ow tone, thinking of the pressed flowers the girls
kept for his sake.

The boys heard her, but no one spoke for a moment as they sat looking
across the river toward the hill where the pines whispered their
lullabies and pointed heavenward, steadfast and green, all the year
round. None of them could express the thought that was in their minds as
Jill told the little story; but the act and the feeling that prompted it
were perhaps as beautiful an assurance as could have been given that
the dear dead boy's example had not been wasted, for the planting of the
acorns was a symbol of the desire budding in those young hearts to
be what he might have been, and to make their lives nobler for the
knowledge and the love of him.

"It seems as if a great deal had happened this year," said Merry, in a
pensive tone, for this quiet talk just suited her mood.

"So I say, for there's been a Declaration of Independence and a
Revolution in our house, and I'm commander-in-chief now; and don't I
like it!" cried Molly, complacently surveying the neat new uniform she
wore of her own choosing.

"I feel as if I never learned so much in my life as I have since last
December, and yet I never did so little," added Jill, wondering why the
months of weariness and pain did not seem more dreadful to her.

"Well, pitching on my head seems to have given me a good shaking up,
somehow, and I mean to do great things next year in better ways than
breaking my bones coasting," said Jack, with a manly air.

"I feel like a Siamese twin without his mate now you are gone, but I'm
under orders for a while, and mean to do my best. Guess it won't be
lost time;" and Frank nodded at Gus, who nodded back with the slightly
superior expression all Freshmen wear.

"Hope you won't find it so. My work is all cut out for me, and I intend
to go in and win, though it is more of a grind than you fellows know."

"I'm sure I have everything to be grateful for. It won't be plain
sailing--I don't expect it; but, if I live, I'll do something to be
proud of," said Ralph, squaring his shoulders as if to meet and conquer
all obstacles as he looked into the glowing west, which was not fairer
than his ambitious dreams.

Here we will say good-by to these girls and boys of ours as they sit
together in the sunshine talking over a year that was to be for ever
memorable to them, not because of any very remarkable events, but
because they were just beginning to look about them as they