good time.We trot around to the church where they have statues of St. Joseph himself as well as the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Virgin Mary and St. Thérèse  of  Lisieux,  the  Little  Flower.  I  pray  to  the  Little  Flower because she died of the consumption herself and she’d understand. One of our prayers must have been powerful because Brenda stays alive and doesn’t die till the second day of school.We tell Mickey we’re sorry for his troubles but he’s delighted with his week off and he gets the black diamond patch which will bring the money and sweets. My mouth is watering at the thought of the feast at Brenda’s wake. Billy knocks on the door and there’s Mickey’s aunt.Well? We came to say a prayer for Brenda and Mickey said we could come to the wake. She yells, Mickey! What? Come here. Did you tell this gang they could come to your sister’s wake? No. But, Mickey, you promised . . . She slams the door in our faces.We don’t know what to do till Billy Campbell says, We’ll go back to St. Joseph’s and pray that from now on  everyone  in  Mickey  Spellacy’s  family  will  die  in  the  middle  of the summer and he’ll never get a day off from school for the rest of his life. One of our prayers is surely powerful because next summer Mickey himself is carried off by the galloping consumption and he doesn’t get a day off from school and that will surely teach him a lesson. Proddy Woddy ring the bell, Not for heaven but for hell. On Sunday mornings in Limerick I watch them go to church, the Protestants, and I feel sorry for them, especially the girls, who are so lovely, they have such beautiful white teeth. I feel sorry for the beauti- ful Protestant girls, they’re doomed.That’s what the priests tell us. Out- side the Catholic Church there is no salvation. Outside the Catholic Church there is nothing but doom.And I want to save them. Protestant girl,  come  with  me  to  the True  Church. You’ll  be  saved  and  you won’t have the doom.After Mass on Sunday I go with my friend Billy 172