ACT II
Interior of Martin Douras'. The entrance is at back left. There is a dresser against wall back; a table down from dresser; room doors right and left. The fireplace is below the room door right; there are stools and chairs about it. There is a little bookcase left of the dresser, and a mirror beside it. There are patriotic and religious pictures on the wall. There are cups and saucers on table, and a teapot beside fire. It is afternoon still. Ellen Douras is near the fire reading. Cornelius comes in slowly.
CORNELIUS I left the men down the road a bit. We ought to take great pride out of this day, Ellen. Father did more than any of them to bring it about.
ELLEN He suffered more than any of them. And it's little we'll get out of the day.
CORNELIUS It's a great thing to have prophesied it, even. We'll be here to see a great change.
ELLEN
There will be no change to make things better!
CORNELIUS
Will you be taking that school, Ellen?
ELLEN
I'll wait a while.
Sally coming in; she is hurried.
SALLY (breathlessly) Oh, God save you, Cornelius. Tell me, is my father gone? I dread going back and he there! It was all over that baste of a sow that has kept me slaving all through the spring till I don't know whether greens or potatoes is the fittest for her!
CORNELIUS
He didn't go, Sally. I went down a bit of the road myself with the men.
SALLY Oh, God help me! And I'll have to be going back to boil meal for her now. How are you, Ellen. (She goes to Ellen)
ELLEN Sit down for a while, Sally; it's a long time since I was speaking to you.
Sally sits down beside Ellen.
CORNELIUS
I'll leave this paper where they won't be looking for pipe-lights.
There are things in that paper I'd like to be saying. (He takes a
newspaper out of his pocket and goes to room right)
ELLEN (to Sally, who has been watching Cornelius) Tell me, Sally, are they always that busy in your house? Is your father as harsh as they say?
SALLY
Father 'ud keep us all working. He's a powerful great man.
ELLEN
Matt will be bringing a wife into the house soon from all I hear.
How would your father treat her?
SALLY
Oh, he'd have his way, and she'd have her way, I suppose.
ELLEN
And do you think your father will let him marry?
SALLY
Sure he must if the boy likes.
ELLEN
What would he say if Matt married a girl without a fortune?
SALLY In my mother's country there are lots of girls with fortunes that Matt could have.
ELLEN
Supposing he wanted a girl that had no fortune?
SALLY Oh, I suppose father would give in in the end. It wouldn't be clay against flint when Matt and father would be to it.
ELLEN You're a good girl, Sally. If I was Matt's wife, do you think you'd be fond of me?
SALLY
I'd like you as well as another, Ellen.
Cornelius comes down from room.
CORNELIUS
I suppose they'll be here soon.
ELLEN
I have tea ready for them.
SALLY
Who's coming at all?
CORNELIUS
Some of the boys and girls that are for America. They are going
to Gilroy's to-night, and are leaving from that in the morning.
They are coming in to see Ellen on their way down.
SALLY There are a good many going this flight. The land never troubles them in America, and they can wear fine clothes, and be as free as the larks over the bogs. It's a wonder you never thought of going, Ellen.
ELLEN Father wouldn't like me to be far from him, and so I went in for the school instead.
SALLY And now you've got a fine boy like Matt. It was lucky for you to be staying here.
ELLEN
Hush, Sally.
SALLY Oh, I knew all about it before you talked to me at all. Matt always goes to the place where he thinks you'd be.
ELLEN (rising) I'll be in the room when the girls come, Cornelius.
She goes into room left.
SALLY (going to Cornelius) God help us, but she's the silent creature. Isn't it a wonder she's not filled with talk of him after seeing him to-day? But Ellen's right. We shouldn't be talking about men, nor thinking about them either; and that's the way to keep them on our hands on the long run. I'll be going myself.
She goes towards door.
CORNELIUS (going to her) Don't be minding Ellen at all, Sally.
SALLY Well, as high as she is, and as mighty as she is, she came into his own house to see Matt. God between us and harm, Cornelius, maybe they'll be saying I came into your house to see you.
CORNELIUS Who'll know you came at all? And what isn't seen won't be spoken of.
SALLY
Would you like me to stay, Cornelius?
CORNELIUS
Ay, I would.
SALLY
Divil mind the sow,
They sit down together.
SALLY (after a pause) Would you like me to knit you a pair of socks, Cornelius?
CORNELIUS
Oh, I would, Sally; I'd love to wear them.
SALLY I'll knit them. We'll be getting rid of the sow tonight, maybe, and I'll have time after that.
CORNELIUS And you come along the road when I'm herding. I don't want to be going near your father's house.
SALLY
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.
They hold each other's hands, then stand apart.
SALLY It's a fine time for them to be going when the leaves are opening on the trees.
Three boys and three girls enter. They are dressed for going away.
SALLY God save you, girls. Good-bye, Cornelius. I'll have to run like a redshank.
Sally goes out.
CORNELIUS I'll call Ellen down to you. (He goes to the room door and calls) I'm going herding myself. Herding is pleasant when you have thoughts with you.
He takes up the rod and goes out. The girls begin whispering, then chattering.
FIRST GIRL Sure I know. Every night I'm dreaming of the sea and the great towns. Streets and streets of houses and every street as crowded as the road outside the chapel when the people do be coming from Mass. I could watch the crowd in the street; I would think it better than any sight I ever knew.
SECOND GIRL
And the shops and the great houses.
SECOND BOY There's no stir here. There's no fine clothes, nor fine manners, nor fine things to be seen.
THIRD BOY There's no money. One could never get a shilling together here. In America there's money to have and to spend and to send home.
THIRD GIRL
Every girl gets married in America.
Ellen comes down.
ELLEN
I'm glad you came. I have tea ready for you. I can't go to
Gilroy's to-night.
Some come to the table and some remain near the door.
A GIRL (at table, to Ellen) They say that a peat fire like that will seem very strange to us after America. Bridget wondered at it when she came back. "Do civilized people really cook at the like of them?" said she.
A BOY It's the little houses with only three rooms in them that will seem strange. I'm beginning to wonder myself at their thatch and their mud walls.
ANOTHER GIRL
Houses in bogs and fields. It was a heart-break trying
to keep them as we'd like to keep them. A GIRL (at door) Ah, but
I'll never forget Gortan and the little road to Aughnalee.
ANOTHER GIRL I think I'll be lonesome for a long time. I'll be thinking on my brothers and sisters. I nursed and minded all the little ones.
FIRST BOY
A girl like you, Ellen, is foolish to be staying here.
SECOND BOY
She'll be coming in the fall. We'll be glad to see you,
Ellen.
ELLEN
I have no friends in America.
FIRST GIRL I have no friends there, either. But I'll get on. You could get on better than any of us, Ellen.
SECOND GIRL She's waiting for her school. It will be a little place by the side of a bog.
THIRD GIRL (going to Ellen) There would be little change in that. And isn't it a life altogether different from this life that we have been longing for? To be doing other work, and to be meeting strange people. And instead of bare roads and market-towns, to be seeing streets, and crowds, and theaters.
ELLEN (passionately) O what do you know about streets and theaters? You have only heard of them. They are finer than anything you could say. They are finer than anything you could think of, after a story, when you'd be A GIRL You'll be going after all, Ellen.
ELLEN
I won't be going.
FIRST GIRL
Well, maybe you'll be down at Gilroy's. We must go now.
The girls go to the door. Ellen goes with them.
ONE OF THE BOYS Phil said that an egg was all he could touch while he was on the sea.
SECOND BOY
God help us, if that was all Phil could take.
THIRD BOY
Light your pipes now, and we'll go.
Ellen has parted with the girls. The boys light their pipes at fire.
They go to door, and shake hands with Ellen. The boys go out.
ELLEN Theaters! What do they know of theaters? And it's their like will be enjoying them.
Sally comes back. She is more hurried than before.
SALLY Ellen! Ellen! I have wonders to tell. Where is Cornelius, at all? He's never here when you have wonders to tell.
ELLEN
What have you to tell?
SALLY Oh, I don't know how I'll get it all out! Matt and father had an odious falling out, and it was about you. And Matt's going to America; and he's to bring you with him. And Cornelius was saying that if father found out about yourself and Matt—
ELLEN
Sally, Sally, take breath and tell it.
SALLY Matt is going to America, like the others, and he's taking you with him.
ELLEN
Sally, Sally, is it the truth you're telling?
SALLY
It is the truth. Honest as day, it is the truth.
ELLEN And I thought I'd be content with a new house. Now we can go away together. I can see what I longed to see. I have a chance of knowing what is in me. (She takes Sally's hands) It's great news you've brought me. No one ever brought me such news before. Take this little cross. You won't have a chance of getting fond of me after all. (She wears a cross at her throat; she breaks the string, and gives it to Sally)
SALLY I don't know why I was so fervent to tell you. There's the stool before me that myself and Cornelius were sitting on, and he saying—(She goes to the door) Here's Matt! Now we'll hear all about it.
ELLEN So soon; so soon. (She goes to the mirror. After a pause, turning to Sally) Go down the road a bit, when he comes in. Sally, you have a simple mind; you might be saying a prayer that it will be for the best.
SALLY (going to the door muttering) Go down the road a bit! 'Deed and I will not till I know the whole ins and outs of it. Sure I'm as much concerned in it as herself! "No man sees his house afire but watches his rick," he was saying. Ah, there's few of them could think of as fine a thing as that.
Matt comes in.
MATT
Well, Sally, were you home lately?
SALLY I was—leastways as far as the door. Father and oul' Martin were discoursing.
MATT I've given them something to discourse about. Maybe you'll be treated better from this day. Sally.
SALLY
O Matt, I'm sorry.
She goes out.
MATT (going to Ellen) It happened at last, Ellen; the height of the quarrel came.
ELLEN
It was bound to come. I knew it would come, Matt.
MATT
He was a foolish man to put shame on me after all I did for the land.
ELLEN
You had too much thought for the land.
MATT I had in troth. The others went when there was less to be done. They could not stand him. Even the girls stole away.
ELLEN
There was the high spirit in the whole of you.
MATT I showed it to him. "Stop," said I; "no more, or I fling lands and house and everything aside."
ELLEN
You said that.
MATT Ay. "Your other children went for less," said I; "do you think there's no blood in me at all?"
ELLEN
What happened then?
MATT "I'm your last son," I said; "keep your land and your twenty years' purchase. I'm with the others; and it's poor your land will leave you, and you without a son to bring down your name. A bit of land, a house," said I; "do you think these will keep me here?"
ELLEN I knew they could not keep you here, Matt. You have broken from them at last; and now the world is before us. Think of all that is before us—the sea, and the ships, the strange life, and the great cities.
MATT
Ay—there before us—if we like.
ELLEN
Surely we like.
MATT I was always shy of crowds. I'm simple, after all, Ellen, and have no thought beyond the land.
ELLEN You said that house and land could not keep you. You told him you were going as your brothers went.
MATT And I felt I was going. I frightened him. He'll be glad to see me back. It will be long before he treats me that way again.
ELLEN (suddenly) Matt!
MATT
What is it, Ellen?
ELLEN I don't know—I was upset—thinking of the quarrel (putting her hands on his shoulders) My poor Matt. It was about me you quarrelled.
MATT
Ay, he spoke against you. I couldn't put up with that.
ELLEN
He does not know your high spirit. He does not know your strength.
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. You can offer me the sights of great towns, and the fine manners, and the fine life.
MATT Ellen! (He draws a little away) It's not me that could offer the like of that. I never had anything to my hand but a spade.
ELLEN
Your brothers—think of them.
MATT
They all left some one behind them. I am the last of my name.
ELLEN
Why should that keep you back?
MATT His name is something to a man. Could you hear of your own name melting away without unease? And you are a woman. A man feels it more.
ELLEN I do not understand men. Will you go back to your father's house after he shaming you out of it?
MATT He'll be glad to see me back. He'll never cast it up to me that I went.
ELLEN Matt, your father said words against me. Will you go to him and take his hand after that?
MATT It was little he said against you. It was against your father he spoke.
ELLEN (sinking down on a chair, and putting hands before her face) My God! After all my waiting, you talk like that.
MATT (going to her) Ellen, Ellen, tell me what I can do for you? There's land and houses to be had here. Father will let me have my own way after this.
ELLEN (rising, with anger) What does it matter to me whether he lets you have your own way or not? Do you think I could go into a farmer's house?
MATT
Ellen!
ELLEN It's a bad hand I'd make of a farmer's house. I'm not the sort to be in one. I'm not like Sally.
MATT (getting angry) Don't be talking that way, Ellen Douras.
ELLEN (with great vehemence) I must be talking like this. If you take me, you will have to go from your father's house. I always knew it. You ought to know it now, Matt Cosgar.
MATT You didn't know it always. And you have let some one come between us when you talk like that.
ELLEN I'm not one to be listening to what people say about you. Nor do I be talking in the markets about you.
MATT I suppose not. You wouldn't have people think you gave any thought to me; I'm not good enough for you. The people you know are better.
ELLEN
You are foolish to be talking like that. You are foolish, I say.
MATT I know I am foolish. Fit only to be working in drains and ditches in the winter. That's what you think.
ELLEN
Maybe it is.
MATT Ellen Douras! Ellen Douras! A farmer's roof will be high enough for you some day.
ELLEN May I never see the day. Go back, go back. Make it up with your father. Your father will be glad of a labourer.
MATT Maybe you won't be glad if I go back; thinking on what you've said.
ELLEN I said too much. We don't know each other at all. Go back. You have made your choice.
She goes up to room left.
MATT Very well, then. God above, am I to be treated everywhere like a heifer strayed into a patch of oats? Neither man nor woman will make me put up with this any longer. (Going to door) When Ellen Douras wants me, she knows the place to send to. (He stands at door. There is no sound from room. Going back he speaks loudly) I'll be waiting two days or three days to hear from Ellen Douras.
There is no sound. Matt goes out. The room door is thrown open, and Ellen comes down.
ELLEN (furiously) Two days or three days he'll wait for me. As if I'd go into Murtagh Cosgar's house. As if I'd go into any farmer's house. As if I'd get married at all, and the world before me. Two days or three days you'll wait. Maybe it's lonesome, weary years you'll be waiting, Matt Cosgar.