MARY
There is something that the hen hears.
TEIG
And that is not the worst; at Tubber-vanachA woman met a man with ears spread out,And they moved up and down like a bat's wing.
MARY
What can have kept your father all this while?
TEIG
Two nights ago, at Carrick-orus churchyard,A herdsman met a man who had no mouth,Nor eyes, nor ears; his face a wall of flesh;He saw him plainly by the light of the moon.
MARY
Look out, and tell me if your father's coming.
(TEIG goes to door.)
TEIG
Mother!
MARY
What is it?
TEIG
In the bush beyond,There are two birds – if you can call them birds —I could not see them rightly for the leaves.But they've the shape and colour of horned owlsAnd I'm half certain they've a human face.
MARY
Mother of God, defend us!
TEIG
They're looking at me.What is the good of praying? father says.God and the Mother of God have dropped asleep.What do they care, he says, though the whole landSqueal like a rabbit under a weasel's tooth?
MARY
You'll bring misfortune with your blasphemiesUpon your father, or yourself, or me.I would to God he were home – ah, there he is.
(SHEMUS comes in.)
What was it kept you in the wood? You knowI cannot get all sorts of accidentsOut of my mind till you are home again.
SHEMUS
I'm in no mood to listen to your clatter.Although I tramped the woods for half a day,I've taken nothing, for the very rats,Badgers, and hedgehogs seem to have died of drought,And there was scarce a wind in the parched leaves.
TEIG
Then you have brought no dinner.
SHEMUS
After thatI sat among the beggars at the cross-roads,And held a hollow hand among the others.
MARY
What, did you beg?
SHEMUS
I had no chance to beg,For when the beggars saw me they cried outThey would not have another share their alms,And hunted me away with sticks and stones.
TEIG
You said that you would bring us food or money.
SHEMUS
What's in the house?
TEIG
A bit of mouldy bread.
MARY
There's flour enough to make another loaf.
TEIG
And when that's gone?
MARY
There is the hen in the coop.
SHEMUS
My curse upon the beggars, my curse upon them!
TEIG
And the last penny gone.
SHEMUS
When the hen's gone,What can we do but live on sorrel and dock,And dandelion, till our mouths are green?
MARY
God, that to this hour's found bit and sup,Will cater for us still.
SHEMUS
His kitchen's bare.There were five doors that I looked through this dayAnd saw the dead and not a soul to wake them.
MARY
Maybe He'd have us die because He knows,When the ear is stopped and when the eye is stopped,That every wicked sight is hid from the eye,And all fool talk from the ear.
SHEMUS
Who's passing there?And mocking us with music?
(A stringed instrument without.)
TEIG
A young man plays it,There's an old woman and a lady with him.
SHEMUS
What is the trouble of the poor to her?Nothing at all or a harsh radishy sauceFor the day's meat.
MARY
God's pity on the rich.Had we been through as many doors, and seenThe dishes standing on the polished woodIn the wax candle light, we'd be as hard,And there's the needle's eye at the end of all.
SHEMUS
My curse upon the rich.
TEIG
They're coming here.
SHEMUS
Then down upon that stool, down quick, I say,And call up a whey face and a whining voice,And let your head be bowed upon your knees.
MARY
Had I but time to put the place to rights.
(CATHLEEN, OONA, and ALEEL enter.)
CATHLEEN
God save all here. There is a certain house,An old grey castle with a kitchen garden,A cider orchard and a plot for flowers,Somewhere among these woods.
MARY
We know it, lady.A place that's set among impassable wallsAs though world's trouble could not find it out.
CATHLEEN
It may be that we are that trouble, for we —Although we've wandered in the wood this hour —Have lost it too, yet I should know my way,For I lived all my childhood in that house.
MARY
Then you are Countess Cathleen?
CATHLEEN
And this woman,Oona, my nurse, should have remembered it,For we were happy for a long time there.
OONA
The paths are overgrown with thickets now,Or else some change has come upon my sight.
CATHLEEN
And this young man, that should have known the woods —Because we met him on their border but now,Wandering and singing like a wave of the sea —Is so wrapped up in dreams of terrors to comeThat he can give no help.
MARY
You have still some way,But I can put you on the trodden pathYour servants take when they are marketing.But first sit down and rest yourself awhile,For my old fathers served your fathers, lady,Longer than books can tell – and it were strangeIf you and yours should not be welcome here.
CATHLEEN
And it were stranger still were I ungratefulFor such kind welcome – but I must be gone,For the night's gathering in.
SHEMUS
It is a long whileSince I've set eyes on bread or on what buys it.
CATHLEEN
So you are starving even in this wood,Where I had thought I would find nothing changed.But that's a dream, for the old worm o' the worldCan eat its way into what place it pleases.
(She gives money.)
TEIG