Explore "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
FRANCIE and Neeley were confirmed in May. Francie was almost fourteen and a half years old and Neeley was just a year younger. Sissy, who was an expert seamstress, made Francie's simple white muslin dress. Katie managed to buy her white kid slippers and a pair of long white silk stockings. They were Francie's first silk stockings. Neeley wore the black suit he got for his father's funeral.
There was a legend in the neighborhood that any three wishes made on that day, would come true. One had to be an impossible wish, another a wish that you could make come true yourself, and the third had to be a wish for when you grew up. Francie's impossible wish was that her straight brown hair change into golden curly hair like Neeley's. Her second wish was that she'd have a nice speaking voice like mama and Evy and Sissy, and her third wish, for when she was grown up, was that she'd travel all over the world. Neeley wished, one: that he'd become very wealthy; two, that he'd get better marks on his report card; and, three: that he wouldn't drink like papa when he grew up.