Chapter 15
What Roddy Dawe Told William

I was fifteen in November. I spent my birthday under this boat. My uncle made the boat. I may as well claim it. Nobody else has. I can use it.

People look at me. Some pity me. I heard a woman near the shoe factory say I've been prowling like a starved cat since I was seven. But it hasn't been that long. I was ten when my mother died of diphtheria. I'm small for my age.

I spend some cold nights in the lock-up. This winter it's hard to get in there. It's full of sealers and homeless kids like me. The fire halls are filled as well. It's a good winter for company. Everyone says this is the worst winter for cold and snow they can remember. I'm lucky I have my boat.

I steal food on the docks at night. I get pork, and bread, and fish, and flour, and molasses. I make a fire and heat a tin of molasses water.

The other day a girl gave me this paper. She wasn't going to. I was so ragged she thought I couldn't read. But I can. My sister Peggy taught me. The woman was giving these green bits of paper out at the bottom of Cochrane Street. She had black hair and a plump throat. I could smell perfume on her. There was a girl with her. You wouldn't notice that one so much. She called the first one Kate, and Kate called her Gertie.

The green paper said, "We will rejoice in thy salvation and in the name of our God we will set up our banners." She gave it to me with white gloves on. I noticed the gloves because they made my hands look so black.

I asked her what kind of banners. I like banners and fireworks. I asked her if there was going to be a parade.

She said no. It just meant people in her church had to tell about Jesus. I asked her what church. She said Methodist. She had a hymn book in her coat. She showed it to me.

She said they were new hymn books. They had to raise a lot of money to buy them. She said there was a tall new preacher. He said they should not spend money on new books. They should spend it on the poor. She looked in my eyes. I could smell her hair. She seemed sorry about her book. So I told her it was nice.

She had to go. She told me she might write in her diary about me. I said will you show me after you write it?

First she said no. She said she never showed anyone her diary. Then she said since I was gentle she'd think on it. She said meet me here tomorrow at noon. I might show you. And she did. So I saw what Kate put in her diary.