OLD MAN
That shows the curious depths of your ignorance. However, I’ll have
patience, and say on. Didst ever larn geography?
YOUNG MAN
No. Nor no other corrupt practices.
OLD MAN
Tcht-tcht!—Well, I’ll have patience, and put it to him in another
form. Dost know the world is round—eh? I warrant dostn’t!
YOUNG MAN
I warrant I do!
OLD MAN
How d’ye make that out, when th’st never been to school?
YOUNG MAN
I larned it at church, thank God.
OLD MAN
Church? What have God A’mighty got to do with profane knowledge?
Beware that you baint blaspheming, Jems Purchess!
YOUNG MAN
I say I did, whether or no! ’Twas the zingers up in gallery that
I had it from. They busted out that strong with “the round world
and they that dwell therein,” that we common fokes down under could
do no less than believe ’em.
OLD MAN
Canst be sharp enough in the wrong place as usual—I warrant canst!
However, I’ll have patience with ’en and say on!—Suppose, now, my
hat is the world; and there, as might be, stands the Camp of Belong,
where Boney is. The world goes round, so, and Belong goes round too.
Twelve hours pass; round goes the world still—so. Where’s Belong
now?
[A pause. Two other figures, a man’s and a woman’s, rise against
the sky out of the gloom.]
OLD MAN [shouldering his pike]
Who goes there? Friend or foe, in the King’s name!