alarm clock; with a cry of joy._] My clock! My clock! [_Overcome with
emotion._] Oh! My clock! My clock! Can I take it in the house to finish
dinner?
ELOISE
[_In a hopeless voice._] Yes, take it away.
[_Beaming, ANNIE bears it to her kitchen. ELOISE now kneels behind
the grave of the sun-dial._
EDDY
Let us leave them alone with their dead.
[_Leads ALICE to the corner of the house; they look off down the
road. ELOISE and IAN sit there on either side of the grave, swaying
a little back and forth, as those who mourn._
ELOISE
[_Looking at grave._] I had thought life was going to be so beautiful.
IAN
It might have been.
ELOISE
[_Looking at empty pedestal._] I suppose it will never be beautiful
again.
IAN
It cannot be beautiful again.
[_Suddenly, with a cry, ELOISE gets up and darts to the house: comes
racing back with the alarm clock, snatches spade, desperately
begins to dig a grave._
ELOISE
Ian! Ian! Don’t you see what I’m doing? I’m willing to have a
first-hand relation with the sun even though it’s _not_ regular.
[_But IAN is as one who has lost hope. EDDY and ALICE turn to watch
the re-burial of the alarm clock. ANNIE strides in._
ANNIE
[_In no mood for feeling._] Where’s my alarm clock?
ELOISE
I am burying it.
ANNIE
Again? [_Looks at sun-dial._] And even the sun-clock’s gone?
EDDY
All is buried. Truth. Error. We have returned to the nothing from which
we came.
ANNIE
This settles it. Now I go. I leave.
[_Firm with purpose re-enters the house._
ALICE
[_Excitedly._] Eloise! She means it!
ELOISE
[_Dully._] I suppose she does.
[_Continues her grave digging._
ALICE
But you can’t get anybody else! You can’t _get_ anybody now. Oh, this
is madness. What does any of the rest of it matter if you have lost
your cook? [_To IAN._] Eloise can’t do the work! Peel potatoes--scrub.
What’s the difference what’s _true_ if you have to clean out your own
sink? [_Despairing of him she turns to ELOISE._] Eloise, stop fussing
about the moon and stars! You’re losing your _cook_!
[_ANNIE comes from the house with suit-case, shawl-strap and hand-bag
on long strings. Marches straight to left of stage, makes a face at
the sun, marches to gate left rear and off._
ALICE
Eddy, go _after_ her! Heavens! Has _no_ one a mind? Go _after_ her!
EDDY
What’s the good of going after her without a clock?
ALICE
Well, get a clock! For heaven’s sake, get a clock! Eloise, get off the
grave of the alarm clock! [_ELOISE stands like a monument. To EDDY._]
Well, there are graves all around you. Dig something else up. No! You
call her back. I’ll--
[_Snatches spade, which is resting against sun-dial pedestal, begins
to dig. EDDY stands at back, calling._
EDDY
Annie! Oh, Annie! _Wait_, Annie!
ALICE
[_While frantically digging._] Say something to _interest_ her,
imbecile!
EDDY
[_Stick in one hand, straw hat in the other, making wild signals with
both._] Come home, Annie! Clock! Clock! [_Giving up that job and
throwing off his coat._] You interest her and I’ll dig.
[_They change places._
ALICE
She’s most to the bend! Eddy, don’t you know how to _dig_?
[_EDDY, who has been digging with speed and skill, produces the clock
with which ELOISE’S grandmother started housekeeping. Starts to
dash off with it._
ELOISE
[_Dully._] That clock doesn’t keep time. Annie hates it.
IAN
[_As if irritated by all this inefficiency._] What she wants is the
alarm clock. Get off the grave, Eloise.
[_He disinters alarm clock and with it runs after ANNIE. ALICE draws
a long breath and rubs her back. EDDY brings the clock he dug up
and sets it on the pedestal. Then he looks down at the disturbed
graves._
EDDY
Here’s a watch! [_Lifts it from the grave; holds it out to ELOISE; she
does not take it. He puts it on the pedestal beside the clock._] Here’s
another watch. [_Holds up IAN’S watch._] Quite a valuable piece of
ground.
[_Now is heard the smothered voice of a cuckoo._
ALICE
[_Jumping._] What’s that?
ELOISE
The cuckoo. I suppose it’s lonesome.
ALICE
[_Outraged._] Cuckoo! [_Pointing._] In that grave? The cuckoo we gave
you? [_ELOISE nods._] You buried our wedding present? [_ELOISE again
nods. EDDY and ALICE draw together in indignation._] Well, I must say,
the people who try to lead the right kind of lives _always_ do the
wrong thing. [_Stiffly._] I am not accustomed to having my wedding
presents put in graves. Will you please dig it up, Eddy? It will do
very well on the mantel in our library. And my back nearly broken
digging for your cook!
[_She holds her back. While EDDY is digging up the cuckoo, ANNIE
and IAN appear and march across from gate to house, ANNIE
triumphantly bearing her alarm clock, IAN--a captive at her chariot
wheels--following with suit-case, shawl strap and long strings of
bag around his wrist. A moment later IAN comes out of the house,
looks at each dug-up thing, stands by the grave of the sun-dial.
Enter MRS. STUBBS._
MRS. STUBBS
Oh, Mr. Joyce, I’ve come to see your sun-clock again. Mr. Stubbs says
_he’ll_ not be run from Philadelphia. He says if you have got the time
straight from the sun--[_Sees that the sun-dial is gone._] Oh, do you
take it in at night?
IAN
The sun-dial lies buried there.
MRS. STUBBS
You’ve _buried_ the sun-clock? And dug up all the _wrong_ clocks?
[_With a withering glance at ELOISE._] That’s how a smart man’s
appreciated! What did you bury it for, Mr. Joyce?
[_EDDY gives the cuckoo clock to ALICE._
IAN
It cannot live in this world where no one wants truth or feeling about
truth. This is a world for clocks.
MRS. STUBBS
Well, _I_ want truth! And so does Johnnie Stubbs! If you’ll excuse
my saying so, Mr. Joyce, after you’ve made a thing that’s right you
oughtn’t to bury it, even if there is nobody to want it. And now that
_I_ want it--[_MRS. STUBBS takes the spade and begins to dig up the
sun-dial. IAN cannot resist this and helps her. He lifts the sun-dial,
she brushes it off and he fits it to its place on the pedestal._] Now
there it is, Mr. Joyce, and as good as if it had never seen the grave.
[_She looks at the setting sun._] And there’s time for it to make its
shadow before this sun has gone.
IAN
The simple mind has beauty.
ELOISE
[_Coming to him._] I want to be simpler.
MRS. STUBBS
Now what time would you say it was, Mr. Joyce?
IAN
I would say it was twenty minutes of seven, Mrs. Stubbs.
MRS. STUBBS
[_Looking at EDDY and ALICE and the cuckoo clock._] And _they_ would
say it was twenty minutes past six! Well, _I_ say: let them that want
sun time have sun time and them that want tick time have tick time.
[_ANNIE appears at the door._
ANNIE
[_In a flat voice._] It’s dinner time!
(CURTAIN)
* * * * *
Transcriber’s Notes:
The one illustration has been moved to a paragraph break near where it
is mentioned.
Punctuation has been made consistent.
Variations in spelling and hyphenation were retained as they appear in
the original publication, except that obvious typographical errors have
been corrected.
The following change was made:
p. 255: STEVE changed to HENRIETTA (Henrietta? HENRIETTA Why,)