2 THE BUTTERFLY HUNTERS. 



soon find out what kind of a fellow he is," said she, "for 

 there comes the carriage." 



Hal and his sister turned and walked to the front gate, 

 where they waited until Mr. Merton drove up and pre- 



« 



sented Tom to his cousins. 



Tom Stewart was the only son of Mr. Merton's sister. 

 His father was a wealthy Boston merchant, and Tom had 

 passed all his life in the city home, his country experience 

 being limited to Summer excursions with his parents to 

 some fashionable resort. Close confinement to study, and 

 lack of good, hearty exercise, had begun to show their 

 effects upon Tom, and, although a tall, handsome boy of 

 fourteen, he was pale and slender as a girl. It was to 

 put color into his cheeks, and strength and vigor into 

 his whole frame, that Mr. Stewart had sent him for the 

 Summer to share the country sports of his cousins. 



Tom was quite homesick the first evening at the farm- 

 house, and had but little appetite for the fresh biscuits 

 and baked apples and cream his Aunt Merton had pre- 

 pared for his supper. Even the kind attention of Rose 

 failed to cheer him up, and he was glad when the time 

 came to take his candle and go up stairs to the neat little 

 chamber he was to occupy during the Summer. 



When Tom waked the next morning all the homesick- 

 ness of the previous evening fell back heavy on his heart. 

 He thought he never could and never would like the 



