Jack's face took on an expression of heavenly content. "Is it peeling yet?" Terry asked. "No, but it's cracking." Jack's tone was hopeful. Rosie moved uneasily. "Terence O'Brien, I just wish you'd look out what you're saying, and you too, Ellen! It's dangerous to go in swimming, and Jackie's never going again, are you, Jackie?" Jack hesitated a moment, then murmured a weak little "No." Mrs. O'Brien nodded approvingly. "Ah, now, ain't Jack the good b'y to promise sister Rosie never to go in swimmin' again!" Ellen chuckled. "At least until his back's well!" Rosie flew at her sister like an angry little clucking hen. "Ellen O'Brien, you just mind your own business! Come on, Jackie, we're through. We're going out in front by ourselves, aren't we?" Jack, apparently, wanted to remain where he was; but when Rosie whispered, "And I've got another penny for you," he slipped quietly down from his chair. When you know that this was Jack's fifth penny for that day, you have some idea of what the struggle was costing Rosie. A week's wages seemed in a fair way of being eaten up in a few days. It was a fearful drain on her resources, but anything, Rosie told herself, to keep him out of the clutches of the Slattery gang! By the third day his back was dry and peeling. After dinner, as Rosie was coming home from the grocery, she found him at the front gate boasting about it to Joe Slattery. Rosie interrupted politely: "Jackie, will you come into the house a minute? I got something to ask you." Jack looked at her kindly. "All right, Rosie. You go on in and I'll be in in a minute." The dismissal was so friendly that Rosie could not gainsay it. She hurried around to the back door and then rushed through the house to the front door, which she slipped open wide enough to see and to hear what was going on at the gate. Joe Slattery's voice carried distinctly. "Say, Jack, what do you say to goin' down now? Aw, come on! Let's." Rosie did not have to ask herself what Joe Slattery was proposing; she knew only too well. Breathless, she awaited Jack's answer. It came with scarcely an instant's hesitation. "All right. Let's." Jack was out of the gate and off before Rosie could push open the front door. "Jackie! Jackie! Where you going? Wait for Rosie!" "Me and Joe got to go down and see a fella. We'll be back soon, won't we, Joe?" "Sure we will, Rosie. We'll be back in ten minutes." Rosie shook her head reproachfully. "Jackie, Jackie, you're telling Rosie a story, you know you are! You're going swimming and you promised me you wouldn't! Oh, Jackie, how can you, after the nickel I gave you this morning, and the seven cents yesterday, and the nickel the day before, and the nickel of the first day you went with Joe? Oh, Jackie, how can you take poor Rosie's money and then act that way?" Jack had nothing to say, but Joe Slattery was able to answer for him.