As soon as her work was done she ran down to Sintons'and began to play,and on Monday the violin went to school with her.She made arrangements with the superintendent to leave it in his office and scarcely took time for her food at noon,she was so eager to practise.Often one of the girls asked her to stay in town all night for some lecture or entertainment.She could take the violin with her,practise,and secure help.Her skill was so great that the leader of the orchestra offered to give her lessons if she would play to pay for them,so her progress was rapid in technical work.But from the first day the instrument became hers,with perfect faith that she could play as her father did,she spent half her practice time in imitating the sounds of all outdoors and improvising the songs her happy heart sang in those days.
So the first year went,and the second and third were a repetition;but the fourth was different,for that was the close of the course,ending with graduation and all its attendant ceremonies and expenses.To Elnora these appeared mountain high.She had hoarded every cent,thinking twice before she parted with a penny,but teaching natural history in the grades had taken time from her studies in school which must be made up outside.She was a conscientious student,ranking first in most of her classes,and standing high in all branches.Her interest in her violin had grown with the years.She went to school early and practised half an hour in the little room adjoining the stage,while the orchestra gathered.She put in a full hour at noon,and remained another half hour at night.
She carried the violin to Sintons'on Saturday and practised all the time she could there,while Margaret watched the road to see that Mrs.Comstock was not coming.She had become so skilful that it was a delight to hear her play music of any composer,but when she played her own,that was joy inexpressible,for then the wind blew,the water rippled,the Limberlost sang her songs of sunshine,shadow,black storm,and white night.
Since her dream Elnora had regarded her mother with peculiar tenderness.The girl realized,in a measure,what had happened.She avoided anything that possibly could stir bitter memories or draw deeper a line on the hard,white face.This cost many sacrifices,much work,and sometimes delayed progress,but the horror of that awful dream remained with Elnora.She worked her way cheerfully,doing all she could to interest her mother in things that happened in school,in the city,and by carrying books that were entertaining from the public library.
Three years had changed Elnora from the girl of sixteen to the very verge of womanhood.She had grown tall,round,and her face had the loveliness of perfect complexion,beautiful eyes and hair and an added touch from within that might have been called comprehension.
It was a compound of self-reliance,hard knocks,heart hunger,unceasing work,and generosity.There was no form of suffering with which the girl could not sympathize,no work she was afraid to attempt,no subject she had investigated she did not understand.These things combined to produce a breadth and depth of character altogether unusual.
She was so absorbed in her classes and her music that she had not been able to gather many specimens.When she realized this and hunted assiduously,she soon found that changing natural conditions had affected such work.
Men all around were clearing available land.The trees fell wherever corn would grow.The swamp was broken by several gravel roads,dotted in places around the edge with little frame houses,and the machinery of oil wells;one especially low place around the region of Freckles's room was nearly all that remained of the original.
Wherever the trees fell the moisture dried,the creeks ceased to flow,the river ran low,and at times the bed was dry.With unbroken sweep the winds of the west came,gathering force with every mile and howled and raved;threatening to tear the shingles from the roof,blowing the surface from the soil in clouds of fine dust and rapidly changing everything.From coming in with two or three dozen rare moths in a day,in three years'time Elnora had grown to be delighted with finding two or three.
Big pursy caterpillars could not be picked from their favourite bushes,when there were no bushes.Dragonflies would not hover over dry places,and butterflies became scarce in proportion to the flowers,while no land yields over three crops of Indian relics.
All the time the expense of books,clothing and incidentals had continued.Elnora added to her bank account whenever she could,and drew out when she was compelled,but she omitted the important feature of calling for a balance.So,one early spring morning in the last quarter of the fourth year,she almost fainted when she learned that her funds were gone.Commencement with its extra expense was coming,she had no money,and very few cocoons to open in June,which would be too late.She had one collection for the Bird Woman complete to a pair of Imperialis moths,and that was her only asset.On the day she added these big Yellow Emperors she had been promised a check for three hundred dollars,but she would not get it until these specimens were secured.
She remembered that she never had found an Emperor before June.
Moreover,that sum was for her first year in college.
Then she would be of age,and she meant to sell enough of her share of her father's land to finish.She knew her mother would oppose her bitterly in that,for Mrs.
Comstock had clung to every acre and tree that belonged to her husband.Her land was almost complete forest where her neighbours owned cleared farms,dotted with wells that every hour sucked oil from beneath her holdings,but she was too absorbed in the grief she nursed to know or care.
