Is God our Father?"

"Yes, indeed," the lady answered.

"An' we are all His childther?"

"Assuredly."

"Would ye starve yer brother Tom?"

"Of course not."

"But ye don't mind s' much th' starvation of all yer other wee brothers
an' sisters on th' streets, do ye?"

There was a commotion behind the paper partition. The group stood in
breathless silence until the hunger question was put, then they
"dunched" each other and made faces. My father took a handful of my
hair, and gave it a good-natured but vigorous tug to prevent an
explosion.

"Oh, Anna!" she said, "you are mistaken; I would starve nobody--and far
be it from me to accuse--"

"Accuse," said Anna, raising her gentle voice. "Why, acushla, nobody
needs t' accuse th' poor; th' guilty need no accuser. We're convicted by
bein' poor, by bein' born poor an' dying poor, aren't we now?"

"With the Lord there is neither rich nor poor, Anna."

"Aye, an' that's no news to me, but with good folks like you it's
different."

"No, indeed, I assure you I think that exactly."

"Well, now, if it makes no diff'rence, dear, why do ye come down Pogue's
entry like a bailiff or a process-sarver?"

"I didn't, I just hinted--"

"Aye, ye hinted an' a wink's as good as a nod to a blind horse. Now tell
me truly an' cross yer heart--wud ye go to Ballycraigie doore an' talk
t' wee Willie Chaine as ye talked t' my bhoy jist now?"

"No--"

"No, 'deed ye wudn't for th' wudn't let ye, but because we've no choice
ye come down here like a petty sessions-magistrate an' make my bhoy feel
like a thief because he goes like a crow an' picks a wild cherry or a
sloe that wud rot on the tree. D'ye know Luke thirteen an' nineteen?"

The lady opened her Bible, but before she found the passage Anna was
reading from her old yellow backless Bible about the birds that lodged
in the branches of the trees.

"Did they pay aany rent?" she asked as she closed the book. "Did th'
foxes have leases fur their holes?"

"No."

"No, indeed, an' d'ye think He cares less fur boys than birds?"

"Oh, no."

"Oh, no, an' ye know rightly that everything aroun' Antrim is jist a
demesne full o' pheasants an' rabbits for them quality t' shoot, an' we
git thransported if we get a male whin we're hungry!"

The lady was tender-hearted and full of sympathy, but she hadn't
traveled along the same road as Anna and didn't know. Behind the screen
the group was jubilant, but when they saw the sympathy on the t