Girl Alone by Anne Austin

Long as you said it was, Sally!” Thelma sobbed, as grieved for the loss of illusion as for the loss of her treasure. “I reckon I’m plumb foolish to go on play-acting all the time,” Sally Ford said dully. The three little girls and the 16-year-old “mother” of them scrubbed in silence for several minutes, doggedly hurrying to make up for lost time. Then Thelma, who could never nurse grief or anger, spoke cheerfully: “Reckon the new kid’s gettin’ her phys’cal zamination. When I come into the ‘sylum you had to nearly