hour of the previous day and night had brought parents
and friends, some from great distances, to attend the celebration.

The quiet town swarmed with strangers, all with faces turned toward
the large brick building which, standing boldly prominent on its hill,
had a welcoming look, as if the roses around it, that filled the air
with their delicious fragrance, had blossomed that morning in new and
charming beauty.

The lawn, plentifully besprinkled with small flower-beds, was
elsewhere one broad sheet of velvet green; and the blossoms of every
variety and every hue crowded the beds so cheerfully, so merrily, that
many parents lingered as they passed them, their hearts warming at the
sight of the Eden in which their daughters had lived.

Commencement exercises were to be held in the large hall, to which
ushers appointed for that purpose took all the visitors before the
entrance of the school, so it really made quite an imposing show when
Miss Ashton, arm in arm with the president of the Board of Trustees,
came slowly in, the gentlemen composing the board following, then the
teachers, and after them the pupils in their gay holiday dresses. The
senior class, of course the most prominent, coming onto the stage with
the other dignitaries.

There was nothing of peculiar interest in the exercises that followed.
Commencements all over the country are much the same. The four young
ladies who were to read their essays acquitted themselves well.
Gladys, to her father's great delight, with her soft Southern voice,
her sparkling face, and her easy, self-possessed, graceful ways, was
the undoubted favorite. A storm of applause followed the reading, and
bouquets of flowers fell around her in great profusion.

It was the bestowing of the diplomas that attracted the most
attention.

There was something touching in the gentle smile of the aged president
as, calling each member of the class by her name, he spoke a few Latin
words and handed her the parchment that made her for life an alumna of
Montrose Academy. It was almost as if he had laid his hand on her head
in benediction.

The pleasant dinner that followed was the next marked event of the
day. To this all the school, and as many invited guests as could be
accommodated, sat down, and the large hall was full of the cheerful
voices of those who had come to congratulate and those who were
congratulated. Nothing could have made a more fitting ending to the
home-life of the busy