FIRST FAIRY--(_Rising quickly._) Her eyes are wet!
SECOND AND THIRD--(_To fourth and fifth._) Her eyes are wet!
FOURTH FAIRY-- Sister,
Anemones are opening in the wind.
FIFTH FAIRY--And every pink is jeweled in the fells.
FIRST FAIRY--And here are buttercups.
THIRD FAIRY-- And violets.
SECOND FAIRY-- (_Stooping._)
See, sister, here I bring the first frilled fern.
I found it where the dashing water-fall
Sprayed it. It was uncurling near a rock.
SELMA-- (_Without looking up._)
I do not like you, for you will not tell.
(_The fairies start and exchange glances._)
FIRST FAIRY--Oh, see the dew-globes break upon the moss!
(_She runs back a little way among the trees.
The others follow her and they talk among
themselves._)
SECOND FAIRY--Where is he now?
THIRD FAIRY-- He is making his way
To his cold dark cell in the cold dark house
Where the lizards dart and the crickets call.
FIRST FAIRY--I heard the grind of his wooden shoe
On the mountain road; but she must not know.
FOURTH FAIRY--We stood in the pines and we saw him pass,
A thin white shadow she would not know.
FIFTH FAIRY--And, sisters, he turned his face to the stars
And we heard him sigh.
FOURTH FAIRY-- And we heard him sigh.
THIRD FAIRY--It must be, it must be, for he cannot see.
FIRST FAIRY--He cannot see till he sees no more.
SELMA-- (_As before._)
You said he would come when the dog-wood bloomed.
SECOND FAIRY--Oh, see them!
THIRD FAIRY-- See the fairies!
(_They all look up the slope._)
FIRST FAIRY-- Round they go,
In their ringlets whirling, whirling.
FOURTH FAIRY--At every sparkle racing through the wood,
From crottle, kingcup, and green maiden-hair
In dainty gowpens fetch the dewy globes
And slide them down the sagging gossamers
To light them in the dance.
(_They glance toward the stump. Seeing that they
have not succeeded in attracting Selma's
attention, they take hands and circle toward
her singing._)
_Hark the bracken rustle, sister._
_Other elves are awaking, peeping,_
_While the cowslip buds are weeping_
_On the downs and in the dells._
_Trip it softly, softly, sister,_
_Lest the stock-dove, lightly sleeping,_
_Wake and hear our fairy bells._
(_After circling round the stump and seeking in
every way to induce her to join them, one
of them tries gently to take the spray of
dog-wood blossoms from her hand._)
SELMA--(_Calling aloud._) Father!
FIRST FAIRY--Oh, smell the wood pinks! They are waking now.
SECOND FAIRY--The bees are stirring in the gum.
THIRD FAIRY-- O sisters,
I know a brake where the brown quails sleep.
Let's tip the leaves and let the star-light on them.
(_Four of them run up the slope one after another
and each in turn as she disappears among the
trees glances back and calls to Selma._)
FIRST FAIRY--Sister!
SECOND FAIRY-- Sister!
THIRD FAIRY-- Sister!
FOURTH FAIRY-- Sister!
(_The fifth fairy stands for a time looking after
the others, then comes to the stump and sits
down at Selma's feet._)
FIFTH FAIRY-- Sister,
If you will come and play, I'll show you slim
Young heath-bells in the dingle. Won't you, if
We take you where may-apples grow and pinks
Bend with their fairy mirrors on the moss?
VOICE-- (_From the thicket below._) O sister!
(_The fairy starts up and skips down the slope._)
SELMA-- (_Without looking up._)
Three times it has bloomed and he does not come.
SIXTH FAIRY-- (_Entering hurriedly from the thicket._)
We were floating along on the river mist
And saw them creep up the mountain side--
SEVENTH FAIRY-- (_Entering._)
And heard them plotting and heard them say:
"We will throw him down, we will throw him down."
SIXTH FAIRY--We called in his ear, but he did not hear,
(_The seventh starts up the slope toward Selma._)
FIFTH FAIRY--Oh, do not tell her! Oh, do not tell!
SEVENTH FAIRY--They will throw him down! They will throw him down!
FIFTH FAIRY--Oh, catch him with delicate hands as he falls
Into the mist and--
SIXTH FAIRY-- Save him!
SEVENTH FAIRY-- Save him!
FIFTH FAIRY--And I will run to the mountain cave.
(_The two fairies hasten out through the thicket,
the fifth disappears back among the trees,
left. Singing is heard up the slope. A moment
later, a number of fairies circle in with
green boughs in their hands._)
_On the downs and in the dells._
_Trip it softly, softly, sister,_
_Lest the stock-dove, lightly sleeping,_
_Wake and hear our fairy bells._
FIRST FAIRY--Oh, something black tumbled into the mist!
SECOND FAIRY--And something bright--what was it, sister?
FIRST FAIRY--A star, I think; it glanced and fell.
THIRD FAIRY--Sister, it flashed like a silver cross.
FOURTH FAIRY--And plopped into the brook. Did you see the ripples
Glitter in the moon?
SECOND FAIRY-- O sisters, see!
The will-o'-the-wisps rush down the valley fogs,
Their white veils trailing round the tall dark crags.
(_They hurry down the mountain. Selma, startled,
gets off the stump and runs a little way back
in the wood and, stopping, looks after them._)
VOICE OF CANZLER-- (_Up the slope._)
Where are you, child? (_He enters._)
Why do you stand out here
In darkness?
SELMA--They have gone away again.
CANZLER-- (_Who waits till she comes near him._)
Do not ask anything to stay, my child.
Where the leaf goes the tree goes, and the rocks
Flow away with the waters to the sea.
(_They go up the slope together._)
SELMA--He does not come and they will not tell.
(_She stops and looks back._)
CANZLER--Let us go home and watch the stars come out
Above the mountains where Val-father lives.
Perhaps the Norns will spin us a white thread.
(_They go out, Selma looking back._)
_SCENE TWO--A mountain cavern with jutting ledges of rock.
From the bones that lie about, one would imagine it to be
a den to which wild beasts drag and devour their prey. To
the right, a vine, growing out of the crevice in the rear
wall, shows by its leaves becoming a darker green as it
spreads to the right that the entrance is in that direction_
_and near by. Bowlders, evidently used for seats, lie here
and there, and in the rear, center, a smouldering fire
throws their shadows about the floor and walls. Several_
_willow baskets freshly woven hang on pegs driven into
seams in the rocks. To the left, an old spinning wheel with
a thread trailing from it, and near it, upon the floor, a
quantity of black wool. Farther over in the corner, a couch
of rushes and forest grass. From the ledge that projects
out over it hang bunches of dry herbs. In the left wall,
extending to the ceiling and barely wide enough to admit
of one's passing through, is a cleft whence are heard at
intervals the muffled sound of hammers far down in the
earth._
_To the right of the fire, Sigurd, the dwarf, is peeling
osiers. He is barefooted. About his neck he wears a string
of buckeyes. Beside him, upon the floor, lies a pile of
white osiers newly peeled. Occasionally he takes the withes
in his mouth and tears the bark off with his teeth. On the_
_other side of the fire, reclining upon his elbow, the gnome_
_Kilo is poking the coals with a stick._
_Despite the red glow of the fire, the cave is quite dark._
KILO--Love the monks, eh?
VOICE--(_To the left._) Kilo!
KILO-- Granny says you do.
VOICE--Kilo!
KILO--Hush! I'm tired.
VOICE--Loki wants you. (_After a pause._) Kilo!
KILO-- (_To himself._)
Call on; Kilo don't care. It's sweat and drudge
And puff and hammer the livelong day
At the blazing forge, and then all night
The big black sledges swing and fall.
I'm tired. You love the bells?
VOICE-- Kilo! You hear?
KILO--
Dumb, are you, elf-brat? You squealed loud enough
The night that Granny found you on the moss
White as a hail-stone, thunder-whelped, and cold.
"Tweakle! tweakle!" Elf-cub, are you?
VOICE-- Kilo!
KILO-- (_Out of temper._)
Tell him I've gone with Granny.
(_From the left Zip enters. Under his arm he
carries a great sword, the blade of which he is
burnishing with a piece of sand-stone._)
ZIP-- Where is she?
KILO--Darkening the moon.
ZIP-- Is to-night the time?
KILO-- (_With a look warning him of the presence of the dwarf._)
Got the runes cut on it?
(_Zip hands the sword to Kilo and goes over and
stands near the vine. Kilo examines the
curiously wrought haft._)
ZIP-- Listen!