e to go to."

"But where would you stay down there? Mebbe you couldn't get a place
with nice people. Abody don't know what kinda people live in a city."

"I've thought of that. I wrote to Miss Lee last week and asked her and
she wrote back and said it would be a splendid thing for me. She offered
to help me find a boarding place. I could see her often and would not be
alone among strangers. Best of all, Miss Lee has a cousin who plays the
violin and who lives with her and her mother and he will help me find a
good teacher. Isn't that lovely?"

"Omph," sniffed Aunt Maria. "It'll cost you a lot of money for board,
mebbe as much as four dollars a week! And your lessons will be a lot,
and your car fare back and forth. Then I guess you'd want a lot more
dresses and things--ach, you just put that dumb notion from your head."

"Maria," Phoebe's father spoke in significantly even tones, "you needn't
talk like that. Phoebe has the money her mom left her and I guess I
could send her to school if I wanted to. It won't hurt her to go study
music and see something of the world. It'll do her good to get away once
like other girls."

"Do her good," echoed Aunt Maria. "Jacob Metz! You know little of the
dangers of the big cities! But then, men ain't got no sense! I never met
one yet that had enough to fill a thimble!"

"Aunt Maria," the girl said gently, "I'm not a child. I'm eighteen and
I'll be near Miss Lee and her friends."

"And the fiddler," added the woman tartly.

"Ach," Phoebe laughed. "Miss Lee will take care of me."

"Mebbe so," grumbled Aunt Maria.

"Now look here, Maria," Jacob spoke up, "Phoebe can go this fall once
and try it and she can come home often and if she don't like it she can
come home right away. It takes only three hours to go to there. So,
Phoebe, you write to Miss Lee and tell her to expect you."

"Then I may go!" She threw her arms about her father's neck and kissed
his bearded face. Demonstrations of affection were rare in the Metz
household, but the father smiled as he stroked the girl's hair.

"You be a good girl, Phoebe, that's all I want," he said.

"I will, daddy, I will!"

"Then, Maria, you take Phoebe to Lancaster and get things ready so she
can go in September. I'll let her take that thousand she has in the
bank, but that must reach; it's enough for music lessons."

"I won't need all of it. What's left I'll save for next year."

"Next year! How many years must you go?" demanded A