He knew the bells; in fact, he rang them. Jane imagines how it might be to leave her orphanage, where she realizes that the real world is 'wide,' and that her own existence is 'not enough. Olive had a vision of her silent mother, Maud, mesmerized by her own fading image in the makeup mirror —clams everywhere around her. An adolescent who is an orphan at this phase is in danger of never growing up.
It was not so cold that Homer couldn't smell the apples as he walked to the cider house, arid it was not so dark that he needed to keep on the dirt road; he could go overland. 'At the time,' Wally told the boy, 'we thought we'd always be able to have another baby. Hardest for Melony was to recognize that there was no love for her in his eyes; he looked like a trapped animal—there was no enthusiasm or curiosity about seeing her in any part of him. Because he _was_ not on the road, he was able to approach the cider house unobserved.
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