Page 12 - Contrast1962Decemberv1n1

Tied with a piece of Leftover Wea.ll'inYgard

'~hat a silly gift--who in the world would even think of
giving a butterfly for a present!" Trudi jammed the lid back
on the smudged white box she held in her hand. A whole sum-
mer spent tending a cabin of noisy C~lpers and what kind of a
reward did you get? A crummy green and brown butterfly
pressed between two layers of rumpled cotton in an old jewelry
box~ In fac!, it wasn't even a butterfly. It was only a moth,
sam1a cecroQ1a, largest moth of the Eastern United Stateso Oh
how those n~iUre hikes had nearly driven her nutso There were'
always a few hikers who had to pick up every twig and rock and
ask what it was, and how to spell its scientific name for their

notebooks.,

Trudi brushed a strand of her long auburn hair away from
her grey-green eyes and took another look at the box in her
hand. "To Trudio<>"" had been scratched deeply in the lid with

large crude let ters ow ~'from Melissa."

Yes, there she was, a chubby little nine year old holding
out the dirty white box, which was tied with a piece of left-
over weaving yarn. "Here's a present for you, Miss Trudi. I
wanted you to have it, 'cause it's pretty--like youl"

Prefty--only a kid like Melissa could call an ugly green
moth pretty. Melissats big green eyes had watched from behind
the thick lenses of her glasses every movement Trudi made as
she had tried to open the box. While Trudi struggled to untie
the knot, Melissa shifted from one foot to the other, and
nervously chewed the end of one of her stubby braids which
always had loose wisps of red hair sticking out from them at

all angles.
Before the box had even been opened, she had blurted out,

"It's a butterfly. I caught it myself~!I and then flashed a
big grin which displayed the two rows of metal braces com-
pletely covering her teeth. She had wrinkled up her freckled
nose and grinned again. "I hope I get to come back next year,
so you can be my counselor." Trudi had been so mad she could

have screamed.
Melissa was gone noW. She had left on the bus with all

the other campers just after lunch. "A moth, a crummy, green
mothl" Trudi rubbed her left palm against her dartkhegreen
shorts, hurled the boX into the dusty corner near. tr~sh
can, and started to pack the rest of her camp equ1p~ent 1n her
battered old suitcase with the tour1st st1ckers on 1t.

. It was nearly three-thirty when she !ina~lY finished p~ck-
1Dg, and her father wouldn't be there unt~l S1X. ,He was ~01neg
to pick her up on his way back from a bU~1ness tr:p to Br1dg -
Port, and they ought to be home in westf1eld by n1ne.

Trudi closed her suitcase and placed it near the end of
the Cot with her tenniS racquet. She made a tall, graceful