MRS. TARPEY. I know it well. That's the song that has a skin on
it!
(_She turns her back to them and goes on arranging her apples._)
MRS. FALLON. Where's herself, Jack Smith?
JACK SMITH. She was delayed with her washing; bleaching the
clothes on the hedge she is, and she daren't leave them, with all
the tinkers that do be passing to the fair. It isn't to the fair
I came myself, but up to the Five-Acre Meadow I'm going, where I
have a contract for the hay. We'll get a share of it into tramps
to-day.
(_He lays down hayfork and lights his pipe._)
BARTLEY. You will not get it into tramps to-day. The rain will be
down on it by evening, and on myself too. It's seldom I ever
started on a journey but the rain would come down on me before
I'd find any place of shelter.
JACK SMITH. If it didn't itself, Bartley, it is my belief you
would carry a leaky pail on your head in place of a hat, the way
you'd not be without some cause of complaining.
(_A voice heard: "Go on, now, go on out o' that. Go on, I say."_)
JACK SMITH. Look at that young mare of Pat Ryan's that is backing
into Shaughnessy's bullocks with the dint of the crowd! Don't be
daunted, Pat, I'll give you a hand with her. (_He goes out,
leaving his hayfork._)
MRS. FALLON. It's time for ourselves to be going home. I have all
I bought put in the basket. Look at there, Jack Smith's hayfork
he left after him! He'll be wanting it. (_Calls_) Jack Smith! Jack
Smith!--He's gone through the crowd; hurry after him, Bartley,
he'll be wanting it.
BARTLEY. I'll do that. This is no safe place to be leaving it.
(_He takes up fork awkwardly and upsets the basket._) Look at that
now! If there is any basket in the fair upset, it must be our own
basket! (_He goes out to right._)
MRS. FALLON. Get out of that! It is your own fault, it is. Talk
of misfortunes and misfortunes will come. Glory be! Look at my
new egg-cups rolling in every part--and my two pound of sugar
with the paper broke--
MRS. TARPEY (_turning from stall_). God help us, Mrs. Fallon, what
happened your basket?
MRS. FALLON. It's himself that knocked it down, bad manners to
him. (_Putting things up_) My grand sugar that's destroyed, and
he'll not drink his tea without it. I had best go back to the
shop for more, much good may it do him!
(_Enter_ TIM CASEY.)
TIM CASEY. Where is Bartley Fallon, Mrs. Fallon? I want a word
with him before he'll leave the fair. I was afraid he might have
gone home by this, for he's a temperate man.
MRS. FALLON. I wish he did go home! It'd be best for me if he
went home straight from the fair green, or if he never came with
me at all! Where is he, is it? He's gone up the road (_jerks
elbow_) following Jack Smith with a hayfork.
(_She goes out to left._)
TIM CASEY. Following Jack Smith with a hayfork! Did ever anyone
hear the like of that. (_Shouts_) Did you hear that news, Mrs.
Tarpey?
MRS. TARPEY. I heard no news at all.
TIM CASEY. Some dispute I suppose it was that rose between Jack
Smith and Bartley Fallon, and it seems Jack made off, and Bartley
is following him with a hayfork!
MRS. TARPEY. Is he now? Well, that was quick work! It's not ten
minutes since the two of them were here, Bartley going home and
Jack going to the Five-Acre Meadow; and I had my apples to settle
up, that Jo Muldoon of the police had scattered, and when I
looked round again Jack Smith was gone, and Bartley Fallon was
gone, and Mrs. Fallon's basket upset, and all in it strewed upon
the ground--the tea here--the two pound of sugar there--the
egg-cups there. Look, now, what a great hardship the deafness
puts upon me, that I didn't hear the commincement of the fight!
Wait till I tell James Ryan that I see below; he is a neighbor of
Bartley's; it would be a pity if he wouldn't hear the news!
(_She goes out. Enter_ SHAWN EARLY _and_ MRS. TULLY.)
TIM CASEY. Listen, Shawn Early! Listen, Mrs. Tully, to the news!
Jack Smith and Bartley Fallon had a falling out, and Jack knocked
Mrs. Fallon's basket into the road, and Bartley made an attack on
him with a hayfork, and away with Jack, and Bartley after him.
Look at the sugar here yet on the road!
SHAWN EARLY. Do you tell me so? Well, that's a queer thing, and
Bartley Fallen so quiet a man!
MRS. TULLY. I wouldn't wonder at all. I would never think well of
a man that would have that sort of a moldering look. It's likely
he has overtaken Jack by this.
(_Enter_ JAMES RYAN _and_ MRS. TARPEY.)
JAMES RYAN. That is great news Mrs. Tarpey was telling me! I
suppose that's what brought the police and the magistrate up this
way. I was wondering to see them in it a while ago.
SHAWN EARLY. The police after them? Bartley Fallen must have
injured Jack so. They wouldn't meddle in a fight that was only
for show!
MRS. TULLY. Why wouldn't he injure him? There was many a man
killed with no more of a weapon than a hayfork.
JAMES RYAN. Wait till I run north as far as Kelly's bar to spread
the news!
(_He goes out._)
TIM CASEY. I'll go tell Jack Smith's first cousin that is
standing there south of the church after selling his lambs.
(_Goes out._)
MRS. TULLY. I'll go telling a few of the neighbors I see beyond
to the west.
(_Goes out._)
SHAWN EARLY. I'll give word of it beyond at the east of the
green.
(_Is going out when MRS. TARPEY seizes hold of him._)
MRS. TARPEY. Stop a minute, Shawn Early, and tell me did you see
red Jack Smith's wife, Kitty Keary, in any place?
SHAWN EARLY. I did. At her own house she was, drying clothes on
the hedge as I passed.
MRS. TARPEY. What did you say she was doing?
SHAWN EARLY (_breaking away_). Laying out a sheet on the hedge.
(_He goes._)
MRS. TARPEY. Laying out a sheet for the dead! The Lord have mercy
on us! Jack Smith dead, and his wife laying out a sheet for his
burying! (_Calls out_) Why didn't you tell me that before, Shawn
Early? Isn't the deafness the great hardship? Half the world
might be dead without me knowing of it or getting word of it at
all! (_She sits down and rocks herself._) O my poor Jack Smith! To
be going to his work so nice and so hearty, and to be left
stretched on the ground in the full light of the day!
(_Enter_ TIM CASEY.)
TIM CASEY. What is it, Mrs. Tarpey? What happened since?
MRS. TARPEY. O my poor Jack Smith!
TIM CASEY. Did Bartley overtake him?
MRS. TARPEY. O the poor man!
TIM CASEY. Is it killed he is?
MRS. TARPEY. Stretched in the Five-Acre Meadow!
TIM CASEY. The Lord have mercy on us! Is that a fact?
MRS. TARPEY. Without the rites of the Church or a ha'porth!
TIM CASEY. Who was telling you?
MRS. TARPEY. And the wife laying out a sheet for his corpse.
(_Sits up and wipes her eyes._) I suppose they'll wake him the same
as another?
(_Enter_ MRS. TULLY, SHAWN EARLY, _and_ JAMES RYAN.)
MRS. TULLY. There is great talk about this work in every quarter
of the fair.
MRS. TARPEY. Ochone! cold and dead. And myself maybe the last he
was speaking to!
JAMES RYAN. The Lord save us! Is it dead he is?
TIM CASEY. Dead surely, and the wife getting provision for the
wake.
SHAWN EARLY. Well, now, hadn't Bartley Fallon great venom in him?
MRS. TULLY. You may be sure he had some cause. Why would he have
made an end of him if he had not? (_To MRS. TARPEY, raising her
voice_) What was it rose the dispute at all, Mrs. Tarpey?
MRS. TARPEY. Not a one of me knows. The last I saw of them, Jack
Smith was standing there, and Bartley Fallon was standing there,
quiet and easy, and he listening to "The Red-haired Man's Wife."
MRS. TULLY. Do you hear that, Tim Casey? Do you hear that, Shawn
Early and James Ryan? Bartley Fallon was here this morning
listening to red Jack Smith's wife, Kitty Keary that was!
Listening to her and whispering with her! It was she started the
fight so!
SHAWN EARLY. She must have followed him from her own house. It is
likely some person roused him.
TIM CASEY. I never knew, before, Bartley Fallon was great with
Jack Smith's wife.
MRS. TULLY. How would you know it? Sure it's not in the streets
they would be calling it. If Mrs. Fallon didn't know of it, and
if I that have the next house to them didn't know of it, and if
Jack Smith himself didn't know of it, it is not likely you would
know of it, Tim Casey.
SHAWN EARLY. Let Bartley Fallon take charge of her from this out
so, and let him provide for her. It is little pity she will get
from any person in this parish.
TIM CASEY. How can he take charge of her? Sure he has a wife of
his own. Sure you don't think he'd turn souper and marry her in a
Protestant church?
JAMES RYAN. It would be easy for him to marry her if he brought
her to America.
SHAWN EARLY. With or without Kitty Keary, believe me, it is for
America he's making at this minute. I saw the new magistrate and
Jo Muldoon of the police going into the post-office as I came
up--there was hurry on them--you may be sure it was to telegraph
they went, the way he'll be stopped in the docks at Queenstown!
MRS. TULLY. It's likely Kitty Keary is gone with him, and not
minding a sheet or a wake at all. The poor man, to be deserted by
his own wife, and the breath hardly gone out yet from his body
that is lying bloody in the field!
(_Enter_ MRS. FALLON.)
MRS. FALLON. What is it the whole of the town is talking about?
And what is it you yourselves are talking about? Is it about my
man Bartley Fallon you are talking? Is it lies about him you are
telling, saying that he went killing Jack Smith? My grief that
ever he came into this place at all!
JAMES RYAN. Be easy now, Mrs. Fallon. Sure there is no one at all
in the whole fair but is sorry for you!
MRS. FALLON. Sorry for me, is it? Why would anyone be sorry for
me? Let you be sorry for yourselves, and that there may be shame
on you forever and at the day of judgment, for the words you are
saying and the lies you are telling to take away the character of
my poor man, and to take the good name off of him, and to drive
him to destruction! That is what you are doing!
SHAWN EARLY. Take comfort now, Mrs. Fallon. The police are not so
smart as they think. Sure he might give them the slip yet, the
same as Lynchehaun.
MRS. TULLY. If they do get him, and if they do put a rope around
his neck, there is no one can say he does not deserve it!
MRS. FALLON. Is that what you are saying, Bridget Tully, and is
that what you think? I tell you it's too much talk you have,
making yourself out to be such a great one, and to be running
down every respectable person! A rope, is it? It isn't much of a
rope was needed to tie up your own furniture the day you came
into Martin Tully's house, and you never bringing as much as a
blanket, or a penny, or a suit of clothes with you, and I myself
bringing seventy pounds and two feather beds. And now you are
stiffer than a woman would have a hundred pounds! It is too much
talk the whole of you have. A rope is it? I tell you the whole of
this town is full of liars and schemers that would hang you up
for half a glass of whiskey (_turning to go_). People they are you
wouldn't believe as much as daylight from, without you'd get up
to have a look at it yourself. Killing Jack Smith indeed! Where
are you at all, Bartley, till I bring you out of this? My nice
quiet little man! My decent comrade! He that is as kind and as
harmless as an innocent beast of the field! He'll be doing no
harm at all if he'll shed the blood of some of you after this
day's work! That much would be no harm at all. (_Calls out_)
Bartley! Bartley Fallen! Where are you? (_Going out_) Did anyone
see Bartley Fallon?
(_All turn to look after her._)
JAMES RYAN. It is hard for her to believe any such a thing, God
help her!
(_Enter BARTLEY FALLON from right, carrying hayfork._)
BARTLEY. It is what I often said to myself, if there is ever any
misfortune coming to this world it is on myself it is sure to
come!
(_All turn round and face him._)
BARTLEY. To be going about with this fork and to find no one to
take it, and no place to leave it down, and I wanting to be gone
out of this--Is that you, Shawn Early?
(_Holds out fork._) It's well I met you. You have no call to be
leaving the fair for a while the way I have, and how can I go
till I'm rid of this fork? Will you take it and keep it until
such time as Jack Smith--
SHAWN EARLY (_backing_). I will not take it, Bartley Fallon, I'm
very thankful to you!
BARTLEY (_turning to apple stall_). Look at it now, Mrs. Tarpey, it
was here I got it; let me thrust it in under the stall. It will
lie there safe enough, and no one will take notice of it until
such time as Jack Smith--
MRS. TARPEY. Take your fork out of that! Is it to put trouble on
me and to destroy me you want? putting it there for the police to
be rooting it out maybe.
(_Thrusts him back._)
BARTLEY. That is a very unneighborly thing for you to do, Mrs.
Tarpey. Hadn't I enough care on me with that fork before this,
running up and down with it like the swinging of a clock, and
afeard to lay it down in any place! I wish I'd never touched it
or meddled with it at all!
JAMES RYAN. It is a pity, indeed, you ever did.
BARTLEY. Will you yourself take it, James Ryan? You were always a
neighborly man.
JAMES RYAN (_backing_). There is many a thing I would do for you,
Bartley Fallon, but I won't do that!
SHAWN EARLY. I tell you there is no man will give you any help or
any encouragement for this day's work. If it was something
agrarian now--
BARTLEY. If no one at all will take it, maybe it's best to give
it up to the police.
TIM CASEY. There'd be a welcome for it with them surely!
(_Laughter._)
MRS. TULLY. And it is to the police Kitty Keary herself will be
brought.
MRS. TARPEY (_rocking to and fro_). I wonder now who will take the
expense of the wake for poor Jack Smith?
BARTLEY. The wake for Jack Smith!
TIM CASEY. Why wouldn't he get a wake as well as another? Would
you begrudge him that much?
BARTLEY. Red Jack Smith dead! Who was telling you?
SHAWN EARLY. The whole town knows of it by this.
BARTLEY. Do they say what way did he die?
JAMES RYAN. You don't know that yourself, I suppose, Bartley
Fallon? You don't know he was followed and that he was laid dead
with the stab of a hayfork?
BARTLEY. The stab of a hayfork!
SHAWN EARLY. You don't know, I suppose, that the body was found
in the Five-Acre Meadow?
BARTLEY. The Five-Acre Meadow!
TIM CASEY. It is likely you don't know that the police are after
the man that did it?
BARTLEY. The man that did it!
MRS. TULLY. You don't know, maybe, that he was made away with for
the sake of Kitty Keary, his wife?