“I really can’t say about that,” said the mother with a smile, “but I’ll tell you something that I do know. I have noticed that when little girls do a thing because their mothers want them to, something pleasant is almost sure to happen before long.”
Ella did not know of anything pleasant that would be likely to happen in this call, and nothing did happen. The lady did not seem especially glad to see her. There was not a child or a cat or a dog to play with. There were a few books, but they were shut up in a tall bookcase with glass doors, and Ella was almost sure that it would not do to ask if she might take one to read. She sat in a stiff chair by the window, thinking of what she and Ida had meant to do. After a long, long time they said good-bye and started for home.
On the way Ella picked up a little stone and asked her mother if it was a fossil.
“Here’s a gentleman who will tell you,” said mother’s friend, and she introduced a tall man with white hair and deep blue eyes who was coming toward them.
“Doctor,” she said, “here is a little girl who wants to know whether her stone is a fossil.”
“Indeed,” said he with a kindly look at Ella. “I am afraid it is not; but what does she know about fossils?”
“Very little,” said her mother; “but even when she was very small, she was always bringing in pebbles and asking if they did not have names just as flowers did. Her father told her the names of a few of the minerals that were most common about our home, and she is always looking for them.”
“I think I must give myself the pleasure of showing her my cabinets,” said the Doctor. “Not many little girls care for minerals. May I take her home with me now?”
Then came a happy time. The Doctor had great cases full of the most interesting minerals. He soon found that Ella liked fossils and crystals especially, and as he showed them to her one by one, he told her stories of the places where he found them and of the fossils that were once living plants or animals a long, long time ago.
“Was it before you were born?” Ella asked, and wondered a little why he looked so amused when he answered yes.