His voice broke at last, and he sank into his seat and brushed away his tears. But all his boys knew that they were tears of joy and not of sorrow, and the flow of spirits and good-fellowship burst forth anew.
Commencement Day at Concord went gloriously by. In the absence of Parmenter, Robinson was the most conspicuous member of the graduating class, and had the largest share of honors.
At midnight Professor Lee and his party reached the city, and found a rousing welcome awaiting them at the train. In some unaccountable way Parmenter’s story had traveled home ahead of him, and he had to share with the professor and his family the honors of the night.
Later a great crowd of students, with Parmenter and Charley Lee arm in arm in the midst of them, marched up the hill and through the college gate, singing as no one had ever heard them sing before.
The party halted in front of Professor Lee’s residence and sang: “Here’s to Sammy Lee, drink it down;” and as that tired but happy traveler laid his head on his pillow in his cherished home, there came softly, musically, gratefully to his ears, from some distant quarter of the campus, the old familiar good-night song:
“Sweet dreams, Sammy, sweet dreams, Sammy, sweet dreams, Sammy,
We’re going to leave you now.
Merrily we roll along, roll along, roll along,
Merrily we roll along,
O’er the deep blue sea.”
Transcriber’s Notes:
Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.