ss, but this'--she looked down at you--'this
is the most precious, most beautiful jewel any woman could have.' I knew
then that the love of vanity was gone from her, that she would never be
tempted to go back to the dress and ways of the world."

For a moment there was silence in the big room. The memory of the days
when the home circle was unbroken left the father quiet and thoughtful
and strangely touched Phoebe.

"I am glad you told me, daddy," she said presently. "To-day when Phares
talked about the baptizing he seemed so confident and at peace in his
religion, yet I could not promise to come into the Church and wear the
plain dress. I am going to think about it----"

Here Aunt Maria called loudly, "Phoebe, come out here once."

Phoebe sighed, then turned from her father and entered the kitchen. The
older woman was bending over an oblong frame and by the aid of a small
steel hook was pulling tufts of cloth through the mesh of a piece of
burlap, the foundation of a hooked rug.

"See once, Phoebe, won't this be pretty till it's done?"

"Yes, very pretty. I like the Wall of Troy design you are using, and the
blues and gray will be a good combination. What are you going to do with
it?"

"It's for your chest."

The girl laughed. "Aunt Maria, you'll have to enlarge that chest or buy
a second one. This spring when we cleaned house and had all the things
of that chest hung out to air, I counted eleven quilts, six rugs, five
table-cloths, ten gingham aprons, ever so many towels, besides all the
old homespun linen I have in that other chest on the garret. I'll never
need all that."

"Why, you don't know. If you marry----"

"But if I don't marry?"

"Ach, I guess old maids need covers and aprons and things as well as
them that marry. But now I guess I'll stop for to-night. I want to sew
the hooks 'n' eyes on my every-day dress yet before I go to bed."

"But before you go I want to ask you, to talk with you and daddy," said
Phoebe, determined to decide the matter of studying music in
Philadelphia. The uncertainty of it was growing to be a strain upon her.
If there was no possibility of her dreams becoming realities she would
put the thoughts away from her, but she wanted the question settled.

"Now what----" Aunt Maria raised her spectacles to her forehead and
looked at the girl, at her flushed cheeks, her eyes darkened by
excitement.

"So," the woman chuckled, "Phares picked up spunk once and asked
you----"