The Well of the Saints | Page 6

any little drop is enough to cure the dying, or to make the blind see as clear as the gray hawks do be high up, on a still day, sailing the sky.
MARTIN DOUL -- [feeling for his stick.] -- What place is he, Timmy? I'll be walking to him now.
TIMMY. Let you stay quiet, Martin. He's straying around saying prayers at the churches and high crosses, between this place and the hills, and he with a great crowd go- ing behind -- for it's fine prayers he does be saying, and fasting with it, till he's as thin as one of the empty rushes you have there on your knee; then he'll be coming after to this place to cure the two of you -- we're after telling him the way you are -- and to say his prayers in the church.
MARTIN DOUL -- [turning suddenly to Mary Doul.] -- And we'll be seeing ourselves this day. Oh, glory be to God, is it true surely?
MARY DOUL -- [very pleased, to Timmy.] -- Maybe I'd have time to walk down and get the big shawl I have below, for I do look my best, I've heard them say, when I'm dressed up with that thing on my head.
TIMMY. You'd have time surely.
MARTIN DOUL -- [listening.] Whisht now. . . . I hear people again coming by the stream.
TIMMY -- [looking out left, puzzled.] -- It's the young girls I left walking after the Saint. . . . They're coming now (goes up to entrance) carrying things in their hands, and they walking as easy as you'd see a child walk who'd have a dozen eggs hid in her bib.
MARTIN DOUL -- [listening.] -- That's Molly Byrne, I'm thinking.
[Molly Byrne and Bride come on left and cross to Martin Doul, carrying water-can, Saint's bell, and cloak.]
MOLLY -- [volubly.] -- God bless you, Martin. I've holy water here, from the grave of the four saints of the west, will have you cured in a short while and seeing like ourselves.
TIMMY -- [crosses to Molly, interrupting her.] -- He's heard that. God help you. But where at all is the Saint, and what way is he after trusting the holy water with the likes of you?
MOLLY BYRNE. He was afeard to go a far way with the clouds is coming beyond, so he's gone up now through the thick woods to say a prayer at the crosses of Grianan, and he's coming on this road to the church.
TIMMY -- [still astonished.] -- And he's after leaving the holy water with the two of you? It's a wonder, surely. [Comes down left a little.]
MOLLY BYRNE. The lads told him no person could carry them things through the briars, and steep, slippy-feeling rocks he'll be climbing above, so he looked round then, and gave the water, and his big cloak, and his bell to the two of us, for young girls, says he, are the cleanest holy people you'd see walking the world. [Mary Doul goes near seat.]
MARY DOUL -- [sits down, laughing to herself.] -- Well, the Saint's a simple fellow, and it's no lie.
MARTIN DOUL -- [leaning forward, holding out his hands.] -- Let you give me the water in my hand, Molly Byrne, the way I'll know you have it surely.
MOLLY BYRNE -- [giving it to him.] -- Wonders is queer things, and maybe it'd cure you, and you holding it alone.
MARTIN DOUL -- [looking round.] -- It does not, Molly. I'm not seeing at all. (He shakes the can.) There's a small sup only. Well, isn't it a great wonder the little trifling thing would bring seeing to the blind, and be showing us the big women and the young girls, and all the fine things is walking the world.
[He feels for Mary Doul and gives her the can.]
MARY DOUL -- [shaking it.] -- Well, glory be to God.
MARTIN DOUL -- [pointing to Bride.] -- And what is it herself has, making sounds in her hand?
BRIDE -- [crossing to Martin Doul.] -- It's the Saint's bell; you'll hear him ringing out the time he'll be going up some place, to be saying his prayers.
[Martin Doul holds out his hand; she gives it to him.]
MARTIN DOUL -- [ringing it.] -- It's a sweet, beautiful sound.
MARY DOUL. You'd know, I'm thinking, by the little silvery voice of it, a fasting holy man was after carrying it a great way at his side.
[Bride crosses a little right behind Martin Doul.]
MOLLY BYRNE -- [unfolding Saint's cloak.] -- Let you stand up now, Martin Doul, till I put his big cloak on you. (Martin Doul rises, comes forward, centre a little.) The way we'd see how you'd look, and you a saint of the Almighty God.
MARTIN DOUL -- [standing up, a little diffidently.] -- I've heard