ve lessons in music, but they
wouldn't bring me in much, here at least."

"Come to my study," said the doctor, rising. "Amy, you have ruffled up
my hair till I look like a cherub before the flood. Come, all of you,
Dorothy and the kids."

"You don't call us kids, do you, papa?"

"Young ladies, then, at your service," said the doctor, with a low bow.
"I've a letter from my old friend, Vernon Hastings. I'll read it to you
when I can find it," said the good man, rummaging among the books,
papers, and correspondence with which his great table was littered.
"Judge Hastings," the doctor went on, "lost his wife in Venice a year
ago. He has three little girls in need, of special advantages; he cannot
bear to send them away to school, and his mother, who lives with him and
orders the house, won't listen to having a resident governess. Ah, this
is the letter!" The doctor read:

"I wish you could help me, Charley, in the dilemma in which I find
myself. Lucy and Helen and my little Madge are to be educated, and
the question is how, when, and where? They are delicate, and I
cannot yet make up my mind to the desolate house I would have
should they go to school. Grandmamma has pronounced against a
governess, and I don't like the day-schools of the town. Now is not
one of your daughters musical, and perhaps another sufficiently
mistress of the elementary branches to teach these babies? I will
pay liberally the right person or persons for three hours' work a
day. But I must have well-bred girls, ladies, to be with my trio of
bairns."

"I couldn't teach arithmetic or drawing," said Grace. "I would be glad
to try my hand at music, and geography and German and French. I might
be weak on spelling."

"I don't think that of you, Grace," said mother.

"I am ashamed to say it's true," said Grace.

Amy interrupted. "How far away is Judge Hastings' home, papa?"

"An hour's ride, Amy dear. No, forty minutes' ride by rail. I'll go and
see him. I've no doubt he will pay you generously, Grace, for your
services, if you feel that you can take up this work seriously."

"I do; I will," said Grace, "and only too thankful will I be to
undertake it; but what about the multiplication table, and the straight
and the curved lines, and Webster's speller?"

"Papa," said Amy, gravely, "please mention me to the judge. I will teach
those midgets the arithmetic and drawing and other fundamental stu