profit, but would show out good and have some grandeur around them.
Those goats now! Browsing on the blossoms of the bushes they would be,
or the herbs that give out a sweet smell. Stir yourself, Staffy, and
throw your eye on that turf beyond in the corner. It is that wet you
could wring from it splashes and streams. Let you rise the ashes
from the sods are on the hearth and redden them with a goosewing, if
there is a goosewing to be found. There is no greater beauty to be
met with than the leaping of a little yellow flame.
_Staffy:_ In my opinion there will no pay-day come for this work,
but only a thank-you job; a County Clare payment, 'God spare you the
health!'
_Delia:_ Let you do it, Ralph so. _(Takes potatoes from a sieve.)_
A roasted potato would be a nice thing to put before him, in the
place of this old crust of a loaf. Put them in now around the sods,
the way they will be crispy before him.
_Ralph: (Taking them.)_ And the way he will see you are a good
housekeeper and will mind well anything he might think fit to give.
_Delia: (At clock.)_ I'll set to the right time of day the two
hands of the clock are pointing a full hour before the sun. Take,
Staffy, that pair of shoes and lessen from them the clay of the land.
That much of doing will not break your heart. He will be as proud as
the fallen angels seeing the way we have all set out before him.
_(A harsh laugh is heard at inner door. They turn and see Damer
watching them.)_
_Ralph:_ Glory be to God!
_Delia:_ It is Damer was within all the time!
_Staffy:_ What are you talking about, Delia? It is Patrick you
were meaning to say.
_Damer:_ Let her go on prattling out Damer to my face, as it is
often she called it behind my shoulders. Damer the chandler, the
miser got the spoil of the Danes, that was mocked at since the time
of the Danes. I know well herself and the world have me christened
with that nickname.
_Ralph:_ Ah, it is not to dispraise you they put it on you, but to
show you out so wealthy and so rich.
_Damer:_ I am thinking it is not love of my four bones brings you
on this day under my thatch?
_Staffy:_ We heard tell you were after being destroyed with a
jennet.
_Damer:_ Picking up newses and tidings of me ye do be. It is short
the delay was on you coming.
_Delia:_ And I after travelling through the most of the day on the
head of you being wounded and hurt, thinking you to be grieving to
see one of your own! And I in dread of my life stealing past your
wicked dog.
_Damer:_ My joy he is, scaring you with his bark! If it wasn't for
him you would have me clogged and tormented, coming in and bothering
me every whole minute.
_Delia:_ There is no person in Ireland only yourself but would
have as much welcome for me to-day as on the first day ever they saw
me!
_Damer:_ What's that you are doing with my broom?
_Delia:_ To do away with the spider's webs I did, where the
shelves were looped with them and smothered. Look at all that came
off of that pack of cards.
_Damer:_ What call had you to do away with them, and they
belonging to myself? Is it to bleed to death I should and I to get a
tip of a billhook or a slasher? You and your vagaries to have left
me bare, that I would be without means to quench the blood, and it
to rise up from my veins and to scatter on every side!
_Delia:_ Is it that you are without e'er a rag, and that ancient
coat to be hanging on the wall?
_Damer:_ The place swept to flitters! What is that man of yours
doing and he handling my turf?
_Ralph:_ It was herself thought to be serviceable to you, setting
out the fuel that was full of dampness where it would get an air of
the fire.
_Damer:_ To dry it is it? _(Seizes sods and takes them from the
hearth.)_ And what length would it be without being burned and
consumed and it not to be wet putting it on? _(Pours water over it.)_
And I after stacking it purposely in the corner where there does be
a drip from the thatch.
_Ralph:_ She but thought it would be more answerable to you being
dry.
_Damer:_ What way could I bear the expense of a fire on the hearth
and it to leave smouldering and to break out into a blaze? A month's
cutting maybe to go to ashes within three minutes, and into wisps of
smoke. And the price of turf in this year gone wild out of measure,
and it packed so roguish you could read the printed speeches on the
paper through the sods you do be buying in the creel.
_Staffy:_ I was saying myself not to meddle with it. It is hurry
is a worse friend than delay.
_Damer:_ Where did you get those spuds are roasting there upon
the hearth?
_Ralph:_ Herself that brought them out from the sieve, thinking to
make ready your meal.
_Damer:_ My seed potatoes! Samples I got from the guardians and
asked in the shops and in stores till I'd gather enough to set a few
ridges in the gardens would serve me through the length of the year!
_Delia:_ Let you be satisfied so with your mouldy bit of loaf.
_(Breaks a bit from it and hands it to him.)_
_Damer:_ Do not be breaking it so wasteful! The mice to have news
there was as much as that of crumbs in the house, they would be
running the same as chickens around the floor!
_Ralph:_ Thinking to be comfortable to you she was, the way you
would make us welcome from this out.
_Damer:_ Which of ye is after meddling with my clock?
_Delia:_ It was a full hour before its time.
_Darner:_ It to be beyond its time, wouldn't that save fire and
candles sending me to my bed early in the night? Leave down those
boots! _(Takes them from Staffy.)_ Is it that you are wearing out
the uppers with scraping at them and scratching! Is it to rob me ye
are come into this place?
_Delia:_ I tell you we only came in getting word that you were
done and dying.
_Damer:_ Ha! Is it to think I was dying ye did? Well, I am not. I
am not so easy quenched. Strength and courage I have, to keep a fast
grip of what I own.
_Delia:_ Let you not be talking that way! We are no grabbers and
no thieves!
_Damer:_ I have it in my mind that ye are. Very ravenous to run
through my money ye are.
_Delia:_ The world knows I am not ravenous! I never gave my heart
to silver or to gold but only to the thing it would bring in. But to
hold from me the thing my heart is craving after, you might as well
blacken the hearth.
_Damer:_ Striving to scare me out of my courage and my wits, the
way I'll give in to go making my will.
_Ralph:_ She would not be wishful you to do that the time your
mind would be vexed.
_Damer:_ I'll make it, sick or sound, if I have a mind to make it.
_Delia:_ Little thanks you'll get from me if you make it or do not
make it. That is the naked truth.
_Damer:_ The whole of ye think yourselves to be very managing and
very wise!
_Delia:_ Let you go will it so to an asylum for fools.
_Damer:_ Why wouldn't I? It is in the asylums all the sense is
these times. There is only the fools left outside.
_Delia:_ You to bestow it outside of your own kindred for to
benefit and comfort your soul, all the world will say it is that you
had it gathered together by fraud.
_Staffy:_ Do not be annoying him now.
_Delia:_ I will not. But the time he will be lying under the
flagstone, it is holly rods and brambles will spring up from out of
his thorny heart.
_Damer:_ A hasty, cranky woman in the house is worse than you to
lay your hand upon red coals! I know well your tongue that is as
sharp as the sickle of the moon!
_Delia:_ The character you will leave after you will be worse out
and out than Herod's!
_Damer:_ The devil upon the winds she is! That one was born into
the world having the use of the bow and arrows!
_Delia:_ You not to give fair play to your own, it is a pitiful
ghost will appear in your image, questing and craving our prayers!
_Damer:_ I know well what is your aim and your drift!
_Delia:_ I say any man has a right to give thanks to the heavens,
and he having decent people to will his means to, in place of people
having no call to it.
_Damer:_ Whoever I'll will it to will have call to it!
_Delia:_ Or to part with it to low people and to mean people, and
you having it to give.
_Damer:_ Having it to give is it? Do you see that lock on the door?
_Delia:_ I do see it and have eyes to see it.
_Damer:_ Can you make any guess what is inside of it?
_Delia:_ It is likely it is what there is so much talk about, your
own full gallon of gold.
_(Ralph takes off his hat.)_
_Damer:_ Lay now your eye to that lock hole.
_Ralph: (Looking through keyhole.)_ It is all dusky within. It
fails me to see any shining thing.
_(Staffy and Delia put their eyes to keyhole but draw back
disappointed.)_
_Darner:_ If you cannot see it, try can you get the smell of it.
Take a good draw of it now; lay your head along the hinges of the
door. So now ye may quit and scamper out of this, the whole throng
of ye, robbers and hangmen and bankbreakers, bargers and bad
characters, and you may believe me telling you that is the nearest
ye ever will come to my gold!
_(He bangs back into room locking door after him.)_
_Delia:_ He has no more nature than the brutes of the field,
hunting and howling after us.
_Staffy:_ Yourself that rose him out of his wits and his senses.
We will sup sorrow for this day's work where he will put curses
after us. It is best for us go back to my place. It may be to-morrow
that his anger will be cured up.
_Ralph:_ I thought it was to lay him out with candles we were
brought here. I declare I came nearer furnishing out a corpse myself
with the start I got.
_Delia:_ There is no dread on me. When he gets in humour I will
tackle up again to him. It is too far I came to be facing back to
Loughtyshassy and I fasting from the price of my goats! Little
collars I was thinking to buckle around their neck the same as a
lady's lapdog, and maybe so far as a small clear-sounding bell.
_(They go out, Damer comes back. He puts on clock, rakes out fire,
picks up potatoes and puts them back in sieve, takes bread into his
room. There is a knock at the door. Then it is cautiously opened and
Simon Niland comes in, and stands near the hearth. Damer comes back
and sees him.)_
_Damer:_ What are you looking for?
_Simon:_ For what I won't get seemingly, that is a welcome.
_Damer:_ Maybe it's for fists you are looking?
_Simon:_ It is not, before I will get my rest. I couldn't box
to-night if I was the Queen of England.
_Damer:_ Have you any traffic with that congregation is after
going out?
_Simon:_ I seen no person good or bad, but a dog and it on the
chain.
_Damer:_ You to have in you any of the breed of the Kirwans that
is my own, I'd rise the tongs and pitch you out from the door!
_Simon:_ I suppose you would not begrudge me to rest myself for a
while, _(Sits down.)_
_Damer:_ I'll give leave to no strolling vagabond to sit in any
place at all.
_Simon:_ All right so.
_(Tosses a coin he takes from his pocket, tied in a spotted
handkerchief.)_
_Damer:_ What's that you're doing?
_Simon:_ Pitching a coin I was to see would it bid me go west or
east.
_Damer:_ Go toss outside so.
_Simon: (Stooping and groping.)_ I will after I will find it.
_Damer:_ Hurry on now.
_Simon:_ Wait till I'll kindle a match.
_(Lights one and picks up coin.)_
_Damer:_ What is that in your hand?
_Simon:_ You should know.
_Damer:_ Is it gold it is?
_Simon:_ It is all I have of means in the world. I never handled a
coin before it, but my bite to be given me and my bed.
_Damer:_ You'll mind it well if you have sense.
_Simon:_ It is towards the east it bade me go. I'll travel as far
as the races of Knockbarron to-morrow.
_Damer:_ You'll be apt to lose it going to races.
_Simon:_ I'll go bet with it, and see what way will it turn out.
_Damer:_ You to set all you own upon a horse that might fail at
the leaps! It is a very foolish thing doing that.
_Simon:_ It might not. Some have luck and are born lucky and more
have run through their luck. If I lose it, it is lost. It would not
keep me long anyway. I to win, I will have more and plenty.
_Damer:_ You will surely lose it.
_Simon:_ If I do I have nothing to get or to fall back on. It is
some other one must take my charges.
_Damer:_ A great pity to go lose a gold sovereign to some schemer
you never saw before.
_Simon:_ Sure you must take some risk. You cannot put your hands
around the world.
_Damer:_ It to be swept by a trick of the loop man!
_Simon:_ It is not with that class I will make free.
_Damer:_ To go lose the whole of it in one second of time!
_Simon:_ I will make four divides of it.
_Damer:_ To go change it into silver and into copper! That would
be the most pity in the world.
_Simon:_ I'll chance it all upon the one jock so.
_Damer:_ Gold! Believe me it is a good thing to hold and a very
heartbreak the time it is lost. _(Takes it in his hand.)_ Pure gold!
There is not a thing to be got with it as worthy as what it is itself!
There is no comfort in any place and it not in it. The Queen's image
on it and her crown. Solid between the fingers; weighty in the palm
of the hand; as beautiful as ever I saw.
_Simon:_ It is likely it is the same nearly as any other one.
_Damer:_ Gold! My darling it is! From the hollows of the world to
the heights of the world there is no grander thing to be found. My
bone and my marrow! Let me have the full of my arms of it and I'll
not ask the flowers of field or fallow or the dancing of the Easter
sun!
_Simon:_ I am thinking you should be Damer. I heard said Damer has
a full crock of gold.
_Damer:_ He has not! He has not!
_Simon:_ That is what the world says anyway. I heard it as far as
the seaside.
_Damer:_ I wish to my God it was true!
_Simon:_ Full and brimming to the brink. That is the way it was
told.
_Damer:_ It is not full! It is not! Whisper now. It is many a time
I thought it to be full, full at last, full at last!
_Simon:_ And it wasn't after?
_Damer:_ To take it and to shake it I do. It is often I gave
myself a promise the time there will be no sound from it, I will
give in to nourish myself, I will rise out of misery. But every time
I will try it, I will hear a little clatter that tells me there is
some space left; some small little hole or gap.
_Simon:_ What signifies that when you have so much in it?
_Damer:_ Weightier it gets and weightier, but there will always be
that little sound. I thought to stop it one time, putting in a
fistful of hayseed; but I felt in my heart that was not dealing fair
and honest with myself, and I rose up and shook it out again, rising
up from my bed in the night time. I near got my death with the cold
and the draught fell on me doing that.
_Simon:_ It is best for me be going on where I might find my bed,
_Damer:_ Hearken now. I am old and the long road behind me. You
are young and in your strength. It is you is rich, it is I myself
that is poor. You know well, you to get the offer, you would not
change your lot with my own.
_Simon:_ I suppose I might not. I'd as lief keep my countenance
and my run.
_Darner:_ Isn't it a great pity there to be that hollow within in
my gallon, and the little coin that would likely just fill it up, to
be going out of the house?
_Simon:_ Is it that you are asking it of me?
_Damer:_ You might never find so good a way to open Heaven to
yourself with a charity. To be bringing peace to an old man that has
not long to live in the world! You wouldn't think now how quiet I
would sleep, and the good dreams would be going through me, and that
gallon jar to be full and to make no sound the time I would roll it
on the floor. That would be a great deed for one little pound piece
to do!
_Simon:_ I'll toss you for it.
_Damer:_ I would not dare put anything at all upon a chance.
_Simon:_ Leave it alone so. _(Turns away.)_
_Damer: (Seizing him.)_ It would make such a good appearance in
the little gap!
_Simon:_ Head or harp?
_Damer:_ No, I'm in dread I might lose.
_Simon:_ Take your chance or leave it.
_Damer:_ I to lose, you may kill me on the moment! My heart is
driven down in the sole of my shoe!
_Simon:_ That is poor courage.
_Damer:_ There is some shiver forewarning me I will lose! I made a
strong oath I never would give in again to try any sort of chance.
_Simon:_ You didn't make it but with yourself.
_Damer:_ It was through my luck leaving me I swore against betting
and gaming.
_Simon:_ It might turn back fresh and hearty where you gave it so
long a rest.
_Damer:_ Well--maybe----
_Simon:_ Here now.
_Damer:_ I dare not.
_Simon: (Going to door.)_ I'll make my bet so according to a dream
I had. It is on a red horse I will put it to-morrow.
_Damer:_ No--stop--wait a minute.
_Simon:_ I'll win surely following my dream.
_Damer:_ I might not lose.
_Simon:_ I'm in dread of that. All turns to the man is rich.
_Damer:_ I'll chance it!
_Simon:_ You said no and I'll take no.
_Damer:_ You cannot go back of your word.
_Simon:_ Let me go out from you tempting me.
_Damer: (Seizing him.)_ Heads! I say heads!
_Simon:_ Harps it is. I win.
_Damer:_ My bitter grief! Ochone!
_Simon:_ I'll toss you for another.
_Damer:_ You will not. What's tosses? Look at here what is put in
my way! _(Holds up pack of cards.)_
_Simon:_ Where's the stakes?
_Damer:_ Wait a second. _(Goes into room.)_
_Simon:_ Hurry on or I won't stop.
_Damer:_ Let you not stir out of that!
_(Comes back and throws money on table.)_
_Simon:_ Come on so.
_(Shuffles cards.)_
_Darner:_ Give me the pack. _(Cuts.)_ I didn't feel a card between
my fingers this seven and a half-score years!
_Simon:_ Spades are trumps.
_Darner: (Lighting candle.)_ I'll win it back! I won't begrudge
spending a penny candle, no, or two penny candles! I'll play you to
the brink of day!
_Curtain_
ACT II
_The next morning. The same kitchen. Simon Niland is lying asleep
on the hearth. Ralph and Staffy are looking at him_.
_Staffy:_ Who is it at all is in it?
_Ralph:_ Who would it be but Simon Niland, that is come following
after us.
_Staffy:_ Stretched and sleeping all the same as if there was a
pin of slumber in his hair, as in the early times of the world. The
day passing without anything doing. That one will never win to a
fortune.
_Ralph:_ It would be as well for ourselves maybe he not to be too
great with Damer.
_Staffy:_ Will Delia make any headway I wonder. She had good
courage to go face him, and he abroad on the land, sitting stooped
on the bent body of a bush.
_Ralph:_ I wonder what way did that lad make his way into this
place. Wait now till I'll waken and question him.
_(Shakes Simon.)_
_Simon: (Drowsily.)_ Who is that stirring me?
_Ralph:_ Rouse yourself up now.
_Simon:_ Do not be rousing me, where I am striving to catch a hold
of the tail of my last dream.
_Staffy:_ Is it seeking for a share of Damer's wealth you are come?
_Simon:_ I never asked and never looked for it.
_Staffy:_ You are going the wrong road to reach to it.
_Simon:_ A bald cat there was in the dream, was keeping watch over
jewelleries in a cave.
_Staffy:_ No person at all would stretch out his hand to a lad
would be rambling and walking the world, and it in its darkness and
sleep, and be drowsing and miching from labour through the hours the
sun has command of.
_Delia: (At the door)_. Is it that ye are within, Staffy and Ralph?
_Ralph:_ We are, and another along with us.
_Delia:_ Put him out the door!
_Ralph:_ Ah, there's no danger of him coming around Damer. He is
simple and has queer talk too.
_Delia:_ Put him out I say! _(Pushes Simon to door.)_ Let him
drowse out the day in the car shed! I tell you Damer is at hand!
_Ralph:_ Has he the frown on him yet?
_Staffy:_ Did his anger anyway cool down?
_Delia:_ He is coming I say. I am partly in dread of him. I am
afeard and affrighted!
_Ralph:_ He should be in terrible rages so. There was no dread on
you yesterday, and he cursing and roaring the way he was.
_Delia:_ He is mad this time out and out. Wait now till you'll see!
_(She goes behind dresser. Damer comes to the door. Staffy goes
behind a chair. Ralph seizes a broom.)_
_Damer: (At door.)_ Are you acquainted with any person, Ralph
Hessian, is in need of a savage dog?
_Staffy:_ Is it that you are about to part Jubair your dog?
_Damer:_ I have no use for him presently.
_Staffy:_ Is it that you are without dread of robbers coming for
to knock in your skull with a stone? Or maybe out in the night it is
to burn you out of the house they would.
_Damer:_ What signifies, what signifies? All must die, all must die.
The longest person that will live in the world, he is bound to go in
the heel. Life is a long road to travel and a hard rough track under
the feet.
_Staffy:_ Mike Merrick the huckster has an apple garden bought
against the harvest. He should likely be seeking for a dog. There do
be little lads passing to the school.
_Damer:_ He might want him, he might want him.
_(He leans upon half-door.)_
_Staffy:_ Is it that you are tired and wore out carrying the load
of your wealth?
_Damer:_ It is a bad load surely. It was the love of money
destroyed Buonaparte where he went robbing a church, without the men
of learning are telling lies.
_Staffy:_ I would never go so far as robbery, but to bid it
welcome I would, and it coming fair and easy into my hand.
_Damer:_ There was a king out in Foreign went astray through the
same sin. His people that made a mockery of him after his death,
filling up his jaws with rendered gold. Believe me, any person goes
coveting after riches puts himself under a bad master.
_Staffy:_ That is a master I'd be willing to engage with, he to
give me my victuals and my ease.
_Damer:_ In my opinion it was to keep temptation from our path the
gold of the world was covered under rocks and in the depths of the
streams. Believe me it is best leave it where it is, and not to
meddle with the Almighty.
_Staffy:_ You'd be best without it. It is the weight of it is
bowing you to your grave. When things are vexing your mind and you
are trouble minded they'll be going through your head in the night
time. There is a big shift and a great change in you since yesterday.
There is not the half of you in it. You have the cut of the
misfortune.
_Damer:_ I am under misfortune indeed.
_Staffy:_ Give over now your load to myself before the coming of
the dusk. The way you are there'll be nothing left of you within
three days. There is no way with you but death.
_Delia:_ _(To Ralph.)_ Let you raise your voice now, and come
around him on my own behalf.
_Ralph:_ It is what herself is saying, you to be quitting the
world as it seems, it is as good for you make over to her your crock
of gold.
_Damer:_ I would not wish, for all the glories of Ireland, to
leave temptation in the path of my own sister or my kin, or to twist
a gad for their neck.
_Delia:_ _(To Ralph.)_ Tell him I'll chance it.
_Damer:_ At the time of the judgment of the mountain, when the sun
and moon will be all one with two blackberries, it is not being
pampered with plenty will serve you, beside being great with the
angels!
_Delia:_ _(Shrinking back.)_ I would as soon nearly not get it at
all, where it might bring me to the wretched state of Damer!
(_Dog heard barking.)_
_Damer:_ I'll go bring my poor Jubair out of this. A great sin and
a great pity to be losing provision with a dog, and the image of the
saints maybe to be going hungry and bare. How do I know what troop
might be bearing witness against me before the gate of heaven? To be
cherishing a ravenous beast might be setting his teeth in their limbs!
To give charity to the poor is the best religion in Ireland. Didn't
our Lord Himself go beg through three and thirty years? _(He goes.)_
_Delia: (Coming forward.)_ Will you believe me now telling you he
is gone unsteady in the head?
_Staffy:_ I see no other sign. He is a gone man surely. His
understanding warped and turned backward. To see him blighted the
way he is would stir the heart of a stone.
_Ralph:_ He surely got some vision or some warning, or there lit
on him a fit or a stroke.
_Staffy:_ Twice a child and only once a man. He is turned to be
innocent with age.
_Ralph:_ It would be a bad thing he to meet with his death unknown
to us.
_Delia:_ It would be worse again he that is gone out of his
latitude to be brought away to the asylum.
_Ralph:_ I don't know.
_Delia:_ But I know. He to die, and to make no will, it is
ourselves, by rule and by right, that would lay claim to his wealth.
_Staffy:_ So we could do that, and he to come to his end in the
bad place, God save the mark!
_Delia:_ Would you say there would be no fear the Government might
stretch out and take charge of it, saying him to be outside of his
reason?
_Ralph:_ That would be the worst of all. We to be forced to hire
an attorney against them, till we would break one another at law.
_Delia:_ He to be stopping here, and being light in the brain, it
is likely some thief travelling the road might break his way in and
sweep all.
_Ralph:_ It would be right for us keep some sort of a watch on it.
_Staffy:_ What way would we be sitting here watching it, the same
as a hen on a pebble of flint, through a quarter or it might be
three quarters of a year? He might drag for a good while yet, and
live and linger into old days.
_Delia:_ To take some cross turn he might, and to come at us
violent and maybe tear the flesh from our bones.
_Staffy:_ It is best for us do nothing so, but to leave it to the
foreknowledge of God.
_Delia:_ There is but the one thing to do. To bring it away out of
this and to lodge it within in my own house. We can settle out a
place under the hearth.