er head about like an
indignant little hen.

"Don't you care what that old Schnitzer says, Rosie! Just treat him like
he's beneath your contemp'!"

Whereupon she herself turned upon the Schnitzer and, with most withering
sarcasm, called out: "Dutch!"

Rosie's friend's name was McFadden, Janet McFadden.

"Why don't you just tell Terry on him?" Janet said, when they were safe
within the crowded school-yard and able to discuss at length the
cowardice of the attack. "It wouldn't take Terry two minutes to punch
his face into pie-crust!"

"I know, Janet, but don't you see if I was to tell Terry, then he'd
think I was getting bothered on my paper route and take it away from me.
He's not quite sure, anyhow, whether girls ought to carry papers."

Janet clucked her tongue in sympathy and understanding. "Does that
Schnitzer bother you every afternoon, Rosie?"

"Yes, and he's getting worse. Yesterday he tried to grab my papers and
he tore one of them. I'm just scared to death when I get near his house,
honest, I am."

Janet clenched her hands and drew a long shivering breath. "Do you know,
Rosie, boys like him--they just make me so mad that I almost--I almost
_bust_!"

Black care sat behind Rosie O'Brien's desk that afternoon. It was her
fifth day as paper-carrier and, but for Otto Schnitzer, she knew that
she would be able to complete satisfactorily her week of probation. Was
he to cause her failure? Her heart was heavy with fear but, after
school, when she met Terry, she smiled as she took her papers and
marched off with so brave a show of confidence that Terry, she felt
sure, suspected nothing.

As usual, she had no trouble whatever on the first part of her route. At
sight of her papers a few people smiled but they all greeted her
pleasantly enough, so that was all right. One boy called out, "How's
business, old gal?" but his tone was so jolly that Rosie was able to
sing back, "Fine and dandy, old hoss!" So that was all right, too.

The Schnitzer place was toward the end of her route, a few doors before
she reached Danny Agin's cottage. As she passed it, no Otto was in
sight, and she wondered if for once she was to be allowed to go her way
unmolested. A sudden yell from the Schnitzers' garden disclosed Otto's
whereabouts and also his disappointment not to be on the sidewalk to
meet her. He came pounding out in all haste but she was able to make
Danny Agin's gate in safety.

Rosie always delivered Danny's paper in