Three Plays: The Fiddler's House, The Land, Thomas Muskerry Part 17

There are benches around fireplace_.

_It is the afternoon of a May day. Sally Cosgar is kneeling, near the entrance chopping up cabbage-leaves with a kitchen-knife. She is a girl of twenty-five, dark, heavily built, with the expression of a half-awakened creature. She is coa.r.s.ely dressed, and has a sacking ap.r.o.n. She is quick at work, and rapid and impetuous in speech. She is talking to herself_.

SALLY Oh, you may go on grunting, yourself and your litter, it won't put me a bit past my own time. You oul' black baste of a sow, sure I'm slaving to you all the spring. We'll be getting rid of yourself and your litter soon enough, and may the devil get you when we lose you.

_Cornelius comes to the door. He is a tall young man with a slight stoop. His manners are solemn, and his expression somewhat vacant_.

CORNELIUS Good morrow, Sally. May you have the good of the day.

_(He comes in)_

SALLY _(impetuously)_ Ah, G.o.d reward you, Cornelius Douras, for coming in. I'm that busy keeping food to a sow and a litter of pigs that I couldn't get beyond the gate to see any one.

CORNELIUS _(solemnly)_ You're a good girl, Sally. You're not like some I know. There are girls in this parish who never put hands to a thing till evening, when the boys do be coming in. Then they begin to stir themselves the way they'll be thought busy and good about a house.

SALLY _(pleased and beginning to chop again with renewed energy)_ Oh, it's true indeed for you, Cornelius. There are girls that be decking themselves, and sporting are themselves all day.

CORNELIUS I may say that I come over to your father's, Murtagh Cosgar's house, this morning, thinking to meet the men.

SALLY What men, Cornelius Douras?

CORNELIUS Them that are going to meet the landlord's people with an offer for the land. We're not buying ourselves, unfortunately, but this is a great day--the day of the redemption, my father calls it--and I'd like to have some hand in the work if it was only to say a few words to the men.

SALLY It's a wonder Martin, your father isn't on the one errand with you.

CORNELIUS We came out together, but the priest stopped father and us on the road. Father Bartley wanted his advice, I suppose. Ah, it's a pity the men won't have some one like my father with them! He was in gaol for the Cause. Besides, he's a well-discoursed man, and a reading man, and, moreover, a man with a cla.s.sical knowledge of English, Latin, and the Hibernian vernacular.

_Martin Douras comes in. He is a man of about sixty, with a refined, scholarly look. His manner is subdued and nervous. He has a stoop, and is clean-shaven._

CORNELIUS I was just telling Sally here what a great day it is, father.

MARTIN DOURAS Ay, it's a great day, no matter what our own troubles may be. I should be going home again. _(He takes a newspaper out of his pocket, and leaves it on the table)_

CORNELIUS Wait for the men, father.

MARTIN DOURAS Maybe they'll be here soon. Is Murtagh in, Sally?

_Cornelius takes the paper up, and begins to read it_.

SALLY He's down at the bottoms, Martin.

MARTIN DOURAS He's going to Arvach Fair, maybe.

SALLY He is in troth.

MARTIN DOURAS I'll be asking him for a lift. He'll be going to the Fair when he come back from the lawyer's, I suppose?

Ay, he'll be going to-night. _(She gathers the chopped cabbage into her ap.r.o.n, and goes to the door)_

SALLY _(at the door)_ Cornelius.

_Cornelius puts down the paper, and goes to the door. Sally goes out_.

MARTIN DOURAS Cornelius!

_Cornelius goes to Martin_.

SALLY _(outside)_ Cornelius, give me a hand with this.

_Cornelius turns again_.

MARTIN DOURAS Cornelius, I want to speak to you.

_Cornelius goes to him_.

MARTIN DOURAS There is something on my mind, Cornelius.

CORNELIUS What is it, father?

MARTIN DOURAS It's about our Ellen. Father Bartley gave me news for her.

"I've heard of a school that'll suit Ellen," says he. "It's in the County Leitrim."

CORNELIUS If it was in Dublin itself, Ellen is qualified to take it on. And won't it be grand to have one of our family teaching in a school?

MARTIN DOURAS _(with a sigh)_ I wouldn't stand in her way, Cornelius; I wouldn't stand in her way. But won't it be a poor thing for an old man like me to have no one to discourse with in the long evenings?

For when I'm talking with you, Cornelius, I feel like a boy who lends back all the marbles he's won, and plays again, just for the sake of the game.

CORNELIUS We were in dread of Ellen going to America at one time, and then she went in for the school. Now Matt Cosgar may keep her from the school. Maybe we won't have to go further than this house to see Ellen.

MARTIN DOURAS I'm hoping it'll be like that; but I'm in dread that Murtagh Cosgar will never agree to it. He's a hard man to deal with.

Still Murtagh and myself will be on the long road to-night, and we might talk of it. I'm afeard of Ellen going.

CORNELIUS _(at the door)_ It's herself that's coming here, father.

MARTIN DOURAS Maybe she has heard the news and is coming to tell us.

_Ellen comes in. She has a shawl over her head which she lays aside.

She is about twenty-five, slightly built, nervous, emotional_.

ELLEN Is it only ourselves that's here?

MARTIN DOURAS Only ourselves. Did you get any news to bring you over, Ellen?

ELLEN No news. It was the s.h.i.+ne of the day that brought me out; and I was thinking, too, of the girls that are going to America in the morning, and that made me restless.

_Martin and Cornelius look significantly at each other_.

MARTIN DOURAS And did you see Matt, Ellen?

ELLEN He was in the field and I coming up; but I did not wait for him, as I don't want people to see us together. _(Restlessly)_ I don't know how I can come into this house, for it's always like Murtagh Cosgar. There's nothing of Matt in it at all. If Matt would come away.

There are little labourers' houses by the side of the road. Many's the farmer's son became a labourer for the sake of a woman he cared for!