Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/348

328 that there were things like that in this part of the world,” and Julia bent over the cases in surprise.

Then the birds that had been found in old Essex were even more wonderful than the minerals. There was the horned grebe, and the harlequin duck, and the great blue  heron, and the white pelican, and owls in infinite variety. Even Brenda, who was not particularly interested in animals or birds, was astonished to find that the neighborhood of her own summer home contained creatures that  she had associated only with regions much farther away. Some of the strangest of all the specimens were among the fishes,—the goose-fish, and the fishing frog, the devil fish, and many others, that, as Brenda said, “One would n’t  like to meet suddenly when out bathing.”

But leaving the Museum with all its treasures, when they heard the bells ringing for noon, the girls hurried on  to the Essex Institute. As they registered their names in the visitors’ book, Julia picked up a huge key.

“What in the world is this?” she asked.

“Oh, that’s the key to the little church,” replied Amy.

“Then let us go there first.”

“Why, yes, there’s no objection. Just follow me.”

So in a few minutes the four found themselves before a small wooden building standing in the yard back of the  Institute. “It’s like a doll's play-house—a large one, of course,” whispered Brenda to Julia. She was afraid that the remark might seem frivolous if overheard by Miss  South. Amy put the huge key in the lock upside down, turned it in a direction the exact opposite of that usually