Rose of Tralee Read Online Free PDF Page B

could set on me easy. An’ suppose I couldn’t get the money owed an’ your brother thought I’d put it in me pocket?’
    Cook, who had gone to the table and was scribbling a note as she had promised, shook her head, folded the paper and came back to the doorway. ‘No, it isn’t done like that, young feller. When you take an order, there’s a bill in wit’ it. Then during the week the feller who delivers collects the money owed. All you have to do is hand over the bill, see? No messin’ around wit’ change, no fear of gettin’ things wrong. But it seems you’re a trustable young feller an’ me brother needs someone he can trust. Well? D’you want this note?’ She waved it at him. ‘It’s only Saturdays but you’ll mebbe get as much as t’ree bob if it’s a long day.’
    ‘T’ree bob!’ Colm said. His mind made itself up forhim at the very thought of such riches. ‘Thanks, ma’am ... I’ll go round there just as soon as we’ve tek the money back to our mammy.’
    ‘Good. Mind, I’m not promisin’ anything, because me brother might ha’ got someone else in the meantime. But you’re polite, tidy and well-spoken and because of me recommendation you’ve a good chance o’ the job.’
    ‘Right. Many thanks, ma’am,’ Colm said eagerly and turned away from the door. What an opportunity! Like most lads, he’d done his share of earning small sums of money by breaking up empty boxes from the quays and fruit markets, and selling the wood as kindling, or selling newspapers, or running messages, but delivering was a proper job, the sort that paid real money. And I’m only thirteen, he reminded himself as he and Caitlin hurried back along the way they had come. Mammy will be so pleased if I get the job.
    He voiced the thought aloud to Caitlin, who said: ‘Mammy does her washing on a Saturday, Colly, so she can look after me an’ you won’t have to drag me round, devil a bit you will.’
    ‘That’s true,’ Colm said, forgetting to tell her that ‘devil’ was a naughty word not suitable for a young lady such as herself. ‘Shall we go round to York Street on our way home, alanna? Will you be very good and quiet whiles I talk to the feller?’
    ‘Quiet as a mouse,’ Caitlin said at once. ‘Oh, won’t Mammy be pleased when you tell her you’ve got the job, Colly!’
    She was. ‘Wait until I tell your daddy,’ she kept saying when he told her he had the job, her eyes shining. ‘He wants you to go to England wit’ himwhen you’re a man growed, but if you’re good, an’ do as you’re told, you’ll mebbe have a job in butchery for the rest of your life. Then you won’t have to leave Dublin.’
    Being a butcher didn’t appeal particularly to Colm, but he did not say so. Indeed, he was so shocked to hear that his father planned to carry him off over the water to dig railway lines and such that he decided, over the matter of his future, to keep his own counsel. After all, he was only thirteen; there was time enough to think about it.
    What was more, he liked Mr Savage, the butcher, and Mr Savage seemed to like him. At any rate he had not quibbled over giving him the job and had added that he would pay half a crown a day, with extra for overtime. ‘It’s good money for a lad of thirteen,’ he observed. ‘You can ride a bike? It’s quicker’n footin’ it.’
    ‘Sure it is,’ Colm agreed, for like most boys of his age, though he had never owned a bicycle he had had ‘goes’ on other people’s. ‘But the bike, Mr Savage . . . will I be hirin’ one from ole Whalen on North King Street? Only I don’t have one of me own.’
    Mr Savage laughed. ‘I keep a delivery bike wit’ me name on it,’ he said cheerfully. ‘’Tis a big ’un, but you’ll manage, I don’t doubt.’
    So on the Saturday following Colm started his new job and by the end of the day he had done well, big bike and all. The basket on the front made it a cumbersome vehicle, but when it was full and too heavy for