"Fine! Thank you!" responded the Dickensians gratefully.
Along the lake front the long line twisted, banners shining, handkerchiefs waving. The moving picture man ground his crank painstakingly; kodakers snapped along the pathway; relatives called out, "There's Mary," or, in shriller tones, "Hullo, Marmer."
The marshal of the division preceded the gleaming white Dickens banner, bearing the class name and year; just behind it followed the class officers and then the smiling ranks wound once more between greeting graduates and the boys and Flower Girls into the Amphitheatre.
With the procession seated in the auditorium the young people's work was ended. The girls and boys went off to be refreshed with ice cream cones and the older boys rested under shady trees until such time as they would have to take back the banners to the class rooms in Alumni Hall.
"It's a great show," commented Tom Watkins, passing his handkerchief over his perspiring forehead.
"A feller doesn't get tired of it if he has seen it all his life," agreed James, falling on to his back with his knees crossed high in air.
"We'll have to read the Course ourselves so as to take part in every section of the performance," said Roger who had disposed of his charges and was not sorry to sit down after his unaccustomed duties.
Again the young people fringed the Hall of Philosophy in the afternoon when the Chancellor gave out the diplomas and pronounced the members of the class of 1914 full fledged members of the Alumni Society of the Hall in the Grove.
"What hath Mother done to make her graduate?" asked Dicky in a far-reaching whisper as Mrs. Morton received her diploma and was applauded for the Bishop's announcement that she had earned ten seals.
"She has read certain books and magazines faithfully for four years," explained Helen, "She didn't read a little bit and then say she was sick of that book, the way I do sometimes; she stuck right to them and read them very carefully, so the Chancellor has given her a diploma, telling what she has done."