Paul Ruttledge. [Absent-mindedly.] No, I didn't know that.
Jerome. Yes, our school is increasing so much we are getting a grant for technical instruction. Some of the Fathers are learning handicrafts. Father Aloysius is going to study industries in France; but we are all busy. We are changing with the times, we are beginning to do useful things.
Paul Ruttledge. Useful things. I wonder what you have begun to call useful things. Do you see those marks over there on the grass?
Jerome. What marks?
Paul Ruttledge. Those marks over there, those little marks of scratching.
Jerome. [Going over to the place Paul Ruttledge has pointed out.] I don't see anything.
Paul Ruttledge. You are getting blind, Jerome. Can't you see that the poultry have been scratching there?
Jerome. No, the grass is perfectly smooth.
Paul Ruttledge. Well, the marks are there, whether you see them or not; for Mr. Green and Mr. Dowler and Mr. Algie and the rest of them run out of their houses when nobody is looking, in their real shapes, shapes like those on my hedge. And then they begin to scratch, they scratch all together, they don't dig but they scratch, and all the time their mouths keep going like that.
[He holds out his hand and opens and shuts his fingers like a bird's bill.