"She'll not need education beyond what she can get in school," said Grandfather. Here was a new and greater danger!
"Oh, yes, she will!"
"What do you mean to make of Ellen?"
Until this moment her father had had no definite plans about what he should do with Ellen once her mind was trained. Now he expressed a sudden alluring thought. She had shown certain aptitudes; even before his sentence was finished it seemed to him that the idea had long been forming.
"I may make a doctor of Ellen."
At that the ticking of the old clock in the corner could be plainly heard. Grandfather was amazed and frightened; Amos felt actually dizzy as though the world were whirling.
"Of Ellen!" they said together.
Levis began to elaborate the idea.
"I wish Ellen to earn her own living. Dependence upon any one after one is grown is bad. I wish her to be perfectly independent even of the man she marries, to be able to say to him if necessary, 'I don't need you.' She must have a profession, and it's natural that she has inherited some aptitude for medicine. I mean to give her every opportunity. I'm going to prepare her for college as rapidly as I think wise, and when she is through college she is to go to a medical school if she wishes."
To Grandfather this was the raving of a madman.