Religion: Altar Boy

For a long time James Walsh knew what he wanted to do most. He wanted to be an altar boy, and wear a long cassock, and move about near the altar of St. Michael’s Church, in Newark, N. J., quietly so that the people at mass would say to each other: “That’s Jimmy Walsh. He’s a swell altar boy.” It would be nice also to touch the bright golden cross and to feel the close presence of the chalice.

He went to ask the priest who had charge of the altar boys, who said that Jimmy was too young. “In a few years we’ll see,” said Father Hannan. In a few days Jimmy came back to the Church. Father Hannan was away, and Father Orsini said that since it was too rainy for any of the regular altar boys to come Jimmy could put on a cassock this once. So at evening benediction James Walsh stood up solemnly near the altar for a while. He enjoyed it greatly, but perhaps, he thought, God would punish him for his vanity.

The next night at supper, he said: “I guess I have to be at church every evening now.” Then, thinking of how much he would enjoy moving about the holy place again he started out.

On his way to the church, a car ran into Jimmy Walsh and killed him.

After he was dead, they put him near the altar wrapped in an altar boy’s cassock and surplice.