The Well of the Saints | Page 5

-- [amused, but incredulous.] -- There'll be wonders in this place, is it?
TIMMY. Here at the crossing of the roads.
MARTIN DOUL. I never heard tell of anything to happen in this place since the night they killed the old fellow going home with his gold, the Lord have mercy on him, and threw down his corpse into the bog. Let them not be doing the like of that this night, for it's ourselves have a right to the crossing roads, and we don't want any of your bad tricks, or your wonders either, for it's wonder enough we are ourselves.
TIMMY. If I'd a mind I'd be telling you of a real wonder this day, and the way you'll be having a great joy, maybe, you're not thinking on at all.
MARTIN DOUL -- [interested.] -- Are they putting up a still behind in the rocks? It'd be a grand thing if I'd sup handy the way I wouldn't be destroying myself groping up across the bogs in the rain falling.
TIMMY -- [still moodily.] -- It's not a still they're bringing, or the like of it either.
MARY DOUL -- [persuasively, to Timmy.] -- Maybe they're hanging a thief, above at the bit of a tree. I'm told it's a great sight to see a man hanging by his neck; but what joy would that be to ourselves, and we not seeing it at all?
TIMMY -- [more pleasantly.] -- They're hanging no one this day, Mary Doul, and yet, with the help of God, you'll see a power hanged before you die.
MARY DOUL. Well you've queer hum-bugging talk. . . . What way would I see a power hanged, and I a dark woman since the seventh year of my age?
TIMMY. Did ever you hear tell of a place across a bit of the sea, where there is an island, and the grave of the four beautiful saints?
MARY DOUL. I've heard people have walked round from the west and they speaking of that.
TIMMY -- [impressively.] -- There's a green ferny well, I'm told, behind of that place, and if you put a drop of the water out of it on the eyes of a blind man, you'll make him see as well as any person is walking the world.
MARTIN DOUL -- [with excitement.] -- Is that the truth, Timmy? I'm thinking you're telling a lie.
TIMMY -- [gruffly.] -- That's the truth, Martin Doul, and you may believe it now, for you're after believing a power of things weren't as likely at all.
MARY DOUL. Maybe we could send us a young lad to bring us the water. I could wash a naggin bottle in the morning, and I'm thinking Patch Ruadh would go for it, if we gave him a good drink, and the bit of money we have hid in the thatch.
TIMMY. It'd be no good to be sending a sinful man the like of ourselves, for I'm told the holiness of the water does be getting soiled with the villainy of your heart, the time you'd be carrying it, and you looking round on the girls, maybe, or drinking a small sup at a still.
MARTIN DOUL -- [with disappointment.] -- It'd be a long terrible way to be walking ourselves, and I'm thinking that's a wonder will bring small joy to us at all.
TIMMY -- [turning on him impatiently.] -- What is it you want with your walking? It's as deaf as blind you're growing if you're not after hearing me say it's in this place the wonder would be done.
MARTIN DOUL -- [with a flash of anger.] -- If it is can't you open the big slobbering mouth you have and say what way it'll be done, and not be making blather till the fall of night.
TIMMY -- [jumping up.] -- I'll be going on now (Mary Doul rises), and not wasting time talking civil talk with the like of you.
MARY DOUL -- [standing up, disguising her impatience.] -- Let you come here to me, Timmy, and not be minding him at all. (Timmy stops, and she gropes up to him and takes him by the coat).] You're not huffy with myself, and let you tell me the whole story and don't be fooling me more. . . . Is it yourself has brought us the water?
TIMMY. It is not, surely.
MARY DOUL. Then tell us your wonder, Timmy. . . . What person'll bring it at all?
TIMMY -- [relenting.] -- It's a fine holy man will bring it, a saint of the Almighty God.
MARY DOUL -- [overawed.] -- A saint is it?
TIMMY. Ay, a fine saint, who's going round through the churches of Ireland, with a long cloak on him, and naked feet, for he's brought a sup of the water slung at his side, and, with the like of him,