Aloysius enters with an empty bag.
Colman. You are the first to come back Aloysius. Where is Brother Bartley?
Aloysius. He parted from me at the cross roads and went on to preach at Shanaglish. He should soon be back now.
Colman. Have you anything in the bag?
Aloysius. Nothing. [Throws the bag down.] It doesn't seem as if our luck was growing. We have but food enough to last till to-morrow. We have hardly that. The rats from the river got at the few potatoes I gathered from the farmers at Lisheen last week, in the corner where they were.
Colman. This is the first day you got nothing at all. Maybe you didn't ask the right way.
Aloysius. I asked for alms for the sake of the love of God. But the first place where I asked it, the man of the house was giving me a handful of meal, and the woman came and called out that we were serving the devil in the name of God, and she drove me from the door.
Colman. It is since the priests preached against us they say that. Did you go on to Lisheen. They used always to treat us well there.
Aloysius. I did, but I got on no better there.
Colman. That is a wonder, after the woman that had the jaundice being cured with prayers by Brother Paul.