ut. "Must I dress
like you and Aunt Maria if I want to be good?"

"No, you don't _have_ to. Many people are good without wearing the plain
garb. A great many people in the world never heard of the plain sects we
have in this section of the country, and there are good people
everywhere, I'm sure of that. But it is just as true that each person
must find the best way to lead a good life. If you can wear fine clothes
and still be good and lead a Christian life, then there is no harm in
the pretty clothes. But for me the easiest way to be living right is to
live as simply as I can. This is the way for me."

"I'm afraid it's the way for me, too," confessed Phoebe. "I'm vain,
awfully vain! I love pretty clothes and I'll never be satisfied till I
get 'em--silk dresses, soft, shiny satin ones--ach, I guess I'm vain but
I'll have to wait to satisfy my vanity till I'm older, for Aunt Maria is
so set against fancy clothes."

It was true, Maria Metz compromised on some matters as Phoebe grew
older, but on the question of clothes the older woman was adamant. The
child should have comfortable dresses but there would positively be no
useless ornaments or adornments, such as wide sashes, abundance of
laces, elaborately trimmed ruffles. Fancy hats, jewelry and unconfined
curls were also strictly forbidden.

Though Phoebe, even as she grew older, had much time to spend outdoors,
there were many tasks about the house and farm she had to perform. The
chest was soon filled with quilts and that bugbear was gone from her
life. But there was continual scrubbing, baking, mending, and other
household tasks to be done, so that much practice caused the girl to
develop into a capable little housekeeper. Aunt Maria frankly admitted
that Phoebe worked cheerfully and well, a matter she found consoling in
the trying hours when Phoebe "wasted time" by playing the low walnut
organ in the sitting-room.

During Miss Lee's first term of teaching on the hill she taught her how
to play simple exercises and songs and the child, musically inclined,
made the most of the meagre knowledge and adeptly improved until she was
able to play the hymns in the Gospel Hymn Book and the songs and carols
in the old Music Book that had belonged to her mother and always rested
on the top of the old low organ.

So the organ became a great solace and joy, an outlet for the intense
feelings of desire and hope in her heart. When her voice joined with the
sweet tones of the