Miss Ashton's New Pupil — 18 - Chapters XXXV, XXXVI, and XXXVII

FAREWELL WORDS.

There was little difficulty when the time came in deciding the four essays to be chosen.

Kate Underwood's was in most respects the best, and would take the place usually filled by the valedictory.

Dorothy Ottley's was the next strongest, and by far the most thoughtful.

To no one's surprise as much as to her own, Gladys Philbrick's was the most brilliant, and Edna Grant's, the best scholar in English literature, the most scholarly.

So the important question was settled a week before commencement, and the young ladies were given their choice, either to read their pieces or to speak them.

Greatly to the surprise of the teachers they all chose to speak them, and the elocution teacher was at once put to drilling them for the occasion.

The choice was pleasantly accepted by the school.

Every one of the four were favorites, and whatever disappointment the rejected essayists felt, they kept wisely to themselves.

Susan Downer's essay on "Truth" was a miserable failure, and a disgraced future was the only one she could see opening before her.

She could not summon courage to make a confession to Miss Ashton; she decided, after hours and hours of troubled and vexatious thought, to be silent, trusting to her speedy removal from the school to silence all further questionings.

Such a busy week as this was now at the academy!

The mail brought every day piles of letters to teachers and scholars, which must be answered.

Invitations were to be sent.

All the preliminaries of a great gathering were to be attended to, and both the excitement and the listlessness attendant on a closing year were to be met and combated.

It would be interesting if we could tell the story of each individual during this eventful period, but it would fill a whole volume by itself, so we must be contented by telling simply of those with whom we have had the most to do.

Miss Ashton tried as far as she could, with so much else to attend to, to have a little personal conversation with every pupil who had been under her care for the year.

Sometimes she saw them alone, sometimes she took them in classes, according to the importance of what she had to say.

Before talking with Marion she sent the following short letter to her mother:-- MY DEAR MRS.

PARKE,--I should esteem it a personal favor if you would allow your daughter Marion to remain with me free from expense to you for another year.

She has proved in all regards not only an excellent scholar, but, as I wrote you before, the influence of her lovely Christian character has been of great value to me.

I shall be glad to do all I can to help her into the influential and well-balanced future I see before her.

You need have no fear that a feeling of indebtedness to me will be a burden to her, delicate as her feelings are.

I propose, by putting her at the head of my post-office department, to fully repay myself for all she will receive.

This will not interfere with her studies or her needed recreation, but will come at hours she can easily spare.

Hoping this will meet with your cordial approbation, Truly yours, A.

S.

ASHTON.

It was not until an answer to this had been received that Miss Ashton sent for Marion to come and see her.

Marion had in the mean time a letter from her mother, asking if she wished to remain.

To which Marion had answered, "Yes!

Yes!"

So now all Miss Ashton had to do was to tell Marion how satisfied she was both with her and the arrangement, and Marion to tell her kind teacher of her delight in remaining.

Gladys was to return with her father after a pleasant summer spent at Rock Cove, and to her, Miss Ashton had much wise advice to give regarding her future.

A motherless child, an indulgent, though wise father, no brothers or sisters, only a crowd of worshipping dependents; probably not to another girl in the whole school was there to come years which would test the character as hers was to be tested.

Excellent advice was given; the question was, Would it be followed?

For Dorothy there was less doubt.

Miss Ashton had already found a school for her, where, excellently well-fitted, she could begin in the fall her career as a teacher.

Of her success, only Dorothy felt a doubt.

Susan Downer, Miss Ashton had put off seeing until the last, hoping the girl would come herself and confess, if there was anything to confess; but as day after day went by, Susan shunning her when she could, and when she could not, passing her with averted face, Miss Ashton saw she must take the matter into her own hands and settle it one way or other; to ignore was to condone it.

It was, therefore, only a few days before the close of the term when Susan, who had grown almost buoyant in her hope of escape, found herself summoned to what she was sure was to be her final trial.

"She can't expel me now," she said to herself triumphantly as she went to the room, "and she can't withhold my diploma, for that is for scholarship, and I stand well there, so I'm safe at any rate."

Still it was a trembling, pale girl that answered Miss Ashton's "Come in."

"I do not want you to leave me uncertain both of your truth and honesty," she said gently.

"I have been waiting, hoping you would come to me of yourself, but as you have not, I _demand_ now an answer to my question.

Did, or did you not write 'Storied West Rock'?"

"I d--i--d." Before she had time to finish the answer, Miss Ashton had said emphatically, "_not_; I know the truth, Susan!

I want to spare you the falsehood I see you are about to tell."

"I am not going to ask you where you found the story; I only want you to see, and see so plainly that you can never forget it, how small and mean a thing such a deceit, or any deceit, is, and how sure in the end to turn to the injury of the one who commits it.

Of all the class that are to leave me, you, Susan Downer, carry away with you my greatest anxiety for your future.

God help and save you, you poor child!"

Miss Ashton's voice had tears in it as she ceased speaking, and those, more than any words she had spoken, reached and moved the girl before her.

"O Miss Ashton!

Miss Ashton!"

Susan cried, rushing to her, and throwing both arms around her neck.

"Do, _do_, _do_, please forgive me?

It was Marion Parke's book, and I thought no one would ever know.

I've been so sorry.

I'd have given worlds, worlds, _worlds_, if I had never seen it!

O Miss Ashton, what shall I, shall I do?"

"Ask God to forgive you," Miss Ashton said solemnly.

"It is another and a greater judge than I that has the power to do so.

If I were only sure," but she did not finish her sentence, she only loosened Susan's arms gently from around her neck, then said "good-by" to her, and watched her once more as she went away down the corridor.

"And Marion Parke knew it all the time, but would not tell on Susan," she said to herself as she turned back into her room.

"Marion is a girl to be depended upon, I am glad she is to stay with me."

"Kate Underwood," she said, when Kate's time came for the farewell counsel, taking both of the girl's hands in hers, "I'm proud of you.

You have done of late what many older and wiser persons have failed to do,--learned the lesson, which I hope has been learned for your lifetime, that there is no fun in things, however written or spoken, that hurt other's feelings.

I have seen you many times thoughtful and tender, when your face was alive with the ridiculous thing you saw or heard.

Kate, I feel so much safer to let you go from me now than I should have six, even three months ago.

Tell me, will you try not to forget?"

"I'll be good as long as I live.

I'll never make fun, no, not even of myself," burst out Kate, "though now I'm dying to get before a mirror and see how I must have looked when you thought me so thoughtful.

Was it so, Miss Ashton?"

and Kate made up a face which a sterner rebuker than her teacher could not have seen without a smile.

"There's no use, Kate," she said; "go now, only don't forget."

And Kate made a sweeping courtesy and disappeared.

With Mamie Smythe she had a long talk, not one word of which did either divulge.

In that hour it would be safe to say Mamie learned some life-lessons which it will be hard for her to forget.

And so the time passed on.

Recitations ceased four days before commencement, and the girls, those even who thought themselves over busy before, found every hour brought a fresh claim upon their time.

"Our bee-hive," Miss Ashton called it, and the girls called her the "queen bee," and made many secret plans about the various gifts they were to give her the last night of the term.

The ceremony this year was to be a public one, therefore of great importance.

CHAPTER XXXVI. WOMEN'S WORK.

The night before commencement Miss Ashton had reserved for the reading of notices of woman's work and success.

This she did at that time, because she wished her pupils to carry away a full belief not only in their own abilities, but also in the position which, with diligence, these abilities would enable them to reach.

The whole school gathered in the hall.

Miss Ashton had requested that the notices should be handed in to her a few days previous.

Now she said, "Young ladies, I am both surprised and pleased at the readiness and faithfulness with which you have responded to my request.

I have here," lifting a pretty, ribbon-tied basket, "at least one hundred different notices!

Just think!

_one hundred_ instances in which women have tried, and have succeeded in earning not only a respectable, but a successful livelihood.

This fact speaks so well for itself, that all remaining for me to do is to read you some of these notices.

I must make a selection from among them, and the first one I will read I am sure will interest you:-- "'Mlle.

Sarmisa Bileesco, the first woman admitted to the bar in France, is said to have taken the highest rank in a class of five hundred men at the École du Droit, Paris, where she studied after receiving the degree of Bachelor of Letters and Science in Bucharest.

She has begun to practise law in the latter city, where her father is a banker.'

"Here is another one in the same profession:-- "'Mrs. Tel Sone is a leading lawyer in Japan, and has a large and profitable practice.'

"'Miss Jean Gordon of Cincinnati, upon whom will be conferred the degree of Ph.

G.

at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, has earned the highest average ever attained by any woman graduate of that institution.

Out of one hundred and eighty-four graduates of this year, only six obtained the highest rating of "distinguished."

Miss Gordon was one of the six.

She was the only woman in her class, and had to contend with bright young men.'

"Miss Gordon, I think," remarked Miss Ashton, "has a distinguished future before her.

"'Female professors and lecturers are to be introduced into the Michigan University at Ann Arbor.'

"'Two female medical graduates have been appointed house surgeons at two English hospitals.'

"'An Ohio girl discovered a way of transforming a barrel of petroleum into ten thousand cubic feet of gas.'

"'Another woman has constructed a machine which will make as many paper bags in a day as thirty men can put together.'

"'An invention which you hardly would have expected from a woman, is a war vessel that is susceptible of being converted off-hand into a fort by simply taking it apart.'

"'Chicago, March 25. Miss Sophia G. Hayden of Boston wins the one thousand-dollar prize offered for the best design for the woman's buildings of the World's Fair.'

" (A sensation among the scholars, which pleased Miss Ashton).

"'Miss Lois L. Howe, also of Boston, was second, five hundred dollars, and Miss Laura Hayes of Chicago gets the two hundred and fifty dollars offered for the third best design.

"'Miss Hayden is a first-honor graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Miss Howe is from the same institution.

Miss Hayes is Mrs. Potter Palmer's private secretary.

"'As soon as the awards were made, Miss Hayden was wired to come to Chicago immediately and elaborate her plans.

The design is one of marked simplicity.

It is in the Italian renaissance style, with colonnades, broken by centre and end pavilions.

The structure is to be 200 × 400 feet, and 50 feet to the cornice.

There is no dome.

The chief feature of ornamentation is the entrance.'

"I am glad to tell those of you young ladies who feel symptoms of architectural genius only waiting for development, that year by year this institute is opening its door wider and wider to admit women.

This last year the ten who are new members of it were for the first time invited to a class supper, going to it matronized by Mrs. Walker, the wife of the president.

"One other thing I want you to remark.

These three young ladies, by their ability, and the success which is the fruit only of faithful study, have done more for women's advancement than has been accomplished for years.

"A man who is a successful architect occupies an important and proud position; that a woman can do the same is no small help in the struggle she is now making.

"I recommend them to you as examples, particularly as I know there are a number among you who will not be content to let graduation from this school end your educational life.

"The next I shall read you is a notice of women as journalists:-- "'Let me give you a fact about women as journalists in my own office,' said the editor of one of the largest dailies to me a few days ago.

"'Five years ago I employed one woman on my staff, to-day I have over twenty, and the best work which appears in our papers is from the pen of women writers.

Of course you cannot give women all sorts of commissions; but if I want a really conscientious piece of work done nowadays, I give it to one of our women.

I find absolutely they do their work more thoroughly than do the men.'

"Young ladies, it has always been complained of women that, though they are quicker, guided by instincts that act promptly and for the greater part correctly, they are not patient or thorough.

Now, as I have told you so often that it must sound trite to you to have me repeat it, it is only patient thoroughness that wins.

I am glad to have this editor of one of our largest dailies give this indubitable testimony that we _can_ be thorough if we will.

For those of you who neither wish nor expect to continue study any further, I will read the opportunity offered for a bucolic life:-- "'Miss Antoinette Knaggs, a young woman with a good collegiate education, owns and manages a farm of two hundred acres in Ohio.

She says she made money last year, and expects to make more this year.

"I have tried various ways of farming," she says, "but I find I can get along best when I manage my farm myself.

I tried employing a manager, but I found he managed chiefly for himself.

Then I sub-let to tenants, and they used up my stock and implements, and the returns were unsatisfactory.

So I have taken the management into my own hands, planting such crops as I think best, and I find I am a very good farmer, if I do say it myself.'

" "Said the daughter of a New Hampshire farmer to me a few days ago," continued Miss Ashton, "'When my father died my mother took the control of our whole large farm into her own hands.

She managed so well that we have sold our farm and moved down to suburban Boston, where we can command the literary advantages she has taught us not only to prize but to love.'

The collegiate education fitted Miss Knaggs to be a better, wiser farmer.

I hope if it shall be the choice of any of you, you will find yourself abler for your life here."

"I am sure we shall," thought a Dakota young lady, whose father's broad ranch covered many a goodly acre, and whose secret wish had always been to own a ranch of her own.

"There seems to be no profession now from which a woman is shut out, though we hear of fewer among lawyers than in any other profession.

I

find only one more among all these notices.

'Fourteen women were graduated from the university of New York Law School last night, among the number being Mrs. George B. McClellan, daughter-in-law of the late General McClellan.'

But I well know there have been women associated with their husbands in the law.

Women also with their own offices, doing a large and important business.

"In England, civil service is open to them; and though it does not correspond of course with our law, still the same strict education is needed for success.

"Here is a paper which states the terms on which ladies enter the civil service.

"'They enter as second-class clerks, receiving a year, rising by fifteen dollars a year to . Here the maximum, which is certainly small, is reached; but there is promotion by merit to clerkships, rising to a year, and a few higher places, which go up to . Three lady superintendents each receive up to ,000, and four assistant superintendents each ,000. The work is not difficult, and the hours are seven a day.

An annual holiday of a month is allowed.'

"These wages are no larger than would be paid here for the same services.

I know women have no difficulty, if once elected, in filling clerkships and secretaryships, and they even have important places in the treasury department at Washington.

A very telling record might be, probably has been, made of their successes there.

"In the medical profession we all know how rapidly they have risen to the front.

Stories that sound almost fabulous are told of the income some of the most talented receive; and to show the popularity this new movement has attained, it is only necessary to state that at the present day it would be hard to find a town, north, south, east, or west, which has not its woman doctor.

The medical colleges have large classes of them; and in Europe names of many American girls, if they do not lead in number, do at least in ability."

Here there was a resolute stamping and clapping, which pleased Miss Ashton too much for her to attempt to stop it.

"If I had more time I could tell you some wonderful but entirely true stories of difficult surgical operations being performed in foreign hospitals by young American women in so remarkable a way that they excited not only the applause of the fellow-students, but won prizes.

"As this is only one of the professions, I must hurry on to the ministry.

We all know that in some of our denominations there are numbers of women who occupy the place of settled minister, and do well.

On the whole, however, they may be considered more successful as lecturers, Bible-readers, and elocution teachers; and then there is a wide open field to them as actresses and singers; indeed, no public or private way of earning a livelihood or a reputation is denied them.

"Teaching always has been theirs, and year after year the profession becomes more and more crowded and the requirements for good teachers more strict.

Many of you, young ladies, I find are looking forward to this in your immediate future.

I need not here urge upon you the necessity of being well prepared when your day for examination comes.

I have held it up before you during all the past year.

"This is an incomplete list of the great things which I expect you young ladies of the graduating class to perform.

I would not, however, on any account, forget that broad and specially adapted woman's work,--the different philanthropic schemes with which this nineteenth century abounds.

"So many are in women's hands; like women's boards of missions, children's hospitals, homes for little wanderers, young women's Christian homes, young women's industrial union, North End missions, Bible-readers, evangelists, flower committees for supplying the sick in charity hospitals, providing excursions for poor children, providing homes in the country for the destitute and orphan children, society of little wanderers, newspaper boys' home, boot-black boys' home.

"It is possible for me to name but a small part of them, but those of you who have the means of helping any one of these objects named, or any of the many others, will remember, I hope, that wonderful cup of cold water which, given, shall give to the giver the rich reward.

"This will probably be my last opportunity to speak to you alone as my school.

Let me thank you heartily for all you have done this year, and some of you for four long years, to make our life together pleasant, and we hope acceptable to our great Taskmaster.

I wish you now, for myself and all the other teachers, a pleasant vacation, and a safe return to those of you who are to come back to us."

There were many quiet tears shed among the girls, and Miss Ashton's eyes were not quite dry.

CHAPTER XXXVII. COMMENCEMENT.

Commencement morning rose upon Montrose clear, bright, and hot.

Almost with the first dawn of the early day the hum of busy preparation began.

Every hour of the previous day and night had brought parents and friends, some from great distances, to attend the celebration.

The quiet town swarmed with strangers, all with faces turned toward the large brick building which, standing boldly prominent on its hill, had a welcoming look, as if the roses around it, that filled the air with their delicious fragrance, had blossomed that morning in new and charming beauty.

The lawn, plentifully besprinkled with small flower-beds, was elsewhere one broad sheet of velvet green; and the blossoms of every variety and every hue crowded the beds so cheerfully, so merrily, that many parents lingered as they passed them, their hearts warming at the sight of the Eden in which their daughters had lived.

Commencement exercises were to be held in the large hall, to which ushers appointed for that purpose took all the visitors before the entrance of the school, so it really made quite an imposing show when Miss Ashton, arm in arm with the president of the Board of Trustees, came slowly in, the gentlemen composing the board following, then the teachers, and after them the pupils in their gay holiday dresses.

The senior class, of course the most prominent, coming onto the stage with the other dignitaries.

There was nothing of peculiar interest in the exercises that followed.

Commencements all over the country are much the same.

The four young ladies who were to read their essays acquitted themselves well.

Gladys, to her father's great delight, with her soft Southern voice, her sparkling face, and her easy, self-possessed, graceful ways, was the undoubted favorite.

A storm of applause followed the reading, and bouquets of flowers fell around her in great profusion.

It was the bestowing of the diplomas that attracted the most attention.

There was something touching in the gentle smile of the aged president as, calling each member of the class by her name, he spoke a few Latin words and handed her the parchment that made her for life an alumna of Montrose Academy.

It was almost as if he had laid his hand on her head in benediction.

The pleasant dinner that followed was the next marked event of the day.

To this all the school, and as many invited guests as could be accommodated, sat down, and the large hall was full of the cheerful voices of those who had come to congratulate and those who were congratulated.

Nothing could have made a more fitting ending to the home-life of the busy year; so many kindly, cheering words spoken, so much of hearty encouragement for the coming year.

Pupils and teachers, some of them together for the last time, but hardly among them an exception to the tender affection which bound them together.

Susan Downer had been graduated.

She held her diploma in her hand as she went off the stage with the others, but she was far from happy.

"Miss Ashton is glad to have me go," she thought.

"She neither respects nor loves me."

No one noticed her dejection.

Amidst the general happiness she seemed to herself forgotten, almost shunned.

"And I had hoped," she thought, "to make this such a triumphal day!"

It would be idle to waste any sympathy on Susan.

There is an old adage, "As you make your bed, so must you lie in it."

She had done a dishonorable, untrue thing, and had repented only over its consequences.

It is very sad but true, that what we have once done, or left undone, said, or not said, can never be recalled.

No repentance can efface its memory; no tears can blot it out; and only one, the great, kind Father, can forgive.

Susan to the last day of her life will have that act clinging to her.

She can never forget it.

The moral is obvious, needing no words to make it plainer.

Immediately after dinner the school broke up and the departures began.

The farewells that were spoken, the tears that were shed, the oft-repeated kisses that were given, it would be difficult to tell.

By twilight the large building began to have a desolated look.

Miss Ashton, pale and tired, stood bravely in a doorway, kissed and wiped away tears, and silently blessed pupil after pupil in rapid succession.

The Rock Cove party considerately made their farewells brief, and taking Marion with them hurried to the evening train that was to carry them home.

Then down over the building settled the beautiful June twilight, and the year of study was over.

A.

L.

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