In Shadow of the Glen | Page 9

you be getting up into your bed, and not be taking
your death with the wind blowing on you, and the rain with it, and you
half in your skin.
DAN It's proud and happy you'ld be if I was getting my death the day I
was shut of yourself. (Pointing to the door.) Let you walk out through
that door, I'm telling you, and let you not be passing this way if it's
hungry you are, or wanting a bed.
TRAMP [Pointing to Micheal.] Maybe himself would take her.
NORA What would he do with me now?
TRAMP Give you the half of a dry bed, and good food in your mouth.
DAN Is it a fool you think him, stranger, or is it a fool you were born
yourself? Let her walk out of that door, and let you go along with her,
stranger -- if it's raining itself -- for it's too much talk you have surely.
TRAMP [Going over to Nora.] We'll be going now, lady of the house --
the rain is falling, but the air is kind and maybe it'll be a grand morning
by the grace of God.
NORA What good is a grand morning when I'm destroyed surely, and I
going out to get my death walking the roads?
TRAMP You'll not be getting your death with myself, lady of the house,
and I knowing all the ways a man can put food in his mouth. . . . We'll
be going now, I'm telling you, and the time you'll be feeling the cold,
and the frost, and the great rain, and the sun again, and the south wind
blowing in the glens, you'll not be sitting up on a wet ditch, the way
you're after sitting in the place, making yourself old with looking on
each day, and it passing you by. You'll be saying one time, "It's a grand
evening, by the grace of God," and another time, "It's a wild night, God
help us, but it'll pass surely." You'll be saying --
DAN [Goes over to them crying out impatiently.] Go out of that door,
I'm telling you, and do your blathering below in the glen.
[Nora gathers a few things into her shawl.]
TRAMP [At the door.] Come along with me now, lady of the house,
and it's not my blather you'll be hearing only, but you'll be hearing the
herons crying out over the black lakes, and you'll be hearing the grouse
and the owls with them, and the larks and the big thrushes when the
days are warm, and it's not from the like of them you'll be hearing a talk
of getting old like Peggy Cavanagh, and losing the hair off you, and the

light of your eyes, but it's fine songs you'll be hearing when the sun
goes up, and there'll be no old fellow wheezing, the like of a sick sheep,
close to your ear.
NORA I'm thinking it's myself will be wheezing that time with lying
down under the Heavens when the night is cold; but you've a fine bit of
talk, stranger, and it's with yourself I'll go. (She goes towards the door,
then turns to Dan.) You think it's a grand thing you're after doing with
your letting on to be dead, but what is it at all? What way would a
woman live in a lonesome place the like of this place, and she not
making a talk with the men passing? And what way will yourself live
from this day, with none to care for you? What is it you'll have now but
a black life, Daniel Burke, and it's not long I'm telling you, till you'll be
lying again under that sheet, and you dead surely.
[She goes out with the Tramp. Micheal is slinking after them, but Dan
stops him.]
DAN Sit down now and take a little taste of the stuff, Micheal Dara.
There's a great drouth on me, and the night is young.
MICHEAL [Coming back to the table.] And it's very dry I am, surely,
with the fear of death you put on me, and I after driving mountain ewes
since the turn of the day.
DAN [Throwing away his stick.] I was thinking to strike you, Micheal
Dara, but you're a quiet man, God help you, and I don't mind you at all.
[He pours out two glasses of whisky, and gives one to Micheal.]
DAN Your good health, Micheal Dara.
MICHEAL God reward you, Daniel Burke, and may you have a long
life, and a quiet life, and good health with it.
[They drink.]
CURTAIN.

End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of In the Shadow of the Glen. The
Project Gutenberg Etext of In the Shadow of the Glen by Synge