"Hope," she repeated softly. "No hope of the kind you mean, except that very severe operation that would cost big money and then perhaps not help. But this world isn't all. I've always liked that part of Isaiah, 'The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing.' I know now what it'll mean to us. It seems like the afflicted will have a special joy in that time." David was silent for a moment; his mother's words stirred in him emotions too great for ready words. Presently she continued, "But, Davie, this isn't heaven yet! And I'm concerned just now about helping myself to live the rest of this life the best way I can. I can knit like a machine and I like to knit socks----" The remainder was left unsaid for the strong arms of her boy surrounded her and held her close while his lips were pressed upon her forehead. "Such a mother," he breathed, as if the touch of her forehead bestowed a benediction upon him. "Such a mother!" In the morning he brought the news to the Metz farmhouse. "Blind?" Phœbe cried. David nodded. "Blind! Mother Bab blind? Oh, it's too awful!" "My goodness," Aunt Maria said with genuine sorrow, "now that's too bad! Her blind and you goin' off to war soon!" "I'm going up to see her," said Phœbe, and went off with David. Mother Bab heard the girl's step and called gaily, "Phœbe, is that you? I declare, it sounds like you!" Phœbe ran to the room where Mother Bab sat alone. The girl could not speak at first; she twined her arms about the woman while her heart ached with its poignant grief. Again it was the afflicted one who turned comforter. "Come, Phœbe, you mustn't cry for me. Laugh like you always did when you came to see me." "Laugh! Oh, Mother Bab, I can't laugh!" "But, Phœbe, I'll want you to come up to see me every day when you can and you surely can't cry every time and be sad, so you might as well begin now to be cheerful." "But, Mother Bab, can't something be done?" "Dr. Munster, the big doctor I saw in Philadelphia, said that only a big operation might help me, but he's not sure that even it would do any good. And, of course, we have no money for it and at my age it doesn't matter so much." Later, as Phœbe walked down the hill again, she kept revolving in her mind what Mother Bab had said about the operation. An inspiration suddenly flashed to her. The wonder of it made her stand still in the road.