Caught on a Train: Part 6

By CARLO GEBLER

Our privy was a seat with a hole above a dry toilet. Every month a man came and emptied the toilet for sixpence. If we didn't have a sixpence then my father did it. It was near the end of the month so the privy was full.

I held the candle over the hole and looked down. Sometimes a rat would fall in and be swimming around in the mess. You had to watch out for that. They could jump up and give you a nasty bite you-know-where. But I say nothing moving in the muck. The smell was awful, of course. I did what I had to do.

My mother got old roses from the market and stewed the leaves for hours to make the rosewater in the bucket in the corner; she said it kept down the smell in the privy. I didn't think it make the slightest bit of difference but I poured a little down, then I went back out into the yard.

Publisher: Mammoth

Price: $16.95

Age group: 10 plus years