struggle,
followed in part its progress--and now let us look to its end. No, not
the end--for life is ever a struggle--there may be a cessation of care
for a season, but till the weary journey be accomplished, who shall
say that all danger is passed.

It was the annual examination at one of our largest New England female
schools. The pretty seminary-building gleamed through the clustering
trees that lovingly encircled it, and its snowy pillars and
porticoes--vine-wreathed by fairy-fingers--gave it an air of lightness
and grace which village architecture rarely shows. Now the shaded path
which led to its entrance was thronged, as group after group pressed
upward. Carriages, from the simple "Rockaway" to equipages glittering
with richly plated harness, and drawn by fiery, impatient steeds,
stood thickly around. It was the festival-day of the village, and each
cottage was filled to overflowing--for strangers from all parts of the
Union were come to witness the _debut_ of the sister, the daughter, or
the friend.

Many were the bright eyes that scarcely closed in sleep the night
preceding this eventful anniversary. There was so much to hope--so
much to fear. "If I _should_ fail," was repeated again and again; and
their hearts throbbed wildly as the signal-bell was heard, which
called them to pass the dread ordeal. Such a display of
beauty--genuine, unadorned beauty--rarely greets the eye of man. More
than a hundred young girls, from timid fifteen to more assured
one-and-twenty, robed in pure white, with tresses untortured by the
prevailing mode, decorated only by wreaths of delicate wild flowers,
or the rich coral berry of the ground-ivy, shaded by its own
dark-green leaves. A simple sash bound each rounded form, and a knot
of the same fastened the spotless dress about the throat. Then
excitement flushed the cheeks which the mountain air had already
tinged with the glow of health, and made bright eyes still brighter as
they rested on familiar faces.

The exercises of the day went on, and yet those who listened and those
who spoke did not weary. The young students had won all honor to
themselves and their teachers; and as the shadows lengthened in the
grove around them, but one class remained to be approved or censured.

"Now sister--there!" exclaimed a manly-looking Virginian, as the
graduates came forward to the platform. "Who is that young lady at
their head. I have tried all day to find some one that knew her, but