Rosie folded her hands complacently. "I don't care whether they're going out or coming in. I don't like 'em because they're fashionable but because I like 'em. If the Boulevard Placers didn't have one pair I'd want to go up there by myself and skate by myself just the same. I love roller skates! And, what's more, by the time vacation comes I'll have the finest pair of ball-bearing skates in town! And vacation, mind you, comes at the end of next week!" Terence nodded a cautious approval. "You're that close to the finish, are you, Rosie?" "Sure I am. Tomorrow night when I get paid I'll have two twenty and, by the end of next week, if I can manage to scrape up an extra nickel, I'll have two fifty exact." Mrs. O'Brien fluttered her hands nervously. "I dunno about all this skatin', Rosie dear. I dunno if it's healthy to jump around so." Rosie smiled superiorly. "I don't jump around. I know how to skate." A few moments later Ellen excused herself from her usual evening duties on the plea that her friend, Hattie Graydon, had invited her out. So Rosie had to wipe the supper dishes as well as wash them before she could slip upstairs for the purpose of counting her savings. She found the wardrobe key in its usual place and the little bank where she had put it, hidden beneath her mother's Sunday hat. She reached for it and lifted it up and then, with a loud cry, she clutched it hard and shook it with all her might. "Ma! Ma!" she screamed, flying wildly downstairs. "My money! Some one's taken all my money!" "Ssh!" Mrs. O'Brien implored. "Ye'll be wakin' Geraldine!" For once Rosie heeded not the warning. "I tell you my money's gone! Some one stole it! Listen here!" She was weeping distractedly and waving the empty bank aloft. "There's not a cent left! And, Terry, look here how they took it!" The thief had not even had the grace to use a hairpin, but had calmly bent back the opening slit. Terence looked at his mother sternly. "Ma, who took Rosie's money?" Mrs. O'Brien squirmed uncomfortably. "Now, Terry lad, how do I know who took it? But I do know this: whoever it was that took it only borrowed it and Rosie'll get paid back." "Paid back!" wept Rosie. "Don't talk to me about getting paid back in this house! I guess I know!" With a determined eye Terence held his mother's wavering attention. "Now, Ma, you know very well who took that money and I want you to tell me." "Why, Terry lad, how you talk!" Mrs. O'Brien turned her head to listen, in hopes, apparently, that the baby would require her presence. "But I will say one thing, Terry: Ye know yirself a young girl, if she goes out, has to keep up appearances." Terence nodded grimly. "So it was Ellen, was it? I thought so." "Ellen," Rosie repeated in a dazed tone. Then her body grew tense, her eyes blazed. "Terry, I know! Those curls! I bet anything it was those curls!" Mrs. O'Brien made no denial and Rosie, dropping her head on the table, wept her heart out.