The Americans Part 9

Your way lies that way and our way lies this.

(_Patten, Maury, Cap Saunders and the boy go off through the darkness, right rear_)

HARVEY ANDERSON.

You must be hungry, pard.

HARRY EGERTON.

No, thank you, no, Nothing to eat.

HARVEY ANDERSON.

'Tain't much, but what it is You're welcome to it.

HARRY EGERTON.

(_Calling after the men_)

And you will go away And leave this great cause hanging in mid air?

VOICE OF SILAS MAURY.

Tend to your business and we'll tend to ours.

HARVEY ANDERSON.

Don't mind them; they're d.a.m.n fools.

HARRY EGERTON.

_You_ understand What I have tried to say unto these men; You understand, I know.

HARVEY ANDERSON.

I think I do.

HARRY EGERTON.

And something tells me we shall meet again.

HARVEY ANDERSON.

Who knows? I'm tramping round, to-day one place, To-morrow another. I'm a rolling stone.

I never have been one to keep the trails.

Just knock about the States and watch the plains For something--I don't know--and yet 'twill come, And when she comes she'll shake her good and hard.

I don't know what you're rolling in your mind, But, as you say, it's a great land we've got.

I like to lie and feel her under my back And know she tumbles to the double seas Up to her hips in mile on mile of wheat.

Beyond that moon are cities packed with men That overflow. The fields are filling up.

They're climbing up the mountains of the West----

HARRY EGERTON.

(_Looking after the men_)

And going on beyond them.

HARVEY ANDERSON.

It's all right.

They'll reach the coast off there or reach the ice, And then they'll have to turn or jump on off.

And they won't jump off. It's too fine a land.

Men throw away the hoofs but not the haunch.

I sometimes see them in the dead of night Crawling like ants along her big broad back, With axe and pick and plow, building their hills And pus.h.i.+ng on and on. It's a great land.

And bread tastes good that's eaten in her air.

And there's enough for all here----

HARRY EGERTON.

Yes, ah, yes!

HARVEY ANDERSON.

If we could just turn something upside down.

I don't know what you've heard along the waste, But when you think it's time to ring a change, And when you draft your men and call the roll, Write Harvey Anderson up near the top.

And here's my hand, pard. You can count on me.

HARRY EGERTON.

We'll meet again.

HARVEY ANDERSON.

Hope so. I like your face, And like the way you talk. Good-night.

HARRY EGERTON.

Good-night.

(_Harvey Anderson takes up his pack and cast and goes off through the darkness after the other men. For a long time Harry Egerton stands looking after him. The fire has burned low_)

HARRY EGERTON.

Not that, not that! And yet I know 'twill come.

My G.o.d! my G.o.d! Is there no way, no way?

(_Walks left and looks off up the valley_)