ZIP--The geese are out.
KILO--(_To the dwarf._) Hear that, gozzard? Do you?
ZIP--Hark! Hissing, they go down the mountain side
With flip-flap of their big grey wings.
(_He returns toward the fire._) Last night
The monks' new hunter wrung two ganders' necks.
I found their heads in the grotto.
KILO--(_Poking the dwarf with the sword._) Hear that, lob?
You herd the goslets for the holy men?
Next thing you'll grind the scauper for the monk,
And help him carve the cross. Granny'll get you.
ZIP--Where's Suk and Gimel?
KILO-- Digging water-herbs
Down in the marsh. (_He rises and the two walk left._)
'Twas said to throw him off.
The young imp shoots his ears out like a snail
To feel about for danger to the monks.
If he should hear the gnomes are out for blood,
You'd see him, he'd be footed like a hare
To put the monk on guard.
(_From the right, Zory enters. He crooks his back,
screens his eyes with his hand, and walks
feebly._)
ZORY-- "O dear! my eyes!
Rosa, is the moon up, dear?" Ha, ha! Zory! Zory!
(_He takes up the sword from the floor, and using
it as a cane, walks unsteadily._)
ZIP--Steal into the abbey, will they?
KILO-- No, no.
He's down in the village. At break of day
I saw the blur of his big black gown
In the mountain mists as he made his way.
To-night he will come from the little town.
Then Suk and Gimel--the road runs by
Where some wild vines dangle.
(_As though jerking them._) And far below,
The waters gurgle.
ZORY-- They will? Ho, ho!
KILO-- (_Huskily, nodding toward the dwarf._)
The spy of Woden.
ZORY--(_Dropping his voice._) If that's the plan,
Then the old dame with her gimlet eye
Sees farther than Woden's ravens can.
At dusk I crept over behind the town.
Some boys were up on the mountain side
Running a cow they were driving down,
With puff-balls pelting her brindled hide.
On a slope of heather I knew a sink
Where a brown backed bunny was wont to squat,
To warm his fur in the sun and wink
At the shadows darkening a cabbage plot.
Says I: "Now Zory will have some fun.
He'll start the hare for the village boys
And hear them hollo and see them run."
With barking of dogs and a hue and a cry
They will soon be off, and, flying the noise,
Wat will go bobbing across the down.
I'm off for the heather when lo, I hear,
Behind the sallows that fringe the foss,
A sneeze and a sigh and then, "O dear!"
Some women are trying to get across.
I hide in the dock. The dames pass by
With baskets of bennet. I hear one say:
"With our dear Lord hanging upon the tree,
And oh, such a beautiful, beautiful cross
No one ever saw, so the people say
Who have peered in the window. And think, la me!
In another day and another day
My every prayer will have been fulfilled.
May the Virgin spare us." The other sighs
And, scanning the shadowy mountain side:
"I fear he will never complete it, Clotilde.
He climbs that dreadful mountain at night.
Can you see him now? Oh, I fear, I fear
Those awful rocks where the devils hide!
It seems so dark. Rosa, is the moon up, dear?"
To see the old dame as she--
(_Mimicing with the sword for a cane._) daddled on
With her skirt in her hand, through the dewy grass,
Her little whisket of herbs on her arm
To keep off the devils, and mumbling a mass
And snuffling and moaning and sighing, "O dear!
It's a wicked world."
(_He laughs till he falls to the floor_ _where
he continues to laugh. Kilo steals to the fire
and_ _is about to snap a coal toward Zory when
Suk rushes in_ _right._)
SUK--Granny! O Granny!
ZIP AND KILO--What?
SUK--Where's Granny?
KILO-- On the peaks.
SUK--(_Rushing left._) Loki!
KILO--Stop him!
SUK--(_Dodging past Zip._) Loki!
KILO--Stop him, Zory! (_As he darts by, Zory, still upon_
_the floor, catches the gnome about the legs._) What is it?
ZIP--Over the cliff?
SUK--(_Panting._) Over and over. His black gown--
The wind puffs it--like a big bat
Swoops after him.
ZORY--Whew!
VOICE--(_Right._) Cock-a-doodle-doo!
SUK--(_Breaking away._) Loki!
(_He rushes out left, followed by the three other
gnomes. From the right Gimel enters._)
GIMEL--Cock-a-doodle-doo!
The sun's up, Granny! Hear the cock!
His morning trumpet wakes the village up.
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
See the good people in their Sunday clothes.
A long procession up the mountain goes
With boughs of cypress and boughs of yew.
And now the big bell in the abbey tower
T-o-l-l-s and it t-o-l-l-s and it t-o-l-l-s.
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
What makes the big bell
Sob in its tower? Can any one tell?
Why, the monk that pulls at the rope, I ween.
Cock-a-doodle-doo!
(_He follows the others through the narrow passage,
left. A moment later, from the opposite side,
a fairy appears and beckons to the dwarf. The
latter, after a quick glance to the left,
stealthily takes up the sword from the floor
and follows the fairy from the cave._)
_SCENE THREE--The monastery of St. Giles, in the mountains._
_An open court, with buildings dimly seen in the darkness.
To the right, the dormitory, a large structure built of
stone, with high, deep-set windows protected by heavy
shutters which are closed. Across the court a high wall,
starting in front, extends back some fifteen feet and abuts
the side of the chapel before which in outline long stone
steps may be discerned. In the center of the wall is an
archway with a pair of ponderous iron gates. The night is
dark and windy._
_Along the side of the dormitory comes old Andrew with a
staff and lighted taper. He is singing in a low voice._
ANDREW--_The barque o' the moon, like the Ithican's ship,_
_Heigho, she's swamped on the sea,_
_With her big bags of wind_--
(_Turning the corner and meeting the wind._) Hey!
Up, lads! Swell your bellies, sails! Now we're for't!
(_His candle threatening to go out, he draws back.
For a while he stands as if perplexed. Then,
rounding the corner, he again turns his
shoulder to the wind and, shielding his taper
thus, moves sidewise across the court toward
the chapel._)
Puff, devils, puff, puff! Howl and snap! howl and snap!
You'll scare old Andrew, will you? By the saints,
I'll have this taper in the chapel sconce
In spite of all your snarling.
(_He throws down his staff and shields his taper
with his gown._) Blow! blow! blow!
Here's a monk's soul borne to the Virgin's arms
Across a strip of Hell. D'you want to leap
Out of this greasy world? Out with you, then!
Here's a fine night to jump in, wind and moon,
Roar and the scud of swollen water-bags.
Jump, jump, soul! Swounds, here's a coward for you;
Here's a tallow-swad that loves swine's belly
Better'n the big deep. Shrift, eh? shrift and housel?
_Primum confessum_, foul monk. Gluttony. (_The taper flickers._)
Yip! See the devils pluck at him! Quick, priest;
St. Giles will lose a lamb. If I damn one,
I damn them all; damn the Abbot; damn Andrew.
Flesh is flesh. _Absolvo te. Secundum._
Bibbing, eh? Vap or burgundy? Vap?
That's a vile sin; but vap is hell enough.
_Quid tertio?_ (_He puts his ear to the taper._)
St! lower; the Devil's listening. (_Starting._)
Whee! Bless the saints! God must have gold for that.
No gold? No gold, no shrift. And here's old Claw-foot
Coming through the dark, that needs a furnace tender,
A skimmer for his bullion pots. Gramercy, monk.
No wench-craft there nor bibbing, soft bells and venison.
Limbs hot, hot lungs, hot belly, everything--
(_The taper goes out._) Puff!
Down over the big, windy world. Good jump;
Clean to the pit. (_Thunder._)
Ay, night, smack your black chaps.
Rumble! rumble!
(_He feels about the ground for his staff, and,
having found it, walks back and stands under
one of the windows of the dormitory._) Soloman!
Soloman!
The Devil wants you. D'you hear? His pipe's gone out.
Give him a coal.
(_He waits a while, then beats upon the shutter
with his staff. A low voice is heard within._)
What's that? Eh?
VOICE-- Who is it?
Lucifer?
ANDREW--Ay, with his light out.
(_After a pause._) Come, come!
I'll have to cut a reed and suck the stars
Like the big fool you told of.
(_The shutter opens and the head of Soloman
appears._)
Light, light, man! (_Soloman whispers._)
Pipe out, cricket. Here's the big noisy winds
Roarin' in my ears. (_Soloman whispers and points to the corner._)
Prowling? A night like this!
Turned wolf, eh? There's a fine porker gone.
Louis and he were at their wassail cups,
Nuzzling a stoup o' hipo' a while ago. (_He comes toward the corner._)
God bless you, senechal, another stoup.
Swine-herd, all-hail! Fill up the Abbot's trough.
An he breaks sty, look out! God bless us then!
Water and bread, water and bread. Zooks, zooks!
The devil's up with Andrew if he finds
The oratory dark. (_He listens._) Otho! Spot! Hya! Hya!
There's something snooping here.
(_He crosses himself._) I'll get a light
And bustle from this place. It's the Devil
Walking on wool. (_He turns back toward the window._)
Water and bread. Sfoot, sfoot!
The sheep will find thin food on Andrew's grave.
Light, man, light! It's the bats hurtling.
(_Soloman disappears._) There's a chinch
That burrows in the vellum like a mole,
A parchment moth what can spin yarn or yarn
Like the old dame i' the tale. He reads and reads.
He's got a wit strung like a rosary thread
With tales and names and things and things and things.
Tell me a tale, says I, something valorous,
Something to lighten life for an old man.
Tales for tapers, says he. A go, says I.
And so I pilfers from the chapel sconce
The snuffed stubbs. To lighten life, says I.
(_Soloman reappears with a lighted candle._)
The lad that rode the dolphin, did he get
To land?
SOLOMAN--He stayed upon the sea.
ANDREW-- And drowned?
SOLOMAN--Turned buccaneer and sacked the christian ships
And sold the spoil in Jewry. (_Andrew walks away._)
Don't you wish
To hear it? The tale goes on to tell
How Hugh de Bouillon, cruising in the East,
Found him upon a cliff and took him down
From off a gibbet where the sea-gulls flew,
And with his harp upon the deck at night
He made the sea-lads merry with his songs.
Let's have them now, here at the gates of heaven,
Far off from dead men crying in the sea.
ANDREW--What makes the lightning go that way, zigzag?