Why the Chimes Rang | Page 3

and warm it is! All ready for supper. (He hands the first bowl to BERTEL, STEEN _capers nimbly across the intervening space and seats himself on the side of the hearth, facing_ BERTEL, _his back to the audience_)
STEEN. Supper! How could we forget supper?--Give me a big bowlful, Holger.
HOLGER. (Handing STEEN _his porridge_) There isn't a big bowlful here.
STEEN. (_Taking the bowl and hugging it_) Nice kind good supper, umh! (_Begins to eat eagerly_)
HOLGER. (_Suddenly looking toward the door_) Listen!
BERTEL. To what?
HOLGER. (_Awed, hesitant_) Someone--sobbing--at the door! (_He goes to it, the others watching him startled, he opens the door, finds nothing, closes it and comes back_) Nothing there!
BERTEL. The wind!--Thy old tricks, Holger,--always dreaming some strange thing.
HOLGER. (Recalled by BERTEL'S _words to something else_) Didst thou pass an old woman on the road--near here?
BERTEL. Not a soul nearer than the town gate. (HOLGER _stands thinking, absorbed_) Come, boy, eat,--_eat_! See how Steen eats!
HOLGER. (_Breaks through his abstraction and reverts to his bright self_) Oh, Uncle Bertel,--I'm too glad to eat!
BERTEL. (_More seriously_) Thou art right, lad,--fasting were better than feasting this day in Tralsund!--they say,--do you know what they say in the town?
HOLGER. What?
BERTEL. They say--that to-night in the great church--when the offerings are laid upon the altar for the Christ child,--_something will happen_!
(STEEN _has finished his porridge, puts the bowl on the shelf near him, seizes his cloak and cap from the peg near the hearth and stands eager to be gone._)
HOLGER. What?
BERTEL. Who can say? All day the folk have been pouring into the town as never before. The market place is crowded, every inn is full. No church but the cathedral could hold such a multitude. Never have I seen such excitement, such fervor!
HOLGER. There will be many gifts!
BERTEL. --the rich are bringing their treasure, gold and jewels, king's ransoms, aye and the King comes. (BERTEL finishes his porridge and hands the bowl to STEEN)
HOLGER. The King?
BERTEL. The King Himself!
STEEN. Oh, and shall we see Him, Uncle, and the fine gifts and everything?
BERTEL. Why not?--Even the poorest may go up and give--what hast thou to offer?
STEEN. (_Abashed_) I?--Nothing! (Puts his porridge bowl and BERTEL'S _on the shelf then goes restlessly to the door_)
HOLGER. (_Breaking in with eagerness_) Oh, I have, see, Uncle? (_Feels in his pocket and brings out two pennies_) See!--Last week I was gathering sticks in the forest and a fine gentleman rode past and asked the way of me. I showed him the path and he gave me these! (_Holds up the pennies_)
BERTEL. (Rising and going to HOLGER _who is in the middle of the room_) Faith, real money in the family. (_Stoops and looks at the pennies as though they were a rare sight_)
STEEN. Oh, I thought we were going to buy cakes with those, Holger.
HOLGER. But it's better to give it to the Christ Child. You see He is a little child, smaller than even you,--and I think He would like a little gift,--a little bright gift that would buy cakes for Him. (HOLGER _goes toward the window and stands looking dreamily out at the lights of the church_)
BERTEL. Aye, to-night we must think of Him,--there in His Holy Church.
HOLGER. It is a holy place, the church!--I feel it every time I go,--it's like God's forest,--the pillars like old oaks and the great windows all colors like sunsets through the trees.
BERTEL. _'Tis_ like the forest.
HOLGER. And when the organ plays that's like a storm gathering in the mountains.
BERTEL. A storm?--Aye!--"The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of His feet!"--Why should He not do a wonder as of old? Perhaps the great miracle will come again!
HOLGER. Oh, which, Uncle?--There are so many in the Bible!
STEEN. Yes, which?--Would there be a whale now to swallow a priest?
BERTEL. Thou goosey! This was no Bible miracle,--it happened there, _there_, where we see the lights,--hundreds of years ago. (BERTEL has followed HOLGER to the window and STEEN _joins them. As he speaks_ BERTEL _slips his arms affectionately round both children and the three stand looking out. At this moment something stirs in the dim shadows that shroud the corner up above the fire-place. Suddenly out of the dark the_ OLD WOMAN _emerges. A tall figure, if she were not so bent, wrapped in a black cloak. There is nothing grotesque or sinister in her appearance, she might have stood for a statue of old age, impressive in its pathos. As she sits on the stool near the fire she throws back the cloak disclosing the plain straight dress of gray beneath. The light of the fire reveals her crouched, swaying back and forth praying silently, her face still shaded by the heavy hood of her cloak. The others gazing intently out at the church do