raduates were expected, so that
preparations had to be made for them also. The graduating exercises were
to be held earlier at Boxton Military Academy than at Three Towers Hall,
so that the three North Bend boys hoped to get away in time to
attend--not the exercises themselves--but the singing on the steps of
Three Towers Hall by all the students of the school, which was one of the
most important parts of the ceremony.

Then, of course, the boys would be able to go with the girls all the way
to North Bend.

The exercises that had been looked forward to for so long and that had
taken weeks of preparation to perfect, were over at last. The graduates
realized with a sinking of the heart that they were no longer students of
Three Towers Hall.

There was still the mass singing on the steps, to be sure, but that was
simply the last barrier to be crossed before they stepped out on the open
road, leaving Three Towers Hall with its pleasing associations behind
them forever.

As the girls, in their simple white dresses, gathered on the steps of the
school with the visitors, fathers and mothers and boys in uniform,
scattered about on the campus below them, and began to sing in their
clear, girlish voices, there was hardly a dry eye anywhere.

At last it was over, and the girls rushed upstairs again to change their
dresses for traveling clothes and say a last good-bye to their teachers
and to Miss Walters.

As Billie was hurrying down the corridor, bag in hand, toward the front
door a hand was laid gently on her arm, and, turning, she found herself
face to face with Miss Arbuckle.

"Billie," said the teacher hurriedly, "I have never thanked you rightly
for the great favor you did in returning my album to me. But I love you
for it, dear. God bless you," and before Billie could think of a word to
say in reply, the teacher had turned, slipped through one of the doors
and disappeared.

Billie stood staring after Miss Arbuckle, lost in thought about her,
until Laura and Vi, hurrying up, caught her by the arm and hustled her
through the front door, down the steps and into the waiting carryall. The
carryall, by the way, was to make many trips that day, even though a
great many of the girls had automobiles belonging to their relatives or
friends which would take them straight to their destination.

When the girls had climbed inside, the boys jumped in after them, and the
carryall, having by this time all that it could hold, star