usiness, so why should they? But
the girls Lily was intimate with had moved away, and she hated to go
around Avenue A to school.

There were changes at the upper end as well. The Weirs had gone from
next door, and two families with small children had taken the house. The
babies seemed so pudgy and untidy that the little girl did not fancy
them much. Frank Whitney was married with quite a fine wedding-party,
and had gone to Williamsburg to live. Mrs. Whitney had rented two rooms
in the house to a dressmaker. Delia was almost grown up. She had shot
into a tall girl, though she would have her dresses short; she despised
young ladyhood. She was smart and capable. She helped with the meals;
often, indeed, her mother did not come down until breakfast was ready,
when she had had a "bad night." That was when she read novels in bed
until two or three o'clock. Delia swept the house--she often did wash on
Saturday, though her brother scolded when she did it. She was the same
jolly, eager, careless girl, and delighted in a game of tag, but she
could so easily outrun the smaller children. She and Jim sometimes raced
round the block, one going in one direction, one in the other, and Jim
didn't always beat, either.

Then she would sit out on the stoop with a crowd of children and tell
wonderful stories. She didn't explain that they were largely made up
"out of her own head." Next door above the Deans two new little girls
had come, very nice children, who played with dolls. There was quite an
array when five little girls had their best dolls out. Nora generally
brought Pussy Gray, and they were always entertained with her talking.

Some boys had invaded the Reed's side of the block. Charles had strict
injunctions not to parley with them. But one went in an office as
errand boy, and the other quite disdained Jane Robertine Charlotte, as
he called him. It did begin to annoy Mr. Reed to have his son made the
butt of the street. He was a nice, obedient, upright, orderly boy. What
was lacking? In some respects he was very manly. Mr. Reed suddenly
concluded that a woman wasn't capable of bringing up boys, and he must
take him in hand.

For two weeks Mrs. Reed had been threatening to cut his hair. The boys
said, "Sissy, why don't your mother put your hair up in curl papers?" It
looked so dreadful when it was first cut that Charles always spent these
weeks between Scylla and Charybdis. He knew all about the rock and the
whirlpools. But som