"Have you plenty of money left?" asked the little girl.
Her father laughed. "Enough to get us all three back to Stockholm, at least," he said. "Why do you ask?"
"Because—" said Gerda slowly, and then stopped.
"Because what?" Lieutenant Ekman asked again.
"Because I wondered if we could stop at the lighthouse on our way home and ask Karen Klasson to go to Stockholm and live with us;" and Gerda held her breath and waited for her father to speak.
"Perhaps she would not like to leave her father and mother for the sake of living with us," he said at last.
"I think she would, if it would make her back well," persisted Gerda.
Herr Ekman laughed. "If living with us would cure people's backs, we might have all the lame children in Sweden to care for," he said.
"But I want only Karen," said Gerda; "and I thought it would be good for her to take the Swedish medical gymnastics at the Institute in Stockholm, where so many people are cured every year."
Lieutenant Ekman looked thoughtfully at his daughter. "That is a good idea and shows a loving heart," he said. "But are you willing to give up any of your pleasures in order to make it possible?"