"I don't know much of play, you know. Only, I know to pull her away when the bogies come, and to smack her to shut her up crying."

Eponine began to pull the comb through Mariko's hair. She was faintly surprised at how easy it was to do: her sister's hair had been as matted as Eponine's, abd then she only had her fingers.

"But I can try. If you promise to stop crying about stupid things that can't be helped. You are as old as I, you know? And you must stop being a child, for this is a bad place and we are at the bottom. I were told that a long time ago, in Paris, but it is so here also. It is not fun and horrid things happen. But you can't cry or you'll shrivel up. You know, I should like a crown though. I never had time to make one of them. The farmer or someone were always chasing us before then."