That starts us talking over what there was for folks to do in New York
evenings, and while we can dope out quite a lot of different ways of
passin' the time between 8 p. m. and midnight, nearly every one is so
expensive that the average young couple can't afford to tackle 'em
more'n once a week or so. The other evenings they sit at home in the
flat.

"And yet," says young Mrs. Fairfield, "hardly any of them but could find
a congenial group of people if--if they only knew where to look and how
to get acquainted with each other. Why, right in this block I've noticed
ever so many who I'm sure are rather nice. But there seems to be no way
of getting together."

"That's it, precisely!" says Vee. "So why should you wish yourself back
in China?"

"I beg pardon?" says Mrs. Bill.

"I mean," says Vee, "that here is a missionary field, right at your
door. If you can go off among foreigners and get them to give up some of
their silly ways and organize them into groups and classes, why can't
you do something of the kind for these silly New York flat dwellers?
Can't they be organized, too?"

"Why," says Mrs. Bill, her eyes openin' wider, "I never thought of that.
But--but there are so many of them."

"What about starting with your own block?" suggests Vee. "Perhaps with
only one side of the street at first. Couldn't you find out how many
were interested in one particular thing--music, or dancing, or
bridge--and get them together?"

"Oh, I see!" says Mrs. Bill, clappin' her hands, enthusiastic. "Make a
social survey. Why, of course. One could get up a sort of questionnaire
card and drop it in the letter boxes for each family to fill out, if
they cared to do so, and then you could call meetings of the various
groups."

"If I could find a few home folks from Virginia, that's all I would
ask," says Lucy Lee.

"Then we would start the card with 'Where born?'" says Mrs. Bill. "That
would show us how many were Southerners, how many from the West, from
New England, and so on. Next we would want to know something about their
ages."

"Not too much," suggests Hamilton Blake. "Better ask 'em if they're
over or under thirty."

"Of course," says Mrs. Bill. "Let's see how such a card would look. Next
we would ask them what amusements they liked best: music, dancing,
theatre going, bowling, bridge, private theatricals, chess and so on.
Please check with a cross. And are you a high-brow; if so, why? Is it
art, books, languages, or t