Oswald—(Aside.) What a child!
Walking in darkness to the Tempter's snare.
Oh, I would die for you!
Selma— You run away. (He looks at her.)
You cannot guess what I found in the wood.
Oswald—You do not know what danger you are in.
Selma—I know the ground-bird lays five speckled eggs;
That filberts wear green hoods.
Oswald— Oh, what of that?
What will that profit in the Judgment Day?
You have not been baptized. You do not hear
The terrible, terrible, groanings of the lost.
O God, you do not know, you do not know!
Selma—I know the wood-pink is the first to wake
Of all the flowers. I know where king-cups grow
And wink-a-peeps that sleep when days are dark.
I know when shadows lie beneath the boughs
As they do now, I know you'll never find
A squirrel or chipmunk out in all the wood,
For then the forest sleeps. And I know where—
Oswald—O Selma, listen to me just this once,
And then forever listen to the years
Give back the echo of this golden hour.
Do you remember that day in the wood
When we were gathering may-apples? You ran
Shouting: "Here is a large one," and you stooped
To pick it, when a snake coiled round the stalk,
Hissed at you and you started back in fear.
Had it not hissed you never would have known
That it was there, so green it was, so like
The stalk it coiled about. You saw that one
Because it hissed. But one that hisses not
Is coiled about the world, as like the world
As was the green one to the may-flower stalk.
Selma—I have heard father speak of it. He says
That it is full of bones.
Oswald— And souls of men.
Only in holy houses are we safe.
Selma—He said that I should not go near the village
In gathering berries.