still light, and she was a conqueror!

Supper that night, in spite of Hannah's fears, was an unqualified success.
Memory and the cook-book had sufficed to make very creditable biscuits,
the trout, rather demolished by vigorous cleaning, lay, brown and
sizzling, in a nest of fresh lettuce leaves, and the potatoes were
perfect.

"Isn't it fun?" cried Virginia, as they ate the last crumb. "It's better
even than I thought."

"It's lovely," said Vivian, "only I feel just the same way that I did
about staying all alone as Jean does. Look outside, Virginia. It's getting
dark already!"

"Yes," answered Virginia, going to the window, "it does in August, though
the twilights stay like this a long time. See, there's a star! Doesn't it
twinkle? You can actually see the points! Let's wish on it. I wish--let me
see--I wish for the loveliest year at St. Helen's we could possibly
have--a year we'll remember all our lives!"

"I wish," said Mary, "that college may be just as lovely, and that I'll
make as good new friends as you all are."

"I wish," said Priscilla thoughtfully, "I wish I may be just as good a
Senior Monitor as you were, Mary."

"I'm not going to tell my wish," said Vivian softly. "It's--it's too much
about me."

Dishes were washed and dogs and chickens fed. Then they came out-of-doors
in the ever-deepening stillness to watch the moon rise over the blue
shadowy mountains, and look down upon the mesa, upon the horses feeding
some rods away among the sagebrush, and upon them as they stood together
a little distance from the cabin.

"Isn't it still?" whispered Vivian, holding Virginia's hand. "You can just
hear the silence in your ears. I believe it's louder than the creek!"

"I love it!" said Mary, unlocked doors all forgotten in a blessed,
all-together feeling. "See the stars come out one by one. You can almost
see them opening the doors of Heaven before they look through. I never saw
so many in all my life. And isn't the sky blue? It's never that way at
home!"

"I can understand better than ever, Virginia," said Priscilla, "how you
used to feel at school when we would open the French doors and go out on
the porch. You said it wasn't satisfying someway. I thought I understood
on the getting-acquainted trip, but now I know better than ever."

"It makes you feel like whispering, doesn't it?" Vivian whispered again.
"It's all so big and we're so little. But it doesn't scare me so much
now."

"I've been thinki