because she was so weak from having the four boys she didn’t have the energy to be going to the church for the baptism and it’s a heart scald to think Margaret might be in Limbo forever with no hope of her ever seeing the rest of us whether we’re in heaven, hell, or Purgatory itself. Mr. Quinlivan brings her his chair. Ah, now, missus. Ah, now. Sit down, will you. Ah, now. The other men look at the table, the ceiling.The man in the mid- dle says he’s giving Mam a docket to get a week’s groceries at McGrath’s shop on Parnell Street.There will be tea, sugar, flour, milk, butter and a separate docket for a bag of coal from Sutton’s coal yard on the Dock Road. The third man says,Of course you won’t be getting this every week, missus.We will be visiting your house to see if there’s a real need.We have to do that, missus, so we can review your claim. Mam wipes her face on the back of her sleeve and takes the docket. She tells the men, God bless you for your kindness.They nod and look at the table, the ceiling, the walls and tell her send in the next woman. The women outside tell Mam,When you go to McGrath’s, keep an eye on the oul’ bitch for she’ll cheat you on the weight. She’ll put stuff on  a  paper  on  the  scale  with  the  paper  hanging  down  on  her  side behind the counter where she thinks you can’t see it. She’ll pull on that paper so that you’re lucky if you get half of what you’re supposed to get. And she has pictures of the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus all over the shop, and she’s forever on her knees abroad in St. Joseph’s chapel clackin’ her rosary beads an’ breathing like a virgin martyr, the oul’ bitch. Nora  says,  I’ll  go  with  you,  missus.  I’m  on  to  the  same  Mrs. McGrath and I’ll know if she’s cheating you. She leads the way to the shop in Parnell Street.The woman behind the counter is pleasant to Mam in her American coat till Mam shows the St.Vincent de Paul docket. The woman says, I don’t know what you’re doing here at this hour of the day. I never serve the charity cases before six in the evening. But this is your first time and I’ll make an exception. She says to Nora, Do you have a docket, too? No. I’m a friend helping this poor family with their first docket from the St.Vincent de Paul. The woman lays a sheet of newspaper on the scale and pours on 66