t care,” Herbert insisted stubbornly. “They said Aunt Julia wouldn’t.  They said she was the worst flirt had ever been in the whole family and Noble Dill had the worst case they ever saw, but she wouldn’t ever look at him, and if she did she’d be crazy.”

“Well, anyway,” said Florence, “I think he’s the nicest of all that goes to see her, and I wish we could use this c’lection some way that would be nice for him.”

Herbert renewed his protest.  “How many times I got to tell you I had a hard enough time catchin’ this c’lection, day in and day out, from before daylight till after dark, and then fixin’ ’em all up like this and everything!  I don’t prapose to waste ’em just to suit Noble Dill, and I’m not goin’ to give ’em away either.  If anybody wanted to buy ’em and offered a good fair price, money down, why, I——­”

“That’s it, Herbert!” his lady-cousin exclaimed with sudden excitement.  “Let’s sell ’em!” She jumped up, her eyes bright.  “I bet we could get maybe five dollars for ’em.  We can pour the ones that are in the jars that haven’t got tops and the ones in the jelly glasses and pill-boxes—­we can pour all those into the jars that have got tops, and put the tops on again, and that’d just about fill those jars—­and then we could put ’em in a basket and take ’em out and sell ’em!”

“Where could we sell ’em?” Herbert inquired, not convinced.

“At the fish store!” she cried.  “Everybody uses bugs and worms for bait when they go fishing, don’t they?  I bet the fish man’ll buy all the worms we got, even if he wouldn’t buy anything else.  I bet he’ll buy all the others, too!  I bet he never saw as much good bait as this all at one time in his whole life!  I bet he’ll give us five dollars—­maybe more!”