nobody lied who didn't want to. We were
all free, and all treated equally, just as it said in the
Constitution! The evil-doer was actually punished, and not the victim,
as might very easily happen in a similar case in Russia. "Liberty and
justice for all." Three cheers for the Red, White, and Blue!

There was one occasion in the week when I was ever willing to put away
my book, no matter how entrancing were its pages. That was on Saturday
night, when Bessie Finklestein called for me; and Bessie and I, with
arms entwined, called for Sadie Rabinowitch; and Bessie and Sadie and
I, still further entwined, called for Annie Reilly; and Bessie, etc.,
etc., inextricably wound up, marched up Broadway, and took possession
of all we saw, heard, guessed, or desired, from end to end of that
main thoroughfare of Chelsea.

Parading all abreast, as many as we were, only breaking ranks to let
people pass; leaving the imprints of our noses and fingers on
plate-glass windows ablaze with electric lights and alluring with
display; inspecting tons of cheap candy, to find a few pennies' worth
of the most enduring kind, the same to be sucked and chewed by the
company, turn and turn about, as we continued our promenade; loitering
wherever a crowd gathered, or running for a block or so to cheer on
the fire-engine or police ambulance; getting into everybody's way, and
just keeping clear of serious mischief,--we were only girls,--we
enjoyed ourselves as only children can whose fathers keep a basement
grocery store, whose mothers do their own washing, and whose sisters
operate a machine for five dollars a week. Had we been boys, I suppose
Bessie and Sadie and the rest of us would have been a "gang," and
would have popped into the Chinese laundry to tease "Chinky Chinaman,"
and been chased by the "cops" from comfortable doorsteps, and had a
"bully" time of it. Being what we were, we called ourselves a "set,"
and we had a "lovely" time, as people who passed us on Broadway could
not fail to see. And hear. For we were at the giggling age, and
Broadway on Saturday night was full of giggles for us. We stayed out
till all hours, too; for Arlington Street had no strict domestic
programme, not even in the nursery, the inmates of which were as
likely to be found in the gutter as in their cots, at any time this
side of one o'clock in the morning.

There was an element in my enjoyment that was yielded neither by the
sights, the adventures, nor the chewing-c