Caught on a Train: Part 2

By CARLO GEBLER

I opened my eyes. My first thought, as always, was - has James wet the bed? He was only four years old and when he woke in the night he was too frightened to go and sit on the chamber-pot by himself.

Sometimes he would wake me and ask me to take him. But sometimes he would just do it in the bed. I stretched my arm over Peter and felt under James. No. the mattress was dry. You see, we didn't have a sheet. We'd only the one and the girls got that.

Tap, tap, tap, I heard again, and then I heard Pat Sweeney's low voice in the alley below, 'Hey, Archie O'Hanlon, get up and show your face. I haven't got all night to stand around waiting for you to get up.'

I hopped out of bed. The floorboards were gritty and cold. I shivered. We had a bit of old sack which hung down over the window for a curtain. I lifted it up.

Publisher: Mammoth

Price: $16.95

Age group: 10 plus years