In the Shadow of the Glen

SCENE.— The last cottage at the head of a long glen in County Wicklow.
( Cottage kitchen; turf fire on the right; a bed near it against the wall with a body lying on it covered with a sheet. A door is at the other end of the room, with a low table near it, and stools, or wooden chairs. There are a couple of glasses on the table, and a bottle of whisky, as if for a wake, with two cups, a teapot, and a home-made cake. 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.
TRAMP. It is, surely, and I walking to Brittas from the Aughrim fair.
NORA. Is it walking on your feet, stranger?
TRAMP. 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!
NORA. It doesn’t matter anyway, stranger, come in out of the rain.
TRAMP. ( Coming in slowly and going towards the bed. ) Is it departed he is?
NORA. It is, stranger. He’s after dying on me, God forgive him, and there I am now with a hundred sheep beyond on the hills, and no turf drawn for the winter.
TRAMP. ( Looking closely at the dead man. ) It’s a queer look is on him for a man that’s dead.
NORA. ( Half-humorously. ) He was always queer, stranger, and I suppose them that’s queer and they living men will be queer bodies after.