Eugene O'Neill

“ I'm sick and disgusted at myself for sitting around and seeing everyone else hard at work, while all I've been doing is keep the accounts—a couple of hours work a week! I'm going to settle right down and take a real interest in the farm, and do my share. I'll prove to you, Pa, that I'm as good a Mayo as you are—or Andy, when I want to be. ”

“ MAYO—Why, things bein' as they be, Robert's free to do as he's a mind to.
MRS. MAYO—Let him! The very idea!
SCOTT— [More and more ruffled.] Then all I got to say is, you're a soft, weak-willed critter to be permittin' a boy—and women, too—to be layin' your course for you wherever they damn pleases.
MAYO— [Slyly amused.] It's just the same with me as 'twas with you, Dick. You can't order the tides on the seas to suit you, and I ain't pretendin' I can reg'late love for young folks.
SCOTT— [Scornfully.] Love! They ain't old enough to know love when they sight it! Love! ”

“ Don't you put no such fool notions in Andy's head, Dick—or you 'n' me's goin' to fall out. [Then he smiles.] You couldn't tempt him, no ways. Andy's a Mayo bred in the bone, and he's a born farmer, and a damn good one, too. He'll live and die right here on this farm, like I expect to. [With proud confidence.] And he'll make this one of the slickest, best-payin' farms in the state, too, afore he gits through!
SCOTT—Seems to me it's a pretty slick place right now.
MAYO— [Shaking his head.] It's too small. We need more land to make it amount to much, and we ain't got the capital to buy it. ”

“ MAYO— [Shaking his finger at ANDY, in a cold rage.] You know I'm speakin' truth—that's why you're afraid to argy! You lie when you say you want to go 'way—and see things! You ain't got no likin' in the world to go. Your place is right here on this farm—the place you was born to by nature—and you can't tell me no different. I've watched you grow up, and I know your ways, and they're my ways. You're runnin' against your own nature, and you're goin' to be a'mighty sorry for it if you do. ”

“ You men folks are too smart to live, aren't you? [She resumes her knitting. MAYO pretends to read his paper; ANDREW stares at the floor.]
SCOTT— [Looks from one to the other of them with a puzzled air. Finally he is unable to bear the thick silence a minute longer, and blurts out:] You folks look as if you was settin' up with a corpse. [With exaggerated concern.] God A'mighty, there ain't anyone dead, be there?
MAYO— [Sharply.] Don't play the dunce, Dick! You know as well as we do there ain't no great cause to be feelin' chipper. ”

“ Dick, you wouldn't believe how them boys o' mine sticks together. They ain't like most brothers. They've been thick as thieves all their lives, with nary a quarrel I kin remember.
SCOTT—No need to tell me that. I can see how they take to each other.
MRS. MAYO— [Pursuing her train of thought.] Did you notice, James, how queer everyone was at supper? Robert seemed stirred up about something; and Ruth was so flustered and giggly; and Andy sat there dumb, looking as if he'd lost his best friend; and all of them only nibbled at their food. ”

“ Get a man to take your place! Where'd I get him, tell me, with the shortage of farm labor hereabouts? And if I could get one, what int'rest d'you suppose he'd take beyond doin' as little work as he could for the money I paid him? You ain't been workin' here for no hire, Andy, that you kin give me your notice to quit like you've done. The farm is your'n as well as mine. ”

“ Everything in the room is clean, well-kept, and in its exact place, yet there is no suggestion of primness about the whole. Rather the atmosphere is one of the orderly comfort of a simple, hard-earned prosperity, enjoyed and maintained by the family as a unit. ”

“ The Atkins farm is right next to ourn. Jined together they'd make a jim-dandy of a place, with plenty o' room to work in. And bein' a widder with only a daughter, and laid up all the time to boot, Mrs. Atkins can't do nothin' with the place as it ought to be done. Her hired help just goes along as they pleases, in spite o' her everlastin' complainin' at 'em. She needs a man, a first-class farmer, to take hold o' things; and Andy's just the one.
MRS. MAYO— [Abruptly.] I don't think Ruth loves Andy. ”

“ And that mission woman, she hails me on the dock as I was acomin' ashore, and she says—with her silly face all screwed up serious as judgment—"Captain," she says, "would you be so kind as to tell me where the sea-gulls sleeps at nights?" Blow me if them warn't her exact words! [He slaps the table with the palm of his hands and laughs loudly. The others force smiles.] Ain't that just like a fool woman's question? And I looks at her serious as I could, "Ma'm," says I, "I couldn't rightly answer that question. I ain't never seed a sea-gull in his bunk yet. ”

“ I've been countin' sure on havin' Robert for company on this vige—to sorta talk to and show things to, and teach, kinda, and I got my mind so set on havin' him I'm goin' to be double lonesome this vige. [He pounds on the table, attempting to cover up this confession of weakness.] Darn all this silly lovin' business, anyway.
MRS. MAYO— [Touched.] It's too bad you have to be so lonesome, Dick. Why don't you give up the old boat? You've been on the sea long enough, heaven's knows. Why don't you make up your mind and settle down here with us? ”

“ I ain't gettin' no fun out o' missin' sleep and leavin' here at six bells myself. [Protestingly.] And the Sunda ain't an old ship—leastways, not very old—and she's good's she ever was. Your boy Robert'll be as safe on board o' her as he'd be home in bed here. ”