He was waiting when it was Mickey's time to lunch, but he did not come,
and in desperation Junior really tried the street. At last he achieved a
nickel by snatching a dropped bundle from under a car. He sat a long time
in a stairway looking at it, and then having reached a stage where he was
more sick, and less hungry, he hunted a telephone booth and tried to get
his home, only to learn that the family was away. Gladdened by the thought
that they might be in the city, he walked miles, watching the curb before
stores where they shopped, searching for their car, and he told himself
that if he found it, nothing could separate him from the steering gear
until he sped past all regulation straight to his mother's cupboard.
He had wanted ham and chicken in the beginning; later helping himself to
cold food in the cellar seemed a luxury; then crackers and cookies in the
dining-room cupboard would have satisfied his wildest desire; and before
three o'clock, Junior, in mad rebellion, remembered his mother's slop
bucket.
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