Ernie Tarn has been working all fall and now it is a week before Christmas in Newfoundland in the early 1900s. He's been saving up enough to buy a $1 pair of screw-heel skates like those he saw in Mr. Walker's shop window last Christmas. Ernie lives alone with his widowed mother.
On Christmas Eve, Ernie walks to the merchant's store just as the last barrel of shipped goods is about to be opened. When the top comes off the barrel, there is a pair of nickel-plated skates, much fancier than the old screw-heel model, but equally dazzling is a bird-shaped butter cooler, a rooster, as exquisite as one could imagine. This rooster reminds Ernie of the plain butter cooler his father had given his mother a few years ago. It looked forlorn sitting on the mantel in the parlour.
Then out comes the bill of lading: $1 butter coolers, $5 skates. Ernie asks to feel the sharpness of the skates-real skates, made for real hockey players. But it is out of reach. However, the fancy rooster, the dicky bird dish-porcelain, not glass-is something he can afford.
With the most heart-wrenching surprise at the end, Ron Pollett has created the Christmas masterpiece. The Dicky Bird Dish will leave you with tears in your eyes as you reach for the tissues.
