sins have your meals served up to you and read your Latin office before you go to sleep. I’d like to be a Jesuit some day but there’s no hope of that when you grow up in a lane. Jesuits are very particular.They don’t like poor people.They like people with motor cars who stick out their little fingers when they pick up their teacups. The church is crowded with people at seven o’clock Mass getting the ashes on their foreheads. Malachy whispers that Michael shouldn’t get the ashes because he won’t be making his First Communion till May and it would be a sin. Michael starts to cry, I want the ashes, I want the ashes. An old woman behind us says,What are ye doin’ to that lovely child? Malachy explains the lovely child never made his First Commu- nion and he’s not in a state of grace. Malachy is getting ready for Con- firmation himself, always showing off his knowledge of the catechism, always going on about state of grace. He won’t admit I knew all about the state of grace a year ago, so long ago I’m starting to forget it.The old woman says you don’t have to be in a state of grace to get a few ashes on your forehead and tells Malachy stop tormenting his poor lit- tle brother.She pats Michael on the head and tells him he’s a lovely child and go up there and get your ashes. He runs to the altar and when he comes back the woman gives him a penny to go with his ashes. Aunt Aggie is still in the bed with Alphie. She tells Malachy to fill Alphie’s bottle with milk and bring it to him. She tells me to start the fire in the range, that there’s paper and wood in a box and coal in the coal scuttle. If the fire won’t start sprinkle it with a little paraffin oil. The fire is slow and smoky and I sprinkle it with the paraffin oil,it flares up, whoosh, and nearly takes my eyebrows off.There is smoke every- where and Aunt Aggie rushes into the kitchen. She shoves me away from the range. Jesus above, can’t you do anything right? You’re sup- posed to open the damper, you eejit. I don’t know anything about dampers. In our house we have a fire- place in Ireland downstairs and a fireplace in Italy upstairs and no sign of a damper.Then you go to your aunt’s house and you’re supposed to know all about dampers.There’s no use telling her this is the first time you ever lit a fire in a range. She’ll just give you another thump on the skull and send you flying. It’s hard to know why grown people get so angry over little things like dampers.When I’m a man I won’t go around thumping small children over dampers or anything else. Now she yells at me, Look at Lord Muck standing there. Would you ever think of opening the window and letting out the smoke? Of course you wouldn’t. 245