"Sometimes at night, people have parties across the Quad and they go on till 4 a.m. in the morning, and that's the worst part of it," remarks one College resident.

But the noise is becoming a familiar feature of life for this Quad dweller, who has been putting up with it for nearly half his life. Jonathan Flick lives in South House. He is 11 years old.

Jonathan and his two-and-a-half-year-old and 14-month-old brothers are three of the nearly 40 House residents who are nowhere near college age. The children of Masters, senior and resident tutors, they live in every House but Dunster, and undergraduates are almost unanimous in their praise of the youngsters presence.

For the children and their parents, life is not always idyllic, but they agree that the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

"There are lots of positive influences," says Hugh M. Flick Jr., resident tutor in South House and father of Jonathan, David and Shaw Flick. "They get a lot of contact with people who are interested in a wide variety of things," he explains.

Jonathan, a sturdy sixth-grader who attends the Esterbrook School in Lexington, says that life at the Quad is "basically the same" as it was before the Flicks moved on campus five years ago. He admits a weakness for the Food Services Chinese dinner and mentions the facilities at the Quad as an attractive fringe benefit.

"I like it--it isn't as public and there aren't as many people around" as there are at the River, he continues. His brothers, Jonathan adds, enjoy House life even more than he does. "They get more attention and there's always someone to play with," he explains.

This is generally true for Harvard's under-five set. Parents, children and students agree that for younger residents, almost all of the effects of House life are good ones. In fact, most tutors and Masters say there are few differences between life in a big apartment building and life at Harvard for someone that young.

"It's a wonderful environment; the kids give him enormous amounts of attention," says Lowell Senior Tutor Christopher M. Jedrey--father of Nathaniel, who is almost three and has never lived outside the House. As in the other Houses, the main point of contact between students and child is the dining hall, which Jedrey and other parents point out is a mixed blessing. Jedrey notes, for example, that the regular conversation with older people has built up his son's vocabulary. Parents add, however, that around the age of two, some children go through a period in which they perform for the dining hall.

Other difficulties arise from the design of Harvard housing, which is generally not suited to children's needs. "You give up living in any normal sort of way," says Arthur Demarest, a resident tutor in Anthropology living in the Leverett towers with his wife Mary and Andrew, who is almost one. "We spent a lot of time in the emergency room when he first started walking," Mary Demarest adds, recalling Andrew's collisions with Leverett Towers concrete walls.

Their suite is now virtually paneled in styrofoam, giving it the look of a high-rise ig100, but "there's just about no way he can hurt himself," says Arthur Demarest.

For slightly older children, students are not just baby sitters but also friends. For four-year-old Kathryn Dingman, the Leverett House dining hall is appealing not just because of the chicken and desserts, her favorite foods, but "because most of the kids are there."

"The undergraduates have been very, very generous in making our family feel at home," adds Leverett Senior Tutor Thomas A. Dingman '67, father of Kathryn and fifteen-month-old Alexandra. "It's like having a big, big family around." says Nancy Dingman.

Never having lived anywhere else. Kathryn may not be in a position to say, but House-mate Jessica Dowling agrees and she's lived in Harvard housing for eight of the past nine years. "This is one of my favorite Houses," says the seventh-garder, a former resident of both Mather and North Houses.

Jessica also knows what she's missing, because she occasionally visits her father and stepmother in Rhode Island. "It's totally different from the way it is here--I think I like it better here," says the poised, attractive 12-year-old.