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CHAPTER VIII

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.