pickle but now I don't mind it at all. I love to live in the cellar.
There's everything in getting used to things, isn't there? I like it
here now pretty well for I've lots of friends. Mrs. Schuneman and
Germania and Mrs. Johnson, the grandma one. We go to the park every
day and feed her pet squirrel. The Lord keeps it there because she
can't have any pets but canary birds in houses like this. There's a
law against it, Uncle Larry said. And there's Miss Thorley, the
enchanted princess, who's painting my picture for Mr. Bingham
Henderson's jam to tell people how good it is. She gave me some once,
apricot. We only had strawberry and raspberry and plum and grape and
apple butter in Mifflin. I used to stir the apple butter for Lena.
You have to stir it all the time or it burns. It makes your arm awful
tired but it's good for the muscle. Feel mine!" She clenched her
small arm and held it out so that Mr. Bracken could feel her muscles.

He murmured: "I'll be darned!" in a dazed sort of a way as he felt her
muscle, and Mary Rose went on sociably.

"And there's Mrs. Bracken. She said I washed her dishes better than a
full-sized girl. And now there's you. Have you had any lunch?" she
demanded suddenly. "Shall I get you some?" she wanted to know when he
had admitted that he hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast. "Mrs.
Bracken wouldn't like it if I let you go away hungry. It won't take a
minute. You just keep an eye on Jenny Lind." And she put Jenny Lind
on the table at his elbow before she flew to the kitchen.

Mr. Bracken stood and stared at Jenny Lind and then at the door through
which Mary Rose had disappeared. "Well, I'll be darned!" he said
again. He went to his desk and found his important papers. He did not
intend to stay for lunch but when Mary Rose flew back to demand
hurriedly whether he liked his eggs fried or boiled he told her boiled.

A postponed meeting brought Mrs. Bracken home that day several hours
before she had planned. She stopped on the threshold in astonishment
when she heard voices and laughter in the rear of her apartment. She
hurried back with pursed lips and frowning face for both laugh and
voice had sounded young. If Mary Rose were making free with her things
she would give Mary Rose a good big piece of her mind and then she
would present Mrs. Donovan with an equal portion.

She went through the dining-room and into the kitchen to find Joseph
Bracken--_Joseph Brack