e shade--the colour Raymond Bonner, who was a classmate and
almost a "beau," wore so much in neckties--and the facing shell-pink, a
delicate harmony; but the supreme ecstasy came with placing the little
silken flowers, pink and mauve and deeper subtle-blue, in effective
composition upon that heavenly background; and, in just the one place,
a glimpse of subtle-blue ribbon, a sheen as gracious as achieved by
the great Creator when, with a master's eye, on a landscape he places
a climactic stroke of shining blue water. Indeed, He Himself surely can
view His handiwork with no more sense o gratification than did Missy,
regarding that miracle of colour which was her own creation.

Oh, to create! To feel a blind, vague, ineffable urge within you,
stealing out to tangibility in colour and form! Earth--nor Heaven,
either--can produce no finer rapture.

Missy's hat was duly admired. Miss Ackerman said she was a "real
artist"; when she wore it to Sunday-school everybody looked at her
so much she found it hard to hold down a sense of unsabbatical pride;
father jocosely said she'd better relinquish her dreams of literary
fame else she'd deprive the world of a fine milliner; and even mother
admitted that Mrs. Anna Stubbs, the leading milliner, couldn't have done
better. However, she amended: "Now, don't forget your school work, dear.
Have you decided on the subject of your thesis yet?"

Missy had not. But, by this time, the hat business was moving so rapidly
that she had even less time to worry over anything still remote, like
the thesis--plenty of time to think of that; now, she was dreaming of
how the rose would look blooming radiantly from this soft bed of violet
straw;... and, now, how becoming to Aunt Nettie would be this misty
green, with cool-looking leaves and wired silver gauze very pure and
bright like angels' wings--dear Aunt Nettie didn't have much "taste,"
and Missy indulged in a certain righteous glow in thus providing her
with a really becoming, artistic hat. Then, after Aunt Nettie's, she
planned one for Marguerite. Marguerite was the hired girl, mulatto, and
had the racial passion for strong colour. So Missy conceived for her a
creation that would be at once satisfying to wearer and beholder. How
wonderful with one's own hands to be able to dispense pleasure! Missy,
working, felt a peculiarly blended joy; it is a gratification, indeed,
when a pleasing occupation is seasoned with the fine flavour of noble
altruism.