"PIERCE MY EARS!" cried Patty. "Say you will!"
"Oh! Patty, Patty, I am afraid you are given over to vanity! I
daren't let you wear eardrops without father's permission."
"Why not? Lots of church members wear them, so it can't be a
mortal sin. Father is against all adornments, but that's because
he doesn't want to buy them. You've always said I should have
your mother's coral pendants when I was old enough. Here I am,
seventeen today, and Dr. Perry says I am already a well-favored
young woman. I can pull my hair over my ears for a few days and
when the holes are all made and healed, even father cannot make
me fill them up again. Besides, I'll never wear the earrings at
home!"
"Oh! my dear, my dear!" sighed Waitstill, with a half-sob in her
voice. "If only I was wise enough to know how we could keep from
these little deceits, yet have any liberty or comfort in life!"
"We can't! The Lord couldn't expect us to bear all that we bear,"
exclaimed Patty, "without our trying once in a while to have a
good time in our own way. We never do a thing that we are ashamed
of, or that other girls don't do every day in the week; only our
pleasures always have to be taken behind father's back. It's only
me that's ever wrong, anyway, for you are always an angel.
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