Gimel—She'd never see us in this cave again.
Voice— (To the left, in a monotone.)
A rat and a cat and a cat and a mouse.
Suk—I wonder when she's going to make us broth.
Gimel—She said we'd be as thin as chestnut leaves
Before she put the cauldron on again.
Suk—How can we toil when fire won't burn,
When Loki's hammers are soft as lead,
When her charms all fail wherever we turn,
When blight won't gather and murrain won't spread?
How can we toil when there's not a Nix
But turns to stone at a crucifix?
(From the left, Zory enters.)
Zip—What are you chewing, Zory?
Zory— Slippery elm.
Gimel—She's scared herself at the pesky thing.
Often as here by the coals she's sat
Crunching her pignuts and stroking her cat,
Many a time I've heard her say
That Thor's arm shriveled that April day
When out of a cloud in a thunder shower
He threw his bolt at the tall gray tower.
It shivered a poplar tree near by.
The church stood sound with its cursed crest,
While the god went bellowing down the sky,
Clutching his shoulder in terrible pain.
Now he rides to the east and he rides to the west—So
Granny says—and he's never seen
Lashing his goats through the driving rain.
Dark and fireless the clouds drift round;
Their waters fall without any sound.
It's Hoder that drives them now, I ween.
Zory— (Leaving the herbs.)
She'd left a slip of the Devil's herb,