When she sat on the front bench of the Brushwood schoolhouse, Pete had been one of the big boys at the back of the room.

He had been rough and wild, but she never had been afraid of him, and often he had given her pretty things from the swamp.
"What luck!" she cried.

"I promised mother I would not go inside the swamp alone, and will you look at the cocoons I've found! There are more just screaming for me to come get them, because the leaves will fall with the first frost, and then the jays and crows will begin to tear them open.

I haven't much time, since I'm going to school.

You will go with me, Pete! Please say yes! Just a little way!" "What are those things ?" asked the man, his keen black eyes staring at her.
"They are the cases these big caterpillars spin for winter, and in the spring they come out great night moths, and I can sell them.