it's not ladylike to fight,
it scares me so!" _Frontispiece_

PAGE

"Here, baby darlint, go to sister Rosie" 48

Rosie gently lifted off his nightshirt and held the candle
close 60

"Because you kiss Janet McFadden, you needn't think
you can kiss any girl" 106

Rosie stared at him out of eyes that were very sad and
very serious 148

She read it again by the light of the candle 290

To be the confidant of Mrs. O'Brien in this particular
disappointment was embarrassing, to say the least 298

They all looked at Rosie, who sat, oblivious of them,
staring off into nothing 332

THE ROSIE WORLD

CHAPTER I

THE CHIN-CHOPPER

Mrs. O'Brien raised helpless distracted hands. "Off wid yez to school!"
she shouted. "All of yez! Make room for George!" What Mrs. O'Brien
really called her boarder is best represented by spelling his name
Jarge.

"Maybe I didn't have a dandy fight on my last trip down," George
announced as he took off his coat and began washing his hands at the
sink.

The young O'Briens clustered about him eagerly.

"Did you lick him, Jarge?" Terry asked.

"Tell us about it!" Rosie begged.

"Will yez be off to school!" Mrs. O'Brien again shouted.

No one heeded her in the least. George by this time was seated at the
table and Rosie was hanging over his shoulder. Terence and small Jack
stood facing him at the other side of the table and Miss Ellen O'Brien,
with the baby in her arms, lingered near the door.

"Your cabbage'll be stone cold," Mrs. O'Brien scolded, "and they'll all
be late for school if they don't be off wid 'em!"

"Was he drunk, Jarge?" Rosie asked.

"No, but he'd been taking too much." George spoke through a mouthful of
corned beef and cabbage.

"Aw, go on," Terry pleaded, "tell us all about it."

"They ain't much to tell," George declared, with a complacency that
belied his words. "He was nuthin' but a big stiff about nine feet high
and built double across the shoulders." George sighed and cocked his eye
as though bored at the necessity of recounting his adventure. Then, just
to humour them, as it were,