shall work for money, and no one
shall work for fame,
But each for the joy of working, and each, in his
separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of
Things as They Are_.
--KIPLING

JUNE time in the Walnut Valley, and commencement time at Sunrise on the
limestone ridge! Nor pen nor brush can show the glory of the radiant
prairies, and the deep blue of the "unscarred heavens," and the bright
gleams from rippling waters. And at the end of a perfect day comes the
silvery grandeur of a moonlit June night.

It was late afternoon of the day before commencement. Victor Burleigh
stood on the stone where four years ago the bull snake had stretched
itself in the lazy sunshine. Only one more day at Sunrise for him, and
the little heartache, unlike any other sorrow a life can ever know,
was his, as he stood there. In the four years' battle he had come off
conqueror until the symbol above the doorway no longer held any mystery
for him. His character and culture now matched his voice. Before him
was higher learning, an under-professorship at Harvard, and later on the
pulpit for his life work. But now the heartache of parting was his, and
a deeper pain than breaking school ties was his also. A year of jolly
goodfellowship was ending, a happy year, with Elinor his most frequent
companion. And often in this year he had wondered at Lloyd Fenneben's
harsh judgment of her. Fondness of luxury seemed foreign to her, and
womanly beauty of character made her always "Norrie the beloved." But
Victor was true to Fenneben's demands and willing to try to live through
the years after, if one year of happy association could be his now.
Whatever claims Burgess might assert later, he could not take from
another the claim to happy memories. But, today, there was the dull
steady heartache that he knew had come to stay.

Presently Elinor joined him.

"May I come down tonight for a goodby stroll, Elinor? There's a full
moon and after tomorrow there are to be no more moons, nor stars, nor
suns, nor lands, nor seas, nor principalities, nor powers for us at
Sunrise."

"I wish you would come, Victor," Elinor said. "Come early. There's
a crowd going out somewhere, and we can join the ranks of the great
ungraduated for the last time."

"Elinor, I'm not hunting a crowd tonight," Vic said in a low voice.

"Well, come, anyway, and we'll hunt the solitude, if we can't hunt any
other game." And they