The Italian says, Missus, you always pay your bill sooner or later and you can have anything you like in this store. Oh, she says, I don’t want much. Anything you like, missus, because I know you’re an honest woman and you got a bunch o’ nice kids there. We have eggs and toast and jam though we’re so weary walking the long streets of Brooklyn we can barely move our jaws to chew.The twins fall asleep after eating and Mam lays them on the bed to change their dia- pers.She sends me down the hall to rinse the dirty diapers in the lavatory so that they can be hung up to dry and used the next day. Malachy helps her wash the twins’ bottoms though he’s ready to fall asleep himself. I crawl into bed with Malachy and the twins. I look out at Mam at the kitchen table, smoking a cigarette, drinking tea, and crying. I want to get up and tell her I’ll be a man soon and I’ll get a job in the place with the big gate and I’ll come home every Friday night with money for eggs and toast and jam and she can sing again Anyone can see why I wanted your kiss. The next week Dad loses the job.He comes home that Friday night, throws his wages on the table and says to Mam, Are you happy now? You hang around the gate complaining and accusing and they sack me. They were looking for an excuse and you gave it to them. He takes a few dollars from his wages and goes out.He comes home late roaring and singing.The twins cry and Mam shushes them and cries a long time herself. We spend hours in the playground when the twins are sleeping, when Mam is tired, and when Dad comes home with the whiskey smell on him, roaring about Kevin Barry getting hanged on a Monday morning or the Roddy McCorley song, Up the narrow street he stepped Smiling and proud and young About the hemp-rope on his neck The golden ringlets clung, There’s never a tear in the blue eyes Both glad and bright are they, As Roddy McCorley goes to die On the bridge of Toome today. 28