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Jobs?”
    â€œWhat?” said Hilary.
    Ruby had to explain her idea again. “So what do you think?” she asked finally.
    Hilary paused for so long that Ruby said, “Hello?”
    â€œI’m here. It’s just that, well, I told Mom and Dad I’d give them extra help in the diner. This is going to be one of our busiest seasons, you know.”
    Ruby also knew that Hilary got paid for helping her parents. “I guess I’ll just have to do all the unpleasant jobs myself,” she said.
    â€œGood luck with that,” replied Hilary.
    Ruby lifted a pile of papers, library books, and CD’s from her desk chair. She wasn’t sure where to put them, so she added them to the chaos at the foot of her bed. Then she sat at her desk, a pad of paper before her, and chewed on the end of a pen.
    I could, she thought, do unpleasant jobs for people on Main Street. Main Street was, after all, just a couple of blocks from the Row Houses, within easy walking distance. But would storekeepers and business owners
need
a Doer of Unpleasant Jobs? Ruby wasn’t sure. Maybe she should start closer to home, with her neighbors.
    Ruby crossed her room and stuck her head out into the hallway. “Min!” she called. “I’m going into business! I’m going to do unpleasant jobs. Can I make flyers to give to our neighbors?”
    â€œWhich neighbors?” Min called back.
    â€œIn the Row Houses.”
    â€œRow Houses only? Okay, go ahead.”
    Ruby sat at her desk again. She wrote:
    Â 
    Do you have unsightly messes?
    Are your closets stuffed with unfinished projects?
    Do you hate scrubbing and cleaning?
    Then call me, the Doer of Unpleasant Jobs!
    I’ll do anything for
    Â 
    Here Ruby paused, uncertain how much to charge for her work. She would have to discuss that with Min. She turned back to the flyer and added:
    Â 
    Never put off until tomorrow
    what you can pay someone else to do today!
    Â 
    Then she hastily drew a star in each corner of the page, sensing that Flora would spend much more time decorating the flyer if it were up to her, which it wasn’t.
    She grabbed the flyer and rushed across the hall to her sister’s room. “Surprise!” she said.
    â€œWhat?” mumbled Flora, who was lying on her bed, reading
To Kill a Mockingbird
.
    â€œI’m in business.” Ruby thrust the flyer at Flora.
    â€œHey, this is a really good idea,” said her sister after she’d read it. “Very practical. And, um, entrepreneurial. Are you sure you don’t want to embellish the ad a little more, though? You know, draw —”
    â€œNo!” screeched Ruby. “I’m done. Except for the money part. I have to talk to Min about that.”
    An hour later, her fee decided on and seven flyers (complete with a single star in each corner) printed out on Min’s computer, Ruby headed down her walk, ready to get her business rolling. She decided to start with the Morrises and walked briskly in their direction.
    The Row Houses, an imposing granite structure built in the 1800s and consisting of eight attached and nearly identical homes, had once belonged to wealthy Camden Falls families, families who could afford maids and butlers and gardeners. The current families, to Ruby’s relief, did not employ maids or butlers or gardeners, which was exactly why they might need Ruby.
    Ruby rang the Morrises’ bell, and could hear Lacey practicing her solo inside. I really ought to be practicing my own solos, she thought. (She had two — a tiny one like Lacey’s and a much longer one.) While she was at it, it couldn’t hurt to start practicing her even bigger solo for the Christmas concert.
    Oh, well, thought Ruby. I have time.
    The sound of the bell brought thundering feet to the door, which was flung open by Alyssa, the youngest Morris, proudly exclaiming, “I got here first!”
    â€œCan you give this to your mom and dad?”