and instead of becoming a keystone to the metropolis the small neighborhood became a kind of window on it , a place to look out on its growth , judge it , observe it , hide from it - to watch and to live - all to the sound of workmen coming home to welcoming children and the notes of unseen artists rehearsing music in rooms with every window opened against the summer heat , and their music co-mingling with the cries of insects and children reviving and emerging out into the remainder of the day and the shish-shish-shish of sprinkler as the sun finally hid .