So, with all my reading, I had time to play; and, with all my studiousness, I had the will to play.

My favorite playmates were boys.

It was but mild fun to play theatre in Bessie Finklestein's back yard, even if I had leading parts, which I made impressive by recitations in Russian, no word of which was intelligible to my audience.

It was far better sport to play hide-and-seek with the boys, for I enjoyed the use of my limbs--what there was of them.

I was so often reproached and teased for being little, that it gave me great satisfaction to beat a five-foot boy to the goal.
Once a great, hulky colored boy, who was the torment of the neighborhood, treated me roughly while I was playing on the street.