"Yes, let's go out and cool off," agreed George, mopping his face.
"We can play out in the backyard, you know," suggested Anne.
"I'm so warm I don't want to play ball, but let's go out anyway," said George.
So the four ran downstairs and out of the rear hall-door to the piazza that had steps leading down to the square of grass that was used for drying clothes. Back of this plot was a small garden that was cultivated in the summer, but was now chiefly used for a basket-ball ground.
The wash was out, so the grass-plot was impossible for the children, and they skirted the laundry and reached the barren garden.
"What's on the other side of your high fence?" asked George, eyeing the six-foot boards that had nice cross-pieces at convenient distance from the ground to the top.
"Nothing, only a big vacant lot. Father says the owners have had trouble over the title to it for so many years, that now they couldn't improve it even if they had the money left to do it on," said Jack.
"And every kind of youngster from down in those tenements comes up in that lot to play," added Anne, with disgust.
Voices were now heard on the other side of the fence and George looked at his companions.
"Guess I'll climb up and sit on top and watch 'em."