How are the two boys, aged 10 and 11, changing?

The children, while selling newspaper, begin to become accustomed to life on the Chicago streets. Soon, they learn all the swear words. They smoke the butts of cigars, and they know where all the brothels are. Sometimes they do not come home at night and prefer to sleep under a truck or in a doorway. It is decided then that the boys should return to school and Teta Elzbieta should find a job, leaving the housework to Kotrina, the thirteen-year-old girl.