Sarah and Shirley playing their favorite game of dominoes on the porch after dinner, were startled by a sudden rush from Rosemary. She whirled through the doorway and demanded of her sister, "Sarah, have you been meddling with my tin bank?" Sarah got up from the floor slowly. "I borrowed ten cents," she admitted, trying to back away and backing into a rocking chair. "You 'borrowed' ten cents!" cried Rosemary, advancing upon her. "And you know I want to save every cent! Of all the selfish, mean girls I ever knew, you're the worst!" She clutched the unhappy Sarah by her broad sailor collar and proceeded to shake her fiercely. Sarah retaliated by kicking viciously and they were in eminent danger of upsetting the wicker table and porch lamp when Doctor Hugh strode out and separated them. "Rosemary!" he said in surprise. "What do you call it you are doing? And Sarah, too--kicking and fighting like two small boys! What ails you, anyway?" "She took ten cents out of my bank--it's just the same as stealing, because she never pays back anything she borrows," panted Rosemary, almost crying. "I found a penny on the floor where she dropped it. And she knows how hard I'm trying to save every cent, too." "Well, Sarah, I think robbing a bank is a pretty mean trick," pronounced Doctor Hugh judiciously. "Where is this bank, Rosemary? I've never seen it. Seems to me you're beginning to get ready for Christmas rather far in advance." Rosemary looked at Sarah who gazed at her imploringly. Both girls had forgotten for the moment the ring fund and its object. "I'll pay you back to-morrow Rosemary, honestly I will," said Sarah hurriedly. "Aunt Trudy owes me ten cents for not melting her letter sealing wax. She will pay me to-morrow night and I'll give it to you." "Sarah, Sarah," groaned her brother, half in amusement, half in despair, "I'm afraid your ethics are pretty wobbly. So Aunt Trudy has to bribe you, does she, to let her desk alone? Well, see that you turn the bribe over to Rosemary, though I should call it robbing Peter to pay Paul, with a vengeance." "Goodness, suppose he had made you tell why you were saving the money!" whispered Sarah, when the doctor had gone back to his office. "I was just shaking in my shoes." "Sarah, wouldn't you rather tell, anyway?" said Rosemary suddenly. "I don't believe Hugh would be so very cross, because you didn't mean to lose the ring. And I am afraid it will take me a perfect age to earn enough money to buy another." "I won't tell, ever!" declared Sarah, shaking her dark head obstinately. "And if you tell, Rosemary Willis, I'll never speak to you as long as I live! You don't have to buy another ring--that's silly. Aunt Trudy doesn't even know this one is lost." "I don't care if she doesn't," insisted Rosemary. "You lost it, and we have to get another one for her; that's all there is to it."