over the two men. Besides, she has no place for a statue in her little room. Bill Galvin comes after work to see the place. He’s small, all white, and he snuffles like a dog. He asks Grandma if she’d mind taking down that statue because he’s a Protestant and he wouldn’t be able to sleep. Grandma  barks  at  Uncle  Pat  for  not  telling  her  he  was  dragging  a Protestant into the house. Jesus, she says, there will be gossip up and down the lane and beyond. Uncle Pat says he didn’t know Bill Galvin was a Protestant.You could never tell by looking at him especially the way he’s covered with lime. He looks like an ordinary Catholic and you’d never imagine a Protestant would be shoveling lime. Bill Galvin says his poor wife that just died was a Catholic and she had the walls covered with pictures of the Sacred Heart and the Virgin Mary showing their hearts. He’s not against the Sacred Heart himself, it’s just that seeing the statue will remind him of his poor wife and give him the heartache. Grandma says,Ah, God help us, why didn’t you tell me that in the first place? Sure I can put the statue on the windowsill in my room and your heart won’t be tormented at the sight of it. Every morning Grandma cooks Bill’s dinner and takes it to him at the lime kiln.Mam wonders why he can’t take it with him in the morn- ing and Grandma says, Do you expect me to get up at dawn and boil cabbage and pig’s toes for his lordship to take in his dinner can? Mam  tells  her,  In  another  week  school  will  be  over  and  if  you give  Frank sixpence a week he’ll surely be glad to take Bill Galvin his dinner. I don’t want to go to Grandma’s every day. I don’t want to take Bill  Galvin  his  dinner  all  the  way  down  the  Dock  Road,  but  Mam says that’s sixpence we could use and if I don’t do it I’m going nowhere else. You’re staying in the house,she says.You’re not playing with your pals. Grandma  warns  me  to  take  the  dinner  can  directly  and  not  be meandering, looking this way and that, kicking canisters and ruining the  toes of my shoes.This dinner is hot and that’s the way Bill Galvin wants it. There’s a lovely smell from the dinner can, boiled bacon and cab- bage and two big floury white potatoes. Surely he won’t notice if I try 136