The Little Dream | Page 9

that am never the
same? It cannot be.
SEELCHEN. Listen!
The chime of THE COWBELLS is heard again.
LAMOND. [Jealously] The music' of dull sleep! Has life, then, with me
been sorrow?
SEELCHEN. I do not regret.
LAMOND. Come!
SEELCHEN. [Pointing-to her breast] The bird is tired with flying.
[Touching her lips] The flowers have no dew.
LAMOND. Would you leave me?
SEELCHEN. See!
There, in a streak of the dawn, against the plane tree is seen the
Shepherd of THE COW HORN, standing wrapped in his mountain
cloak.
LAMOND. What is it?
SEELCHEN. He!
LAMOND. There is nothing. [He holds her fast] I have shown you the
marvels of my town--the gay, the bitter wonders. We have known life.
If with you I may no longer live, then let us die! See! Here are sweet

Deaths by Slumber and by Drowning!
The mandolin twangs out, and from the dim doorway of the Inn come
forth the shadowy forms. DEATH BY SLUMBER, and DEATH BY
DROWNING. who to a ghostly twanging of mandolins dance slowly
towards SEELCHEN. stand smiling at her, and as slowly dance away.
SEELCHEN. [Following] Yes. They are good and sweet.
While she moves towards the Inn. LAMOND'S face becomes
transfigured with joy. But just as she reaches the doorway. there is a
distant chiming of bells and blowing of pipes, and the Shepherd of
THE COW HORN sings:
"To the wild grass come, and the dull far roar Of the falling rock; to the
flowery meads Of thy mountain home, where the eagles soar, And the
grizzled flock in the sunshine feeds. To the Alp, where I, in the pale
light crowned With the moon's thin horns, to my pasture roam; To the
silent sky, and the wistful sound Of the rosy dawns---my daughter,
come!"
While HE sings, the sun has risen; and SEELCHEN has turned. with
parted lips, and hands stretched out; and the forms of death have
vanished.
SEELCHEN. I come.
LAMOND. [Clasping her knees] Little soul! Must I then die, like a
gnat when the sun goes down? Without you I am nothing.
SEELCHEN. [Releasing herself] Poor heart--I am gone!
LAMOND. It is dark. [He covers his face with his cloak].
Then as SEELCHEN reaches the Shepherd of THE COW HORN, there
is blown a long note of a pipe; the scene falls back; and there rises a far,
continual, mingled sound of Cowbells, and Flower Bells, and Pipes.

SCENE IV
The scene slowly brightens with the misty flush of dawn. SEELCHEN
stands on a green alp, with all around, nothing but blue sky. A slip of a
crescent moon is lying on her back. On a low rock sits a brown faced
GOATHERD blowing on a pipe, and the four Flower-children are
dancing in their shifts of grey white. and blue, rose-pink, and
burnt-gold. Their bells are ringing. as they pelt each other with flowers
of their own colours; and each in turn, wheeling, flings one flower at
SEELCHEN, who puts them to her lips and eyes.

SEELCHEN. The dew! [She moves towards the rock] Goatherd!
But THE FLOWERS encircle him; and when they wheel away he has
vanished. She turns to THE FLOWERS, but they too vanish. The veils
of mist are rising.
SEELCHEN. Gone! [She rubs her eyes; then turning once more to the
rock, sees FELSMAN standing there, with his arms folded] Thou!
FELSMAN. So thou hast come--like a sick heifer to be healed. Was it
good in the Town--that kept thee so long?
SEELCHEN. I do not regret.
FELSMAN. Why then return?
SEELCHEN. I was tired.
FELSMAN. Never again shalt thou go from me!
SEELCHEN. [Mocking] With what wilt thou keep me?
FELSMAN. [Grasping her] Thus.
SEELCHEN. I have known Change--I am no timid maid.
FELSMAN. [Moodily] Aye, thou art different. Thine eyes are hollow
--thou art white-faced.
SEELCHEN. [Still mocking] Then what hast thou here that shall keep
me?
FELSMAN. The sun.
SEELCHEN. To burn me.
FELSMAN. The air.
There is a faint wailing of wind.
SEELCHEN. To freeze me.
FELSMAN. The silence.
The noise of the wind dies away.
SEELCHEN. Yes, it is lonely.
FELSMAN. Wait! And the flowers shall dance to thee.
And to a ringing of their bells. THE FLOWERS come dancing; till, one
by one, they cease, and sink down, nodding, falling asleep.
SEELCHEN. See! Even they grow sleepy here!
FELSMAN. I will call the goats to wake them.
THE GOATHERD is seen again sitting upright on his rock and piping.
And there come four little brown, wild-eyed, naked Boys, with Goat's
legs and feet, who dance gravely in and out of The Sleeping Flowers;
and THE FLOWERS wake, spring up, and fly. Till each Goat, catching
his flower has vanished, and THE GOATHERD has ceased to pipe, and

lies motionless again on his rock.