"It stunned me then because it happened so early," Parrette said. He paused. "After a while things like that didn't bother me so much. It just seemed like the norm."

To some of the women, however, the everpresent danger never seemed normal. Rainford, how grew up in Dorchester, said she spent as much time at home or with her boyfriend as possible. "The guys sort of resented me for that," she said, "but both I and my parents were extremely nervous."

The piece de resistance came on the last day of the program. Some of the children, upset because the counselors had slapped them while trying to break up fights, complained to their older brothers. When those brothers--members of the Wild Bunch--showed up and threatened to defend their siblings by beating up the student "intruders," the volunteers blanched. But after some pushing and showing, things calmed down.

The counselors found excursions the most valuable activity. The groups went on mini-tours of Boston, visited the White Mountains and Montreal, and finished with a bang--spending a week in New York City.

"The children claimed not to want to go away, but once 'away' usually did not want to go home," the counselors' report on the program states. The success of traveling outside Roxbury suggests that the children do not know about the world beyond their own, the counselors concluded--"Someone has to simply force them to broader horizons."

Despite the occasional bursts of glory, most of the counselors say the experience has left a bittersweet taste. "One mother made us spaghetti; one said thank you; and one asked us to come back," Parrette said, "but most of the parents saw us as babysitters. It was discouraging, but then we were there for the kids. We wanted to say to them, 'You can be like your brother, your counselor, or the man at the aquarium.' Maybe we can't see the effects now, but in ten years when one of the kids comes back from the University of Michigan--then we'll know we succeeded."