"
"Then of course you will come in, and we will see what it is," I
answered, leading the way into the library.
There I lifted the lid slightly to take a peep, and then with a
cry of joy, opened it wide. That particular shoe-box had brought
me an Actias Luna, newly emerged, and as yet unable to fly. I held
down my finger, it climbed on, and was lifted to the light.
"Ain't it the prettiest thing?" asked the woman, with stars
sparkling in her dark eyes. "Did you ever see whiter white?"
Together we studied that moth. Clinging to my finger, the living
creature was of such delicate beauty as to impoverish my stock of
adjectives at the beginning. Its big, pursy body was covered
with long, furry scales of the purest white imaginable. The wings
were of an exquisite light green colour; the front pair having a
heavy costa of light purple that reached across the back of the head:
the back pair ended in long artistic `trailers,' faintly edged with
light yellow. The front wing had an oval transparent mark close the
costa, attached to it with a purple line, and the back had circles
of the same.
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