one might have died in, especially if they had the consumption. The man says, I’m very sorry, but beggars can’t be choosers. It takes us all day to haul the furniture on the pram from one end of Limerick to the other.There are four wheels on the pram but one is bockety, it wants to go in a different direction.We have two beds, one sideboard with a mirror, a table and two chairs.We’re happy with the house.We can walk from room to room and up and down the stairs.You feel very rich when you can go up and down the stairs all day as much as you please. Dad lights the fire and Mam makes the tea. He sits at the table on one chair, she sits on the other and Malachy and I sit on the trunk we brought from America.While we’re drinking our tea an old man passes our door with a bucket in his hand. He empties the bucket into the lavatory and flushes and there’s a powerful stink in our kitchen. Mam goes to the door and says,Why are you emptying your bucket in our  lavatory?  He  raises  his  cap  to  her. Your  lavatory, missus? Ah, no. You’re making a bit of a mistake there, ha, ha.This is not your lavatory. Sure, isn’t this the lavatory for the whole lane.You’ll see passing your door here the buckets of eleven families and I can tell you it gets very powerful  here  in  the  warm  weather,  very  powerful  altogether.  ’Tis December  now,  thank  God,  with  a  chill  in  the  air  and  Christmas around the corner and the lavatory isn’t that bad, but the day will come when you’ll be calling for a gas mask. So, good night to you, missus, and I hope you’ll be happy in your house. Mam says, Wait a minute, sir. Could you tell me who cleans this lavatory? Cleans? Ah, Jasus, that’s a good one. Cleans, she says. Is it joking you are? These houses were built in the time of Queen Victoria herself and if this lavatory was ever cleaned it must have been done by someone in the middle of the night when no one was lookin’. And he shuffles up the lane laughing away to himself. Mam comes back to her chair and her tea.We can’t stay here, she says.That lavatory will kill us with all diseases. Dad says,We can’t move again.Where will we get a house for six shillings  a  week? We’ll  keep  the  lavatory  clean  ourselves. We’ll  boil buckets of water and throw them in there. Oh, will we? says Mam, and where will we get the coal or turf or blocks to be boiling water? Dad says nothing. He finishes his tea and looks for a nail to hang our one picture.The man in the picture has a thin face. He wears a yel- 92