Padraic Colum

“ Marianne, it would be like the blow to the struck ox if I lost my pension.
MRS. CRILLY
If you managed to get the pension you could pay the
Guardians back in a lump sum.
MUSKERRY
If I resigned now, where would I go to?
MRS. CRILLY
It was always understood that you would stay with us.
MUSKERRY
No, Marianne.
MRS. CRILLY You'll have the place to yourself. The boys will be going to school, and Albert will be away, too. Anna and myself will look after you.
MUSKERRY
I could stay for a while.
MRS. CRILLY
Oh, well, if you have a better place to go—
MUSKERRY Remember what I said, Marianne. ”

“ JAMES He likes you well enough, but, as he says, "what would she be doing here and your sisters years older than herself?" There's truth in that, mind you. I always give in to the truth.
MAIRE
James?
JAMES (turning to Maire) Well, Maire?
MAIRE
Is Anne a girl to be waiting twenty years for a man, like
Sally Cassidy?
JAMES God forbid, Maire Hourican, that I'd ask your sister to wait that length. MAIRE She hasn't got a fortune. We were brought up different to farmers, and maybe we never gave thought to the like.
JAMES
She has what's better than a fortune. ”

“ Matt comes in.
MURTAGH COSGAR
You're wanted here.
MATT I heard you call. (He sits on table) So they're sticking to the twenty years.
MARTIN DOURAS (eagerly) Twenty years, Matt, and they'll get it for twenty. O, it's a great day for you both! Father and son, you come into a single inheritance. What the father wins the son wields.
MURTAGH COSGAR
What the father wins, the son wastes.
MATT
What's the talk of father and son?
MARTIN DOURAS They're the one flesh and blood. There's no more strife between them than between the right hand and the left hand. ”

“ Murtagh Cosgar never let a child of his have their own way.
MATT
When the land's bought out, he'll be easier to deal with.
ELLEN When he owns the land, he'll never let a son of his marry a girl without land or fortune.
MATT Ellen, Ellen, I'd lose house and land for you. Sure you know that, Ellen. My brothers and sisters took their freedom. They went from this house and away to the ends of the world. Maybe I don't differ from them so much. But I've put my work into the land, and I'm beginning to know the land. I won't lose it, Ellen. Neither will I lose you. ”

“ MURTAGH COSGAR (bitterly) In the houses that are now, the young marry where they have a mind to. It's their own business, they say.
MATT Maybe it is their own business. I'm going to marry Ellen Douras, if she'll have me.
MURTAGH COSGAR Ellen is a good girl, and clever, I'm told. But I would not have you deal before you go into the fair.
MATT
I'm going to marry Ellen Douras.
MURTAGH COSGAR Her father is here, and we can settle it now. What fortune will you be giving Ellen, Martin? That 100 pounds that was saved while you were in Maryborough gaol? ”

“ MATT Ellen, it's no shame for a man to have harsh words said to him when it's about a woman like you.
ELLEN Let nothing come between us now. I saw you in the winter making drains and ditches, and it wet. It's a poor story, the life of a man on the land.
MATT
I had too much thought for the land.
ELLEN You had. Have thought for me now. There is no one in fair or market but would notice me. I was never a favourite. I lived to myself. I did not give my love about. You have never offered me anything. In the song a man offers towns to his sweetheart. ”

“ MAIRE
Sit down, James.
James sits on chair, near table. Maire is seated at fire, left of
James. Anne leans against table, right of him.
JAMES
Your father is outside, maybe?
MAIRE
No. He's above in the room.
JAMES Yes. Practising, I suppose. Them that have the gift have to mind the gift. In this country there isn't much thought for poetry, or music, or scholarship. Still, a few of us know that a while must be spared from the world if we are to lay up riches in the mind. ”

“ CONN You're a good girl, Anne, and he'll be lucky that gets you. And don't be grieving that you're not bringing James Moynihan a fortune. You're bringing him the decency of birth and rearing. You're like the lone pigeon I often think—the pet that doesn't fly, and keeps near the house.
ANNE
That's the way you always treat me, and I never can talk to you.
CONN (at window) Hush now, here's the other, your sister Maire. She's like the wild pigeon of the woods. (Maire Hourican comes in) We were discoursing on affairs, Maire. We won't be bringing Brian MacConnell here tomorrow ”

“ O Cornelius, it won't be lucky for us when father hears about
Ellen and Matt.
CORNELIUS
That's true. No man sees his house afire but looks to his rick.
SALLY Come down a bit of the road with me, Cornelius. The sow will be grunting and grunting, reminding father that I'm away. Och, a minute ago I was as contented as if there was no land or pigs, or harsh words to trouble one. (She goes to the door) The boys and girls for America are coming here.
CORNELIUS Give me your hands to hold, Sally. (She gives him her hands) We are as young as any of them after all. ”

“ ANNE
Ribbonism and secret societies were denounced off the altar.
MAIRE Goodness! The men will begin to think they've secrets worth telling.
ANNE
Have you secrets worth telling, Brian?
MAIRE
I daresay he has. There are foolish women in the world.
ANNE
Are you coming to Moynihan's, Brian?
BRIAN
No. I'm going where there's men.
MAIRE Come, Anne, till I deck you out. Come here, daughter, don't wear flowers. I think they're unlucky. Here I am talking like this, and I going to a dance. I suppose I'll dance with seven or eight and forget what's on my mind.... ”

“ MAIRE Ay, foolish people. You had all your life to yourself, and you went here and there, straying from place to place, and caring only for the praise of foolish people.
CONN God help you, if that's your way of thinking! Sure the world knows that a man is born with the gift, and isn't the gift then the sign of the grace of God? Foolish people, indeed! Them that know the gift have some of the grace of God, no matter how poor they may be. ”

“ For when I'm talking with you, Cornelius, I feel like a boy who lends back all the marbles he's won, and plays again, just for the sake of the game.
CORNELIUS We were in dread of Ellen going to America at one time, and then she went in for the school. Now Matt Cosgar may keep her from the school. Maybe we won't have to go further than this house to see Ellen.
MARTIN DOURAS
I'm hoping it'll be like that; but I'm in dread that
Murtagh Cosgar will never agree to it. He's a hard man to deal with. ”

“ MAIRE Well, the boy was glad to talk to me. Connor's a good dancer, and he has fine talk besides. If Brian MacConnell had come to the door, I wouldn't have turned my head towards him.
ANNE Sure, you wouldn't compare a young boy like Connor Gilpatrick with Brian MacConnell?
MAIRE I wouldn't have turned my head towards Brian. O! never expect kindness from men. Why did you let me stay on? I'm afraid to look at myself in the glass to-day. (She goes over to the mirror) You were hard on me, Anne, yesterday. ”

“ CHRISTY He and his brother had a farm between them. His brother was married, and one day the brother told Myles to go to Dublin to see a comrade of his who was sick. Myles was home in a week, and when he came back he found that his brother had sold the place and was gone out of the country.
MUSKERRY
His brother did wrong, but he didn't do so much wrong to
Myles Gorman.
CHRISTY
How is that, Mister Muskerry?
MUSKERRY He sent Myles Gorman to his own life. He's a man who went his own way always; a man who never had any family nor any affairs; a man far different from me, Christy Clarke. ”

“ MRS. CRILLY If he could be got to resign now James Scollard would have a good chance of becoming Workhouse Master. He would marry Anna, and we would still have some hand in the affairs of the House.
CRILLY
Yes, yes. I think that Scollard could make a place for himself.
ALBERT
The old man won't be anxious to retire.
MRS. CRILLY
Why shouldn't he retire when his time is up?
ALBERT Well, here he is what's called a potentate. He won't care to come down and live over Crilly's shop. ”

“ JAMES "Anne Hourican is too young," said my father; "she's a nice girl, and a good girl, but she's too young."
MAIRE
Sure in a while Anne will be twenty.
JAMES (turning to Maire) Ten years from this father would still think Anne too young. And late marriages, as everybody knows, is the real weakness of the country. ”

“ Sally Cosgar is kneeling, near the entrance chopping up cabbage-leaves with a kitchen-knife. She is a girl of twenty-five, dark, heavily built, with the expression of a half-awakened creature. She is coarsely dressed, and has a sacking apron. She is quick at work, and rapid and impetuous in speech. She is talking to herself.
SALLY Oh, you may go on grunting, yourself and your litter, it won't put me a bit past my own time. You oul' black baste of a sow, sure I'm slaving to you all the spring. ”

“ I must go after Anne. May she never repent of her choice. (He goes to the door, then turns round) But sure I'm forgetting the jewel of them all, yourself, Maire Hourican. Long may you reign in splendour and success, and in the wish of your heart.
James Moynihan goes out. Conn Hourican goes back to the door, and remains looking out. Maire stands at fire.
CONN It's strange to be looking across that door, and the sun setting for our journey. And now we're letting the place go out of our hands. Well, Honor Gilroy's bit of land has been brought to a great many people.
He comes down to dresser. ”

“ I was thinking—I was thinking, maybe you'd give me a lift towards Arvach, if you'd be going that way this night.
MURTAGH COSGAR
Ay, why not?
MARTIN DOURAS And we could talk about the land, and about Matt, too. Wouldn't it be a heart-break if any of our children went—because of a thing we might—
MURTAGH COSGAR (fiercely) What have you to say about Matt?
MARTIN DOURAS (stammering) Nothing except in a—in what you might call a general way. There's many a young man left house and land for the sake of some woman, Murtagh Cosgar. ”

“ CHRISTY (without stirring) Is who not back yet?
TOURNOUR The master I'm talking about. I don't know where he does be going those evenings.
He shovels coal into the stove.
CHRISTY
And what is it to you where he does be going?
TOURNOUR Don't talk to me like that, young fellow. You're poorhouse rearing, even though you are a pet. Will he be sitting up here to-night, do you know?
CHRISTY
What's that to you whether he will or not?
TOURNOUR
If he's sitting up late he'll want more coal to his fire.
CHRISTY
Well, the abstracts will have to be finished to-night. ”

“ There was Brian MacConnell putting on his coat to go to Flynn's, and talking of the Sligomen.
MAIRE (startled) And was it to Flynn's that Brian MacConnell went?
CONN
It was Brian that brought me to Flynn's.
MAIRE
Was it Brian MacConnell that brought you to Flynn's?
CONN
It was.
MAIRE (passionately) You must never go to Flynn's.
CONN
I'm ashamed of myself. Didn't I say that, Maire?
MAIRE (with hardness) You must never go again.
CONN
And is a man to have no life to himself?
MAIRE That's talk just. It's time you thought of your own place and your own children. ”

“ I can tell you this, Maire. There's many's the place in Ireland where Conn Hourican's word would be respected.
MAIRE I'll never ask for your word again. You have only your fiddle, and you must go among people that will praise you. ”

“ I'm that busy keeping food to a sow and a litter of pigs that I couldn't get beyond the gate to see any one.
CORNELIUS (solemnly) You're a good girl, Sally. You're not like some I know. There are girls in this parish who never put hands to a thing till evening, when the boys do be coming in. Then they begin to stir themselves the way they'll be thought busy and good about a house.
SALLY (pleased and beginning to chop again with renewed energy) Oh, it's true indeed for you, Cornelius. There are girls that be decking themselves, and sporting are themselves all day. ”

“ MARTIN DOURAS You're right to take it that way, Ellen. School doesn't mean scholarship now. Many's the time I'm telling Cornelius that a man farming the land, with a few books on his shelf and a few books in his head, has more of the scholar's life about him than the young fellows who do be teaching in schools and teaching in colleges. ”

“ It'll be a poor season, Brian MacConnell.
BRIAN
The season's not so bad, after all.
CONN God help them that are depending on the land and the weather for the bit they put into their heads. It's no wonder that the people here are the sort they are, harassed, anxious people.
ANNE The people here mind their own business, and they're a friendly people besides.
CONN People that would leave the best fiddler at the fair to go and look at a bullock.
ANNE (to Brian) He's not satisfied to have this shelter, Brian. ”

“ MUSKERRY We'll consider it, Gorman. (He takes off muffler, and puts it on back of armchair)
GORMAN
Well, I'm very much obliged to your honour. Good night to you,
Master. (He passes Muskerry and goes towards the door. Muskerry has
been regarding him)
MUSKERRY
Tell me this, Gorman, were you always on the roads?
GORMAN I was driving cattle, and I was dealing in horses. Then I took up with an oul' man, and he taught me the pipes. I'm playing the pipes ever since, and that's thirty years ago. Well, the eyes began to wither up on me, and now I've only a stim of sight. ”

“ Conn Hourican goes into the room right; soon after the fiddle is heard. Anne goes to the settle, and takes up her knitting. Maire takes her shawl off, and hangs it on the rack. Maire Hourican is over twenty. She is tall, and has easy, graceful movements; her features are fine and clear-cut; the nose is rather blunted, the mouth firm. Her gaze is direct and clear. She has heavy auburn hair, loose now, and falling. Maire comes down to the table, opens basket, and takes some flowers from top. She turns to dresser and arranges some of the flowers in a jar. ”

“ The Guardians were good to get the little house for me. I'd as lieve be there as in a mansion. There's about half an acre of land to the place, and I'll do work on the ground from time to time, for it's a good thing for a man to get the smell of the clay.
CHRISTY
And how are you in health, Mr. Muskerry?
MUSKERRY I'm very well in health. I was anointed, you know, and after that I mended miraculously.
CHRISTY
And what about the pension?
MUSKERRY I'm getting three hundred pounds. They asked me to realize the pension. I hope I have life enough before me. ”