so doing, the waters
of Life will grow smoother, and the signals will never flicker.

The inspired instrument lapsed from nerveless fingers; the author
relaxed in her chair and sighed a deep sigh. All of a sudden she felt
tired, tired; but it is a blessed weariness that comes after a divine
frenzy has had its way with you.

Almost at once mother was there, rubbing her feet with towels, hustling
her into bed.

"Now, you must keep covered up a while," she said.

Missy was too happily listless to object. But, from under the hot
blankets, she murmured:

"You can read the Valedictory if you want to. It's all done."

Commencement night arrived. Twenty-odd young, pulsing entities were
lifting and lilting to a brand-new, individual experience, each one of
them, doubtless, as firmly convinced as the class Valedictorian that
he--or she--was the unique centre round which buzzed this rushing,
bewitchingly upsetting occasion.

Yet everyone had to admit that the Valedictorian made a tremendous
impression: a slender girl in white standing alone on a lighted
stage--only one person in all that assemblage was conscious that it was
the identical spot where once stood the renowned Dobson--gazing with
luminous eyes out on the darkened auditorium. It was crowded out there
but intensely quiet, for all the people were listening to the girl up
there illumined: the lift and fall of her voice, the sentiments fine,
noble, and inspiring. They followed the slow grace of her arms and
hands--it was, indeed, as if she held them in the hollow of her hand.

She told all about the darkness our souls sail through under their
sealed orders, knowing neither course nor port--and, though you may be
calloused to these trite figures, are they not solemnly true enough, and
moving enough, if you take them to heart? And with that slim child alone
up there speaking these things so feelingly, it was easy for Cherryvale
in the hushed and darkened auditorium to feel with her...

Sometimes they pass oblivious of one another in the gloom; sometimes a
signal flashes from out the darkness; a signal which is understood as
though an intense ray pierced the enveloping pall and laid bare both
souls. That signal is the light from a pair of human eyes, which are the
windows of the soul, and by means of which alone soul can stand revealed
to soul...

The emotional impression of this was tremendous on all these dear Souls
who had sailed alongside of Missy since she wa