Children: Ark-builder, ark-builder, where is your rain? (They run out.)
(Noah comes out of the door and looks anxiously up at the sky. The Messenger enters; Noah bends prostrate.)
Messenger:
God, who all this world has wrought,
Heaven and earth and all of naught,
Sees his people in deed and thought
Are lost in sin.
Man that he made he will destroy,
Saving a few who are his joy,
And have his servants been.
Noah, a righteous man thou be,
A ship hast thou ma-de me,
Of trees dry and stout.
Three hundred cubits is it long,
And fifty broad to make it strong,
Of height fifty, lest it be wrong,
Thus measure it about.
One window's made with skill and wit,
A cubit of length and breadth is it;
A door upon the side doth sit,
For to come in and out.
Destroy-ed all the world shall be,
Save thou, thy wife and children three;
And their three wives also with thee,
Shall live without a doubt.
(The Messenger goes.)
Noah (rising and raising arms to heaven):
O Lord, I thank thee; thou art kind,
That savest me from all man-kind.
