Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/169



E had always been called "Hungry"—Hungry Dooley. Just how he came by this name no one knew. It was thought by many to have been inspired by the boy's thin, wistful-looking face, with its restless eyes and queer little outstanding cheekbones. Others, again, held that the name sprang from Hungry's passion for carting away envied loads of luscious fruit and delectable vegetables, picked up along the river front. These he disappeared with into the dim recesses of an East Side cellar which he dignified by the name of home.

For Hungry, besides being an everyday wharf rat, was the stay and support of three even hungrier-looking sisters and a sickly mother, to say nothing of an alcoholic father 157