During the summer break, the 5 cousins spent almost the whole summer at their grandmother’s place. She lived in a mansion divided into 2 apartments and a kindergarten. The kids were free to roam around all day after doing a few chores for grandmother. They carried in the house heavy pails of water from the tap in the common garden area as there was no plumbing in the apartment. They went to the store to fetch some groceries. Grandmother had a pantry with treasures in it. She was a seamstress and stored wonderful fabrics, buttons, and threads there. She also had some toys for children and watercolor paint to use. The cousins often played princesses by doing their make-up with charcoaled pieces of wood and the watercolor paint set. They colored their nails trying to imitate the real colors they saw on women.