J. M. Synge

“ I do be thinking in the long nights it was a big fool I was that time, Micheal Dara, for what good is a bit of a farm with cows on it, and sheep on the back hills, when you do be sitting looking out from a door the like of that door, and seeing nothing but the mists rolling down the bog, and the mists again, and they rolling up the bog, and hearing nothing but the wind crying out in the bits of broken trees were left from the great storm, and the streams roaring with the rain. ”

“ It’s lonesome roads she’ll be going and hiding herself away till the end will come, and they find her stretched like a dead sheep with the frost on her, or the big spiders, maybe, and they putting their webs on her, in the butt of a ditch. ”

“ It’s too lonesome you are from living a long time with an old man, Nora, and you’re talking again like a herd that would be coming down from the thick mist (he puts his arm round her) , but it’s a fine life you’ll have now with a young man, a fine life surely....
(Dan sneezes violently. Micheal tries to get to the door, but before he can do so, Dan jumps out of the bed in queer white clothes, with his stick in his hand, and goes over and puts his back against it.) ”

“ And I was thinking, and I coming in through the door, that it’s many a lone woman would be afeard of the like of me in the dark night, in a place wouldn’t be so lonesome as this place, where there aren’t two living souls would see the little light you have shining from the glass. ”

“ And it’s very dry I am, surely, with the fear of death you put on me, and I after driving mountain ewes since the turn of the day.
DAN.
(Throwing away his stick.) I was thinking to strike you, Micheal Dara, but you’re a quiet man, God help you, and I don’t mind you at all.
(He pours out two glasses of whisky, and gives one to Micheal.)
DAN.
Your good health, Micheal Dara.
MICHEAL.
God reward you, Daniel Burke, and may you have a long life, and a quiet life, and good health with it. (They drink.) ”

“ Isn’t it a long while I am sitting here in the winter and the summer, and the fine spring, with the young growing behind me and the old passing, saying to myself one time, to look on Mary Brien who wasn’t that height (holding out her hand) , and I a fine girl growing up, and there she is now with two children, and another coming on her in three months or four. ”

“ There’s no one can drive a mountain ewe but the men do be reared in the Glen Malure, I’ve heard them say, and above by Rathvanna, and the Glen Imaal, men the like of Patch Darcy, God spare his soul, who would walk through five hundred sheep and miss one of them, and he not reckoning them at all. ”

“ I’ve walked a great way through the world, lady of the house, and seen great wonders, but I never seen a wake till this day with fine spirits, and good tobacco, and the best of pipes, and no one to taste them but a woman only. ”

“ They were that wilful they were running off into one man’s bit of oats, and another man’s bit of hay, and tumbling into the red bogs till it’s more like a pack of old goats than sheep they were. Mountain ewes is a queer breed, Nora Burke, and I’m not used to them at all. ”

“ There’s the needle, stranger, and I’m thinking you won’t be lonesome, and you used to the back hills, for isn’t a dead man itself more company than to be sitting alone, and hearing the winds crying, and you not knowing on what thing your mind would stay? ”

“ It’s a pitiful thing to be getting old, but it’s a queer thing surely. It’s a queer thing to see an old man sitting up there in his bed with no teeth in him, and a rough word in his mouth, and his chin the way it would take the bark from the edge of an oak board you’ld have building a door.... God forgive me, Micheal Dara, we’ll all be getting old, but it’s a queer thing surely. ”

“ On my two feet, lady of the house, and when I saw the light below I thought maybe if you’d a sup of new milk and a quiet decent corner where a man could sleep (he looks in past her and sees the dead man.) The Lord have mercy on us all! ”

“ Was there any one on the last bit of the road, stranger, and you coming from Aughrim?
TRAMP.
There was a young man with a drift of mountain ewes, and he running after them this way and that.
NORA.
(With a half-smile.) Far down, stranger?
TRAMP.
A piece only.
(She fills the kettle and puts it on the fire.)
NORA.
Maybe, if you’re not easy afeard, you’ld stay here a short while alone with himself.
TRAMP.
I would surely. A man that’s dead can do no hurt. ”

“ I’m thinking many would be afeard, but I never knew what way I’d be afeard of beggar or bishop or any man of you at all. (She looks towards the window and lowers her voice.) It’s other things than the like of you, stranger, would make a person afeard. ”

“ There is another small door near the bed. Nora Burke is moving about the room, settling a few things, and lighting candles on the table, looking now and then at the bed with an uneasy look. Some one knocks softly at the door. She takes up a stocking with money from the table and puts it in her pocket. Then she opens the door.)
TRAMP.
(Outside.) Good evening to you, lady of the house.
NORA.
Good evening, kindly stranger, it’s a wild night, God help you, to be out in the rain falling. ”