a good French
accent at once, but, above all, to study German, the language of
_thought_. Then there is music. We might spend the winter at
_Stuttgard_--"

Decidedly Miss Inches was counting on her chicken before hatching it,
for Dr. Carr had yet to be consulted, and he was not a parent who
enjoyed interference with his nest or nestlings. When Miss Inches
attacked him on the subject, his first impulse was to whistle with
amazement. Next he laughed, and then he became almost angry. Miss Inches
talked very fast, describing the fine things she would do with Johnnie,
and for her; and Dr. Carr, having no chance to put in a word, listened
patiently, and watched his little girl, who was clinging to her new
friend and looking very eager and anxious. He saw that her heart was set
on being "adopted," and, wise man that he was, it occurred to him that
it might be well to grant her wish in part, and let her find out by
experiment what was really the best and happiest thing. So he did not
say "No" decidedly, as he at first meant, but took Johnnie on his knee,
and asked,--

"Well, Curly, so you want to leave Papa and Katy and Clover, and go away
to be Miss Inches' little girl, do you?"

"I'm coming home to see you every single summer," said Johnnie.

"Indeed! That will be nice for us," responded Dr. Carr cheerfully. "But
somehow I don't seem to feel as if I could quite make up my mind to give
my Curly Locks away. Perhaps in a year or two, when we are used to being
without her, I may feel differently. Suppose, instead, we make a
compromise."

"Yes," said Miss Inches, eagerly.

"Yes," put in Johnnie, who had not the least idea of what a compromise
might be.

"I can't _give_ away my little girl,--not yet,"--went on Dr. Carr
fondly. "But if Miss Inches likes I'll _lend_ her for a little while.
You may go home with Miss Inches, Johnnie, and stay four months,--to the
first of October, let us say." ("She'll miss two weeks' schooling, but
that's no great matter," thought Papa to himself.) "This will give you,
my dear lady, a chance to try the experiment of having a child in your
house. Perhaps you may not like it so well as you fancy. If you do, and
if Johnnie still prefers to remain with you, there will be time enough
then to talk over further plans. How will this answer?"

Johnnie was delighted, Miss Inches not so much so.

"Of course," she said, "it isn't so satisfactory to have the thing left
uncertain, because it retards the