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ICEBOUND
By Owen Davis
THE DETOUR
ICEBOUND
ICEBOUND
_A Play_
BY
OWEN DAVIS
[Illustration]
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1923
_Copyright, 1922, 1923_,
BY OWEN DAVIS.
_All rights reserved_
Published July, 1923
No performance of this play, professional or amateur,--or public
reading of it--may be given without the written permission of the
author and the payment of royalty. Application for the rights of
performing “Icebound” must be made to Sam H. Harris, Sam H. Harris
Theatre, New York City.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOREWORD
With the production of “The Detour,” about a year ago, I managed to
secure some measure of success in drawing a simple picture of life
as it is lived on a Long Island farm; encouraged by this, I am now
turning toward my own people, the people of northern New England,
whose folklore, up to the present time, has been quite neglected in
our theatre. I mean, of course, that few serious attempts have been
made in the direction of a genre comedy of this locality. Here I
have at least tried to draw a true picture of these people, and I am
of their blood, born of generations of Northern Maine, small-town
folk, and brought up among them. In my memory of them is little of
the “Rube” caricature of the conventional theatre; they are neither
buffoons nor sentimentalists, and at least neither their faults nor
their virtues are borrowed from the melting pot but are the direct
result of their own heritage and environment.
OWEN DAVIS.
1923.
ICEBOUND
“Icebound” was originally produced in New York, February 10, 1923,
with the following cast:
HENRY JORDAN _John Westley_
EMMA, his wife _Lotta Linthicum_
NETTIE, her daughter by a former marriage _Boots Wooster_
SADIE FELLOWS, once Sadie Jordan, a widow _Eva Condon_
ORIN, her son _Andrew J. Lawlor, Jr._
ELLA JORDAN, the unmarried sister _Frances Neilson_
DOCTOR CURTIS _Lawrence Eddinger_
JANE CROSBY, a second cousin of the Jordans _Phyllis Povah_
JUDGE BRADFORD _Willard Robertson_
BEN JORDAN _Robert Ames_
HANNAH _Edna May Oliver_
JIM JAY _Charles Henderson_
ACT ONE.
THE PARLOR OF THE JORDAN HOMESTEAD, 4 P.M., October, 1922.
ACT TWO.
THE SITTING ROOM OF THE JORDAN HOMESTEAD, Two months later. Afternoon.
ACT THREE.
SAME AS ACT I, Late in the following March.
ICEBOUND
ACT ONE
_Scene: The parlor of the Jordan Homestead at Venzie, Maine._
_It is late October, and through the two windows at the back one may
see a bleak countryside, the grass brown and lifeless, and the bare
limbs of the trees silhouetted against a gray sky. Here, in the room
that for a hundred years has been the rallying point of the Jordan
family, a group of relatives are gathered to await the death of the
old woman who is the head of their clan. The room in which they wait
is as dull and as drab as the lives of those who have lived within
its walls. Here we have the cleanliness that is next to godliness,
but no sign of either comfort or beauty, both of which are looked
upon with suspicion as being signposts on the road to perdition._
_In this group are the following characters: Henry Jordan, a heavy
set man of fifty, worn by his business cares into a dull sort of
hopeless resignation. Emma, his wife, a stout and rather formidable
woman of forty, with a look of chronic displeasure; Nettie, her
daughter by a former marriage, a vain and shallow little rustic
beauty; Sadie, a thin, tight-lipped woman of forty, a widow and
a gossip; Orin, her son, a pasty-faced boy of ten with large
spectacles; Ella, a “Maiden lady” of thirty-six, restless and
dissatisfied._
_Ella and Sadie, true Jordans by birth, are a degree above Emma
in social standing, at least they were until Henry’s marriage to
Emma made her a somewhat resentful member of the family. In Emma’s
dialogue and in her reactions, I have attempted a rather nice
distinction between the two grades of rural middle-class folk; the
younger characters here, as in most other communities, have advanced
one step._
_Rise: At rise there is a long silence; the occupants of the room are
ill at ease. Emma is grim and frowning. Nettie sits with a simper of
youthful vanity, looking stealthily at herself from time to time in a
small mirror set in the top of her cheap vanity case. Ella and Sadie
have been crying and dab at their eyes a bit ostentatiously. Henry
makes a thoughtful note with a pencil, then returns his notebook to
his pocket and warms his hands at the stove._
_There is a low whistle of a cold autumn wind as some dead leaves
are blown past the window. Orin, who has a cold in his head, sniffs
viciously; the others, with the exception of his mother, look at him
in remonstrance. An eight-day clock in sight, through the door to the
hall, strikes four._
EMMA (_sternly_)
Four o’clock.
HENRY (_looks at watch_)
Five minutes of. That clock’s been fast for more’n thirty years.
NETTIE (_looks at wrist watch_)
My watch says two minutes after.
HENRY
Well, it’s wrong!
EMMA (_acidly_)
You gave it to her yourself, didn’t you?
SADIE (_sighs_)
Good Land! What does it matter?
NETTIE (_offended_)
Oh! Doesn’t it? Oh!
ELLA
Maybe it does to you. She ain’t your blood relation.
EMMA
Nettie loves her grandma, don’t you dear?
NETTIE
Some folks not so far off may get fooled before long about how much
grandma and I was to each other.
EMMA (_sternly_)
You hush!
[_Again there is a pause, and again it is broken by a loud sniff from
Orin, as the women look at him in disgust. Sadie speaks up in his
defense._
SADIE
He’s got kind of a cold in his head.
HENRY
The question is, ain’t he got a handkerchief?
SADIE
Here, Orin!
[_She hands him her handkerchief._
ELLA
The idea! No handkerchief when you’ve come expectin’ some one to die!
ORIN
I had one, but I used it up.
[_He blows his nose._
HENRY
After four. Well, I expect they’ll have to close the store without me.
ELLA
I left everything just as soon as Jane sent me word!
SADIE
Why should Jane be with her instead of you or me, her own daughters?
HENRY
You girls always made her nervous, and I guess she’s pretty low. (_He
looks at his watch again_) I said I’d be back before closin’ time. I
don’t know as I dare to trust those boys.
EMMA
You can’t tell about things, when Sadie’s husband died we sat there
most all night.
SADIE (_angrily_)
Yes, and you grudged it to him, I knew it then and it isn’t likely
I’m going to forget it.
ELLA
Will was a good man, but even you can’t say he was ever very
dependable.
EMMA
My first husband died sudden--(_she turns to Nettie_)--you can’t
remember it, dear.
ELLA
_You_ didn’t remember it very long, it wa’n’t much more’n a year
before you married Henry.
HENRY (_sighs_)
Well, he was as dead then as he’s ever got to be. (_He turns and
glances nervously out window_) I don’t know but what I could just run
down to the store for a minute, then hurry right back.
SADIE
You’re the oldest of her children, a body would think you’d be
ashamed.
HENRY
Oh, I’ll stay.
[_There is a silence. Orin sniffs. Ella glares at him._
ELLA
Of course he _could_ sit somewheres else.
[_Sadie puts her arm about Orin and looks spitefully at Ella. Doctor
Curtis, an elderly country physician, comes down the stairs and
enters the room, all turn to look at him._
DOCTOR
No change at all. I’m sendin’ Jane to the drug store.
ELLA (_rises eagerly_)
I’ll just run up and sit with mother.
[_Sadie jumps up and starts for door._
SADIE
It might be better if I went.
ELLA
Why might it?
[_They stand glaring at each other before either attempts to pass the
Doctor, whose ample form almost blocks the doorway._
SADIE
_I’ve_ been a wife and a mother.
DOCTOR
Hannah’s with her, you know. I told you I didn’t want anybody up
there but Jane and Hannah.
ELLA
But we’re her own daughters.
DOCTOR
You don’t have to tell me, I brought both of you into the world. The
right nursing might pull her through, even now; nothing else can, and
I’ve got the two women I want. (_He crosses to Henry at stove_) Why
don’t you put a little wood on the fire?
HENRY
Why--I thought ’twas warm enough.
ELLA
Because you was standin’ in front of it gettin’ all the heat.
[_Henry fills the stove from wood basket._
_Jane Crosby enters on stairs and crosses into the room. Jane is
twenty-four, a plainly dressed girl of quiet manner. She has been
“driven into herself” as one of our characters would describe it, by
her lack of sympathy and affection and as a natural result she is not
especially articulate; she speaks, as a rule, in short sentences, and
has cultivated an outward coldness that in the course of time has
become almost aggressive._
JANE
I’ll go now, Doctor; you’d better go back to her. Hannah’s frightened.
DOCTOR
Get it as quick as you can, Jane; I don’t know as it’s any use, but
we’ve got to keep on tryin’.
JANE
Yes.
[_She exits; Doctor warms his hands._
DOCTOR
Jane’s been up with her three nights. I don’t know when I’ve seen a
more dependable girl.
ELLA
She ought to be.
HENRY
If there’s any gratitude in the world.
DOCTOR
Oh, I guess there is; maybe there’d be more if there was more reason
for it. It’s awful cold up there, but I guess I’ll be gettin’ back.
[_He crosses toward door._
HENRY
Doctor!
[_He looks at his watch._
DOCTOR (_stops in doorway_)
Well?
HENRY
It’s quite a bit past four, I don’t suppose--I don’t suppose you can
tell----
DOCTOR
No, I can’t tell.
[_He turns and exits up the stairs._
ELLA
There’s no fool like an old fool.
SADIE
Did you hear him? “Didn’t know when he’d seen a more dependable girl
than her!”
EMMA
Makes a lot of difference who’s goin’ to depend on her. I ain’t, for
one.
NETTIE
If I set out to tell how she’s treated me lots of times, when I’ve
come over here to see grandma, nobody would believe a word of it.
SADIE
Mother took her in out of charity.
ELLA
And kept her out of spite.
HENRY
I don’t know as you ought to say that, Ella.
ELLA
It’s my place she took, in my own mother’s house. I’d been here now,
but for her. I ain’t goin’ to forget that. No! Me, all these years
payin’ board and slavin’ my life out, makin’ hats, like a nigger.
NETTIE (_smartly_)
Oh! So _that’s_ what they’re like. I’ve often wondered!
ELLA (_rises_)
You’ll keep that common little thing of your wife’s from insultin’
me, Henry Jordan, or I won’t stay here another minute.
EMMA (_angry_)
Common!
NETTIE
Mother!
HENRY (_sternly_)
Hush up! All of yer!
SADIE
It’s Jane we ought to be talkin’ about.
EMMA
Just as soon as you’re the head of the family, Henry, you’ve got to
tell her she ain’t wanted here!
HENRY
Well--I don’t know as I’d want to do anything that wasn’t right.
She’s been here quite a spell.
SADIE
Eight years!
ELLA
And just a step-cousin, once removed.
HENRY
I guess mother’s made her earn her keep. I don’t know as ever there
was much love lost between ’em.
EMMA
As soon as your mother’s dead, you’ll send her packing.
HENRY
We’ll see. I don’t like countin’ on mother’s going; that way.
SADIE (_hopefully_)
Grandmother lived to eighty-four.
HENRY
All our folks was long lived; nothin’ lasts like it used to,--Poor
mother!
ELLA
Of course she’ll divide equal, between us three?
HENRY (_doubtfully_)
Well, I don’t know!
SADIE
Orin is her only grandchild; she won’t forget that.
HENRY
Nettie, there, is just the same as my own. I adopted her legal, when
I married Emma.
EMMA
Of course you did. Your mother’s too--just a woman to make
distinctions!
NETTIE
Yes, and the funny part of it is grandma may leave me a whole lot,
for all any of _you_ know.
ELLA
Nonsense! She’ll divide equally between us three; won’t she, Henry?
HENRY (_sadly_)
She’ll do as she pleases, I guess we all know that.
ELLA
She’s a religious woman, she’s _got_ to be fair!
HENRY
Well, I guess it would be fair enough if she was to remember the
trouble I’ve had with my business. I don’t know what she’s worth,
she’s as tight-mouthed as a bear trap, but I could use more’n a third
of quite a little sum.
ELLA
Well, you won’t get it. Not if I go to law.
EMMA
It’s disgusting. Talking about money at a time like this.
HENRY
I like to see folks reasonable. I don’t know what you’d want of a
third of all mother’s got, Ella.
SADIE (_to Ella_)
You, all alone in the world!
ELLA
Maybe I won’t be, when I get that money.
SADIE
You don’t mean you’d get married?
EMMA
At your age!
ELLA
I mean I never had anything in all my life; now I’m going to. I’m the
youngest of all of you, except Ben, and he never was a real Jordan.
I’ve never had a chance; I’ve been stuck here till I’m most forty,
worse than if I was dead, fifty times worse! Now I’m going to buy
things--everything I want--I don’t care what--I’ll buy it, even if
it’s a man! Anything I want!
NETTIE
A man!
[_Nettie looks at Ella in cruel amazement and all but Orin burst into
a laugh--Ella turns up and hides her face against the window as Orin
pulls at his mother’s skirt._
ORIN
Mum! Mum! I thought you told me not to laugh, not once, while we was
here!
HENRY
You’re right, nephew, and we’re wrong, all of us. I’m sorry, Ella,
we’re all sorry.
ELLA (_wipes her eyes_)
Laugh if you want to--maybe it won’t be so long before I do some of
it myself.
HENRY (_thoughtfully_)
Equally between us three? Well, poor mother knows best of course.
[_He sighs._
SADIE
She wouldn’t leave _him_ any, would she,--Ben?
ELLA (_shocked_)
Ben!
HENRY (_in cold anger_)
She’s a woman of her word; no!
SADIE
If he was here he’d get around her; he always did!
HENRY
Not again!
SADIE
If she ever spoiled anybody it was him, and she’s had to pay for it.
Sometimes it looks like it was a sort of a judgment.
HENRY
There hasn’t been a Jordan, before Ben, who’s disgraced the name in
more’n a hundred years; he stands indicted before the Grand Jury
for some of his drunken devilment. If he hadn’t run away, like the
criminal he is, he’d be in the State’s Prison now, down to Thomaston.
Don’t talk _Ben_ to me, after the way he broke mother’s heart, and
hurt my credit!
NETTIE
I don’t remember him very well. Mother thought it better I shouldn’t
come around last time he was here; but he looked real nice in his
uniform.
SADIE
It was his bein’ born so long after us that made him seem like an
outsider; father and mother hadn’t had any children for years and
years! Of course I never want to sit in judgment on my own parents,
but I never approved of it; it never seemed quite--what I call proper.
NETTIE (_to Emma_)
Mother, don’t you think I’d better leave the room?
SADIE (_angrily_)
Not if half the stories I’ve heard about you are true, I don’t.
HENRY
Come, come, no rows! Is this a time or place for spite? We’ve always
been a united family, we’ve always got to be,--leavin’ Ben out, of
course. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
ORIN
Mum! Say Mum! (_He pulls at Sadie’s dress_) Why should anybody want
to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear?
ELLA
Can’t you stop that boy askin’ such fool questions?
SADIE
Well, as far as that goes, why should they? It never sounded
reasonable to me.
HENRY (_sternly_)
Decent folks don’t reason about religion; they just accept it.
ORIN
You could make a skin purse out of a sow’s ear, but I’ll be darned if
you could make a silk purse out of one. I’ll bet God couldn’t.
HENRY
Are you going to let him talk about God like that, like he was a real
person?
ELLA
I don’t know as a body could expect any better; his father was a
Baptist!
SADIE (_angrily_)
His father was a good man, and if he talked about God different from
what you do, it was because he knew more about him. And as for my
being here at all--(_she rises with her arms about Orin_)--I wouldn’t
do it, not for anything less than my own mother’s deathbed.
HENRY
This family don’t ever agree on nothin’ but just to differ.
EMMA
As far as I see, the only time you ever get together is when one of
you is dead.
ELLA
Maybe that’s the reason I got such a feelin’ against funerals.
[_The outside door opens and Jane enters, a druggist’s bottle in her
hand; she is followed by John Bradford, a man of about thirty-five.
He is better dressed than any of the others and is a man of a more
cosmopolitan type,--a New Englander, but a university man, the local
judge and the leading lawyer of the town._
JANE
I met Judge Bradford on the way.
JUDGE (_John Bradford_)
Court set late. I couldn’t get here before. Jane tells me that she’s
very low.
HENRY
Yes.
JUDGE
I can’t realize it; she has always been so strong, so dominant.
ELLA
In the midst of life we are in death.
ORIN
Say, Mum, that’s in the Bible too!
SADIE
Hush!
ORIN
Well, ain’t it?
SADIE
Will you hush?
HENRY
It’s our duty to hope so long as we can.
JUDGE
Yes, of course.
JANE
I’ll take this right up.
[_She exits up the stairs._
JUDGE (_removes his coat_)
I’ll wait.
SADIE
She can’t see you; she ain’t really what a body could call in her
right mind.
JUDGE
So Jane said.
[_He crosses to stove and warms his hands._
ELLA (_sighs_)
It’s a sad time for us, Judge!
JUDGE
She was always such a wonderful woman.
HENRY
An awful time for us. Did you come up Main Street, Judge?
JUDGE
Yes.
HENRY
Did you happen to notice if my store was open?
JUDGE
No.
HENRY
Not that it matters----
SADIE
Nothing matters now.
HENRY
No--Mother wasn’t ever the kind to neglect things; if the worst does
come she’ll find herself prepared. Won’t she? Won’t she, Judge?
JUDGE
Her affairs are, as usual, in perfect order.
HENRY
In every way?
JUDGE (_looks at him coldly_)
Her will is drawn and is on deposit in my office, if that is what you
mean.
HENRY
Well--that _is_ what I mean--I’m no hypocrite.
EMMA
He’s the oldest of the family. He’s got a right to ask, hasn’t he?
JUDGE
Yes.
HENRY (_honestly_)
If I could make her well by givin’ up everything I’ve got in the
world, or ever expect to git, I’d do it!
SADIE
All of us would.
HENRY
If it’s in my mind at all, as I stand here, that she’s a rich woman,
it’s because my mind’s so worried, the way business has been, that
I’m drove most frantic; it’s because, well--because I’m human;
because I can’t help it.
ELLA (_bitterly_)
You’re a man! What do you think it’s been for me!
SADIE (_with arm about Orin_)
His father didn’t leave much, you all know that, and it’s been scrimp
and save till I’m all worn to skin and bone.
ELLA
Just to the three of us, that would be fair.
HENRY
Judge! My brother’s name ain’t in her will, is it? Tell me that?
Ben’s name ain’t there!
JUDGE
I’d rather not talk about it, Henry.
ELLA
She’d cut him off, she said, the last time he disgraced us, and she’s
a woman of her word.
SADIE (_eagerly, to Judge_)
And the very next day she sent for you because I was here when she
telephoned; and you came to her that very afternoon because I saw you
from my front window cross right up to this door.
JUDGE
Possibly. I frequently drop in to discuss business matters with your
mother for a moment on my way home.
SADIE
It was five minutes to four when you went in that day, and six
minutes to five when you came out, by the clock on my mantel.
JUDGE
Your brother has been gone for almost two years; Your memory is very
clear.
ELLA
So’s her window.
NETTIE
I know folks in this town that are scared to go past it.
SADIE (_to her_)
I know others that ought to be.
HENRY (_discouraged_)
Every time you folks meet there’s trouble.
[_Jane enters down the stairs and into the room._
JUDGE (_looks at her_)
Well, Jane?
JANE
No change. It’s--it’s pitiful, to see her like that.
[_Sadie sobs and covers her face._
HENRY
It’s best we should try to bear this without any fuss, she’d ’a’
wanted it that way.
SADIE
She didn’t even want me to cry when poor Will died, but I did; and
somehow I don’t know but it made things easier.
HENRY
When father died she didn’t shed a tear; she’s been a strong woman,
always.
[_The early fall twilight has come on and the stage is rather dim,
the hall at R. is in deep shadow, at the end of Henry’s speech
the outside door supposedly out at R. is open, then shut rather
violently._
ELLA (_startled_)
Someone’s come in.
SADIE
Nobody’s got any right----
[_She rises as some one is heard coming along the hall._
HENRY (_sternly_)
Who’s that out there? Who is it?
ORIN
Mum! Who is it!
[_He clings to his mother afraid, as all turn to the door, and Ben
Jordan steps into the room and faces them with a smile of reckless
contempt. Ben is the black sheep of the Jordan family, years younger
than any of the others, a wild, selfish, arrogant fellow, handsome
but sulky and defiant. His clothes are cheap and dirty and he is
rather pale and looks dissipated. He doesn’t speak but stands openly
sneering at their look of astonishment._
JANE (_quietly_)
I’m glad you’ve come, Ben.
BEN (_contemptuously_)
_You_ are?
JANE
Yes, your mother’s awful sick.
BEN
She’s alive?
JANE
Yes.
BEN
Well--(_He looks contemptuously about_)
Nobody missin’. The Jordans are gathered again, handkerchiefs and all.
HENRY
You’ll be arrested soon as folks know you’ve come.
BEN (_scornfully_)
And I suppose you wouldn’t bail me out, would you, Henry?
HENRY (_simply_)
No, I wouldn’t.
BEN
God! You’re still the same, all of you. You stink of the Ark, the
whole tribe. It takes more than a few Edisons to change the Jordans!
ELLA
How’d you get here? How’d you know about mother?
BEN (_nods at Jane_)
She sent me word, to Bangor.
SADIE (_to Jane_)
How’d you get to know where he was?
JANE (_quietly_)
I knew.
HENRY
How’d you come; you don’t look like you had much money?
BEN
She sent it. (_He nods toward Jane_) God knows, it wasn’t much.
ELLA (_to Jane_)
Did mother tell you to----?
BEN
Of course she did!
JANE (_quietly_)
No, she didn’t.
HENRY
You sent your own money?
JANE
Yes, as he said it wasn’t much, but I didn’t have much.
BEN (_astonished_)
Why did you do it?
JANE
I knew she was going to die; twice I asked her if she wanted to see
you, and she said no----
HENRY
And yet you sent for him?
JANE
Yes.
HENRY
Why?
JANE
He was the one she really wanted. I thought she’d die happier seeing
him.
ELLA
You took a lot on yourself, didn’t you?
JANE
Yes, she’s been a lonely old woman. I hated to think of her there, in
the churchyard, hungry for him.
BEN
I’ll go to her.
JANE
It’s too late; she wouldn’t know you.
BEN
I’ll go.
JANE
The doctor will call us when he thinks we ought to come.
BEN (_fiercely_)
I’m going now.
HENRY (_steps forward_)
No, you ain’t.
BEN
Do you think I came here, standin’ a chance of bein’ sent to jail, to
let _you_ tell me what to do?
HENRY
If she’s dyin’ up there, it’s more’n half from what you’ve made her
suffer; you’ll wait here till we go to her together.
EMMA
Henry’s right.
SADIE
Of course he is.
ELLA
Nobody but Ben would have the impudence to show his face here, after
what he’s done.
BEN
I’m going just the same!
HENRY
No, you ain’t.
[_Their voices become loud._
EMMA
Henry! Don’t let him go!
SADIE
Stop him.
ELLA (_grows shrill_)
He’s a disgrace to us. He always was.
HENRY
You’ll stay right where you are.
[_He puts his hand heavily on Ben’s shoulder--Ben throws him off
fiercely._
BEN
Damn you! Keep your hands off me!
[_Henry staggers back and strikes against a table that falls to the
floor with a crash. Nettie screams._
JANE
Stop it--stop! You must!
JUDGE
Are you crazy? Have you no sense of decency?
[_Doctor Curtis comes quickly downstairs._
DOCTOR
What’s this noise? I forbid it. Your mother has heard you.
HENRY (_ashamed_)
I’m sorry.
BEN (_sulkily_)
I didn’t mean to make a row.
HENRY
It’s him. (_He looks bitterly at Ben_) He brings out all the worst in
us. He brought trouble into the world with him when he came, and ever
since.
[_Hannah, a middle-aged servant, comes hastily half-way downstairs
and calls out sharply._
HANNAH
Doctor! Come, Doctor!
[_She exits up the stairs, as the Doctor crosses through the hall and
follows her._
ORIN (_afraid_)
Is she dead, Mum? Does Hannah mean she’s dead!
[_Sadie hides her head on his shoulder and weeps._
JANE
I’ll go to her.
[_She exits._
ELLA (_violently_)
She’ll go. There ain’t scarcely a drop of Jordan blood in her veins,
and _she’s_ the one that goes to mother.
EMMA (_coldly_)
Light the lamp, Nettie; it’s gettin’ dark.
NETTIE
Yes, mother.
[_She starts to light lamp._
HENRY
I’m ashamed of my part of it, makin’ a row, with her on her deathbed.
BEN
You had it right, I guess. I’ve made trouble ever since I came into
the world.
NETTIE
There!
[_She lights lamp; footlights go up._
JUDGE (_sternly_)
You shouldn’t have come here; you know that, Ben.
BEN
I’ve always known that, any place I’ve been, exceptin’ only those two
years in the Army. That’s the only time I ever was in right.
JUDGE (_sternly_)
I would find it easier to pity you if you had any one to blame
besides yourself.
BEN
Pity? Do you think I want your pity?
[_There is a pause._
_Jane is seen on stairs, they all turn to her nervously as she comes
down and crosses into room. She stops at the door looking at them._
HENRY (_slowly_)
Mother--mother’s--gone!
JANE
Yes.
[_There is a moment’s silence broken by the low sobs of the women who
for a moment forget their selfishness in the presence of death._
HENRY
The Jordans won’t ever be the same; she was the last of the old
stock, mother was--No, the Jordans won’t ever be the same.
[_Doctor Curtis comes downstairs and into the room._
DOCTOR
It’s no use tryin’ to tell you what I feel. I’ve known her since I
was a boy. I did the best I could.
HENRY
The best anybody could, Doctor, we know that.
DOCTOR
I’ve got a call I’d better make--(_He looks at watch_)--should have
been there hours ago, but I hadn’t the heart to leave her. Who’s in
charge here?
HENRY
I am, of course.
DOCTOR
I’ve made arrangements with Hannah; she’ll tell you.
I’ll say good night now.
HENRY
Good night, Doctor.
JANE
And thank you.
DOCTOR
We did our best, Jane.
[_He exits._
SADIE
He’s gettin’ old. When Orin had the stomach trouble a month ago, I
sent for Doctor Morris. I felt sort of guilty doin’ it, but I thought
it was my duty.
JUDGE
You will let me help you, Jane?
JANE
Hannah and I can attend to everything. Henry! (_She turns to him_)
You might come over for a minute this evening and we can talk things
over. I’ll make the bed up in your old room, Ben, if you want to stay.
EMMA (_rises and looks at Jane coldly_)
Now, Henry Jordan, if she’s all through givin’ orders, maybe you’ll
begin.
ELLA
Well, I should say so. Let’s have an understandin’.
SADIE
You tell her the truth, Henry, or else one of us will do it for you.
HENRY (_hesitates_)
Maybe it might be best if I should wait until after the funeral.
ELLA
You tell her now, or I will.
JANE
Tell me what?
HENRY
We was thinkin’ now that mother’s dead, that there wasn’t much use in
your stayin’ on here.
JANE
Yes?
[_She looks at him intently._
HENRY
We don’t aim to be hard, and we don’t want it said we was mean about
it; you can stay on here, if you want to, until after the funeral,
maybe a little longer, and I don’t know but what between us, we’d be
willing to help you till you found a place somewheres.
JANE
You can’t help me, any of you. Of course now she’s dead, I’ll go.
I’ll be glad to go.
ELLA
Glad!
JANE (_turns on them_)
I hate you, the whole raft of you. I’ll be glad to get away from you.
She was the only one of you worth loving, and she didn’t want it.
EMMA
If that’s how you feel, I say the sooner you went the better.
HENRY
Not till after the funeral. I don’t want it said we was hard to her.
JUDGE (_quietly_)
Jane isn’t going at all, Henry.
HENRY
What’s that?
ELLA
Of course she’s going.
JUDGE
No, she belongs here in this house.
HENRY
Not after I say she don’t.
JUDGE
Even then, because it’s hers.
SADIE
Hers?
JUDGE
From the moment of your mother’s death, everything here belonged to
Jane.
HENRY
Not everything.
JUDGE
Yes, everything--your mother’s whole estate.
BEN
Ha! Ha! Ha!
[_He sits at right laughing bitterly._
JANE
That can’t be, Judge, you must be wrong. It’s a mistake.
JUDGE
No.
HENRY
My mother did this?
JUDGE
Yes.
HENRY
Why? You’ve got to tell me why!
JUDGE
That isn’t a part of my duties.
HENRY
She couldn’t have done a thing like that without sayin’ why. She said
something, didn’t she?
JUDGE
I don’t know that I care to repeat it.
HENRY (_fiercely_)
You must repeat it!
JUDGE
Very well. The day that will was drawn she said to me, “The Jordans
are all waiting for me to die, like carrion crows around a sick cow
in a pasture, watchin’ till the last twitch of life is out of me
before they pounce. I’m going to fool them,” she said, “I’m going to
surprise them; they are all fools but Jane--Jane’s no fool.”
BEN (_bitterly_)
No--Ha! Ha! Ha! Jane’s no fool!
JUDGE
And she went on--(_He turns to Jane_) You’ll forgive me Jane; she
said, “Jane is stubborn, and set, and wilful, but she’s no fool.
She’ll do better by the Jordan money than any of them.”
ELLA
We’ll go to law, that’s what we’ll do!
SADIE
That’s it, we’ll go to law.
HENRY (_to Judge_)
We can break that will; you know we can!
JUDGE
It’s possible.
HENRY
Possible! You _know_, don’t yer! You’re supposed to be a good lawyer.
JUDGE
Of course if I _am_ a good lawyer you can’t break that will, because
you see I drew it.
ELLA
And we get nothing, not a dollar, after waitin’ all these years?
JUDGE
There are small bequests left to each of you.
SADIE
How much?
JUDGE
One hundred dollars each.
ELLA (_shrilly_)
One hundred dollars.
JUDGE
I said that they were small.
BEN
You said a mouthful!
ELLA
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
[_She laughs wildly._
HENRY (_sternly_)
Stop your noise, Ella.
ELLA
I----Ha! Ha! Ha!----I told you I was going to have my laugh, didn’t
I? Ha! Ha! Ha!
ORIN (_pulls Sadie’s dress_)
Mum! What’s she laughin’ for?
SADIE
You hush!
EMMA (_faces them all in evil triumph_)
If anybody asked me, I’d say it was a judgment on all of yer. You
Jordans was always stuck up, always thought you was better’n anybody
else. I guess I ought to know, I married into yer!--You a rich
family?--You the salt of the Earth--You Jordans! You paupers--Ha! Ha!
Ha!
ORIN (_pulls Sadie’s skirt_)
Ain’t she still dead, Mum! Ain’t grandma still dead?
SADIE (_angrily_)
Of course she is.
ORIN
But I thought we was all goin’ to cry!
SADIE
Cry then, you awful little brat.
[_She slaps his face and he roars loudly; she takes him by the arm
and yanks him out of the room, followed by Henry, Emma, Nettie and
Ella--through his roars, they all speak together as they go._
EMMA (_to Henry_)
One hundred dollars! After all your blowin’.
HENRY
It’s you, and that child of your’n; you turned her against me.
NETTIE
Well, I just won’t spend my hundred dollars for mournin’. I’ll wear
my old black dress!
ELLA
And me makin’ hats all the rest of my life--just makin’ hats!
[_The front door is heard to shut behind them. Jane, Ben and Judge
are alone. Judge stands by stove. Jane is up by window, looking out
at the deepening twilight. Ben sits at right._
BEN
Ha! Ha! Ha! “Crow buzzards” mother called us--the last of the
Jordans--crow buzzards--and that’s what we are.
JUDGE
You can’t stay here, Ben; you know that as well as I do. I signed the
warrant for your arrest myself. It’s been over a year since the Grand
Jury indicted you for arson.
BEN
You mean you’ll give me up?
JANE
You won’t do that, Judge; you’re here as her friend.
JUDGE
No, but if it’s known he’s here, I couldn’t save him, and it’s bound
to be known.
JANE (_to Ben_)
Were you careful coming?
BEN
Yes.
JUDGE
It’s bound to be known.
BEN
He means they’ll tell on me. (_He nods his head toward door_) My
brother, or my sisters.
JUDGE
No, I don’t think they’d do that.
BEN
Let ’em! What do I care. I’m sick of hiding out, half starved! Let
’em do what they please. All I know is one thing,--when they put her
into her grave her sons and daughters are goin’ to be standin’ there,
like the Jordans always do.
JANE (_quietly_)
Hannah will have your room ready by now. There are some clean shirts
and things that was your father’s; I’ll bring them to you.
BEN (_uneasily_)
Can I go up there, just a minute?
JANE
To your mother?
BEN
Yes.
JANE
If you want to.
BEN
I do.
JANE
Yes, you can go.
[_Ben turns and exits up the stairs. Jane crosses and sits by stove,
sinking wearily into the chair._
JUDGE
And she left him nothing, just that hundred dollars, and only that
because I told her it was the safest way to do it. I thought he was
her one weakness, but it seems she didn’t have any.
JANE
No.
JUDGE
She was a grim old woman, Jane.
JANE
I think I could have loved her, but she didn’t want it.
JUDGE
And yet she left you everything.
JANE
I don’t understand.
JUDGE
She left a sealed letter for you. It’s in my strong box; you may
learn from it that she cared more about you than you think.
JANE
No.
JUDGE
There was more kindness in her heart than most people gave her credit
for.
JANE
For her own, for Uncle Ned, who never did for her, for Ned, for the
Jordan name. I don’t understand, and I don’t think I care so very
much; it’s been a hard week, Judge.
[_She rests her head against the back of the chair._
JUDGE
I know, and you’re all worn out.
JANE
Yes.
JUDGE
It’s a lot of money, Jane.
JANE
I suppose so.
JUDGE
And so you’re a rich woman. I am curious to know how you feel?
JANE
Just tired.
[_She shuts her eyes. For a moment he looks at her with a smile,
then turns and quietly fills the stove with wood as Ben comes slowly
downstairs and into the room._
BEN
If there was only something I could do for her.
JUDGE
Jane’s asleep, Ben.
BEN
Did she look like that, unhappy, all the time?
JUDGE
Yes.
BEN
Crow buzzards! God damn the Jordans!
[_Front door bell rings sharply, Ben is startled._
JUDGE
Steady there! It’s just one of the neighbors, I guess. (_Bell rings
again as Hannah crosses downstairs and to hall_) Hannah knows enough
not to let any one in.
BEN (_slowly_)
When I got back, time before this, from France, I tried to go
straight, but it wasn’t any good, I just don’t belong----
[_Hannah enters frightened._
HANNAH
It’s Jim Jay!
BEN (_to Judge_)
And you didn’t think my own blood would sell me?
[_Jim Jay, a large, kindly man of middle age, enters._
JIM
I’m sorry, Ben, I’ve come for you!
[_Jane wakes, startled, and springs up._
JANE
What is it?
JIM
I got to take him, Jane.
BEN (_turns fiercely_)
Have you!
JIM (_quietly_)
I’m armed, Ben--better not be foolish!
JANE
He’ll go with you, Mr. Jay. He won’t resist.
JIM (_quietly_)
He mustn’t. You got a bad name, Ben, and I ain’t a-goin’ to take any
chances.
BEN
I thought I’d get to go to her funeral, anyway, before they got me.
JIM
Well, you could, maybe, if you was to fix a bail bond. You’d take
bail for him, wouldn’t you, Judge?
JUDGE
It’s a felony; I’d have to have good security.
JANE
I’m a rich woman, you said just now. Could I give bail for him?
JUDGE
Yes.
BEN (_to her_)
So the money ain’t enough. You want all us Jordans fawnin’ on you for
favors. Well, all of ’em but me will; by mornin’ the buzzards will be
flocking round you thick! You’re going to hear a lot about how much
folks love you, but you ain’t goin’ to hear it from me.
JANE (_turns to him quietly_)
Why did you come here, Ben, when I wrote you she was dying?
BEN
Why did I come?
JANE
Was it because you loved her, because you wanted to ask her to
forgive you, before she died--or was it because you wanted to get
something for yourself?
BEN (_hesitates_)
How does a feller know why he does what he does?
JANE
I’m just curious. You’ve got so much contempt for the rest, I
was just wondering? You were wild, Ben, and hard, but you were
honest--what brought you here?
BEN (_sulkily_)
The money.
JANE
I thought so. Then when you saw her you were sorry, but even then the
money was in your mind--well--it’s mine now. And you’ve got to take
your choice,--you can do what I tell you, or you’ll go with Mr. Jay.
BEN
Is that so? Well I guess there ain’t much doubt about what I’ll do.
Come on, Jim?
JIM
All right. (_He takes a pair of handcuffs from his pocket_) You’ll
have to slip these on, Ben.
BEN (_steps back_)
No--wait--(_He turns desperately to Jane_) What is it you want?
JANE
I want you to do as I say.
BEN (_after a look at Jim and the handcuffs_)
I’ll do it.
JANE
I thought so. (_She turns to Judge_) Can you fix the bond up here?
JUDGE
Yes. (_He sits at table and takes pen, ink and paper from a drawer_)
I can hold court right here long enough for that.
JIM
This is my prisoner, Judge, and here’s the warrant.
[_He puts warrant on table._
JANE
First he’s got to swear, before you, to my conditions.
BEN
What conditions?
JANE
When will his trial be, Judge?
JUDGE
Not before the spring term, I should think--say early April.
JANE
You’ll stay here till then, Ben; you won’t leave town! You’ll work
the farm,--there’s plenty to be done.
BEN (_sulkily_)
I don’t know how to work a farm.
JANE
I do. You’ll just do what I tell you.
BEN
Be your slave? That’s what you mean, ain’t it?
JANE
I’ve been about that here for eight years.
BEN
And now it’s your turn to get square on a Jordan!
JANE
You’ll work for once, and work every day. The first day you don’t
I’ll surrender you to the judge, and he’ll jail you. The rest of the
Jordans will live as I tell them to live, or for the first time in
any of their lives, they’ll live on what they earn. Don’t forget,
Ben, that right now I’m the head of the family.
JUDGE (_to Ben_)
You heard the conditions? Shall I make out the bond?
BEN (_reluctantly_)
Yes.
[_He sits moodily at right, looking down at the floor. Jane looks at
him for a moment, then turns up to window._
JANE
It’s snowing!
JIM
Thought I smelled it. (_He buttons his coat_) Well, nothin’ to keep
me, is there, Judge?
JUDGE
No. (_He starts to write out the bond with a rusty pen_) This pen is
rusty!
JIM
I was sorry to hear about the old lady. It’s too bad, but that’s the
way of things.
JUDGE (_writes_)
Yes.
JIM
Well--It’s early for snow, not but what it’s a good thing for the
winter wheat.
[_He exits._
CURTAIN
ACT TWO
_Scene: Sitting room of the Jordan homestead some two months later._
_This room also shows some traces of a family’s daily life, and to
that extent is less desolate than the “parlor” of the first act,
although the stern faith of the Puritan makes no concession to
the thing we have learned to call “good taste.” The old-fashioned
simplicity seen in such a room as this has resulted from poverty,
both of mind and of purse, and has nothing akin to the simplicity of
the artist; as a matter of fact, your true descendant of the settlers
of 1605 would be the first to resent such an implication; to them the
arts are directly connected with heathen practices, and any incense
burned before the altars of the Graces still smells to them of
brimstone._
_At back center folding doors, now partly open, lead to dining room.
In this room may be seen the dining table, back of the table a window
looking out on to the farm yard, now deep in midwinter snow. At right
is an open fireplace with a log fire. Below fireplace a door to hall.
Up left door to small vestibule in which is the outside door. Down
left a window overlooking a snowbound countryside. The clock above
the fireplace is set for quarter past four. Several straight-backed
chairs and a woodbox by fireplaces. A sewing table and lamp at
center. A sewing machine near window at left. A wall cupboard on the
wall right of the doors to the dining room. An old sofa down left,
two chairs at right. When the door at left, in vestibule, is opened,
one may see a path up to the door, between two walls of snow._
_Discovered: Ella sits right at sewing machine, hemming some rough
towels. Orin and Nettie are by fireplace. Sadie sits right of center.
Sadie and Orin are dressed for outdoors. Nettie’s coat, hat and
overshoes are on a hat-rack by door at left. Orin, as the curtain
goes up, is putting a log on the fire._
SADIE (_acidly to Ella_)
Why shouldn’t he put wood on the fire if he wants to?
ELLA (_at sewing machine_)
Because it ain’t your wood.
SADIE
No, it’s _hers_! Everything is hers!
ELLA
And maybe she just don’t know it.
NETTIE (_at fireplace_)
Ah! (_She bends closer to the fire as the log blazes up_) I do love a
good fire! Oh it’s nice to be warm!
SADIE
There’s somethin’ sensual about it.
NETTIE
Mother told me that the next time you started talkin’ indecent I was
to leave the room.
SADIE
Tell your mother I don’t wonder she’s sort of worried about you. I’d
be if you was _my_ daughter.
ELLA
I don’t see why you can’t let Nettie alone!
NETTIE
She’s always picking on me, Aunt Ella! To hear her talk anybody would
think I was terrible.
SADIE
I know more about what’s going on than some folks think I do.
NETTIE
Then you know a lot. I heard Horace Bevins say a week ago that he
didn’t know as it was any use tryin’ to have a Masonic Lodge in the
same town as you.
SADIE
They never was a Bevins yet didn’t have his tongue hung from the
middle; the day his mother was married she answered both the
responses.
ORIN
Mum! Mum! Shall I take my coat off; are we going to stay, Mum?
SADIE
No, we ain’t going to stay. I just want to see Cousin Jane for a
minute.
ELLA
She’s in the kitchen with Hannah.
SADIE
Watchin’ her, I bet! I wonder Hannah puts up with it.
ELLA
If you was to live with Jane for a spell, I guess you’d find you had
a plenty to put up with.
SADIE
It’s enough to make the Jordans turn in their graves, all of ’em at
once.
ELLA
I guess all she’d say would be, “Let ’em if it seemed to make ’em any
more comfortable.”
[_Jane enters. She has apron on and some towels over her arm._
JANE
Are those towels finished?
ELLA
Some is! Maybe I’d done all of ’em if I’d been a centipede.
JANE
Oh! I didn’t see you, Sadie.
SADIE
Oh! Ha, ha! Well, I ain’t surprised.
JANE (_with Ella, selecting finished towels_) Well, Orin, does the
tooth still hurt you?
ORIN
Naw, it don’t hurt me none now. I got it in a bottle.
[_He takes small bottle from pocket._
NETTIE
Oh you nasty thing. You get away!
SADIE (_angrily_)
What did I tell you about showin’ that tooth to folks!
JANE
Never mind, Orin, just run out to the barn and tell your Uncle Ben
we’ve got to have a path cleared under the clothes-lines.
ORIN
All right.
[_He crosses toward door._
JANE
Hannah’s going to wash to-morrow, tell him. I’ll expect a good wide
path.
ORIN
I’ll tell him.
[_He exits._
SADIE
I must say you keep Ben right at it, don’t you?
JANE
Yes. (_She takes the last finished towel and speaks to Ella_) I’ll
come back for more.
SADIE (_as Jane crosses_)
First I thought he’d go to jail before he’d work, but he didn’t, did
he?
JANE
No.
[_She exits right._
SADIE
Yes. No! Yes. No! Folks that ain’t got no more gift of gab ain’t got
much gift of intellect. I s’pose Hannah’s out there.
ELLA
Yes, she keeps all of us just everlastingly at it.
SADIE
When Jane comes back, I wish you and Nettie would leave me alone with
her, just for a minute.
ELLA (_as she works over sewing machine_)
It won’t do you much good; she won’t lend any more money.
SADIE
Mother always helped me. I’ve got a right to expect it.
ELLA (_as she bites off a thread_)
Expectin’ ain’t gettin’.
SADIE
I don’t know what I’ll do.
ELLA
You had money out of her; so has Henry.
SADIE (_shocked, to Nettie_)
You don’t mean to say your father’s been borrowin’ from her.
[_This to Nettie._
NETTIE
He’s always borrowin’. Didn’t he borrow the hundred dollars grandma
left me? I’m not going to stand it much longer.
ELLA
Henry’s havin’ trouble with his business.
SADIE
We’re fools to put up with it. Everybody says so. We ought to contest
the will.
ELLA
Everybody says so but the lawyers; they won’t none of ’em touch the
case without they get money in advance.
SADIE
How much money? Didn’t your father find out, Nettie?
NETTIE
The least was five hundred dollars.
ELLA
Can you see us raisin’ that?
SADIE
If we was short, we might borrow it from Jane.
ELLA
We’d have to be smarter’n I see any signs of; she’s through lendin’.
SADIE
How do you know?
ELLA
I tried it myself.
SADIE
What do you want money for. Ain’t she takin’ you in to live with her?
ELLA
I don’t call myself beholden for that. She had to have some one, with
Ben here, and her unmarried, and next to no relation to him.
NETTIE
Everybody’s callin’ you the chaperon! (_She laughs_) Not but what
they ought to be one with _him_ around; he’s awful good lookin’.
SADIE
You keep away from him. He’s no blood kin of yours, and he’s a bad
man, if he is a Jordan. Always makes up to everything he sees in
petticoats, and always did.
NETTIE
Thanks for the compliment, but I’m not looking for any jailbirds.
ELLA
It will be awful, Ben in State’s Prison,--and I guess he’ll have to
go, soon as he stands his trial.
SADIE
He got drunk and had a fight with the two Kimbal boys, and they
licked him, and that night he burned down their barn; everybody knows
it.
ELLA
He’s bad, all through, Ben is.
NETTIE
He’ll get about five years, father says. I guess that will take some
of the spunk out of him.
[_A sound in the hall at right._
ELLA
Hush! I think he’s coming.
[_Ben enters at right with a big armful of firewood and crosses
and drops it heavily into woodbox, then turns and looks at them in
silence._
SADIE
Seems kind of funny, your luggin’ in the wood.
BEN (_bitterly_)
Does it?
SADIE
Did you see Orin out there?
BEN
Yes, he went along home.
SADIE
How do you like workin’?
BEN
How do you think I like it? Workin’ a big farm in winter, tendin’ the
stock and milking ten cows. How do I like it?
[_As he stands by fire Nettie looks up at him._
NETTIE
I think it’s just a shame!
SADIE (_turns to Ella_)
Are you going to make towels all the afternoon?
ELLA
I am ’til they’re done, then I expect she’ll find somethin’ else for
me to do.
NETTIE (_to Ben_)
Do you know I’m sorry for you, awful sorry.
[_She speaks low. Ella and Sadie are at the other side of room._
BEN
Then you’re the only one.
NETTIE
Maybe I am, but I’m like that.
BEN
Another month of it, then State’s Prison, I guess. I don’t know as
I’ll be sorry when the time comes.
NETTIE
Oh, Uncle Ben! No, I’m not goin’ to call you _that_. After all,
you’re not really any relation, are you? I mean to me?
BEN
No.
NETTIE (_softly_)
I’m just going to call you Ben!
BEN
You’re a good kid, Nettie.
NETTIE
Oh, it isn’t that, Ben, but it does just seem too awful.
[_As she looks up at him, the outside door opens and Henry and Emma
enter. They see Nettie and Ben together by the fire._
EMMA (_sternly_)
Nettie!
NETTIE (_sweetly_)
Yes, mother?
EMMA
You come away from him.
BEN (_angrily_)
What do you mean by that?
EMMA
You tell him, Henry.
HENRY
I don’t know as it’s any use to----
EMMA (_sternly_)
Tell him what I mean.
HENRY (_to Ben_)
Emma thinks, considerin’ everything, that it’s best Nettie shouldn’t
talk to you.
BEN
Why don’t you keep her at home then? You don’t suppose I want to talk
to her.
EMMA
Oh, we ain’t wanted here, I guess. We know that, not by you, or by
_her_;--and Henry’s the oldest of the Jordans. All this would be his,
if there was any justice in the world.
NETTIE
Father wouldn’t have taken that hundred dollars grandma left me if
there had been any justice in the world. That’s what I came here for,
not to talk to him. To tell Cousin Jane what father did, and to tell
her about Nellie Namlin’s Christmas party, and that I’ve got to have
a new dress. I’ve just got to!
SADIE
A new dress, and my rent ain’t paid. She’s got to pay it. My Orin’s
got to have a roof over his head.
HENRY
I don’t know as you’ve got any call to be pestering Jane all the time.
ELLA
She’s always wantin’ something.
SADIE
What about you? Didn’t you tell me yourself you tried to borrow from
her?
ELLA
I got a chance to set up in business, so as I can be independent. I
can go in with Mary Stanton, dressmakin’. I can do it for two hundred
dollars, and she’s got to give it to me.
HENRY
You ought to be ashamed, all three of you, worryin’ Jane all day
long. It’s more’n flesh and blood can stand!
NETTIE (_to him_)
Didn’t you say at breakfast you was coming here to-day to make Cousin
Jane endorse a note for you? Didn’t you?
EMMA (_fiercely_)
You hush!
BEN (_at back by window_)
Ha! Ha! Ha! Crow buzzards.
HENRY
Endorsing a note ain’t lending money, is it? It’s a matter of
business. I guess my note’s good.
BEN
Take it to the bank without her name on it and see how good it is.
EMMA
You don’t think we want to ask her favors, but Henry’s in bad trouble
and she’ll just have to help us this time.
BEN
There’s one way out of your troubles. One thing you could all do, for
a change, instead of making Jane pay all your bills. I wonder you
haven’t any of you thought of it.
HENRY
What could we do?
BEN
Go to work and earn something for yourselves.
SADIE
Like you do, I suppose.
EMMA
The laughing-stock of all Veazie!
ELLA
Everybody’s talkin’ about it, anywhere you go.
NETTIE
Jane Crosby’s White Slave, that’s what they call you. Jane Crosby’s
White Slave.
BEN (_fiercely_)
They call me that, do they?
ELLA (_to Nettie_)
Why can’t you ever hold your tongue?
BEN (_in cold anger_)
I’ve been a damned fool. I’m through.
[_Hannah enters._
HANNAH
She wants you.
BEN
Jane?
HANNAH
Yes.
BEN
I won’t come.
HANNAH
There’ll be another row.
BEN
Tell her I said I wouldn’t come.
[_He sits._
HANNAH
She’s awful set, you know, when she wants anything.
BEN
You tell her I won’t come.
HANNAH
Well, I don’t say I hanker none to tell her, but I’d rather be in my
shoes than your’n.
[_She exits._
SADIE
Well, I must say I don’t blame you a mite.
EMMA
If the Jordans is a lot of slaves, I guess it’s pretty near time we
knew it.
HENRY (_worried_)