“With hand uplifted we claim thy power,
Guide and keep us as we go,
True to Wohelo.
Thy law is our law from this hour,
Thy mystic spirit’s flame will show
Us the way to go.”
And so on to the end.
But when they stood in the close circle with which the song ends, Nyoda stooped to the hearth, and, plucking forth a burning brand, held it aloft as a torch, and the girls passed in front of her, each carrying a tiny torch in her hand, which she lit from the big one. Then the circle stood complete once more, a ring of shining light. Silence fell on all. The moment of parting had come.
“Don’t say good-bye,” begged Nyoda. “Act as if I were a guest just leaving for a short time.”
And bravely, with voices that did not falter to the end, they sang the familiar guest song: