“It will be, to-night,” said Ned.
Attendance at one of Professor Snodgrass’s lectures later that afternoon brought the work of our three friends to a close for the day, but when they were leaving the room the little scientist beckoned to Jerry.
“Have you anything special to do from now until supper time?” he asked.
“No,” was the answer.
“Then could you take me in your auto to Fox Swamp, near the town of Fairview? It is only about twenty miles, and if I know anything about the speed of you boys you can easily do it.”
“Of course we’ll take you!” exclaimed Jerry. “Are you going after a fox?”
“No, that is only a local name for a tract of land, which isn’t at all swampy, though it used to be. One of my students, an enthusiastic collector of butterflies, reported to me that he saw some Vanessa antiopa, sometimes called the Mourning Cloak, or Camberwell Beauty, over there the other day. They are the butterflies that have brown wings, with spots of blue and an outer band of yellow, but there is a rare variety in which the yellow band broadens out, and reaches almost to the middle of the wings. Only two or three such sports, as they are called, are known; but I hope I may find one. I have plenty of the ordinary variety of this butterfly, but I would like to get a sport or, as some collectors call them, ‘freaks’ or ‘aberrations.’”
“We’ll be glad to go with you,” Bob told him. “But I wouldn’t know one butterfly from another.”
“You should take more interest in zoology,” chided Professor Snodgrass. “Still I cannot complain of you boys, for you have often helped me to get some very rare specimens.”