somebody in the audience cried out, 'Why don't
you speak for yourself, Willis?' and everybody
laughed, and they said it was really for me, so I
kept it, and was pleased and proud. I have pressed
two or three flowers in my blue-print book, with
the pictures of the play. I am going to send you
some as soon as I can print some more. The girls
snatched all the first batch, so that I have not a
single one left.

"Let me see! What comes next? Oh, next you must
hear about my surprise party. I was in my room one
evening, grinding hard at my Greek (do you think
your mother would object to 'grinding?' It is such
old, respectable college slang, mamma allows it
once in a while), when I heard whispering and
giggling in the hall outside. I don't mind telling
you, my dear, that my heart sank, for I had a good
lot of Pindar to do, and there is no sense in
shirking one's lessons. But I went to the door
with as good a grace as I could, and there was our
dear Gerty, and Clara Lyndon, and three or four
other girls from Miss Russell's school. They said
they had double permission, from Miss Russell at
that end, and Mrs. Tower at this, to come and give
me a surprise party; and here they were, and they
were coming in whether I liked it or not. Of
course I did like it after the first minute, for
they were all so dear and jolly. They had borrowed
chairs as they came along through the hall, and
one had her pocket full of spoons, and another had
a basket,--oh, but I am getting on too fast. Well,
Gerty and I sat on the bed, and the others on the
chairs, and we chattered away, and I heard all the
school news. Then presently Mabel Norton opened a
basket, and took out--oh, Hilda! the most
beautiful, _beautiful_ rose-bush, simply covered
with blossoms. It was for me, with a card from
Miss Russell and the whole school; and when I
asked what it all meant, why, it seems that this
was the anniversary of the day last year when I
pulled a little girl out of the river, down near
the mill-dam. It was the simplest thing in the
world to do, fo