The two rungs in the front of the chair I sat on were missing and I could swing my legs in and out as fast as I wanted. I was calculating in my head what I would buy at Uncle Will's shop with my fifty cents.

Five Union Squares – they were my favourite – soft marshmallow squares, pink and white and covered with sugar. Oh yes, I can get those delicious licorice – ten of these I can afford, and ring sticks. I'd have as many rings as Selina who had one on nearly all her fingers, because her father owned the store. I could also afford a few chocolate mice for Nanna, who never grew up when it came to eating candy, especially chocolate mice. That must be who I inherited my sweet tooth from. No common candy for me today; that was okay when you only had a cent.

The outside door rattled and my heart ceased to beat. Was Neddy coming too? Neddy was my cousin from up the road. But I didn't hear another sound, only a chair being moved upstairs. Oh, the agony! Wouldn't Uncle George ever come down?

I was imagining Uncle George kneeling by the bed saying his prayers, because everything had gone quiet upstairs. I spoke for the first time. "Aunt Sue, do you think Uncle George is getting up?"

"Yes, me maid, he'll be down in a minute. 'Tis cold up there and that's the thing he don't like since he got old."

Then there was a sound like thunder. I nearly jumped out of my skin. "He's killed, Aunt Sue!"

She didn't move. She just looked at me and laughed. "Das the rock he keeps in the bed to keep it warm. Seems he dropped it."

I "scrouged" around on the chair until the seat must be gone out of my pants, my legs swinging faster than the pendulum on the clock.

I felt like running upstairs, but one would never do that, so I just sat there praying silently that Neddy wouldn't get there before Uncle George got downstairs.

I heard the porch door open and I said to myself, "That's it. The little devil is here. Now I'll have to share my money." I had never been lucky enough to get it because Neddy was "bolder" than I was, and he'd open the hall door and call out, but I could not do that, chicken that I was.