The Fourth Series Plays | Page 3

STRANGWAY. [Producing a sixpence] There!
MERCY. [Throwing it down-passionately] I want my skylark!
STRANGWAY. God made this poor bird for the sky and the grass.
And you put it in that! Never cage any wild thing! Never!
MERCY. [Faint and sullen] I want my skylark.
STRANGWAY. [Taking the cage to the door] No! [He holds up the
cage and opens it] Off you go, poor thing!
[The bird flies out and away. The girls watch with round eyes the fling
up of his arm, and the freed bird flying away.]
IVY. I'm glad!
[MERCY kicks her viciously and sobs. STRANGWAY comes from the
door, looks at MERCY sobbing, and suddenly clasps his head. The

girls watch him with a queer mixture of wonder, alarm, and
disapproval.]
GLADYS. [Whispering] Don't cry, Mercy. Bobbie'll soon catch yu
another.
[STRANGWAY has dropped his hands, and is looking again at
MERCY. IVY sits with hands clasped, gazing at STRANGWAY.
MERCY continues her artificial sobbing.]
STRANGWAY. [Quietly] The class is over for to-day.
[He goes up to MERCY, and holds out his hand. She does not take it,
and runs out knuckling her eyes. STRANGWAY turns on his heel and
goes into the house.]
CONNIE. 'Twasn't his bird.
IVY. Skylarks belong to the sky. Mr. Strangway said so.
GLADYS. Not when they'm caught, they don't.
IVY. They du.
CONNIE. 'Twas her bird.
IVY. He gave her sixpence for it.
GLADYS. She didn't take it.
CONNIE. There it is on the ground.
IVY. She might have.
GLADYS. He'll p'raps take my squirrel, tu.
IVY. The bird sang--I 'eard it! Right up in the sky. It wouldn't have
sanged if it weren't glad.
GLADYS. Well, Mercy cried.
IVY. I don't care.
GLADYS. 'Tis a shame! And I know something. Mrs. Strangway's at
Durford.
CONNIE. She's--never!
GLADYS. I saw her yesterday. An' if she's there she ought to be here. I
told mother, an' she said: "Yu mind yer business." An' when she goes in
to market to-morrow she'm goin' to see. An' if she's really there, mother
says, 'tis a fine tu-du an' a praaper scandal. So I know a lot more'n yu
du.
[Ivy stares at her.]
CONNIE. Mrs. Strangway told mother she was goin' to France for the
winter because her mother was ill.
GLADYS. 'Tisn't, winter now--Ascension Day. I saw her cumin' out o'

Dr. Desert's house. I know 'twas her because she had on a blue dress an'
a proud luke. Mother says the doctor come over here tu often before
Mrs. Strangway went away, just afore Christmas. They was old
sweethearts before she married Mr. Strangway. [To Ivy] 'Twas yure
mother told mother that.
[Ivy gazes at them more and more wide-eyed.]
CONNIE. Father says if Mrs. Bradmere an' the old Rector knew about
the doctor, they wouldn't 'ave Mr. Strangway 'ere for curate any longer;
because mother says it takes more'n a year for a gude wife to leave her
'usband, an' 'e so fond of her. But 'tisn't no business of ours, father says.
GLADYS. Mother says so tu. She's praaper set against gossip. She'll
know all about it to-morrow after market.
IVY. [Stamping her foot] I don't want to 'ear nothin' at all; I don't, an' I
won't.
[A rather shame faced silence falls on the girls.]
GLADYS. [In a quick whisper] 'Ere's Mrs. Burlacombe.
[There enters fawn the house a stout motherly woman with a round
grey eye and very red cheeks.]
MRS. BURLACOMBE. Ivy, take Mr. Strangway his ink, or we'll never
'eve no sermon to-night. He'm in his thinkin' box, but 'tis not a bit o'
yuse 'im thinkin' without 'is ink. [She hands her daughter an inkpot and
blotting-pad. Ivy Takes them and goes out] What ever's this? [She picks
up the little bird-cage.]
GLADYS. 'Tis Mercy Jarland's. Mr. Strangway let her skylark go.
MRS. BURLACOMBE. Aw! Did 'e now? Serve 'er right, bringin' an
'eathen bird to confirmation class.
CONNIE. I'll take it to her.
MRS. BURLACOMBE. No. Yu leave it there, an' let Mr. Strangway du
what 'e likes with it. Bringin' a bird like that! Well 'I never!
[The girls, perceiving that they have lighted on stony soil, look at each
other and slide towards the door.]
MRS. BURLACOMBE. Yes, yu just be off, an' think on what yu've
been told in class, an' be'ave like Christians, that's gude maids. An'
don't yu come no more in the 'avenin's dancin' them 'eathen dances in
my barn, naighther, till after yu'm confirmed--'tisn't right. I've told Ivy I
won't 'ave it.
CONNIE. Mr. Strangway don't mind--he likes us to; 'twas Mrs.

Strangway began teachin' us. He's goin' to give a prize.
MRS. BURLACOMBE. Yu just du what I tell yu an' never mind Mr.
Strangway--he'm tu kind to everyone. D'yu think I don't know how
gells oughter