Six Plays by Lady Florence Henrietta Fisher Darwin Part 44

JULIA is sitting at the foot of a tree in the wood. CHRIS, NAT and TANSIE are seated near her on the ground.

JULIA. I wish this day might last for always.

CHRIS. Why, when to-morrow's come, 'twill be the same.

JULIA. That it will not. To-day is a holiday. To-morrow's work.

TANSIE. One day 'tis much the same as t'other with me.

NAT. 'Tis what we gets to eat as do make the change.

TANSIE. I should have thought as how a grand young mistress like yourself might have had the days to your own liking.

JULIA. Ah, and so I did once. But that was before Uncle died and left me the farm. Now, 'tis all different with the days.

CHRIS. How was it with you afore then, mistress?

JULIA. Much the same as 'tis with that bird flying yonder. I did so as I listed. If I had a mind to sleep when the sun was up, then I did sleep. And if my limbs would not rest when 'twas dark, why, then I did roam. There was naught to hold me back from my fancy.

TANSIE. And how is it now with you, mistress?

JULIA. 'Tis all said in one word.

CHRIS. What's that?

JULIA. 'Tis "work."

NAT. Work?

CHRIS. Work?

TANSIE. Work! And yet 'tis a fine young lady as you do look in your muslin gown with silky ribbons to it and all.

JULIA. I'm a farmer, Tansie. And for a farmer 'tis work of one sort, or t'other from when the sun is up till the candle has burned itself short. If 'tisn't working with my own hands, 'tis driving of the hands of another.

CHRIS. I've heard tell as a farmer do spin gold all the day same as one of they great spiders as go putting out silk from their mouths.

JULIA. And what is gold to me, Chris, who have no one but myself to spend it on

CHRIS. Folks do say as the laying up of gold be one of the finest things in the world.

JULIA. It will never bring happiness to me, Chris.

CHRIS. Come, mistress, 'tis a fine thing to have a great stone roof above the head of you.

JULIA. I'd sooner get my shelter from the green leaves.

NAT. And a grand thing to have your victuals spread afore you each time 'stead of having to go lean very often.

JULIA. O, a handful of berries and a drink of fresh water is enough for me.

TANSIE. And beautiful it must be to stretch the limbs of you upon feathers when night do come down, with a fine white sheet drawn up over your head.

JULIA. O, I could rest more sweetly on the gra.s.s and moss yonder.

NAT. I did never sleep within four walls but once, and then 'twas in gaol.

JULIA. O Nat, you were never in gaol, were you?

NAT. 'Twas that they mistook I for another. And when the morning did come, they did let I go again.

CHRIS. I count 'twas a smartish long night, that!

NAT. 'Twas enough for to shew me how it do feel when anyone has got to bide sleeping with the walls all around of he.

JULIA. And the ceiling above, Nat. And locked door. And other folk lying breathing in the house, hard by. All dark and close.

CHRIS. And where us may lie, the air do run swift over we. We has the smell of the earth and the leaves on us as we do sleep. There baint no darkness for we, for the stars do blink all night through up yonder.

TANSIE. And no sound of other folk breathing but the crying of th'

owls and the foxes' bark.

JULIA. Ah, that must be a grand sound, the barking of a fox. I never did hear one. Never.

CHRIS. Ah, 'tis a powerful thin sound, that--but one to raise the hair on a man's head and to clam the flesh of he, at dead of night.

NAT. You come and bide along of we one evening, and you shall hearken to the fox, and badger too, if you've the mind.

JULIA. O that would please me more than anything in the world.

TANSIE. And when 'twas got a little lighter, so that the bushes could be seen, and the fields, I'd shew you where the partridge has her nest beneath the hedge; where we have gotten eggs, and eaten them too.

CHRIS. And I'll take and lead you to a place what I do know of, where the water flows clear as a diamond over the stones. And if you bides there waiting quiet you may take the fish as they come along-- and there's a dinner such as the Queen might not get every day of the week.

JULIA. O Chris, who is there to say I must bide in one place when all in me is thirsting to be in t'other!

CHRIS. I'm sure I don't know.

NAT. I should move about where I did like, if 'twas me.

TANSIE. A fine young lady like you can do as she pleases.

JULIA. Well then, it pleases me to bide with you in the free air.

CHRIS. Our life, 'tis a poor life, and wandering. 'Tis food one day, and may be going without the next. 'Tis the sun upon the faces of us one hour--and then the rain. But 'tis in freedom that us walks, and we be the masters of our own limbs.