y its frame of tumbling curls, she smiled
faintly in recollection. "I look the way I used to in my homemade,
one-piece dresses," she breathed. "Just as I did that afternoon when he
first saw me. 'Yo' looked so funny a-fallin' over thet thar dawg, an'
a-rollin' on the floor.' What a way to greet a famous physician--only I
didn't know it then."

For a moment she sat like this, her thoughts far away from the northern
city; then a faint blush mantled her face, and she hastily jumped up and
shut out the soft light by pulling down the shade.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE GOAL

You cannot, by a bridge of sighs, attain the future's golden years,
But try a bridge of rainbow hopes erected on substantial piers
Of honest work, and you will find it leads you surely to the goal.
'Tis God that gives the dreamer's dreams, as radiant as the morning,
But, if the will to work is weak, they often die a-borning.

If this were a romance, instead of the simple account of the pilgrimage
and development of a girl from childhood to womanhood, it would be
permissible to say, "three years pass by in swift flight," or "drag by
on weary feet," as the case may have been, and then resume the action.

But in everyday life, character is built out of everyday incidents, big
and little, all of which have place in the moulding of it, and, since
the years of Smiles' training within the Children's Hospital were vital
ones for her, it is essential to touch briefly upon some of the
occurrences which filled them.

On the other hand, it is by no means necessary to describe that period
at length. It is doubtful if, in later life, she will herself look back
upon the many days so filled to repletion with exacting, though
interesting, tasks, as other than a dead level, for constant repetition
of a thing, no matter how gripping it may be, produces a monotony. But
there were special incidents--sometimes trivial in comparison with the
importance of her sustained labor--which formed the high lights in the
picture, and the memory of which will endure through all the after
years. By recounting a few of these, and letting our imaginations fill
in the interims, we can accompany Rose on her journey to the goal of her
desires.

* * * * *

The day after Donald had taken her into his confidence regarding his
plans, Rose made up her mind to keep a diary.

"Even though he may be thousands of miles away, I mean to keep m