“Well, I am very glad you did,” replied the professor. “I am very sorry to have lost that butterfly,” and he looked around in vain for the beautiful creature, which is sometimes called Milbert’s tortoise shell.
“You ought to be sorry you tore your clothes,” observed Ned.
“Why, so I have!” the professor exclaimed, as though that had just occurred to him. “Mrs. Gilcuddy will be sure to say something to me about it too,” he added. “Well, it can’t be helped,” and he shrugged his shoulders resignedly.
For a little while the professor roamed about in the little clearing, looking in vain for more specimens of butterflies. He found none, but he captured some bugs which he seemed to prize highly, though the boys were not much interested.
“You’d better come back in our boat, Professor,” was Ned’s invitation. “It’s a long walk back to the college around the shore.”
“Thank you, I shall be glad of the water trip. I can then pin up some of these tears, perhaps, so Mrs. Gilcuddy will not notice them.”
And that is what Professor Snodgrass tried to do on the way back in the boat. Using some of the pins which he carried with him to impale his butterfly specimens on the stretching boards, as he sometimes did when afield without waiting to get back to his laboratory, he endeavored to so conceal the rents in his garments that the sharp-eyed, but lovable, housekeeper would not notice them.
Ned, Bob and Jerry helped by turns, though it cannot be said that the combined result was very satisfactory from a sartorial standpoint.
“You can’t notice them very much now; can you?” asked the professor, turning slowly about on the dock so the boys could observe him.
“Well, a few show,” said Ned, truthfully enough.