"I feel exactly as Anne does about this step--try your own wings, dear child, and wisely select your own walk in life. No father or mother can live your life for you, but they can guide and warn you away from snares and pitfalls. When a child has cast aside its 'swaddling clothes,' as you said, it must stand alone. "I have argued this out with your father, many times this past year, but he clings fondly to the belief that you are too young to leave home; and he has persisted in holding you in the material concept, instead of realizing that you are purely mental and must feed your mental hunger with proper nourishment. "I had another argument with him this evening, after his return from the Slide. He expected to convince me that everything would go to ruin if the Cliffs were worked and you were allowed to go away to school. But I turned the tables: I convinced _him_ that he was standing in your light of a future glory by keeping you limited in your realization of an ideal. That only a family disaster and your unhappiness, must result from such old-fashioned views. "He finally agreed that if you and the others, here, said that a higher education was what his girl craved and needed, he would withdraw all objections--once for all. That is why he left us--to discuss and settle this momentous question. Polly, you have won!" Polly flung her arms about her mother's neck and wept softly: "But poor father! At what costs have I won?" "S-sh! Don't let any one hear you weaken now. This is the moment of your triumph, and you must not look back lest you be turned to a 'pillar of salt,'" whispered her mother. "Then father _did_ agree to have Polly go to school?" asked John, curiously. "Yes, if you-all agreed that it was for the best." "And are we to have the Cliffs if the stone proves valuable?" eagerly added Tom Latimer. "Having waived his right to keep Polly at home, he says we can turn the whole crater upside-down if we like," said Mrs. Brewster, smilingly. "But I wouldn't goad him, too far, just now. We have won such a mighty victory, that you haven't the faintest idea of what it means to the vanquished. It is doubtful if we can know anything definite about the Cliffs for the next two or three weeks, so let us not speak of it until then." "But, Mrs. Brewster, if Anne goes to New York to teach, and takes her mother, where will Polly stay? I've been thinking how fine it will be to have her live with me in Chicago," said Eleanor, eagerly. "Why--Eleanor Maynard! You can't invite strangers to your mother's home! It may not be convenient to have any one there this winter," objected Barbara. "Well, don't borrow trouble, Bob! It's father's home as well as mother's, and I can ask a friend to stay with me if I like." "I wouldn't think of ever going to your home, Nolla dear. I'd love to know your father from all you tell me, but I never would stay in that house," declared Polly, quickly.