on the floor, that spreads the consumption, or on our sleeves, but in a  handkerchief  or  a  clean  rag.  He  asks  us  if  we  are  good  boys  and when we say we are, he says, Good Lord, what’s this? Are they Yanks or what? Mam tells him about Margaret and Oliver and he says, Lord above, Lord above, there’s great suffering in the world. Anyway, we’ll put the little fellow, Malachy, in the infants’ class and his brother in first class. They’re in the same room with one master. Monday morning, then, nine o’clock prompt. The boys in Leamy’s want to know why we talk like that. Are ye Yanks or what? And when we tell them we came from America they want to know,Are ye gangsters or cowboys? A big boy sticks his face up to mine. I’m asking ye a question, he says.Are ye gangsters or cowboys? I tell him I don’t know and when he pokes his finger into my chest Malachy says, I’m a gangster, Frank’s a cowboy.The big boy says,Your little brother is smart and you’re a stupid Yank. The  boys  around  him  are  excited.  Fight,  they  yell,  fight,  and  he pushes me so hard I fall. I want to cry but the blackness comes over me the way it did with Freddie Leibowitz and I rush at him, kicking and punching. I knock him down and try to grab his hair to bang his head on the ground but there’s a sharp sting across the backs of my legs and I’m pulled away from him. Mr. Benson, the master, has me by the ear and he’s whacking me across the legs.You little hooligan, he says. Is that the kind of behavior you brought from America? Well, by God, you’ll behave yourself before I’m done with you. He tells me hold out one hand and then the other and hits me with his  stick  once  on  each  hand.  Go  home  now,  he  says,  and  tell  your mother what a bad boy you were.You’re a bad Yank. Say after me, I’m a bad boy. I’m a bad boy. Now say, I’m a bad Yank. I’m a bad Yank. Malachy says, He’s not a bad boy. It’s that big boy. He said we were cowboys and gangsters. Is that what you did, Heffernan? I was only jokin’, sir. No more joking, Heffernan. It’s not their fault that they’re Yanks. 79