One day, Rose Red, emptying a basket, lighted upon a white parcel, hidden beneath the leaves.

“Lemon drops!” she exclaimed, applying finger and thumb with all the dexterity of Jack Horner.  “Here, Crater girls, here’s something for you!  Don’t you pity the Symposiums?”

But next day a big package of peppermints appeared in the Symposium basket, so neither Society could boast advantage over the other.  They were pretty nearly equal, too, in the quantity of wreath made,—­the Craters measuring nine hundred yards, and the Symposiums nine hundred and two.  As for the Halls, which they were taken over to see the evening before Commencement, it was impossible to say which was most beautifully trimmed.  Each faction preferred its own, and President Searles said that both did the young ladies credit.

They all sat in the gallery of the church on Commencement Day, and heard the speeches.  It was very hot, and the speeches were not exactly interesting, being on such subjects as “The Influence of a Republic on Men of Letters,” and “The Abstract Law of Justice, as applied to Human Affairs;” but the music, and the crowd, and the spectacle of six hundred ladies all fanning themselves at once, were entertaining, and the girls would not have missed them for the world.  Later in the day another diversion was afforded them by the throngs of pink and blue ladies and white-gloved gentlemen who passed the house, on their way to the President’s Levee; but they were not allowed to enjoy this amusement long, for Miss Jane, suspecting what was going on, went from room to room, and ordered everybody summarily off to bed.

With the close of Commencement Day, a deep sleep seemed to settle over Hillsover.  Most of the Professors’ families went off to enjoy themselves at the mountains or the sea-side, leaving their houses shut up.  This gave the village a drowsy and deserted air.  There were no boys playing balls on the Common, or swinging on the College fence; no look of life in the streets.  The weather continued warm, the routine of study and excercise grew dull, and teachers and scholars alike were glad when the middle of September arrived, and with it the opening of the autumn vacation.

CHAPTER IX.  THE AUTUMN VACATION.

The last day of the term was one of confusion.  Every part of the house was given over to trunks and packing.  Mrs. Nipson sat at her desk making out bills, and listening to requests about rooms and room-mates.  Miss Jane counted books and atlases, taking note of each ink-spot and dog-eared page.  The girls ran about, searching for missing articles, deciding what to take home and what to leave, engaging each other for the winter walks.  All rules were laid aside.  The sober Nunnery seemed turned into a hive of buzzing bees.  Bella slid twice down the baluster of the front stairs without being reproved, and Rose Red threw her arm round Katy’s waist and waltzed the whole length of Quaker Row.