he others, but you can make
the time up with diligence. Dorothy, please take Marion to the
guest-room for to-night. I will see you later. I am very glad you are
here safely. You will have time after tea to write a few lines home.
Give my love to your mother, please."

Dorothy led the way to the guest-room. It was a pretty room near Miss
Ashton's, kept for the convenience of entertaining guests. Dorothy
threw open the window-blinds, and Marion saw before her a New England
village.

In the near distance rose hill upon hill, their sides covered with
elegant residences, and what she thought were palaces, crowning their
tops. The light of this September twilight covered them with a mantle
of gold, lit up the broad river that ran at the base of the hills like
a translucent band, turned the tall chimneys of factories in the
adjacent city, usually so disfiguring, into minarets, blazing with
rich Oriental coloring.

"Is it not beautiful?" Dorothy asked, slipping her arm around Marion's
waist, and drawing her nearer the window; "we have it always--_always_
to look at, morning, noon, and night, and it is never the same twice.
I was born and brought up by the sea, and I've been here three years,
yet I love it better and better every day."

"I was born and brought up on the prairies."

"The land seas," added Dorothy. "How strange they must be! I would
like to see the prairies.

"The grand thing about this is, it belongs to you all the time you
stay here, just as much as if you really owned it; nobody can take it
from you; there it is, and there it must remain. That is the reason
they built our academy on this high hill, so it should be ours, a part
of our education,--'Grow into us,' Miss Ashton says, and it does."

While they stood looking at it the twilight deepened; the golden flush
faded away. Over hill and river crept the shadows of the night, and
out from the adjoining corridor sounded a loud gong, the first one
Marion had ever heard. She turned a frightened face toward Dorothy,
who said, "Our gong; study hours begin now, so I must go: I shall see
you to-morrow." Then she hurried away, and Marion was left alone; but
she had hardly gone, before there was a gentle tap upon her door, then
it opened, and Miss Benton, one of the teachers, came in.

"What, all alone in the dark! That's lonely for a new pupil. Let me
light your gas, and then I will take you down to tea; you must be very
hungry."

Her voice was kind, and he