it was easy to ignore a patrick , who failed quietly , when you had to cope with boys like henry bowers and victor criss , who were actively disruptive and insolent , boys who would steal milk-money or happily deface school property if given a chance , and girls like the unfortunately named elizabeth taylor , who was epileptic and whose few poor brain-cells worked only sporadically and who had to be discouraged from pulling her dresses up in the playyard to show off a new pan : of panties .