t was the last who heard first. The Superintendent invited him into her
office, as he was passing through the hospital corridor one day, and
said, "I am sure that you will be pleased to hear that Miss Webb has
passed her tests with flying colors, doctor."

A warmth of pleasurable relief passed through Donald; but he managed to
reply formally, "I _am_ pleased; but I hope that you didn't ease up any
because of anything ... er ... on my account."

"No, we didn't," was the response. "I'll admit that both your account of
what Miss Webb had done, and the girl herself, appealed to me so that I
was prepared to mark a bit leniently, if necessary; but it wasn't. I
really don't see how she managed to garner so much education in so short
a time."

"'Where there's a will,'" quoted Donald, with inward satisfaction over
the fact that his ward had fulfilled his prophecy, and he stole a few
minutes out of the busy morning to motor to the Merrimans' apartment to
bear the joy-bringing tidings personally to little Rose, whose eyes
shone happily and whose lips smiled their thanks, but who--perversely,
it seemed to him--gave Miss Merriman the reward which he felt should
have been his.

Dreams do come true sometimes, if they _are_ true, and so at last
arrived a bright May morning when Smiles folded away her little play
uniform forever, and--by right of conquest--donned the striped pink and
white gingham dress and bibless apron of a probationer, within the doors
of the newly built home of that old and worthy institution which had had
its inception, more than sixty years before, in the loving heart of
Nursing Sister Margaret.

There Rose entered into a new life, as different from that of the old
physical freedom of the hills, and personal freedom from restraint, as
could well be imagined, for, as Donald had told her, she was now
mustered, as an untrained recruit, into a great modern army; and
discipline is the keynote in war, whether the battle be against evil
nations or evil forces.

From half after six in the morning until ten at night, when with
military precision came "lights out," her life was drawn to pattern. It
was not a hardship for her, as with some others, to arise at the early
hour; and the brief prayer and singing of the morning hymn, in company
with her fifty-odd sister-probationers and pupil nurses, impressed her
strongly the first time in which she had part in it, and never failed to
strengthen and uplift her for the day'