Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: In Mizzoura | Page 8

last night. I'll try my own way now. It's all very well fur you, Kate, whose got the only muskeeter bar in the family--
LIZBETH. [_In the rocker._] Yes, and won't let your sister sleep with you--
KATE. I'll gladly give you the mosquito bar, Lizbeth, but two grown-up people can't sleep in a narrow single bed.
LIZBETH. I hope you don't s'pose I'd take it.
KATE. I gave you one to make the window frames.
MRS. VERNON. Well, kin the poor girl help that, Kate? Didn't the dogs jump through 'em? [_She indicates the ragged netting on the frame._
KATE. Why do you have the dogs about?
MRS. VERNON. Well, when you've lived as long as I have in Pike County, you'll know you got to have dogs if you leave your winders open. There--I've ironed another pearl button in two--yes, an' it's pulled a piece right out o' one o' yer pa's bosoms. That's 'cause I'm so tired, I can't see. Lizbeth, where's them prescriptions?
LIZBETH. In the yeast-powder box.
MRS. VERNON. Well, get one for me. [LIZBETH _gets box from over the stove._] I can't go on with this ironin' without some beer.
LIZBETH. Who'll go for it?
MRS. VERNON. Ask Dave--
LIZBETH. [_At door. Calls._] Dave!
DAVE. [_Off._] Yes, Lizbeth.
LIZBETH. Ma wants you to--
MRS. VERNON. Now, don't yawp it out to the whole neighbourhood, Lizbeth--tell Dave to come here.
LIZBETH. [_In a lower tone._] Come here!
MRS. VERNON. Give me the prescription. [LIZBETH _arranges the linen in the basket. Enter_ DAVE.] Dave, the ironin' an' the heat an' everything jes' about floored me--won't you go to the drug-store with this prescription, an' get me a quart bottle of St. Louis beer?
DAVE. [_Taking the prescription._] Certainly.
MRS. VERNON. I can't send the girls after dark.
DAVE. Oh, that's all right. [_Exits to street._
MRS. VERNON. [_Ironing again._] If your pa ever does get into the Legislature, I hope he'll defeat this blamed local auction business. It's all well enough for those Salvation women who ain't got a thing to do but pound tambourines, but if they had the washin', and ironin', an' cookin' to do for a fambly of six--an' three dogs--they'd need something to keep body an' soul together.
KATE. [_Going to street door._] How much longer shall you iron to-night?
MRS. VERNON. Why? Do you want the room?
KATE. Oh, no--but--
LIZBETH. Is Travers coming to-night, Kate? [_Sits in rocker._
KATE. I don't know who may come.
MRS. VERNON. What difference does it make who does come?
KATE. None, except that the room is filled with smoke and--is hot.
MRS. VERNON. Well, to my mind, Travers may as well get himself used to places that are hot and filled with smoke--fur if he ain't one of Old Nick's own ones, I never see any--
KATE. Mother!! Mr. Travers is a gentleman!
MRS. VERNON. How do you know? Four years to a female seminary don't make you a better judge of gentlemen than us who stay to home here. Your pa's a gentleman if he is a wheelwright--so is Jim Radburn--
LIZBETH. And Dave--
MRS. VERNON. Yes, and Dave--
KATE. But none of them is like Mr. Travers.
MRS. VERNON. No, thank God they ain't. Travers, Kate--[_Pause_] Travers--[_Pause_] and, mind you, I've seen men before you was born--Travers is as much like a gambler as any I ever saw.
KATE. [_Coming down._] Look here, mother--I've heard you say you had to run away from home with father because your people didn't like him--but that didn't make him any worse, did it?
MRS. VERNON. Well, it didn't make him any better, Kate, and I've regretted it from the bottom of my heart a hundred times--I want you to understand--[_Looks uneasily at door._] I've told it to him often enough--[_Lowering voice._] And if he was here I'd tell him again now--that I could ha' married a doctor.
LIZBETH. You're not calculatin' to run away with Travers, are you, Kate?
KATE. You know I'm not, Lizbeth--but I think you and mother might be a little more considerate in what you say. I try to make the place tidy and nice for your evenings with Dave, don't I?
LIZBETH. Well, I didn't mean nothin', Kate.
KATE. And I do my share of the housework. [_Goes to window. As her voice trembles,_ MRS. VERNON signals silence to LIZBETH.
MRS. VERNON. Of course you do, dear. Lizbeth, you oughtn't to be so thoughtless in what you say.
Enter DAVE _with beer._
DAVE. Here you are, Mrs. Vernon.
MRS. VERNON. Thank you, Dave--ask that old man in there if he'll have a glass.
DAVE. Yes'm. [_Exit to shop._
MRS. VERNON. We'll clear the place right up, Kate--don't feel bad about it.
KATE. You needn't, mother--if Mr. Travers calls, we can go walking. [_Goes to door._
MRS. VERNON. No, Kate, and I say it only fur your sake--I wouldn't have the people of Bowling Green see you trapsing the streets at night with a man you ain't knowed but a month, fur nothin'.
Enter JOE VERNON. JOE _is a six-footer, with