AN ISLAND OFF the West of Ireland. (Cottage kitchen, with
nets, oil-skins, spinning wheel, some new boards standing
by the wall, etc. Cathleen, a girl of about twenty, finishes
kneading cake, and puts it down in the pot-oven by the fire;
then wipes her hands, and begins to spin at the wheel.
NORA, a young girl, puts her head in at the door.)
NORA [In a low voice.]
Where is she?
CATHLEEN She's lying down, God help her, and may be
sleeping, if she's able.
[Nora comes in softly, and takes a bundle from under her
shawl.]
CATHLEEN [Spinning the wheel rapidly.]
What is it you have?
NORA The young priest is after bringing them. It's a shirt
and a plain stocking were got off a drowned man in
Donegal.
[Cathleen stops her wheel with a sudden movement, andNORA We're to find out if it's Michael's they are, some time
herself will be down looking by the sea.
CATHLEEN How would they be Michael's, Nora. How
would he go the length of that way to the far north?
NORA The young priest says he's known the like of it. "If
it's Michael's they are," says he, "you can tell herself he's
got a clean burial by the grace of God, and if they're not
his, let no one say a word about them, for she'll be getting
her death," says he, "with crying and lamenting."
[The door which Nora half closed is blown open by a gust of
wind.]
CATHLEEN [Looking out anxiously.]
Did you ask him would he stop Bartley going this day with
the horses to the Galway fair?
NORA "I won't stop him," says he, "but let you not be
afraid. Herself does be saying prayers half through the
night, and the Almighty God won't leave her destitute,"
says he, "with no son living."
CATHLEEN Is the sea bad by the white rocks, Nora?
NORA Middling bad, God help us. There's a great roaring
in the west, and it's worse it'll be getting when the tide's
turned to the wind.
[She goes over to the table with the bundle.]Shall I open it now?
CATHLEEN Maybe she'd wake up on us, and come in
before we'd done.
[Coming to the table.]
It's a long time we'll be, and the two of us crying.
NORA [Goes to the inner door and listens.]
She's moving about on the bed. She'll be coming in a
minute.
CATHLEEN Give me the ladder, and I'll put them up in the
turf-loft, the way she won't know of them at all, and maybe
when the tide turns she'll be going down to see would he
be floating from the east.
[They put the ladder against the gable of the chimney;
Cathleen goes up a few steps and hides the bundle in the
turf-loft. Maurya comes from the inner room.]
MAURYA [Looking up at Cathleen and speaking
querulously.]
Isn't it turf enough you have for this day and evening?
CATHLEEN There's a cake baking at the fire for a short
space. [Throwing down the turf] and Bartley will want it
when the tide turns if he goes to Connemara.
[Nora picks up the turf and puts it round the pot-oven.]MAURYA [Sitting down on a stool at the fire.]
He won't go this day with the wind rising from the south
and west. He won't go this day, for the young priest will
stop him surely.
NORA He'll not stop him, mother, and I heard Eamon
Simon and Stephen Pheety and Colum Shawn saying he
would go.
MAURYA Where is he itself?
NORA He went down to see would there be another boat
sailing in the week, and I'm thinking it won't be long till
he's here now, for the tide's turning at the green head, and
the hooker' tacking from the east.
CATHLEEN I hear some one passing the big stones.
NORA [Looking out.]
He's coming now, and he's in a hurry.
BARTLEY [Comes in and looks round the room. Speaking
sadly and quietly.]
Where is the bit of new rope, Cathleen, was bought in
Connemara?
CATHLEEN [Coming down.]
Give it to him, Nora; it's on a nail by the white boards. I
hung it up this morning, for the pig with the black feet waseating it.
NORA [Giving him a rope.]
Is that it, Bartley?
MAURYA You'd do right to leave that rope, Bartley, hanging
by the boards [Bartley takes the rope]. It will be wanting in
this place, I'm telling you, if Michael is washed up to-
morrow morning, or the next morning, or any morning in
the week, for it's a deep grave we'll make him by the grace
of God.
BARTLEY [Beginning to work with the rope.]
I've no halter the way I can ride down on the mare, and I
must go now quickly. This is the one boat going for two
weeks or beyond it, and the fair will be a good fair for
horses I heard them saying below.
MAURYA It's a hard thing they'll be saying below if the
body is washed up and there's no man in it to make the
coffin, and I after giving a big price for the finest white
boards you'd find in Connemara.
[She looks round at the boards.]
BARTLEY How would it be washed up, and we after looking
each day for nine days, and a strong wind blowing a whileMAURYA If it wasn't found itself, that wind is raising the
sea, and there was a star up against the moon, and it rising
in the night. If it was a hundred horses, or a thousand
horses you had itself, what is the price of a thousand horses
against a son where there is one son only?
BARTLEY [Working at the halter, to Cathleen.]
Let you go down each day, and see the sheep aren't
jumping in on the rye, and if the jobber comes you can sell
the pig with the black feet if there is a good price going.
MAURYA How would the like of her get a good price for a
pig?
BARTLEY [To Cathleen]
If the west wind holds with the last bit of the moon let you
and Nora get up weed enough for another cock for the
kelp. It's hard set we'll be from this day with no one in it
but one man to work.
MAURYA It's hard set we'll be surely the day you're
drownd'd with the rest. What way will I live and the girls
with me, and I an old woman looking for the grave?
[Bartley lays down the halter, takes off his old coat, andNORA [Looking out.] She's passing the green head and
letting fall her sails.
BARTLEY [Getting his purse and tobacco.]
I'll have half an hour to go down, and you'll see me coming
again in two days, or in three days, or maybe in four days if
the wind is bad.
MAURYA [Turning round to the fire, and putting her shawl
over her head.]
Isn't it a hard and cruel man won't hear a word from an old
woman, and she holding him from the sea?
CATHLEEN It's the life of a young man to be going on the
sea, and who would listen to an old woman with one thing
and she saying it over?
BARTLEY [Taking the halter.]
I must go now quickly. I'll ride down on the red mare, and
the gray pony'll run behind me. . . The blessing of God on
you.
[He goes out.]
MAURYA [Crying out as he is in the door.]
He's gone now, God spare us, and we'll not see him again.
He's gone now, and when the black night is falling I'll haveCATHLEEN Why wouldn't you give him your blessing and
he looking round in the door? Isn't it sorrow enough is on
every one in this house without your sending him out with
an unlucky word behind him, and a hard word in his ear?
[Maurya takes up the tongs and begins raking the fire
aimlessly without looking round.]
NORA [Turning towards her.]
You're taking away the turf from the cake.
CATHLEEN [Crying out.]
The Son of God forgive us, Nora, we're after forgetting his
bit of bread.
[She comes over to the fire.]
NORA And it's destroyed he'll be going till dark night, and
he after eating nothing since the sun went up.
CATHLEEN [Turning the cake out of the oven.]
It's destroyed he'll be, surely. There's no sense left on any
person in a house where an old woman will be talking for
ever.
[Maurya sways herself on her stool.]
CATHLEEN [Cutting off some of the bread and rolling it iLet you go down now to the spring well and give him this
and he passing. You'll see him then and the dark word will
be broken, and you can say "God speed you," the way he'll
be easy in his mind.
MAURYA [Taking the bread.]
Will I be in it as soon as himself?
CATHLEEN If you go now quickly.
MAURYA [Standing up unsteadily.]
It's hard set I am to walk.
CATHLEEN [Looking at her anxiously.]
Give her the stick, Nora, or maybe she'll slip on the big
stones.
NORA What stick?
CATHLEEN The stick Michael brought from Connemara.
MAURYA [Taking a stick Nora gives her.]
In the big world the old people do be leaving things after
them for their sons and children, but in this place it is the
young men do be leaving things behind for them that do things that like it
Read continue my friend