Mam says, I dont know, hes only eleven and he had that typhoid
and the coal dust wouldnt be good for his eyes.
Bridey says, Hed be out in the air and theres nothing like fresh air
for someone with bad eyes or getting over the typhoid, isnt that right,
Frankie?
Tis, Bridey.
Im dying to go around with Mr. Hannon on the great float like a
real workingman. If Im good at it they might let me stay at home from
school forever but Mam says, He can do it as long as it doesnt interfere
with school and he can start on a Saturday morning.
Im a man now so I light the fire early on Saturday morning and
make my own tea and fried bread. I wait next door for Mr. Hannon to
come out with his bicycle and theres a lovely smell of rashers and eggs
coming through the window. Mam says Mr. Hannon gets the best of
food because Mrs. Hannon is as mad about him as she was the day she
married him.Theyre like two lovers out of an American film the way
they go on. Here he is pushing the bicycle and puffing away on the pipe
in his mouth. He tells me climb up on the bar of his bike and off we go
to my first job as a man. His head is over mine on the bike and the smell
of the pipe is lovely.Theres a coal smell on his clothes and that makes
me sneeze.
Men are walking or cycling toward the coal yards and Ranks Flour
Mills and the Limerick Steamship Company on the Dock Road. Mr.
Hannon takes his pipe from his mouth and tells me this is the best
morning of all, Saturday, half day.Well start at eight and be finished by
the time the Angelus rings at twelve.
First we get the horse ready, give him a bit of a rub, fill the wooden
tub with oats and the bucket with water. Mr. Hannon shows me how
to put on the harness and lets me back the horse into the shafts of the
float. He says, Jaysus, Frankie, you have the knack of it.
That makes me so happy I want to jump up and down and drive a
float the rest of my life.
There are two men filling bags with coal and turf and weighing
them on the great iron scale, a hundredweight in each bag. Its their job
to stack the bags on the float while Mr. Hannon goes to the office for
the delivery dockets. The bag men are fast and were ready for our
rounds. Mr. Hannon sits up on the left side of the float and flicks the
whip to show where Im to sit on the right side. Its hard to climb up
the way the float is so high and packed with bags and I try to get up by
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