was married she cried
herself!"

"Did you cry, mother?" asked Tibby curiously.

Mrs. Westley laughed. "I did--really. And I cried at my Commencement.
There were only twelve of us graduated that spring from Miss Oliver's
Academy and none of us went to college, so you see it really _was_ the
end of our school days. I was very happy until it was all over--then, I
remember, as I walked down the aisle in my organdie dress--we wore
organdie then, too, girls--with a big bouquet of pink roses on my arm
and everyone smiling and nodding at all of us, it came over me with a
rush that my school days were all over and that they'd never come back.
So I cried--for a very weepy half-hour I wanted more than anything else
to be a little girl again with all childhood before me. I was afraid--to
look ahead into life----"

"But there was father--you knew him then, didn't you?"

A pretty color suffused Mrs. Westley's cheeks. "Yes--there was father. I
said I only cried for half an hour. Two years afterward I was
married--and I cried again. Of course I was very, very happy--but I knew
I was going away forever from my girlhood."

"Mother----" protested Isobel. "You make me feel dreadfully sad. I
wanted to cry yesterday when Sheila Quinn spoke at the Class-day
exercises. Wasn't she wonderful when she said how Lincoln School had
given us our shield and our armor and that always we must live to be
worthy of her trust! I thrilled to my toes. But if it makes one cry to
be _married_----"

"Darling"--and Mrs. Westley took Isobel's hand in hers--"we leave our
childhood and again our girlhood with a few tears, perhaps, but always
there is the wonder of the bigger life ahead. I think even in dying
there must be the same joy. And though we do shed tears over the youth
we tenderly lay aside, they are happy tears--tears that sweeten and
strengthen the spirit, too."

"Well, I'm glad _I_ have two more years at Highacres," cried Gyp,
looking with pity at Isobel's thoughtful face.

"And _I'm_ glad," Isobel added, slowly, "that I decided to go to
college. It must be dreadful to know that school is all over. I wouldn't
be Amy Mathers for _anything_. It sounds so silly to hear her talk of
all she's going to do next winter--such _empty_ things!" Isobel, in her
scorn, had forgotten that only a few weeks back she had wanted to do
just what Amy Mathers was planning to do!

"Well,"--Graham stretched his arms--"school's all right but _I'm_ mighty
glad vacat