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sweat was on his brow, Billy played in his snowsuit the entire morning. One thing about Billy was, he never wanted to take off his coat or his sweater, if he had one on, even if it were warm. And he did not like to put something more on than he already had on, if it were cold; he liked to stay the way he was.
    Suddenly Katy Starr came into Connie's house. She swung up the stairs—she had not rung the bell—and she said, "Billy, you must not stay cooped up in Connie's house. Your mother wants you to come outside and play with the kids."
    Billy Maloon did not answer Katy, and he did not go out.
    "I bet she didn't," he said, after about an hour, meaning his mother, "say that at all."
    Well, that's the way Katy was. She wanted everyone to be out with her. She made the rules, and she made the laws. All the laws of the Alley were made up by Katy Starr. "Katy's laws," they were called. "Most of Katy's laws are good ones," Connie told Mama. "Very good laws." Everyone thought so, Billy Maloon, as well as Connie, and they abided by them. If only outside-the-Alley people would abide by outside-the-Alley laws as well, the world outside might have been as good as the world inside.

4. KATY'S LAWS
    "Where would the Alley be without Katy's laws?" That's what Connie wondered all along. Now, while she and Billy were swinging, they heard Katy's voice, "Everybody come up to the Circle! Meece! We're going to play Meece." She was cruising up and down the Alley saying, "Come on ... Meece!" in her clipped, shrill voice. At Connie's gate she said, "Come on, Billy. We're about to begin."
    Billy did not say anything.
    "Come on, Connie," said Katy. "Come on," she said. "Join in." She did not wait for an answer. She expected everyone to come. And she had gone swinging up the Alley toward Hugsy's house to get him. You could hear her now from way down the other end of the Alley, near the gate, probably searching for Arnold, too.
    Before Katy moved to the Alley, it did not have any laws. Everybody in the Alley did what he or she wanted to do and did not think was he or wasn't he breaking one of Katy's laws. Now they had Katy's laws in the Alley, knew what side to ride their bikes on—what to do and not do.
    The Alley was paved with cement; the center part had small squares etched in it—that was where one of the laws said that the little ones must walk when the big ones were riding their bikes. It was called "the middle walk" and was also where the big ones must park their bikes. Another law said that people must ride their bikes on the right-hand side of the Alley and use the middle walk only for passing. This was so none of the little ones, to whom the middle walk ordinarily belonged, would get bumped into.
    Katy invented "Free Day" and "Semi-Free Day." On "Free Day" you could ride your bikes anywhere, the middle walk included, and little ones just had to stay out of the way—in their own yards or else walk on the narrow curbing, known as "emergency walk," and cling to the wire fencing. On "Free Day" you could crash into people, have collisions. "Semi-Free Day" meant that you had to obey all laws but that there was no policeman to say "stop" or "go," so you could ride continuously. On days that were just ordinary days, not free or semi-free, there always had to be a policeman directing traffic. This policeman stood in the safety inner zone and said, "Green light," or "Red light." Usually he stood outside the Arps' yard, the one next to Connie's. Being the policeman was a boring job. To make it interesting, the policeman said, "Green light, Red light," very often, especially Ray Arp, when he had the job. "Red light," Ray would say right after he had said, "Green light," and the person would be caught in the middle and get a ticket. Then there would be an argument and possibly a fight, because someone might complain to Ray about having to stop every minute.
    "All right," Ray would say in disgust. "You be the cop then, and let me ride your bike."