As the weeks grow into months, the little group in the "Secret Annexe" has, as might be expected, its ups and downs, quarreling with one another and incessantly criticizing its youngest member, the spirited Anne (who often cries at night because of the group's irritable remarks). The members of the group also talk about their respective childhoods and occasionally laugh at funny remarks made — whether intentionally or not — by one or another of their number. The fact that the building in which they are hiding and which serves as offices is being sold to a new owner (the offices were only leased from the former owner) gives the group some cause for alarm, but the problem is finally overcome.
And then more tedium sets in again, and as a diversion Anne and Margot are given card index boxes so that they can keep an account of the books they have read; Anne is also given a little notebook for foreign words she masters. Butter and margarine are distributed carefully and in rationed quantities to each person. At one point, Anne writes, "Lately Mummy and I have been getting on better together, but we still never confide in each other" (February 27, 1943). It is sometimes painful to read these intimate confessions.
On March 10, 1943, Anne mentions the bombing of Amsterdam by the planes of the Allies and the firing of the anti-aircraft guns, which disturb their sleep almost every night while they are in hiding. Although Anne knows that it is childish, she always creeps into her father's bed for comfort, unable to overcome her fears by herself.
