tly
off to bed. So no one was deceived by Mrs. O'Brien's manoeuver of
begging them to await their father's judgment in the matter. Rosie and
Terence would have been willing to let it mark the close of the
discussion, but not Ellen.

"I tell you, Ma," she insisted, "it's a perfect disgrace if you don't
stop it right now!"

Terry regarded his sister grimly. "Listen here, Ellen O'Brien, I've got
something to say to you: Who's been paying your carfare and your lunch
money, too, ever since you been going to this fool business college?"

Mrs. O'Brien feebly interposed: "Ah now, Terry lad, Ellen's just
borrowin' the money from you. She'll pay you back as soon as she gets a
job, won't you, Ellen dear?"

Terence grunted impatiently. "Aw, don't go talkin' to me about
borrowin'! I guess I know what borrowin' means in this house! But I tell
you one thing, Ellen O'Brien: if you don't stop your jawin' about Rosie,
it'll be the last cent of carfare and lunch money you ever get out o'
me!"

More than two-thirds of Terence's weekly earnings went into the family
coffers, so what he said carried weight. Ellen tossed her head but was
careful not to speak.

Terence rumbled on disjointedly: "Business college! Business nuthin'! I
bet all you do down there is look at yourself in a glass and fix your
hair and shine your nails. Huh!"

Ellen shrugged her handsome shoulders and, tilting a scornful nose,
returned to her pothooks.

Rosie was jubilant. She was sure Terry had intended letting her keep on,
but Ellen's opposition had clinched the matter firmly.

"So it's all settled," she told her friend, Janet McFadden, the next
day. "Just think of it, Janet--twenty cents a week!"

Janet sighed. "My, Rosie! What are you going to do with it all?"

Rosie hadn't quite decided.

Janet was ready with a good suggestion. "Why don't you save it and buy
roller skates, Rosie? I don't mean old common sixty-cent ones, but a
fine expensive pair with good ball-bearings. Then you could skate on
Boulevard Place. Why, Rosie, is there anything in the world you'd rather
do than go up to Boulevard Place with a pair of fine skates? And listen
here, Rosie: if you lend them to me in the afternoon while you're on
your paper route, I'll take good care of them, honest I will."

H'm, roller skates. The longer Rosie thought about the idea, the better
she liked it. She decided to talk it over with Danny Agin on Monday
afternoon when she left him his paper.

Dann