the floor over there by the range. She puts the old coats from the pram on the floor and Alphie lies there with his sugary water and says Goo goo and smiles. She tells us take off every scrap of our clothes, get out to the tap in the backyard and scrub every inch of our bodies.We are not to come back into this house till we’re spotless. I want to tell her it’s the middle of February,it’s freezing outside,we could all die,but I know if I open my mouth I might die right here on the kitchen floor. We’re out in the yard naked dousing ourselves with icy water from the tap. She opens the kitchen window and throws out a scrub brush and a big bar of brown soap like the one they used on Finn the Horse. She orders us to scrub each other’s backs and don’t stop till she tells us. Michael says his hands and feet are falling off with the cold but she doesn’t care. She keeps telling us we’re still dirty and if she has to come out to scrub us we’ll rue the day.Another rue. I scrub myself harder.We all scrub till we’re pink and our jaws chatter. It’s not enough for Aunt Aggie. She comes out with a bucket and sloshes cold water all over us. Now, she says, get inside and dry yeerselves.We stand in the little shed next  to  her  kitchen  drying  ourselves  with  one  towel. We  stand  and shiver and wait because you can’t go marching into her kitchen till she tells you.We hear her inside starting the fire, rattling the poker in the range, then yelling at us,Are ye goin’ to stand in there all day? Come in here and put on yeer clothes. She gives us mugs of tea and cuts of fried bread and we sit at the table eating quietly because you’re not supposed to say a word unless she tells you. Michael asks her for a second cut of fried bread and we expect her to knock him off the chair for his cheek but she just grum- bles, ’Tis far from two cuts of fried bread ye were brought up, and gives each of us another cut. She tries to feed Alphie bread soaked in tea but he won’t eat it till she sprinkles it with sugar and when he’s finished he smiles and pees all over her lap and we’re delighted. She runs out to the shed to dab at herself with a towel and we’re able to grin at each other at the table and tell Alphie he’s the champion baby in the world. Uncle Pa Keating comes in the door all black from his job at the gas works. Oh, bejay, he says, what’s this? Michael says, My mother is in the hospital, Uncle Pa. Is that so? What’s up with her? Pneumonia, says Malachy. Well, now, that’s better than oldmonia. We don’t know what he’s laughing at and Aunt Aggie comes in 243