Mrs. Willoughby, know she isn't eleven? Who's to tell
'em if we keep our mouths shut? It ain't none of their business
though, seems if, there isn't one that'd be beyond makin' it their
business. I'll grant you that. Your old lease, more shame to it, says
childern ain't allowed here. Mary Rose is a child but if she takes
after her mother's fam'ly, an' I know in my heart she does, she'll be a
big up-standin' girl, a girl anyone 'd take for fourteen. Maybe
fifteen. Why, when her mother was twelve she weighed a hundred an'
twenty-five pounds. I've known women of fifty that didn't weigh that!"
triumphantly. "Don't you worry, Larry, dear. I've got it all planned
out. There's the clothes your sister left here when she an' Ella went
West las' fall. Ella was fourteen an' her clothes 'll just fit Mary
Rose or I miss my guess. They'll make her look every minute of
fourteen. An' a girl of fourteen isn't a child. Why, the state that's
again' child labor lets a girl of fourteen go to work if she can get a
permit, so we've got the law on our side. You see how easy it is,
Larry?" She beamed with pride at the solution she had found for the
problem that had tormented her ever since the letter had come from
Mifflin.

"Do you mean you're goin' to tell lies about your own niece?" demanded
Larry incredulously.

Mrs. Donovan looked at him sadly. "Why should I tell lies?" she asked
sweetly. "Sure, it's no lie to say Mary Rose is goin' on fourteen. I
ain't denyin' it'll be some time before she gets to fourteen but she's
goin' on fourteen more'n she is on ten. If the tenants take a wrong
meaning from my words is it my fault? No, Larry," firmly. "I wouldn't
tell lies for nobody an' I wouldn't let Mary Rose tell lies. We al'ys
had our mouths well scoured out with soft soap when we didn't tell the
truth. But it ain't no lie to say a child's goin' on fourteen when she
is."

CHAPTER II

A taxicab stopped before the Washington Apartment House and a slim
boyish little figure hopped out and stared up at the roof of the long
red brick building that towered so far above.

"It's an e-normous house, isn't it!" she said in surprise.

"Here, Mary Rose." A hand reached out a basket and then a birdcage.
"I'll go in with you."

"You're awfully good, Mrs. Black." Mary Rose looked at her with loving
admiration. "Of course, I'd have come here all right by myself for
daddy always said there was a special Providence to look