"We are just as sure of it as though we were there this minute! Girls,
don't you know how nice we thought it would be to be together at
Chautauqua for two whole weeks? Now think of being together, there, for
a million years!" But the thought which filled Flossy's heart with a
sweet song of melody, and wreathed her face in glad smiles, was such an
overwhelming one to Marion, so immense with power and possibility, that
it seemed to her to take her very breath; she turned abruptly from the
rest and walked to the Teasel's side to still the throbbing of her
heart.

Meantime the boat had been filling with passengers, and now she was
getting under way. Still the hush continued; the people stood closely
around the railing, on the Chautauqua side, and looked lovingly back at
the fair point of land that lay before them in glowing moonlight.
Presently a leading voice began to sing:

"There's a land that is fairer than day,
And by faith we can see it afar;
For the Father waits over the way
To prepare us a dwelling-place there.
We shall meet in the sweet by and by,
On that beautiful shore in the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore."

Before the chorus was reached, every voice that could sing at all must
have taken up the strain. Marion, for the first time in years gave a
hint of the full compass of her powers, making Ruth turn suddenly
towards her, with a brightening face, for she saw how the singing and
the playing could fit into each other, and do good service.