The woman says, Heres a nice onion for the sick child, missus.
Mam says, Oh, I cant buy the onion now, missus. I dont have a
penny on me.
Im giving you the onion, missus. Let it never be said a child went
sick in Limerick for want of an onion.And dont forget to sprinkle in a
little pepper. Do you have pepper, missus?
Ah, no, I dont but I should be getting it any day now.
Well, here, missus. Pepper and a little salt. Do the child all the good
in the world.
Mam says, God bless you, maam, and her eyes are watery.
Dad is walking back and forth with Oliver in his arms and Eugene
is playing on the floor with a pot and a spoon. Dad says, Did you get
the onion?
I did, says Mam, and more. I got coal and the way of lighting it.
I knew you would. I said a prayer to St. Jude. Hes my favorite saint,
patron of desperate cases.
I got the coal. I got the onion, no help from St. Jude.
Dad says,You shouldnt be picking up coal off the road like a com-
mon beggar. It isnt right. Bad example for the boys.
Then you should have sent St. Jude down the Dock Road.
Malachy says, Im hungry, and Im hungry, too, but Mam says,Yell
wait till Oliver has his onion boiled in milk.
She gets the fire going, cuts the onion in half, drops it in the boil-
ing milk with a little butter and sprinkles the milk with pepper. She
takes Oliver on her lap and tries to feed him but he turns away and
looks into the fire.
Ah,come on,love,she says.Good for you.Make you big and strong.
He tightens his mouth against the spoon. She puts the pot down,
rocks him till hes asleep, lays him on the bed and tells the rest of us be
quiet or shell demolish us. She slices the other half of the onion and
fries it in butter with slices of bread. She lets us sit on the floor around
the fire where we eat the fried bread and sip at the scalding sweet tea in
jam jars. She says,That fire is good and bright so we can turn off that
gaslight till we get money for the meter.
The fire makes the room warm and with the flames dancing in the
coal you can see faces and mountains and valleys and animals leaping.
Eugene falls asleep on the floor and Dad lifts him to the bed beside
Oliver. Mam puts the boiled onion pot up on the mantelpiece for fear
a mouse or rat might be at it. She says shes tired out from the day, the
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