It is strange how some event towards which you have been working, and which seemed to fill earth and sky till you reached it, at once then sinks down and becomes hardly distinguishable from the plain. So passed by the examination to Magnus Kindred.

In fact everybody is so fagged out by the 12th of June, tired with work, with gaiety and excitement, that feeling seems swallowed up of high pressure. This may be one reason why the bad success of other men affects so little those who have won through. Exceptionally strong as class feeling is at West Point, the dropped names seem to make very slight impression. And in some cases, of course, there is no surprise. When a man bones nothing but mischief, and tries to crowd into the three weeks before examination the study which should have filled six months, June is not always kind to him. Unless, indeed, he be one of those men who are pure mathematics—and even then the discipline column may cut him down. So it was with small surprise that Magnus heard Chapman's name among the "found deficient." Chapman did not whimper, but he took it hard.

"It's that beastly calculus!" he confided to Magnus, in the hurried moments of parting. "Oh, yes! I know what you mean by raising your eyebrows, but a man couldn't live here if he didn't run it now and then."

"But you see a man can't always live here if he does," said Magnus.

"Bosh! Yes, he can. Only they don't all run against old Towser every time, as I did. No, it wasn't that at all, it was the calculus."

And doubtless, in great measure, it was. Another boy, from far away, fairly came to tears.

"I don't see how I am to go home!" he said. "I don't know what my mother will say!"

While another, who had got a turn-back, liked so little what his mother did say that he gave her a sharp little lecture on the Graduation ground.

"I can't tell what makes you go on so!" he burst forth. "I'm only turned back. Lots of men are sent away altogether. Why do you talk like that? What's the matter?"

Poor mothers! It is often pathetic to hear them explain the case to other people.

"He's a good boy, Miss Smith; but you know he has always been delicate. Hard study never agreed with him." (True, this last.)

"You see, Mrs. Brown, he has had such trouble with his eyes that I wonder he has kept up at all. I really must speak to the Superintendent about the study lights. Then these early recitations. Why, at home we never thought of waking him up till eight o'clock, and then gently, you know, and by degrees. And now he says that gun just goes through his head without a word of preparation. I suppose, really, that is what ails his eyes."

"Everything here is so wretchedly mismanaged!" commented a wise and sympathetic damsel. "The cadets are abused at every turn. I don't see how they stand it. It is the meanest place!"

"Well, I've done what I could to straighten things," said a beaming matron. "Look at this bag,—absolutely worn out in the service. It has brought Tom everything—from cigars up. And when he wants money, he has only to say so."

Strange, that with such care Tom should ever grumble at anything—especially regulations.

But graduation has come and gone, the graduates have scattered; some for home, some for Europe, some to be married "on graduation leave." For three months they have "the world before them, where to choose."

The furlough men, too, are scattered, yet more widely and individually, speeding away on the spider's web of railways that covers the country. Class supper was over, changed from a gay revel to a less brilliant memory, and Magnus Kindred went whirling along towards home. And the great question of taking them all by surprise was still unsettled.

The home folks, however, had their own ideas on the subject, and for at least two days before Magnus could possibly come, they had met every train from the East; Mrs. Kindred, Rose, and Violet. Cherry went the first time, but after that absented herself on one plea or another. And so on that sweet June afternoon, when the train slowed up to let off the one passenger and the one trunk, the three were in hiding behind the station.

No one could ever describe what that first home-coming was to Magnus. For miles and hours the excitement in the boy's heart had been working itself up to white heat, as point after point rose up to give him welcome. Here a cliff and there a hill; the schoolhouse near by, the church further off; if he had only had a dozen straw hats, I think eleven of them would have gone out of the window, for pure joy.

But the little platform was empty, save of officials; not a creature got out of the train but Magnus, and not one was waiting to get in. Not a figure broke the broad June sunlight that filled the old road towards home. But when he had hurriedly tramped down the steps, he found himself in his mother's arms, with the two girls sobbing for joy on either side.

Of the next few minutes, I think no one of them could afterwards give much account. Then Magnus, with one arm round his mother, gave that hand to Violet, and the other to Rose, and so they walked along. How they talked!—with tongues once set free; but most of all, how they looked at each other. Mother and son had met within the year, but the two girls gazed at their handsome brother with a surprised delight that could never have enough.

"But I had forgotten that you were so brown, Magnus," said Rose.

"Drills."

"You always were straight," said Violet, "but now——"

"Bracing up."

"And your hair is so short," said Rose.

"Regulations."

Then how they all laughed and hugged each other over again, for there were only the wild birds to see.

"Well, certainly, if brevity be the soul of wit, you have improved in one line," said Rose.

"They teach it out there," said Magnus. "'Mr. Kindred, your head is on one side, sir!'—'Yes, sir. Which side, sir?'"

"And what did you get for being so saucy?" asked the mother, as the laugh died away.

"Nothing that time. Even Towser can't skin a man unless he gets hold of him. But wherever is Cherry? When you all came out of the first bush, I thought she would jump out of the second."

"She's at home," said Rose. "We wanted her to come, and she wouldn't."

"But she did the first time," said Violet eagerly; "the first day we thought you might come."

"Oh, ho!—and as I didn't show up then she put on her high-heeled shoes," said Magnus. "Girls are all just alike the world over."

"No, they are not!" cried both the charming specimens then present. "And you shall not say that of Cherry. She is like nobody else—and nobody else is like her."

And privately, Magnus thought his own two sisters very unlike most other girls. With their fresh, unjaded faces, undoctored complexions, untrammelled feet and waists, and unspoiled minds, they made a wonderful sweet contrast to Miss Dashaway and Miss Flirt. Magnus had not known how his estimate of women had run down among the crowd till he found it mounting up again, ten degrees at a time.

Even Cherry's absenting herself—it provoked him heartily, and he felt himself much injured, but it was after all a refreshing change after Miss Dangleum's ways. Yes, demonstrations were the man's business, and in his present mood Magnus felt quite equal to them, could he but get hold of the right person.

No half-grown girl in half-long dresses appeared, however, as they reached the house, but for a few minutes Magnus had all he could manage. The old dog (prudently left at home) was nearly as wild over the meeting as his young master; jumped upon him, clung to him, danced round him, whimpered, whined, and barked for joy. It was not five minutes before the two were rolling down the grass slope together, then running a sharp race, and then flying all over the old house from room to room. Magnus shouldered his trunk and rushed upstairs with it, and Plato dashed after him, wakening all the echoes that were anywhere about. The two girls, putting rolls in the oven and setting on cream and butter, almost danced in their tiptoe joy; the mother in the small sitting-room hid her face in her hands, and cried and gave thanks. Just to hear that boy's step overhead, what was it like? And then to have the pair come racing down the old stairs when supper was ready, Plato barking in a perfect scream of delight;—do you wonder that the prayer for a blessing was spoken low and falteringly? or that a hush filled all the room for some moments thereafter?

Then the three busied themselves earnestly about their boy's supper, and the boy also lent his assistance; Plato lying on the floor and winking at him. The old dog was afraid to really go to sleep lest he should lose sight of his young master.

"I suppose her High Mightiness expects me to put on my war paint to-morrow, and to go and ca—ll," said Magnus, drawling out the last word with ridiculous intonation.

"Who? Cherry? Now, Magnus, you shall not call her that," said Rose.

"Shall not, hey? I will call her anything I like," said Magnus.

"Well, go on, then, and do it," cried Violet, with a laugh, "for here she is."

And in more confusion than he expected from himself, after this bravado, Cadet Kindred started up from the table and found himself face to face with his old playmate.

Cherry had the advantage of him; she had seen the photograph, and was partly prepared for what she saw now—not quite. But to Magnus, with eyes full of the gleesome, outspoken girl of sixteen, this vision of a tall, slender maiden of eighteen summers, with something of a woman's shy reserve floating round her like the daintiest filmy veil, was altogether new. He had seen nothing like it. She was so lovely, so dainty, so sweet—if any epithets presented themselves, they died on his tongue.

And the girl, too, had caught her breath; the living presence is always so far beyond the picture. All her nicely prepared words of welcome took to their heels, and Cherry held out her hand and said simply:

"How do you do?"

Magnus got hold of the hand, and kept it; held it fast while he pushed and pulled chairs about to give her a place by himself. The hand was something tangible—especially as it was not quite ready to be held.

"How do I do?" he repeated, as she took her seat: "you don't care. Why didn't you come to meet me?"

"I think you had enough at the station."

"And you had enough at home, I suppose."

"Enough to do—yes."

"Well, how can you spare the time to be here now?" said Mr. Kindred, pursuing his inquiries. A girl who did not wear even the semblance of a heart upon her sleeve was something new of late, and exasperating. "It is very frivolous work to sit by and see me eat supper."

"It will be less so, when I get something to eat myself," Cherry answered demurely. "But I can wait still longer, if it is not certain the supply will hold out."

"There! now you have got it," cried Rose, clapping her hands; "and good for you, too. Hectoring her in that style! Give her some berries, Magnus, before you eat another one. Cherry picked two thirds of them with her own fingers."

"She did!" said Magnus, reddening in spite of himself under Cherry's fire; second classman on furlough and presumptive first sergeant though he was. "That explains why I've had to empty the sugar bowl. I'm sorry I have made such a raid, Cherry, but you shall have what is left."

And swiftly he drew everything as near the girl's plate as the dishes could find room. Bread plate and butter plate, cake basket, cheese, cream pitcher, water pitcher, and the wreck of the broiled chicken. Then seizing the berry bowl Magnus began to pile the sweet wild strawberries upon her plate, adding slowly and skilfully till they ran down to the very edge and rose up in the middle a red fragrant cone.

"How will that do to begin?" he said. "Will you have some sugar?—but I suppose not, as you picked them yourself and put all the tartness into mine."

The other three looked on, laughing and interested; but now Cherry was out of her depth. She looked down at the strawberry hill, at the dishes, then glanced round at Magnus. What did he mean? Was he really vexed? Could he really think? It was the fairest kind of a look, so earnest and questioning. What do you mean? it said.

I think Cadet Kindred knew very promptly what he meant, and saw some things clearly which had been hanging about in a sort of uncertain haze. And thus in answer to her shy questioning, Cherry met a look so keen and merry and full of mischief, full of she hardly knew what, that her eyes fell and the pink flushes came hurrying over her face.

Then Magnus laughed. He had the vantage now which belonged to him, and he felt better.

"Cherry," he said, "you are a transparent humbug! Mother, will you give me a cup of tea?"

"I think you are an extremely rude boy," said Mrs. Kindred, putting in an extra lump of sugar the while. "If these are your West Point manners, you will need a few terms at some other school."

"West Point manners are all packed away with my dress coat. This is the original Magnus variety."

"It is good to know," said Rose. "Here we have all been rubbing our manners up, to receive you properly."

"Oh, that's it, is it?" said Magnus, turning to gaze at Cherry. "Good to know, as you say. I did suspicion it was something got up for my express benefit."

"Let her alone, and finish your supper," said Mrs. Kindred. "That is, if you ever intend to finish."

"Emphatically I do!" said Magnus. "If I didn't, I could never begin again, and that would be a loss out here. Cherry, give me just a few berries off your plate. I am bashful about taking any more out of the dish. The sugar has given out, too," he added, dropping his voice; "and these will not want any."

Poor Cherry!—she literally found not a word to say, but sat looking down at her plate in helpless silence, as the hands she remembered so well conveyed away part of its contents. Then Rose came with a replenished sugar-bowl and set it down by him. But Magnus waved it away.

"Thank you, no," he said. "These are too sweet for sugar. How do you suppose Cherry worked it, to get them all on her plate?"

"Crazy boy!" said Rose, "you put them there yourself. Magnus, is your dress coat here?"

"Truly. Had to bring it along, lest a war should break out before I get back. May need it yet——" with an indescribable inflection which only Cherry caught.

"Then if you have done, as mother says," said Violet, "go straight upstairs and put it on, and come down and show yourself."

"Put on my dress coat, after such a supper," quoth Magnus. "I think I will!"

"Don't be foolish," said Rose. "Go at once, if you want pancakes for breakfast."

"Make it waffles——"

"Very well, then, waffles," cried both the girls, laughing at him. "Now Magnus, go! While your hair is short."