Don't let them nip Teddy's toes while I get it;" and away went Mrs.Jo, leaving Dan overjoyed to find that his treasures were not considered rubbish, and thrown away.
Nat, Demi, and the cage arrived together, and the crabs were settled in their new house, to the great delight of the boys, who, in the excitement of the performance, forgot any awkwardness they might otherwise have felt in greeting the runaway.

To these admiring listeners Dan related his adventures much more fully than he had done to the Bhaers.

Then he displayed his "plunder," and described each article so well, that Mrs.Jo, who had retired to the next room to leave them free, was surprised and interested, as well as amused, at their boyish chatter.
"How much the lad knows of these things! how absorbed he is in them! and what a mercy it is just now, for he cares so little for books, it would be hard to amuse him while he is laid up; but the boys can supply him with beetles and stones to any extent, and I am glad to find out this taste of his; it is a good one, and may perhaps prove the making of him.
If he should turn out a great naturalist, and Nat a musician, I should have cause to be proud of this year's work;" and Mrs.Jo sat smiling over her book as she built castles in the air, just as she used to do when a girl, only then they were for herself, and now they were for other people, which is the reason perhaps that some of them came to pass in reality for charity is an excellent foundation to build anything upon.
Nat was most interested in the adventures, but Demi enjoyed the beetles and butterflies immensely, drinking in the history of their changeful little lives as if it were a new and lovely sort of fairy tale for, even in his plain way, Dan told it well, and found great satisfaction in the thought that here at least the small philosopher could learn of him.

So interested were they in the account of catching a musk rat, whose skin was among the treasures, that Mr.Bhaer had to come himself to tell Nat and Demi it was time for the walk.

Dan looked so wistfully after them as they ran off that Father Bhaer proposed carrying him to the sofa in the parlor for a little change of air and scene.
When he was established, and the house quiet, Mrs.Jo, who sat near by showing Teddy pictures, said, in an interested tone, as she nodded towards the treasures still in Dan's hands, "Where did you learn so much about these things ?" "I always liked 'em, but didn't know much till Mr.Hyde told me." "Oh, he was a man who lived round in the woods studying these things I don't know what you call him and wrote about frogs, and fishes, and so on.