226 FOOTING IT IN FRANCONIA 



of New England birth, and churchly withal 

 (her books have all a savor of piety, though 

 all the world reads them), is also an enthu- 

 siastic and widely famous entomological col- 

 lector. One Sunday she had gone to church 

 and was on her knees reciting the service (or 

 saying her prayers — I am not sure that I 

 remember her language verbatim), when she 

 noticed on the back of the pew immediately 

 in front of her a diminutive moth of some 

 rare and desirable species. Instinctively her 

 hand sought her pocket, and somehow, with- 

 out disturbing the congregation or even her 

 nearest fellow-worshiper (my helpless mas- 

 culine mind cannot imagine how the thing 

 was done) she found it and took from it a 

 "poison bottle," always in readiness for such 

 emergencies. Still on her knees (whether 

 her lips still moved is another point that es- 

 capes positive recollection), she removed the 

 stopple, placed the mouth of the vial over 

 the moth (which had probably imagined it- 

 self safe in such ecclesiastical surroundings), 

 replaced the stopple above it, slipped the bot- 

 tle back into her pocket, and resumed (or 

 kept on with) her prayers. All this had 



