"Now. May as well get it over, I suppose. March!"
He led the way, and the girls trooped after him, up to the fourth floor of the house.
The rooms corresponded to those below stairs, but all were arranged as a museum. There were enormous cases filled with specimens of every sort of bird, butterfly or insect. Or, if not every kind was represented, surely they were nearly all there, so multitudinous were the exhibits.
"What a lot!" exclaimed Dolly, "I had no idea it was such an enormous collection."
"Yes," said Mr. Forbes, with justifiable pride, "it Is the largest private collection that I know of. Come, let me show you the birds first."
Obediently the girls followed his directions, and with ever growing interest they saw the rows and rows of stuffed birds, of all sizes and of all varieties of plumage.
Then came great cabinets filled with shallow drawers, each of which, when opened, displayed tiny moths, queer flies, and microscopic insects, each daintily mounted on its own pin and all standing in trim rows.
The butterflies were the prettiest exhibit of all. These showed rare varieties and well-known ones; specimens from far distant countries and from their own state.
All the girls were interested, but Dolly was absorbed. She walked from case to case, asking intelligent questions, that Mr. Forbes was glad to answer.
"You ought to make natural history a special study," he said to her.
"You seem so fond of it."