“No, I suppose I had better not,” said Rose, shaking her head. “I think I ought to keep the money for the game to-morrow, shouldn’t I, Auntie?” she added, rather wistfully.
“Oh, no!” said Aunt Claire. “A pirate would never do that. You must go up to the store and change it for merchandise. That is what pirates always did in the old days.”
“What is merchandise?” asked Rose brightening. Then with a sudden thought, “Is candy merchandise?” And Aunt Claire said that it was.
“Well, then, you must come with me to the store and share,” said Rose, pulling her auntie by the hand. And away both pirates went to the little village store which was about a mile from the cottage.
“I think it is lovely to be a pirate!” cried Rose, as she danced along the road with the ten-cent piece in her hand. “I am going to be a pirate every single day.”
“Oh, not every day,” said her auntie, in dismay. “The pirates did not go pirating every day, or there would not have been treasure enough to last. They did other things between whiles.”
“I suppose they couldn’t go pirating when it rained,” said Rose thoughtfully. “Perhaps it may rain to-morrow.”
And it did.
CHAPTER XI
THE PIECED BABY
FOR a long time Rose had been wanting a little sister. Kenneth was the very best brother that ever lived, and they had beautiful times playing together. But Kenneth was growing to be a big boy, and he liked a great many things that Rose did not enjoy,—fishing, for instance, which made her very ill. And there were things which Rose liked that Kenneth would not play with her. Rose thought if only she had a little sister they two would like just the same sort of things. They could play dolls together, and house, and tea-party, and have the most beautiful times when Kenneth was away doing something very different.