He says,There are boys here who have to mend their shoes whatever way they can.There are boys in this class with no shoes at all. It’s not their fault and it’s no shame. Our Lord had no shoes. He died shoeless. Do you see Him hanging on the cross sporting shoes? Do you, boys? No, sir. What is it you don’t see Our Lord doing? Hanging on the cross and sporting shoes, sir. Now  if  I  hear  of  one  boy  in  this  class  jeering  and  sneering  at McCourt or his brother over their shoes the stick will come out.What will come out, boys? The stick, sir. The stick will sting, boys.The ash plant will whistle through the air, it will land on the backside of the boy that jeers, the boy that sneers. Where will it land, boys? On the boy that jeers, sir. And? The boy that sneers, sir. The boys bother us no more and we wear our shoes with the rub- ber tires the few weeks to Easter when the St.Vincent de Paul Society gives us the gift of boots. If I have to get up in the middle of the night to pee in the bucket I go  to  the top of the stairs and look down to see if the angel might be on  the  seventh  step.  Sometimes  I’m  sure  there’s  a  light  there  and  if everyone’s asleep I sit on the step in case the angel might be bringing another baby or just coming for a visit.I ask Mam if the angel just brings the babies and then forgets about them. She says, Of course not. The angel never forgets the babies and comes back to make sure the baby is happy. I could ask the angel all kinds of questions and I’m sure he’d answer, unless it’s a girl angel. But I’m sure a girl angel would answer questions, too. I never heard anyone say they didn’t. I sit on the seventh step a long time and I’m sure the angel is there. I tell him all the things you can’t tell your mother or father for fear of being hit on the head or told go out and play. I tell him all about school and how I’m afraid of the master and his stick when he roars at us in Irish and I still don’t know what he’s talking about because I came from America and the other boys were learning Irish a year before me. 106