Tim Casey: I’ll go tell Jack Smith’s first cousin that is standing there south of the church after selling his lambs. (Goes out.)
Mrs. Tully: I’ll go telling a few of the neighbours I see beyond to the west. (Goes out.)
Shawn Early: I’ll give word of it beyond at the east of the green.
(Is going out when Mrs. Tarpey seizes hold of him.)
Mrs. Tarpey: Stop a minute, Shawn Early, and tell me did you see red Jack Smith’s wife, Kitty Keary, in any place?
Shawn Early: I did. At her own house she was, drying clothes on the hedge as I passed.
Mrs. Tarpey: What did you say she was doing?
Shawn Early: (Breaking away.) Laying out a sheet on the hedge. (He goes.)
Mrs. Tarpey: Laying out a sheet for the dead! The Lord have mercy on us! Jack Smith dead, and his wife laying out a sheet for his burying! (Calls out.) Why didn’t you tell me that before, Shawn Early? Isn’t the deafness the great hardship? Half the world might be dead without me knowing of it or getting word of it at all! (She sits down and rocks herself.) O my poor Jack Smith! To be going to his work so nice and so hearty, and to be left stretched on the ground in the full light of the day!
(Enter Tim Casey.)