CHAPTER VIII
Wherein the Limberlost Tempts Elnora, and Billy Buries His Father
Immediately after dinner on Sunday Wesley Sinton stopped at the Comstock gate to ask if Elnora wanted to go to town with them. Billy sat beside him and he did not look as if he were on his way to a funeral. Elnora said she had to study and could not go, but she suggested that her mother take her place. Mrs. Comstock put on her hat and went at once, which surprised Elnora. She did not know that her mother was anxious for an opportunity to speak with Sinton alone. Elnora knew why she was repeatedly cautioned not to leave their land; if she went specimen hunting, to remain along the roads, or at least not to enter the swamp.
She studied two hours and was several lessons ahead of her classes. There was no use to go farther. She would take a walk and see if she could gather any caterpillars or find any freshly spun cocoons. She searched the bushes and low trees behind the garden and all about the edge of the woods on their land, and having little success, at last came out to the road. Almost the first thorn bush she examined yielded a Polyphemus cocoon. Elnora lifted her head with the instinct of a hunter on the chase, and began work. She reached the swamp before she knew it, carrying five fine cocoons of different species as her reward. She pushed back her hair and gazed around longingly. A few rods inside she thought she saw cocoons on a bush, to which she went, and found several. Sense of caution was rapidly vanishing. She was in a fair way to forget everything and plunge into the swamp when she thought she heard footsteps coming down the trail. She went back, and came out almost facing Pete Corson.
That ended her difficulty. She had known him since childhood. When she sat on the front bench of the Brushwood schoolhouse, Pete had been one of the big boys at the back of the room. He had been rough and wild, but she never had been afraid of him, and often he had given her pretty things from the swamp.
"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 fast upon 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 rest 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 get 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 just 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?"
That was the finishing stroke.
"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 through 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 pushing aside black muck with her bare hands as she searched for buried pupæ cases. For the first hour Pete bent back bushes and followed, carrying what Elnora discovered. Then he found one.
"Is this the kind of thing you are looking for?" he asked, bashfully, as he presented a wild cherry twig.
"Oh, Pete, that's a Promethea! I didn't even hope to find one."
"What's the bird like?" asked Pete.
"Almost black wings," said Elnora, "with claycoloured edges, and the most wonderful wine-coloured flush over the under side if it's a male, and stronger wine above and below if it's a female. Oh, aren't I happy!"
"How would it do to make what you have into a bunch that we could leave here and come back for them?"
"That would be all right."
Relieved of his load Pete began work. First, he narrowly examined the cocoons Elnora had found. He questioned her as to what other kinds would be like. He began to use the eyes of a trained woodman and hunter in her behalf. He saw several so easily, and moved through the forest so softly, that Elnora forgot the moths in watching him. Presently she was carrying the specimens, and he was making the trips of investigation to see which was a cocoon and which a curled leaf, or he was down on his knees digging around stumps. As he worked he kept asking questions. What kind of logs were best to look beside; what trees were pupæ cases most likely to be under; on what bushes did caterpillars spin most requently? Time passed, as it always does when one's occupation is absorbing.
When the Sintons had taken Mrs. Comstock home, they stopped to see if Elnora was safe. She was not at home, and they had not seen her along the way. Mrs. Comstock called about the edge of the woods and received no reply. Then Sinton turned and drove back to the Limberlost. He left Margaret and Mrs. Comstock holding the team and entertaining Billy, and entered the swamp.
Elnora and Pete had left a wide trail behind them. Before Sinton had thought of calling he heard voices and approached with some caution. Soon he saw Elnora, her flushed face beaming as she bent with an armload of twigs and branches and talked to a kneeling man.
"Now go cautiously!" she was saying. "I am just sure we will find an Imperialis here. It's their very kind of a place. There! What did I tell you! Isn't that splendid? Oh, I am so glad you came with me!"
Sinton stood and stared in speechless astonishment, for the man had risen, brushed the dirt from his hands, and held out to Elnora a small shining dark pupa case. As his face swung into view Sinton almost cried out, for he was the one man of all others Wesley knew with whom he most feared for Elnora's safety. She had him on his knees digging pupæ cases for her from the loose swamp loam.
"Elnora!" called Sinton. "Elnora!"
"Oh, Uncle Wesley!" cried the girl. "See what luck we've had! I know we have a dozen and a half cocoons and we have three pupæ cases. It's much harder to get the cases because you have to dig for them, and you can't see where to look. But Pete is fine at it! He's found three, and he says he will keep watch along the roads, and through the woods as he hunts. Isn't that splendid of him? Uncle Wesley, there is a college over there on the western edge of the swamp. Look closely, and you can see the great dome up among the clouds."
"I should say you have had luck," said Sinton, 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 for the trail, Pete carrying the cocoons. He left them at the case, while Elnora and Sinton 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 Sinton.
"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 getting 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.
"Well, thank goodness, I don't owe her anything, and so I'm perfectly free to do what I choose. Come on, and help me get supper. I'm hungry as Billy!"
Margaret Sinton rocked slowly back and forth in her chair. On her breast lay Billy's red head; one hand clutched her dress front with spasmodic grip, even after he was unconscious.
"You mustn't begin that, Margaret," said Sinton. "He's too heavy. And it's bad for him. He's better off to lie down and go to sleep alone."
"He's very light, Wesley. He jumps and quivers so. He has to be stronger than he is now before he will sleep soundly."