"But don't you know," the girl said guilelessly, "that all big hospitals have free rooms and do lots of work for nothing? Many rich people endow rooms in hospitals. If you could get into one like that and pay just a little, would you go?" A light seemed to settle upon the face of the blind woman. "Why," she answered slowly, "why, Phœbe, I never thought of that! I didn't remember--why, I guess I would--yes, of course! I'd go and make a fight for that one chance!" "I knew you'd be brave! You'll have that operation, Mother Bab! I'll write to Dr. Munster right away. But don't you let Phares write and tell David. We'll surprise him!" "Ach, but won't he be glad if I can see when he comes home!" "Won't he though! I'll make all the arrangements; don't you worry about it at all." "My, you're good to me, Phœbe!" "Good--after all you've done for me!" "_Good_," she thought after Mother Bab had been left at the home of Phares and Phœbe turned homeward. "She calls me good the first time I deceive her. I've begun that tangled web and I know I'll have to tell a whole pack of lies before I'm through with it." CHAPTER XXXIII THE ONE CHANCE PHŒBE lost no time in carrying out her plans. When she mentioned the operation to Phares Eby he looked dubious. "I'm afraid it's no use," he said gravely. "Those operations very often fail." "But there's a chance, Phares! If it were your eyes wouldn't you snatch at any meagre chance?" "Why, I guess I would," he admitted, wondering at her insight into human nature and admiring her devotion to the blind woman. Aunt Maria also was sceptical. "Ach, Phœbe, it vonders me now that Barb'll spend all that money for carfare and to stay in the city and then mebbe it's all for nothin'. There was old Bevy Way and a lot of old people I knowed went blind and they died blind. When abody gets so old once it seems the doctors can't do much. I guess it just is to be." "Oh, Aunt Maria," Phœbe said hotly, "I don't believe in that is-to-be business! Not until you've done all you can to make things better." "Well, mebbe, for all, it's worth tryin'. I guess if it was my eyes I'd do most anything to get 'em fixed again." Mother Bab said little about the hopes Phœbe had raised, but the girl knew how the woman built upon having sight for a glad surprise for David. "I'm afraid the fifty dollars won't reach," she said the day before they were to take the trip to Philadelphia. "Don't worry about that. Those big doctors usually have hearts to match. I told you there are generous people who give lots of money to hospitals." "And I guess the hospitals pay the doctors then," offered the woman. "I guess so," Phœbe agreed. Her conscience smote her for the deception she was practicing on the dear white-capped woman. "But what's the use of straining at every little gnat of a falsehood," she thought, "when I'm swallowing camels wholesale?"