In Shadow of the Glen | Page 9

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 #5 in our series by by J. M. Synge
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In the Shadow of the Glen
by J. M. Synge
January, 1999 [Etext #1618]
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