Chapter 20 Part 1 Chapter 2 Libraries and Horses (3)

Francie also saw young girls getting ready to go out with lovers.There were no bathrooms in these apartments, and girls in corsets and skirts stood scrubbing at the kitchen sink.When they raised their hands to wash their armpits, they raised their hands above their heads, and the curves formed by the arms were very beautiful.There are many girls in these windows washing in this way, it seems like a silent, expectant ceremony. Francie stopped reading when the Flappers' carriage entered the next yard.Looking at that beautiful horse is as much fun as reading.There was a cobbled yard next door, and there was a handsome stable on the other side of the yard.Two large iron gates separate the yard from the street.There was a little field on the edge of the cobblestones, well manure, with bright red roses, and a pretty row of geraniums.The stable was stronger than all the houses in the neighbourhood, and the yard was the prettiest in Williamsburg.

Francie heard the door click shut.The first thing that came into view was the brown gelding, shining all over, with black mane and tail.There was a little chestnut buggy drawn by horses, and on the side was Dr. Frybo, the dentist, and his address, painted in gold letters.This handsome carriage neither pulls nor delivers.Just walking back and forth on the street every day, as an advertisement.This is a fantastic event billboard. Young Frank took the wagon out every morning and came back in the afternoon.Frank was a very nice boy, flushed like a rose, just like the wonderful boy in the nursery rhyme.He had a good life, lots of girls flirting with him.His only job was to drive the carriage slowly so that the names and addresses on it could be seen.When you need to install dentures or extract teeth, everyone remembers to come to Dr. Frybo according to the address on the carriage.

Frank took off his coat leisurely and put on his leather apron, while the horse named Bob stood patiently, alternating legs.Frank took the harness off him, wiped the hide, and hung the harness in the stable.He then scrubbed the horse with a large wet yellow sponge.The horse looks very comfortable.It basked in the dappled sun, and sometimes when it kicked its hoofs, it would throw sparks.Frank squeezed the water from the sponge onto the brown horse's back and wiped it off, all the while talking to the horse. "Hold on, Bob. That's a good boy! Back off. There you go!" Bob isn't the only horse in Francie's life.Uncle Willie Freetman, husband of Francie's Aunt Ivy, also had a horse.The horse was named Drummer, and it pulled a milk wagon.Willie and the drummer don't have the kind of friendship that Frank and Bob have.Both Willie and the drummer are secretly thinking how to hurt each other.Uncle Willie cursed the drummer every now and then.If you listen to him, the horse seems to have no sleep at night, only thinking about how to deal with him in the milk company's stable.

Francie likes to play a game where she imagines people and her pets switched.A common pet in Brooklyn is the white-haired poodle.Women who raise poodles are usually small, fat, white, dirty, and have wet eyes, much like poodles.Mum's music teacher, Miss Tynmore, was like the canary hanging in her kitchen.This Miss Tynmore was a spinster, little, very clever, with a voice like a bird.If Frank could turn into a horse, he should look like Bob.Francie had never seen Uncle Willie's horse, but she knew what it looked like.The drummer was supposed to be like Willy, small, thin, dark, with strained eyes and excessive whites.It must be like Aunt Ivy's husband, crying all day long.She tried to stop thinking about Uncle Willie.

On the street outside, a dozen boys leaned on the iron gate, watching the only horse in the block taking a bath.Francie could not see them, but heard them talking.They made up all kinds of horrible stories about the horse. "See if he's all right," said one of the boys, "but it's all fake. If Frank doesn't look out, the horse will bite and kill him."