nt they had left the little candy
store, the fourth sucked down only to the pink.

"I couldn't help tasting one of them, Margery, but I only sucked it a
few minutes--honest, I did. And here," Willie Jones continued, offering
her a little bag, "is a cake I bought for you with my last cent."

"Oh, Willie, did you really?"

"You just got to take it, Margery. I want you to. I'm awful sorry I was
so mean to you, but, don't you know, when that old Janet McFadden butted
in, I just couldn't help it. I always did hate a girl like her! But I
was going to give you your nickel, all right. I meant to all along. Of
course I did! Wasn't it your nickel?"

"Oh, Willie, and did you really buy that cake for me with your own cent,
and you didn't eat up all my jaw-breakers?"

"Of course you know I was just fooling about that nickel, don't you,
Margery?"

There is no telling what Margery really knew down deep in her heart, and
it didn't in the least matter. All that mattered now was this: Here was
Willie Jones, genuinely ashamed of what he had done, and man enough to
say so. Margery forgave him instantly.

"But, Willie, I just won't eat a bite of that cake unless you take half.
Here, let me break it in two."

After they had eaten the cake, she insisted likewise upon sharing the
recovered jaw-breakers.

"And I'm going to take the one you've partly sucked for one of mine,
because I've had a whole one already, and you haven't had any."

Willie Jones protested, but this time Margery had her way, and in a few
moments, after the friendliest of partings, he was started home with a
fresh jaw-breaker in his cheek and another in his pocket.

Of course, without a thought, Margery had broken her promise to Janet.
Well, what if she had? Margery gave her shoulders an impatient little
shrug. Who, pray, was Janet McFadden that she should come between
friends? To be sure, in her way, Janet was a good, kind creature, and
she meant well, but wasn't she a trifle excitable and a little too
emphatic, don't you think? On the whole, too, her outlook on life seemed
rather limited. There were certain things you never could expect her to
understand. Come to think of it, she didn't look like a girl who
received many valentines. It might be just as well if Margery never saw
her again, for explanations would be difficult.

Not so, though, with Rosie O'Brien! If Margery ever met Rosie alone, she
could explain to Rosie, and Rosie, she felt sure, would underst