 Why did the Lane family move to Wisconsin?
Mrs. Lane smiled gently and placed her soft white hand on her daughter’s lean brown one. You may be one of these girls, and if you are, we want you to be prepared for it. Before I came out here to Rockport to edit the Eagle , I worked as a reporter on one of the best papers in New York. Ever since she had been a little girl, the barn had been Peggy’s favorite place to go to be by herself and think. As Peggy mixed some oats and barley for her pet and checked to see that there was enough straw in the stall, she thought about her life in Rockport and the new life that she might soon be going to. 7 Rockport, Wisconsin, was a fine place, as pretty a small town as any girl could ask to grow up in. Its 16,500 people supported good schools, an excellent library, and two good movie houses. And of course, all of this was in addition to the usual growing-up pleasures of swimming and sailing, movie dates, and formal dances—everything that a girl could want. Peggy had lived all her life here, knew every tree-shaded street, every country road, field, lake, and stream. All of her friends were here, friends she had known since her earliest baby days. It would be hard to leave them, she knew, but there was no doubt in her mind that she was going to do so. To the bright lights, speeding taxis, glittering towers of a make-believe movie-set New York? Or would it be something different, something like the dreary side-street world of failure and defeat that she had also seen in movies? Seeing the image of herself hungry and tired, going from office to office looking for a part in a play, Peggy suddenly laughed aloud and brought herself back to reality, to the warm barn smell and the big, soft-eyed gaze of Socks. Fighting down an impulse to rush right into the kitchen to see how they were coming along, Peggy continued down the driveway and turned left on the slate sidewalk past the front porch of her family’s old farmhouse and down the street toward Jean Wilson’s house at the end of the block. 9 II Dramatic Decision Upstairs at the Wilsons’, Peggy found Jean swathed in bath towels, washing her long, straight red hair, which was now white with lather and piled up in a high, soapy knot.
 For Mr. Lane’s work
 For Mr. Lane’s work  To be near family and friends  For Mrs. Lane’s singing career  For Peggy’s school