d see why I had to wear sunbonnets, I always hated them. Aunt Maria
always tried to make me wear them, but as soon as I was out of her sight
I sneaked them off. I remember one time I threw my bonnet in the
Chicques and I had the loveliest time watching it disappear down the
stream. But Aunt Maria made me make another one that was uglier still,
so I gained nothing but the temporary pleasure of seeing it float away.
And how I hated to do patchwork! It seemed to me I was always doing it,
and I never could see the sense of cutting up pieces and then sewing
them together again."

"But the sewing was good practice for you, Phoebe. Patchwork--seems to
me all our life is patchwork: a little here and a little there; one
color now, then another; one shape first, then another shape fitted in;
and when it is all joined it will be beautiful if we keep the parts
straight and the colors and shapes right. It can be a very beautiful
rising sun or an equally pretty flower basket, or it can be just a crazy
quilt with little of the beautiful about it."

"Mother Bab, if I had known that while I was patching I would have loved
to patch! I had nothing to make it interesting; it was just stitching,
stitching, stitching on seams! But those vivid quilts are all finished
and I guess Aunt Maria is as glad about it as I am, for I gave her some
worried hours before the end was sighted. Poor Aunt Maria, she should be
glad to have me go to the city. I've led her some merry chases, but I
must admit she was always equal to them, forged ahead of me many times."

"Phoebe, you're a wilful child and I'm afraid I spoil you more."

"No you don't! You're my safety valve. If I couldn't come up here and
say the things I really feel I'd have to tell it to the Jenny
Wrens--Aunt Maria hates to have me talk to myself."

"But she's good to you, Phoebe?"

"Yes, oh, yes! I appreciate all she has done for me. She has taken care
of me since I was a tiny baby. I'll never forget that. It's just that we
are so different. I can't make Phoebe Metz be just like Maria Metz, can
I?"

"No, you must be yourself, even if you are different."

"That's it, Mother Bab. I feel I have the right to live my life as I
choose, that no person shall say to me I must live it so or so. If I
want to study music why shouldn't I do so? My mother left a few hundred
dollars for me; it's been on interest and amounts to more than a few
hundred, about a thousand dollars, I think. So the money en