THE BUTTERFLY HUNTERS. 1 25 



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home they had supplied their wallets with two days' pro- 

 visions. 



"Perhaps we shall find the hermit of the Deserted Vil- 

 lage," said Mr. Benedict. 



" Why, teacher, what 's that ? " asked little Frank. 



"It is an old man who lives alone with his dog on the 

 top of the mountain," replied the teacher. " Long ago 

 there were some mills for washing and melting iron ore 

 up there, and around them a collection of huts. Mill and 

 hut are deserted now, and this old man lives there alone. 

 I visited him last Summer, and if he survived the cold of 

 the past Winter we shall find him there still." 



The boys travelled on all the afternoon. Now and then 

 they were drawn aside from the path in pursuit of some 

 butterfly, and Hal was so fortunate as to secure a very 

 fine specimen of the Hipparchia Semidia, or Mountain 

 butterfly described in Chapter Fifteenth. He saw a pair 

 of the fairy-like creatures hovering over a bush in the 

 shade of a tall tree, and succeeded in capturing one of 

 them. The other floated away out of his reach. 



The sun had set, its parting rays bathing the plain be- 

 low and the sky above in a splendor of gold and purple, 

 and twilight was changing into moonlight, when our party 

 passed out of the woods and stopped on the shore of quite 

 a large pond. Near by they could see the outline of about 

 twenty huts, and in the window of one of them a faint 

 light was twinkling. ^ 



