"Have you any brothers and sisters?"
"One brother," answered Rose, glad that here at least she could tell the truth.
"Here's something for you," said the lady, placing twenty-five cents in the child's outstretched palm.
All the passengers had now passed through the portal, and she had some respite.
James Martin crossed the street, and, coming up to her, asked, "How much did you get?"
Rose opened her hand.
"Thirty-five cents in five minutes," he said, elated. "Come, little gal, you're gettin' on finely. I shouldn't wonder if you'd take three or four dollars by two o'clock. We'll go home then."
"But I don't like to beg," said Rose.
"Don't let me hear none of that," said Martin, angrily. "You're lazy, that's what's the matter. You've got to earn your livin', there's no two ways about that, and this is the easiest way to do it. There aint no work about beggin'."
Since Martin was mean enough to live on the money begged by a little girl, it isn't likely that he would understand the delicate scrupulousness which made Rose ashamed of soliciting charity.