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 at all. 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 the 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. Valiant as she was in any good cause, this time she was compelled to admit that she was defeated. It would require hard 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
