UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES UNIVERSITY of AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY WISCONSIN PLAYS WISCONSIN PLAYS THOMAS H. DICKINSON Editor Original one-act plays from the repertory of THE WISCONSIN DRAMATIC SOCIETY ZONA GALE THOMAS H. DICKINSON WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD NEW YORK THE VIKING PRESS 1926 142301 Copyright, 1914, by B. W. HUEBSCH Pint printing, November, 1914 Second printing, March. 1917 Third printing, February, 1915 Fourth printing, August, 19^1) Fifth Printing, October, 1922 Sixth Printing, October, 1926 tRINTKD IN 0. l>. ft* Ser.t The authors unite in dedicating this book of Wisconsin Plays to LAURA CASE SHERRY who as director, player, and writer has been a large factor in the life of The Wisconsin Dramatic Society FOREWORD The Wisconsin Plays were written under the influence of a local movement in behalf of a bet ter dramatic art in which the Wisconsin Dra matic Society has been an active agency. The majority of the plays in the series belong to the repertory of the Society and have been presented in regular performances in Madison and Mil waukee, and on tour in other places in the Mid dle West. The authors of these plays disclaim any desire whatever to inaugurate a new order of playwriting. Their chief purpose, aside from the personal motive that impels every work of art, has been to provide for the section in which they live the impulse of the practice of an art as a corrective of standards, as distinguished from the principle of a referendum of standards to the people. In a strict sense it has been the ideal of the Wisconsin Dramatic Society to be a free- stage society, free, that is, in the sense of free dom from commercial necessities, from profes sional trammels, even from a too insistent social FOREWORD purpose; in other words, free to experiment with a rapidly changing art and to trace out in practice its growing social implications. The plays which make up this series constitute one factor of an experimental programme, which has been directed to the cultivation of a better dramatic art, by means of the training of actors, and the encour agement of the study, criticism, and writing of plays. THOMAS H. DICKINSON. THE NEIGHBOURS BY ZONA GALE PAGE 1 IN HOSPITAL BY THOMAS H. DICKINSON PAGE 69 GLORY OF THE MORNING BY WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD PAGE 113 THE NEIGHBOURS BY ZONA GALE PERSONS OF THE PLAY INEZ Mis' ELMIRA MORAN Mis' TROT Mis' CARRY ELLSWORTH THE NEIGHBOURS A kitchen. At the right an ironing-board, with full clothes-basket on the floor. At the back an open door, an open window with blooming plants on its outside sill, and a wide cupboard with a figured calico curtain before it. At the left an exit into a shed. A wooden bottomed rocker with high back and calico cushion, some wooden bottomed straight chairs, a table cov ered with a red cloth and ranged with four or five lamps, and at the corner farthest from the ironing-board, clothes-bars spread with a few freshly-ironed pieces. By the window, left back, sits GRANDMA who does not leave her chair throughout the play until its end. She is very old. She is in bright-coloured calico, with ribbons on her black cap. She is cutting and winding white and black carpet rags, and a basket of the balls is beside her on the floor. Mis' DIANTHA ABEL is ironing at the board. She has on a blue calico gown, a long gingham 5 6 WISCONSIN PLAYS apron, spectacles, and a black hat trimmed with faded flowers and a dilapidated ostrich feather. She irons slowly, as anybody would iron, tests her flat-iron, starts for the shed to renew it at the stove out there. GRANDMA [Looking up.] Seems to me Inez is a terrible long time gettin' that starch. MIS' ABEL I wish she'd hurry herself back. I ain't got enough starch to do the collars. GRANDMA I'll cold-starch 'em for you, if you want. MIS' ABEL No, Grandma, you jest set still and take care o' yourself. Don't you go botherin' about other f oiks' s work. GRANDMA I'm terrible tired cutting up carpet rags. [Mis' ABEL disappears in the shed. GRANDMA, sorting her rags, talks on, raising her voice to follow Mis' ABEL.] 'Tain't as though they was goin' to be rugs. We got rag rugs all over the THE NEIGHBOURS 7 house now. So has everybody else we know. Everybody's floors is plastered with 'em. I been cuttin' rags ever since I came an' doin' nothin' . . . [Mis' ABEL returns with her fresh iron, testing it as she comes] . . . but cuttin' rags. Seems like I'd ought to be able to make somethin' else with my fingers. Somethin' human. Where you goin', Dianthy*? MIS' ABEL I'm a-goin' to get this ironin' out of the way, short off. That is, I am if Inez ever gets back from Mis' Ellsworth's with that cup o' starch. GRANDMA What you got your hat on for? MIS' ABEL So's if anybody runs in they won't set half the day, henderin' me. They'll think I'm goin' off. GRANDMA I know. The neighbours do hender terrible. [A pause.] Sometimes, though, I think it must be kind o' nice to have somethin' to be hendered at. 8 WISCONSIN PLAYS MIS' ABEL [Ironing but not fast.} I always say morn- in's is wove and cut out for hard work. I don't want Mis' Moran or somebody comin' in an' set- tin' the whole forenoon. This ironin's got to be got out of the way this mornin', no matter what happens to who. [Her iron sticks, and she rubs it vigorously on the carpet. GRANDMA [Who has dropped her work and is reaching to pick dead leaves of the plants in the window. .] I don't seem to have no go in me no more. I don't know what's come over me. I ain't no more interested in them carpet rags than I am in the dipthery. [EZRA WILLIAMS appears at the open win dow. He is large and flushed and furi ous. EZRA Mis' Abel! Mis' Abel! MIS' ABEL [Looks at him, then turns and goes on ironing. .] Well, Ezra, as a family, we ain't deef. THE NEIGHBOURS 9 EZRA Is this you f oiks' s wood out here 1 ? MIS' ABEL [Over shoulder.] Wood? EZRA I want to know if you folks ordered any cord wood? MIS' ABEL No. We didn't order no wood. EZRA Well, they've brought you some. Only they've unpiled it in front of my door on the piece that's new-seeded and that I've tended like a baby. MIS' ABEL Ezra, you're that reasonable that I s'pose it's reasonin' that keeps you so calm. That wood never heard of us. EZRA You sure? MIS' ABEL Not as sure as you are about things. You don't often find folks as sure as that. But sure. 10 WISCONSIN PLAYS EZRA Well, it's somebody's fool wood, an' I've got to go an' find the fool that ordered it up [He strides off, still talking.] Whoever heard o* anybody gettin' cord wood in, anyhow, in the middle o' the summer 4 ? [GRANDMA, who has stopped picking of dead leaves and has listened attentively during his stay, looks after him till he disappears; then she turns. GRANDMA What did he say? MIS' ABEL Did he talk too soft for you, Grandma? GRANDMA He was so mad I couldn't keep my mind on what he was saying. MIS' ABEL Oh, well, he was just talkin' to hear himself talk. About some cord wood. GRANDMA It don't seem as if anybody could be so inter ested in cord wood. THE NEIGHBOURS 11 MIS' ABEL They ain't nothin' in the world for Ezra but just Ezra. Nothin' in the world for him but just him. GRANDMA [Looking off.} Don't you s'pose there is? It don't seem like they's enough to anybody to oc cupy 'em the whole time. [Up to the open door comes PETER. He is tall, awkward, grave; long, uncovered wrists, heavy, falling hands; but he has an occasional wide, pleasant, shy smile. PETER [On the porch.} Good morning, Mis' Abel. MIS' ABEL Oh, good morning, Peter. I just happen to be ironin' a flat-piece, so I don't have to put my mind on it. I'm goin' to do the collars next [pointedly}, and they take thought. What's wanted *? PETER [Shuffling, turning his hat.} Any groceries this morning, Mis' Abel*? 12 WISCONSIN PLAYS MIS' ABEL Groceries? PETER [Nods and enters.] I've started takin' orders for Ferguson. MIS' ABEL Well, I'm glad to hear that. When do you start? PETER To-day. MIS' ABEL Does many order to the door"? PETER I dunno. I've just started. I'm just startin'. Now. MIS' ABEL [Rubbing her iron on the carpet.] I ain't doin' no orderin' to-day. We've got to eat up what we've got. Unless you want to bring me fif cents worth o' granulated sugar. You might do that. Get up there and get me that basket of odds an' ends on the top of the cupboard. Seems to me I see a piece o' beeswax up there. THE NEIGHBOURS 13 PETER {Finishes writing down the order for sugar and brings a chair from near GRANDMA'S chair. ~\ I thought I'd just stop in an' see. You don't think she [he stumbles over the chair he is carrying] she wouldn't want anything this morning, would she, Mis' Abel 1 ? MIS' ABEL Who's she? Who you talking about? PETER Why, Inez. MIS' ABEL I thought it was Inez. Why didn't you say so in the first place? I hate di-plomacy in man or beast. PETER [ Who has not quite reached the cupboard with the chair i sets it down and turns abruptly, .] Well, then, I'll say it now. Mis' Abel! Why don't she treat me right? MIS' ABEL Treat you right? [PETER, his momentary courage going., takes the chair on over to the cup- 14 WISCONSIN PLAYS board, turns, nods mutely.} Why, I don't see how she can. Near as I can make out, you never open your head when you're with her. PETER [Climbing on chair.} It's funny about me, Mis' Abel. [From the chair.} Honest, I dunno what to do about me, sometimes. MIS' ABEL Well, stop thinkin' about you so much. PETER [Spreading out his hands.} I do try to. But when I try to think how to stop myself thinking about myself, there's myself thinkin' about me. MIS' ABEL Think about somethin' else, then! Get me down that basket. You can stand and talk to me all day. I don't see why you can't talk to her. PETER [Reaching for basket.} I could talk all right enough. But my tongue won't. I could but my tongue, it won't. [Turns with the basket.} Why, some girls I know I can jolly like the dick- THE NEIGHBOURS 15 ens. But Inez when she comes along, Mis' Abel, I can't remember anything I know. [Has down the basket and turns with it in his hands.] History now I know a real lot of history. And about birds and things. I'd like to talk with her about them. But last week, when I took her to the picnic, I couldn't think out any of 'em to say no more'n a 'hen. [He makes a large gesture with the basket at a perilous angle. MIS' ABEL [With a quick movement to catch the basket, .] Well, don't ask me to tell you how to court. Men that don't know history from a coach-and- four can court successful. {Hunting for bees wax in the basket .] But you can't expect Inez to know whether she likes you or not if you sit like a block. Say something do something, so's she'll know you're alive. PETER [Despondently, as he climbs down.] I know it. I ain't much. An' what little I am don't show through somehow. [He drags the chair back to its place beside GRANDMA in Mis' ABEL'S assenting silence. Sets the chair down with a 16 WISCONSIN PLAYS bang.} Honest, Mis' Abel, I wouldn't care much what happened to me. [GRANDMA looks up at him, and drops a ball of carpet rags. PETER picks it up and it unrolls away from him toward the door. GRANDMA suddenly laughs out, an old woman's laugh, shrill, but not un kindly. PETER [Miserably.} I guess I am a joke. GRANDMA Joke nothin'. You're a human. You're a human an' you don't know it. I see a-many in my day. MIS' ABEL [Waxing her iron.} Well, a body needn't be a fool if they are human. My goodness, if Inez don't get here with that starch [INEZ comes up on the porch. She is slight, and very girlish. She wears a straight, dull reddish gown. She is hatless and ex cited. INEZ [With marked and slightly ironical sweetness to PETER, who is almost at the door.} So sorry THE NEIGHBOURS 17 to have missed you, Peter. Good-bye, then. Mother ! Guess ! MIS' ABEL [Ironing. ,] Guess what*? I'm too busy. INEZ Well, but listen. It's important. It's aw ful- Mis' ABEL [Pausing, iron in hand, and looking over her shoulder.} Well, out with it. What is it*? What you making such a fuss about it for*? INEZ It's Mis' Ellsworth's sister. She's died out West. And they're sending her little boy out here to Mis' Ellsworth. MIS' ABEL i [Setting down her iron.} My land a living! Carry Ellsworth with a boy on top of everything else! INEZ I know it. She just heard last night. And she's home trying to think what to do. i8 WISCONSIN PLAYS MIS' ABEL When's he going to get here? X INEZ To-night. To-night on the 7 158. MIS' ABEL \Pushing her hair back and taking her hat with */.] Ain't that just the end of everything*? INEZ And her with nobody to do a thing for her. PETER [Who has dropped the ball again at sight of INEZ, has been making more and more of a tan gle of the carpet rags ever since she entered. \ They couldn't anybody do anything, could they*? INEZ Well, of course they could ! There'll be things for everybody to do that knows her. [PETER comes toward her, his tangle of car pet rags following him. He and INEZ talk apart, he awkward and mostly mute, she evidently mocking him as they try to disentangle the rags. THE NEIGHBOURS 19 MIS' ABEL [Has walked over toward GRANDMA and stands, one arm akimbo.'] Did you understand, Grandma, Carry Ellsworth's sister's boy is com ing to live with her. [ With disapproving emphasis. GRANDMA Boy? A little boy? MIS' ABEL Yes, sir. To-night. Comin' to-night on the 7:58. GRANDMA [Placidly.} Ain't that nice? MIS' ABEL Nice? And her all alone in the world? GRANDMA Yes. Him comin' and her all alone. She won't be alone no more. I wish't I was younger and could do for on-e. MIS' ABEL My land, I should think you've had enough to do for. I guess you never had no peace till you 20 WISCONSIN PLAYS come into our family that you didn't begin by belongin' to. GRANDMA [Bursting out.} Peace! That's it. Now I've got peace. Peace an' carpet rags. [ When they are not looking she gives a big white ball of carpet rags a vicious throw through the shed door. MIS' ABEL [Harking back.} Nice. You think it's nice. Why, Carry Ellsworth won't know what to do with a boy no more than nothing in this world. I dunno what she is goin' to do to dress him. INEZ [Turning with the properly wound ball.} We'll have to think of somebody that'll have some cast-off clothes. MIS' ABEL [Impatiently.} Boy's duds makes awful good weather strips. Before we got the upstairs plas tered I use' to wish I'd had' a boy or two. It's goin' to be an awful nuisance, doin' for him. THE NEIGHBOURS 21 There's some of your pa's clothes she might use. I dunno's it'll need clothes first pop, though. But they's everything to think of [PETER starts forward, his face bright with what he means to try to say. PETER Oh, Inez. . . . That is, oh, Mis' Abel. I'm a boy. I mean I was a boy. I mean I've got some trousers and a coat and another coat. Shall I get 'em? MIS' ABEL What do you mean something to cut over*? Well, get 'em, of course. What you standing there for? Get 'em and bring 'em here. Inez, you run over an' ask Mis' Trot to come in for a minute. Mind you say a minute^ or she'll set the whole forenoon. PETER [At the door.] Are you comin' now, Inez? I I go that way too. INEZ [Airily.] Oh, don't you wait for me, Peter. I've got some things to see to. [Exit PETER, looking at her dumbly. 22 WISCONSIN PLAYS INEZ Mother, hasn't Peter got any lungs? MIS' ABEL Lungs? INEZ Or maybe it's brains. He looks nice enough he looks real nice. But he acts as if he didn't have good sense when it comes to talkin'. MIS' ABEL Your pa was the same way. INEZ [Indignant.} Father? MIS' ABEL Certainly. After we was married, whenever he begun actin' like he knew it all, an' like I wasn't no thin' but the fly-leaf o' things, I used to remember how perfectly simple he did use' to act when I first knew him when he was first makin' up. An' many's the time I've just laughed to myself, and gone and done like he told me to, sheer through rememberin' how simple and scairt and green he did use to act. THE NEIGHBOURS 23 INEZ '[Softly.] Father? Father! MIS' ABEL Him. Now run for Mis' Trot and don't be lettin' me let my spare room pillow shams dry. I guess I'll carry this one in here out o' the dirt. [Exit with sham. GRANDMA Daniel was like that too. He done things reg ular greenhorn. I remember the day we was en gaged, he almost made such a botch of it I didn't know what he meant. He busts out and says, "Will you?" an' I thought he meant would I go to the huskin' bee and I said, "Yes." When I see my mistake well, I let it go at that. I see what hard work he was makin' of it. INEZ That was old uncle Daniel, wasn't it? I re member him. He was awful old. GRANDMA Well, but I bet he was consider'ble more up to snuff than your young popinjays is now! 24 WISCONSIN PLAYS INEZ [Hastily.] Oh, yes. Oh, I know [She retreats to the door and is met on the threshold by Mis' ELMIRA MORAN.] Oh, good morning, Mis' Moran. Come in. Mother'll be back in a minute. Sit down. [Exit. MIS* MORAN [Stout, sixty, gets about with difficulty. She has a scarf wound many times about her head, but no shawl. Unwinds scarf deliberately and sinks in rocker as she speaks.] I dunno as I can. My leg is so bad I can hardly hobble. And my left shoulder don't get no better. Nor my head it don't act right. I dunno but my time is come and my grave is diggin' around the next corner. I feel that way. I told Jake so. [Enter Mis' ABEL. MIS' ABEL Good mornin', Mis' Moran. Ain't it just per fectly dreadful about MIS' MORAN Dreadful! I dunno what I am goin' to do if it keeps up. I was just say in', I said so to Jake THE NEIGHBOURS 25 only this mornin'. I says, "Jake," I says, "I'm gettin' so that I'm su'prised whenever I wake up alive. Whenever I do it," I says, "it's like every blessed mornin' of my life was a genu-ine resur rection for me. I feel it." MIS' ABEL What you talkin' about? MIS' MORAN If that ain't just like Jake's treatment of me. Right while I was talkin' to him, Jake asked me if I'd remembered to set the pancakes. Said he didn't hear me do it. MIS' ABEL Well, but land, land what's that got to do MIS' MORAN I'd been goin' to tell him about my back, but I hadn't the heart. I just laid and cried. Mis' Abel, my back's been behavin' so queer, I can hardly move it. Why, the last few days MIS' ABEL [Positively.} Just you put your finger on the 26 WISCONSIN PLAYS place, Elmiry Moran, till I tell you the news. Carry Ellsworth's got a baby. MIS' MORAN [Sits bolt upright suddenly and with ease.] A what? MIS' ABEL ,Yes, sir. It ain't here yet. It's due to-night. MIS' MORAN [Rises, steps toward Mis' ABEL easily and eagerly.] What under the sun do you mean, Dianthy Abel"? Carry Ellsworth's goin' to have a baby . . . MIS' ABEL To-night. On the 7 158. Her sister's that died out West. At least the boy's alive and they're sending him to her. MIS' MORAN [Limps slowly back to her chair.] You'd ought not to give me them turns, Dianthy. The doctor says I mustn't forget for a single minute the condition I'm in. How old is he? MIS' ABEL Well, let me see. . . . THE NEIGHBOURS 27 [INEZ appears in doorway with Mis' TROT. Mis' TROT is little and "wiry" and active and alert. She comes in with a collar in one hand and a brooch in the other. INEZ Here's Mis' Trot, Mother. MIS' TROT Well, did you ever hear anything like it, ever? Carry Ellsworth, of all the folks under the canopy, MIS' ABEL That's just exactly what I said. INEZ [Going to table where lamps are ranged and beginning to clean them.] How much does she get a month now? MIS' TROT [At the mirror over the shelf, putting on her collar, speaks with the brooch between her lips.] Why, she only gets her eight dollars a month pen sion from her husband's leg. 28 WISCONSIN PLAYS MIS' ABEL And then of course whatever she earns substi- tutin' clerkin', when clerks are sick. MIS' MORAN But barrin' Christmas week I don't believe that amounts to shucks for pay. MIS' TROT [Drawing up as a matter of course to help INEZ with the lamp chimneys.] It struck me all of a heap. An' we'd just found a buffalo bug in the parlour carpet. Yes, sir. A buffalo bug. In my parlour. I tried to step on it but you know how they are. No corpse to 'em whatever. I couldn't tell whether I hit it or not and they always run like horses. I've come right off an' left him there, if he is there. I wouldn't of done such a thing, but, thinks I, what's Carry Ellsworth goin' to do? How old's this child? MIS* ABEL That's what we was figurin' when you come in. Now, Lucretia Ellsworth was married the year we moved out of the Kane house no, that was Elmira, wasn't it? I guess Lucretia wasn't mar ried till the next year. We was livin' in the Mitchell house. THE NEIGHBOURS 29 MIS' MORAN I thought you lived in the Mitchell house be fore you lived in the Kane? Wasn't you livin' in the Mitchell house when our barn burned? MIS' TROT N o. [That '-peculiar, long-drawn "no," with a sound of d in the n.] You wasn't. Why [to Mis' MORAN] your barn never burned till the winter I was livin' alone. I remember wakin' up alone in the house and seein' the glare. MIS' ABEL I know we was livin' in the Mitchell house when Lucretia was married because I remember runnin' acrost home for more spoons durin' the ceremony. I know I missed my cry altogether, 'count o' not gettin' back till the congratulations. I'd hid my spoons in the spare room closet and I come over after 'em, all hurried and rattled an' dressed up and I could not remember where I'd put them. Let's see that was six seven eight MIS' MORAN Oh, that wasn't more'n seven years ago this summer. Because we bought out the Sparks grocery most eight years ago, an' I remember 30 WISCONSIN PLAYS sellin* Hackett Ellsworth the five pounds o* rice. MIS' TROT Why, Mis' Moran it was all of eight years ago. You forget how Time flies. I'd 'a' said nine, to be on the safe side. MIS' ABEL Yes, it must 'a' been eight years ago. I know it was the year Inez had her first ready-made suit. Yes, Carry's boy must be about six-seven years old. It don't seem possible. INEZ Carry*? I thought you said Lucretia's wed ding*? MIS' ABEL Well, Carry was married right after. She hadn't meant to be so soon. But her father didn't want to put up the parlour stove so long's the girls wasn't goin' to be home, so she was married in the fall to save the bother of a stove weddin'. MIS' MORAN Six-seven years old. Land, land. Just the hard age to take care of, when they begin to be smart. What is she goin' to do 4 ? THE NEIGHBOURS 31! MIS' ABEL Just his mere victuals is an item. MIS' TROT [Sighing.] Yes, sir. Another mouth is an other mouth excep' when it's a boy's mouth. Then it's a regular bureau drawer. MIS' MORAN This is goin' to be an awful pull for the poor thing. She wouldn't take money, though, I don't suppose, even if anybody had any to offer her? INEZ Oh not money ! MIS' TROT No the last way to help anybody is to give 'em money. MIS' MORAN Well, of course Carry'll look to us all to advise her some. MIS' TROT Oh, I dunno but advice is next worse than money. 32 WISCONSIN PLAYS MIS' ABEL Well, it's goin' to be a terrible lot of trouble, whatever way you look at it. I should say the thing she needs is a job. But while she's gettin* it she'd ought to have some clothes and some extry bedding and I dunno what all. And you know what that means attemptin' to get together truck like that. MIS' TROT I could 'a' done a little somethin' to-day if it hadn't been for that buffalo bug. But as it is I mustn't stay a minute longer. That animal'll be up into my lace curtains. How you goin' to go at gettin' the stuff together 1 ? MIS' ABEL [Ironing hard. ] Well, I do hate to load it onto her in tied-up bundles at the back door. I dunno but we'd ought to go to the trouble of a pound party or somethin' like that. MIS' TROT [Looking up with changing expression.] That would be kind of nice wouldn't it? MIS' ABEL Carry didn't have much of any wedding pres ents. And she never had a baby. I dunno as THE NEIGHBOURS 33 I ever set foot in her house to any real occasion excep' a funeral. [Turns with her iron in Tier hand.} S'posin' we was to give her a kind of a shower? MIS' MORAN A what? A shower? MIS' TROT Like they have for babies? INEZ Oh, no. I know what Mother means. Like they have for brides. MIS' ABEL [Sets down her iron, turns and leans against the ironing-board. Puts pillow sham on chair- back.} I mean a shower whether for bride, babe, or just anybody. It would be a lot of back- aching work, but we could make it real nice for her. GRANDMA [Who has worked on, without looking up, un til Mis' ABEL has said "shower." Then she has listened.} So you could. Go on and do it. Seems to me you could make it so sort of sociable 34 WISCONSIN PLAYS and friendly it wouldn't seem a bit nasty, like charity does. MIS' TROT [Looking away, with expression growing more rapt.] Be kind of nice if you could have it the night the child gets here. But that's to-night. Of course you couldn't do that. MIS' MORAN Well, of course, I can't do a thing on account o* my back. But I should think if you could scrape the things together to-day so's to take 'em with you when you go, you could have it to-night all right. MIS' TROT [Sitting upright not suddenly, but still wiiH her rapt manner, leaning forward with her hands across her knees.] An' be there with 'em when she comes back from the depot with the boy! MIS' MORAN And you could have all the things she needs piled in the middle of the front room floor and you be in there with the door shut when she got there [edging forward on her chair] clothes and groceries an' I dunno but some toys THE NEIGHBOURS 35 MIS' ABEL Be an awful job, managin'. How'd we let ourselves into the house 1 ? MIS' TROT [Really kindling. .] Easiest thing in the world. I could go in an' set with her awhile before she starts for the 7 158. I could take her in a cup o* jell, or somethin'. And then I could tell her I'd set there on the porch so's to have a look at him when she got back. MIS' ABEL And then you could let us all in. That's the ticket! My land, look at me near settin' on my spare room pillow sham. MIS' TROT [Laying down last lamp chimney and going to the door to shake the cloth. Speaks over shoul der, shaking cloth.] Well, you do that and you can count on me to be over there when you come. You won't have much trouble gettin' the stuff. [Giving the cloth to INEZ and turning toward the door.] I've got to get back to that buffalo bug now, or it'll be layin' eggs in every pattern in the carpet. 36 WISCONSIN PLAYS [INEZ carries lamps to their high shelf, puts away cloths. MIS' ABEL ,You come back here. MIS' TROT [Looks at her in sur prise. \ But MIS' ABEL You can't be going home, not with all there'll be to see to. MIS' TROT I just can't do it. That buffalo bug MIS' ABEL You forget that buffalo bug, Mis' Trot, an* tell us what to have for refreshments. Strawber ries? Or a little canned fruit and loaf -cake? MIS' TROT ^Returning .] Why, of course we've got to feed 'em. I never thought o' that. Canned fruit. I'd just as soon anybody'd set me down to oat meal as canned fruit when it's a party. Straw berries well. . . . No, for the land's sakes, if we're going to do it, let's us do it. Let's us have ice-cream or nothin'. THE NEIGHBOURS 37 MIS' MORAN Be nice for the little boy, too. MIS' ABEL But, my land, it costs so to buy it MIS' TROT Buy it? Who said anything about buying it? I'll freeze it. I can make it cheaper'n anybody in this town. MIS' ABEL Well, of course you can. That's what we'll do. You freeze it. MIS' TROT [Excitedly.] I can make it for fourteen cents a quart and freeze it myself, puttin 5 in our own cow and chickens. Yes, I'll do it buffalo bug or no buffalo bug. A gallon' 11 be enough. We can all chip in [Stamping up on the porch comes EZRA WILLIAMS. He is still more exasperated, and he comes in without greeting and with his hat on his head. EZRA Well, I been to both you folks's houses, huntin' you up. An' I been down town lookin' for the 142301 38 WISCONSIN PLAYS men. Which one o' you ordered wood? Who ever it was can send your men folks straight out here and unpile it from in front of my door, a stick at a time. MIS' ABEL I've told him we didn't order no wood. MIS' MORAN Well, we didn't. We been cuttin' wood from the wood lot for years. MIS' TROT We don't burn none. We burn soft coal .what we have left over after we've sprinkled the house with it thorough, an* our clothes an* our hands an' our necks. EZRA [Stands puzzled but still warlike.} Well, it's somebody's fool wood. It must belong some- wheres in the block. Just ask your men folks when they come home this noon. I bet you one of 'em MIS' ABEL Let's tell him. Wait a minute, Ezra. We want THE NEIGHBOURS 39 EZRA I can't wait. I've got my hands so full they sag. INEZ Oh, Mr. Williams! I know whose wood that is. It must be Mis' Ellsworth's. I heard her wonderin' this morning why it hadn't come. EZRA Well, of all the snide swindles! I've got too much to do to unpile no cord of wood for no woman, widow or worse. . . . [He is at the threshold when Mis' ABEL stops him. MIS' ABEL [Clapping her hands and following him.] Ezra ! Ezra Williams. Stop goin' on and listen hard. Carry Ellsworth's sister's boy is comin' on to her to-night to support. EZRA [At the door.] Support? Well, I can't help that. I'm doin' some supportin' myself work ing my wings off at it. And when it comes to an extry job for nothin'. . . . 40 WISCONSIN PLAYS MIS' ABEL Yes, but Carry Ellsworth ain't you. Here's a boy plumpin' down on her to feed and clothe and lug up to man's estate. EZRA Well, ain't that just like a woman! Always gettin' herself come down onto by a lot o' dis tant relatives to support. MIS' ABEL Well, it is goin' to make trouble for everybody, but we thought we'd ought to MIS' MORAN We thought it'd be real nice to do for her friendly, at a party MIS' TROT And have 'em have refreshments ice-cream and cake. And have everybody bring things. MIS' ABEL Wait till I tell him. And all be there when she gets back from the depot all waiting, in her house, to s'prise her. Couldn't you get hold of some men and see what they could get together? Us ladies' 11 see to some clothes but THE NEIGHBOURS 41 MIS' MORAN You scrape up some money, Ezra. Or some groceries canned stuff, or like that MIS' TROT And have 'em all sent to one place, hadn't we better? MIS' ABEL Have 'em all sent here. Then some of the men can come and tote 'em over when we see her go off to meet the 7 :58. EZRA [Who has stood shaking his head, edging away.] Yah pa' eel o' women. Ain't that just like 'em*? Do you think I ain't got anything else to do? Ain't enough o' you women to tend to the society end of this town and its relations? No don't you expect no time out of me. I might send over some little thing but I ain't a minute to spare to-day, I tell you. [He is out the door with the last words. GRANDMA {Who has been looking up at him with fixed attention.} Well, now, would you think any- 42 WISCONSIN PLAYS body would be that much interested in cord wood"? MIS' ABEL No, sir, you wouldn't. MIS' MORAN Well, ain't that just awful for him not to do one thing? MIS' TROT Him with nothin' but cord wood on his hands, mind you and me with a buffalo bug ! MIS' ABEL As near as I can see we've got to put this thing through ourselves. You take up-street, Mis' Trot, and Mis' Moran, you take down-street and I'll take the business part. Everybody's al ways after them, so I think you really squirm more askin' though you do get it so easy. Inez, you might be lookin' up some of your old picture books for the boy, or somethin' to amuse him. Come on, ladies. . MIS* TROT, MIS' ABEL, MIS 5 MORAN [All talking together as they go out, Mis' MORAN having forgotten her limp.] Who'll I get to bake the cakes'? Well, I'd get some good THE NEIGHBOURS 43 cake makers, for mercy's sakes, and there's only about six in town. I know where I'm going for a cake. I'm goin' straight for Mis' Ezra Wil liams. [Exeunt all three. INEZ I'll iron off a flat piece or two first. [She goes to the shed to change the iron. GRANDMA [Peering out of the windows, through the plants.] Dum 'em. They've gone off to do things. And I'm so old, so fool old. [She smites her hands together.] Oh, God. Can't you make us hurry 1 ? Can't you make us hurry"? Get us to the time when we won't have to dry up like a pippin before we're ready to be took off*? Our heads an' our hearts an' our legs an' our backs oh, make 'em last busy, busy, right up to the time the hearse backs up to the door ! INEZ [Returns, picks up a piece from the basket, looks over at her.] What's the matter, Grandma*? 44 WISCONSIN PLAYS GRANDMA Eh, nothin'. Only, I'm folks. That's all. I mean I was folks me that was folks and now ain't. [INEZ looks at her, puzzled, and stands rub bing the iron on a newspaper when PETER re-appears in the doorway, the sugar un der his arm, and in his hand a paper. PETER Mis' Abel ! I forgot to ask you just what things you need for that little boy Oh, you here, Inez*? I thought you was out. I thought Here's your mother's sugar. INEZ [Cooling her iron and not looking at him.~\ I'm sorry Mother isn't in. She'll be back in a few minutes. Won't you come back then ? PETER Inez ! I've got lots of conversation in me. [INEZ searches his face swiftly. , Goes on with ironing. PETER [With determination.'] I mean I don't say half the things I could say. THE NEIGHBOURS 45 INEZ [ With a moment of understanding and sympa thy, she leans on the board and looks at him.} What about, Peter $ PETER About about oh, things. I think of so many things, Inez, when I'm alone, that I'd like to tell you. INEZ [Still the same.} Why don't you tell me, Peter 1 ? What are they about? PETER Well, woods things, and about water rats and gophers and and birds' nests ! INEZ [Still understanding, still patient. ,] Well, I like these things, too, you know, Peter. Tell me some now. PETER [Looking wild.] Well. . . . Birds' nests. They's they's quite a few birds' nests in the trees this spring 46 WISCONSIN PLAYS INEZ [Bursts into sudden uncontrollable laughter.] In the trees ! Oh, come now, Peter ! Not birds' nests in the trees! Oh. . . . Peter! You mustn't tell me things like that! PETER [Struggling desperately.] Well, orioles now. Orioles. ... I saw an oriole by Thatcher's barn. It's note was all wavy INEZ [Grave again] I know it. I've heard 'em. I love 'em. PETER And I thought what was it I thought when I heard him call. . . . INEZ What . . . Peter? [Sets down her iron and, an elbow in her ] hand, the other hand over her mouth, she watches him quizzically and somewhat wistfully. PETER [Simply.] It was something I liked to think. And I know I thought how you'd like it too. THE NEIGHBOURS 47 Most folks don't hear 'em call. Lots of folks ^on't hear lots of things. But you do. And I do. Ain't that kind of nice like them things was for you and me. . . . [He catches at a cor ner of her apron, lifts it, and drops it, discon certed. \ Mebbe you dunno what I mean. INEZ Oh, Peter, Peter, Peter! [Laughs with her eyes shut.] Oh, Peter! PETER [Turns away, looks up in another part of the room.] I know it. I don't know why it is I can't talk to you, Inez. I think of things I want to say to you, but when I'm with you I don't seem able to think 'em over again. There's history, now. I was readin' some history last night. There was so many things I wanted to tell you in it. I I know you'd of thought so, too ! INEZ Really. You think I would. Well, then, here I am. Try me! PETER I can't. I didn't plan it out this way and you laughing. 48 WISCONSIN PLAYS INEZ Oh, tell me do. Was it about robbers and princesses and castles, Peter*? Was it about knights and swords and roses PETER Oh, it was better things. One was about Peter the Great, you know. Him. He was a my, he was just a dandy! INEZ [Now really at the end of her patience.] Was that what you wished to tell me"? PETER [Miserably.} No. But INEZ Because if it was, I'm not in the least interested in Peter the Great! Not-in-the-least ! [She marches across the floor to the shed door to renew her iron, and on the threshold she turns, overcome again by the sorry figure he has cut.] Peter, oh, Peter. . . . [Laughs with her eyes shut, and goes into the shed. PETER sits where she has left him, and drops his head in his hands. THE NEIGHBOURS 49 GRANDMA [Suddenly wheels in her chair. ~\ Young man! [PETER lifts his head.] Do you call that courtin'? [PETER makes a helpless gesture.} Because if I couldn't court no better than that I'd go and batch it and be done with it. You court like a stick of wood. PETER [ With a hopeless gesture. .] What'll I do? GRANDMA Do? Do what most everybody in the world has to do before they can fit their skins and skulls. Quit thinkin' about yourself. Dunce! PETER Well, but I I [INEZ comes back with the iron. GRANDMA subsides. PETER rises miserably. PETER I guess I'll have to be going. INEZ Oh, must you? Well, good-bye, Peter. 50 WISCONSIN PLAYS PETER I s'pose it's all done there is to do about the little chap the one that's coming? INEZ Why, of course it isn't. Who did you think did it all? PETER Do do you think I could be any use to 'em? [INEZ amazes him by dropping her flat-iron with a clatter on the ironing-stand and bursting into sobs. PETER Inez! What is it? [He leaps to her, for the first time uncon scious of himself, and puts his arms about her. For just a moment she leans to him^ then springs free and speaks angrily. INEZ It's nothing. It's nothing, I tell you. Go 'way, Peter. Please go 'way. PETER [Sfands still for a moment, then flings up his head and speaks in wonder.} Inez! Inez! Do you care because I'm a fool? THE NEIGHBOURS 51 INEZ Go 'way, Peter. Please go 'way. PETER Well, I will go now. But by the great horn spoon, Inez, I'll come back! [He rushes out. INEZ runs to GRANDMA, sinks beside her, buries her face in her gown. INEZ Grandma, grandma. Why can't he be like other folks? Why can't he be like other folks'? GRANDMA [With great tenderness.} Hush . . . dearie. Hardly anybody ever is. Hardly anybody is. [Moment's pause. [The door opens, and Mis' ABEL enters side- wise, her arms piled with old clothes. She is calling to somebody over her shoul der. MIS' ABEL Well, supposin' they are too big? Send 'em along send 'em along. I've cut over more of 'em than I ever made new ones. [Closes the door behind her by pushing against it.\ My land, 52 WISCONSIN PLAYS that's been a tug. Folks has kept a-givin' me things an' I've kep' sayin' I'd take 'em right along. [Dropping things on the floor and keep ing them together.} I know 'em. If folks had waited to send the stuff by somebody they'd 'a' took to lookin' it over again an' got to snippin' off the buttons and mebbe decide they was too good to give away at all. You needn't tell me. Folks is folks. GRANDMA [Patting INEZ'S arms INEZ has risen, and stands surreptitiously drying her eyes.] That's it that's it. Folks is folks, no matter how dif ferent or similar. They can't fool us. Folks is folks. INEZ [ Turns and sees the garments which her mother is vaguely sorting.} Oh, mother, how fine. Isn't that a pile ? How fine ! [Examines the garments and after a moment goes to the shed with her flatiron. MIS' ABEL They's everything here. Enough to clothe Carry Ellsworth's nephew till he's black in the face. [Enter Mis' TROT, breathless. THE NEIGHBOURS 53 MIS' TROT I've solicited the rest of the stuff for the ice cream and I've got four cakes promised. [Seeing the things on the floor.} What a lot of splendid truck ! MIS' ABEL Well, I'm most dead luggin' it. [She is stooping, turning over the things. MIS' TROT [Looking toward the door.} And ain't the air nice in the forenoon 1 ? It seems like breathin' somethin' else. Comin' along by the wood yard, somethin' I dunno whether it was the smell of the cedar shingles or the way the fence looked so nice and shady but [little laugh} I ain't never felt so much like when I was a girl since I was born one. If it hadn't been for the thoughts of that buffalo bug in the house, I de clare I would most of enjoyed myself. MIS' ABEL [In falsetto.} Did you? Why, I was just thinkin' that out in Main Street that it seemed somethin' like quite a while ago. I thought it was the smell of the sage where somebody was fryin' pork, but mebbe it wasn't. 54 WISCONSIN PLAYS [Enter Mis' MORAN. She is walking nearly erect and is hurrying somewhat. MIS' MORAN It's all right. I just see Carry Ellsworth goin' into the post office, and I turned in on purpose. I told her somebody' d come over to-night and set while she went to the station, and be there when she comes back. She seemed to like the idee. Is this stuff all here? MIS' ABEL Yes, and more to come. Don't you think we'd best all be setting in there in the dark when she gets there with him, and all of us yell "Shower," shan't we*? Just like they do? MIS' TROT [Down on the floor beside the things.} Poor little soul it's him I'm a-thinkin' of. His mother dead and his home broke up and him dragged away from what folks he knows. Look here! Well, of course we're glad to have any of these things. [Holds up a very ragged garment.} How's this for a contribution? Nobody could patch that without they had a piece of cloth the size of the American flag and not a button on it. THE NEIGHBOURS 55 I'll bet you Mis' Hemenway give this didn't she now"? MIS' ABEL [Looking closely. .] Yes, sir, she did. If you'd packed as many missionary barrels as I have you'd 'a' known it was Mis' Hemenway' s without lookin'. Mis' Hemenway is a splendid cake- maker, but she is near-sighted about gifts she gives the poor. MIS' TROT [Goes on sorting. .] I got to thinkin', supposin' it had been my Jeddie, if I'd been took, and him trapsed off to a strange state, and all. Ain't it real pitiful well, now, would you think any- body'd give away a thing as good as that is? [She holds up a garment, and Mis' MORAN, who has been shaking her head over the other one, takes it from her. MIS' MORAN No, I would not. Why, it looks like new from the store. They ain't a thread broke in it. And the buttons on. Who give this, Mis' Abel? MIS' ABEL [ Who is filing life some things from the lot on the table.} I was wondering what he'd be like? 56 WISCONSIN PLAYS Nice little thing, I guess maybe Carry's so nice. . . . [Looks at the garment, .] Oh, that's Mis' Fitch couldn't you tell 1 ? Her that always sends a thirteen-egg angels' food to the church suppers when a loaf o' pound cake would go down just as easy. MIS' TROT And her husband on thirty dollars a month. My good land, ain't folks the funniest things'? [They all shake heads and compress lips^ and Mis' TROT goes "T-t-t-t-t." GRANDMA Ah ain't you got used to that about folks yet, Mis' Trot*? I want to know I want to know. It don't hurt folks none to be funny, does it? INEZ [Who is entering from the shed.] Grandma, look. Here was one of your balls of carpet rags rolled way out there. Would you think it could? GRANDMA [Peering at it.} That's the very one I been lookin' for. I want it for the head. THE NEIGHBOURS 57 INEZ The head of what. Grandma? GRANDMA Never you mind. I got my own occupations. You ain't the only busy folks in the world, if you do act so cocky about it. I need something to do for as well as you. INEZ [Who has been looking out the window.] Mother, Mis' Ellsworth is coming. MIS' ABEL Mis' Ellsworth! [The women scurry around but they are too late. Mis' ELLSWORTH enters. She is a slight, pretty woman in a light blue ging ham gown and wide straw hat. She is much agitated, and sinks in a chair by the door. She has a letter and a little parcel in her hand. MIS' ABEL [ With the other two women, trying to hide the piles of garments. \ Why, Carry Ellsworth! You did give me a start. I'm we've we're don't this look like carpet rags, though? 58 WISCONSIN PLAYS MIS' ELLSWORTH [Hardly hears.] Oh, ladies. I've just got a letter I've had another letter. 'Seems my little boy ain't comin' at all. ALL [save GRANDMA] Not comin'? MIS' ELLSWORTH [Slowly.] No. A sister of his pa's decided last minute she'd take him in. She's got five of her own, but she writes she dunno's one more'll make any difference. MIS' ABEL [Sitting limply back in the clothes.'] Well, ain't that just the end of everything! MIS' MORAN Well, Carry you can't help it, but be glad the little fellow ain't had all the way to come alone. MIS' TROT An' I ain't a doubt in the world he's got a bet ter home than you could give him anybody that can afford to have five children is rich enough to have six. THE NEIGHBOURS 59 MIS' ABEL And it was going to be awful hard on you to have him to do for. MIS' ELLSWORTH I know, I know. But it's goin' to be awful hard for me not to have him to do for. Last night when I begun to plan it come over me like it never done before what I'd missed in not bein' left with one. I was goin' to make him a bed on the lounge I'd got it planned what clothes I could spare for the bed, and what I could make more of. I never got meals for a child and I'd begun thinkin' what he could eat and what little things I could fix up for him. I was plannin' to keep chickens and to fix a sandpile in the backyard and a swing under the maple out in front and I was thinkin' about his school and who'd be his teacher and what desk he'd have. I just see this little cap in the post-office store and I bought it for him. [ Unwraps a cap from a little package. ] I thought the feather' d look kind o' cute, stickin' up in front. And now here comes this and it's all for nothin' it's all for nothin'. 60 WISCONSIN PLAYS MIS* ABEL But, Mis' Ellsworth, it would be hard for you. It would now ! MIS' ELLSWORTH I'd like that kind o' hard. MIS' TROT And s'pose you'd of took down sick? MIS' ELLSWORTH Better body sick than heart sick. MIS' MORAN And s'pose you'd of died, Mis' Ellsworth? MIS' ELLSWORTH I'd of lived first now, anyway. And now I ain't. I never knew it but I ain't. MIS' ABEL Oh, but Mis' Ellsworth. You've got your health and your gettin' along economical to brood over as it is. MIS* ELLSWORTH This would of kept me from broodin'. [INEZ goes softly, and mutely slips her arm about Mis' ELLSWORTH. THE NEIGHBOURS 61 MIS' ABEL [Openly breaks down and wipes her eyes on the garment she is holding. ] Oh, ladies! What's the use*? We all know. I ain't had but one, but I know. MIS' TROT Yes. I've got seven an' sometimes I'm drove most to death with 'em but I know. MIS' MORAN Well, I never had none but I know. GRANDMA Eh, mine's dead all dead. But I know. INEZ Oh, Mis' Ellsworth. An' I know, too. [In a moment at the door appears PETER, his arms ludicrously full of clothes and parcels. PETER Look, Inez, look-a-here. See all I got a holt of for the little chap. [He sees their mood and pauses, crestfallen. 62 WISCONSIN PLAYS INEZ [Goes to him swiftly. \ Peter! What a lot you got. Dear Peter. [The door is pushed open by EZRA WIL LIAMS. He has a small, closely wrapped bundle under an arm, and he is carrying a little chair. EZRA [Handing bundle to Mis' ABEL.] There's a few little things my wife just sent over. This here little chair I made it myself for our little boy before he was hardly out o' long dresses. I done the whole thing pegged it myself, so's he could throw it around and it wouldn't get broke. He he never grew up enough to use it ... it's been settin' around my workroom kind of in the way. It ought to be doin' somebody some good- MIS' ABEL That's certainly good of you, Ezra. EZRA Say, you'd ought to see Mis' Ellsworth's wood, piled by her back door neat as a kitten's foot. She ain't to home [Sees for the first time that Mis' ELLSWORTH is there, over near GRANDMA.] Good souls! Have I let the cat out of the bag? THE NEIGHBOURS 63 MIS' ABEL No, Ezra no, no. I was tryin' to tell you. He ain't comin'. The little boy ain't comin' after all. EZRA He ain't comin' *? MIS' ELLSWORTH [Coming forward. ~\ No, Ezra. They ain'l goin' to give him to me. Somebody else has took him. EZRA Well, ain't that a shame. [Bristling.] Who's got him ? Want I should get him for you *? MIS' ELLSWORTH [Shaking her head.] No you can't, Ezra. But you don't know you'll never know how I feel about what you've done a'ready you and the ladies and Peter and Grandma. . . . Would you mind if we looked at the little clothes'? EZRA No why, look at 'em. They ain't much, I guess, for now-a-days. But his ma says she'd like you to have 'em. They was real good cloth in the beginnin'. 64 WISCONSIN PLAYS MIS' ELLSWORTH [Fingering the garments, turns quickly to the women.} Ain't that what it is to have neigh bours? Ain't it, though? Look at the bother you've been to. ... An' now I won't need 'em. MIS' ABEL Don't you think a thing about us. We was glad to do it. I was feelin' cross as a wolf with all I had to do when Inez come in with the news. [She is taking off her hat as she speaks.} And now I feel I feel like folks. An' Mis' Moran's leg and her back and Mis' Trot's buffalo bug I guess they feel just the same about it. GRANDMA And me. So do I. I was just hatin' the sight o* my carpet rags. But look at what I stodged up for the little chap. [She holds up an absurd black doll with a white head. MIS' ELLSWORTH Oh, Grandma! GRANDMA Don't you thank me. I liked doin' it. It was somethin' for somebody. It was real human to do. THE NEIGHBOURS 65 MIS' ABEL Well, we might as well pick 'em up. INEZ [Turning to PETER, who stands apart.} Peter, how dear of you to get all these things for him. [Mis' ABEL unwraps them, and they draw about her to look, all save PETER, who is standing a little apart, INEZ turns to him. PETER I didn't get 'em all for him. I got 'em part for you. INEZ Well it was dear of you anyway. What what's that in your pocket, Peter? PETER [Brings shyly from his pocket a little clown on a stick.} I saw it in the store. I didn't know but what he might like it. If he ain't a-comin* we might as well throw it away. INEZ No ! Give it to me. 66 WISCONSIN PLAYS PETER [Still holding toy and looking down at it.] Why, it's nothin' but a clown. Like me, I guess. . . . INEZ Well, I want it all the same. . . . Oh, Peter, Peter, what a dear you are when you forget your self! [He looks at her breathlessly, then suddenly takes her in his arms . . . and as he does so, tosses the clown-on-a-stick into the lit tle vacant chair. PETER Inez Inez! Do you mean that? Oh, Inez, I tell you I'm forgettin' now. I'll never remem ber any more. [He kisses her. [As they stand so, Mis' ABEL turns and sees them. The others follow her look. GRANDMA, too, and they all turn and look at each other, silent and smiling. And then GRANDMA rises, and comes slowly down to them bent and peering and kindly, and holding by one arm the doll she has made. As she passes the little vacant chair, near which INEZ and PETER THE NEIGHBOURS 67 stand, she drops the doll over the chair's back in order to take their hands. She stands between and a little back of them, facing the audience. She looks up at them and tries to speak to each in turn, and gives it up with a little helpless ges ture and a smile and a hand r patting the shoulder of each. They are all gathered near the two, the little garments EZRA has brought still in the women's hands and Mis' ELLSWORTH still holding the cap with the feather. MIS' ABEL {Wiping her eyes swiftly.] Strikes me the little chap is accountable for a whole heap he never even heard of. GRANDMA Eh most folks always is. IN HOSPITAL BY THOMAS H. DICKINSON And lo, the Hospital, grey, quiet, old, Where Life and Death like friendly chaff erers meet, HENLEY. T7 T3 T% Hi. Ho SJh PERSONS OF THE PLAY A WIFE AN INTERNE A HUSBAND A NURSE A SURGEON IN HOSPITAL TIME: A bright morning in late spring, SCENE : A large room beside the operating rooms of a hospital. The general tone of the room is white, but an effort is manifest to make it some what cheerful in furnishings. The matting is a bright colour. The chairs and tables, though simple and unadorned, are artistic in shape. There are two doors in the room. The one at the back leads from the corridor. The one at the right leads into the operating rooms. There is no door on the left side of the room. The wall here is solid, and is provided, as is the left side of the back walls, with a continuous row of high windows neatly curtained with muslin. Through a broad aperture in the curtains the sunlight streams during the scene in a soft, un broken, and ever broadening ray. The general effect should be one of lightness and simplicity^ and formal cheerfulness. Copyright, 1909, by Thomas H. Dickinson 75 y6 WISCONSIN PLAYS At the rise of the curtain a NURSE, daintily gowned and capped in hospital uniform, stands at the right of the centre of the room beside a high table. Her pencil is at her lips and her brows are puckered. She has been making some notes on a 'pad of report blanks. Be side her on the table there are towels, arranged in a neat pile, and a few pieces of linen. There enters at the centre door an INTERNE, a young man of smooth face, hearty manners, and a soft step. He is dressed in immaculate white linen. The INTERNE goes toward a standing case at the back of the room, opens it and takes out some rolls of cotton. INTERNE Good morning, Betty. NURSE [Sweetly but abstractedly. .] Good morning. [He 'piles up his rolls of cotton. After a pause she continues. ~\ Did I get any towels last night"? INTERNE Eh? NURSE Nothing. [She goes on pencilling. IN HOSPITAL 77 INTERNE Well, I guess that's as much as I want for one trip. [Gathers up his bundles and goes out by the right door. He returns immediately with nothing in his hands, and begins again to collect the cotton. INTERNE Did you miss your free hour yesterday*? NURSE [With pencil to lips.] Uh-hu. INTERNE What's the trouble? Case serious"? NURSE Oh, no. Doc thought I'd better not leave the afternoon before the operation. . . . What time is it this morning*? INTERNE Now? Oh, about eight- thirty. NURSE I mean the operation. 78 WISCONSIN PLAYS INTERNE [Goes back to the case.] Nine o'clock. NURSE Who gives the anaesthetic? INTERNE [Taking out cans of chloroform.] I do. [After a pause.} Sleep well, last night*? NURSE She had me up several times. I thought she was talking to me. Talking in her sleep. [She continues to pencil while speaking. INTERNE Nervous? NURSE Oh, she has grit. INTERNE You can't tell how it will hit them. Some times the patient that has the most grit when he is awake goes all to pieces when he's asleep. NURSE Last night she was saying something about Fred. I didn't understand exactly. I think he's IN HOSPITAL 79 her son. Then once she asked me to bring the baby. I got up and spoke to her but she didn't hear me. [She has been stacking towels. INTERNE [Still rummaging in the case.] Thinking about her kids. Well, that's natural. [Hum ming.] And a b-a, ba; and a b-e, be; and a b-i, bi; bay-be-bi. NURSE [Sorting over her piles of material.] What do you think of her chances? INTERNE Well, I dunno! I'm glad it isn't you going into the operation. [He comes over and leans on the other side of the high table and looks keenly at her. NURSE Now, don't be foolish. INTERNE Aren't you glad I ain't*? NURSE Ain't what? 80 WISCONSIN PLAYS INTERNE Going in there under the knife. NURSE [Gathering up her bundle. ,] Of course not, smarty. Why should I care? Ta, ta. [She swings her head saucily and goes out by the centre door. [The INTERNE returns to the case at the left back of the room and proceeds with his work. [After a pause the centre door opens slowly and the HUSBAND appears. He is hag gard, his clothes have a general air of neglect, his eyes are tired for lack of sleep. He carries his hat negligently crushed in his hand. INTERNE [Lfpon first seeing the HUSBAND.] Ah, here you are. [ He speaks in a hearty but somewhat hollow, professionally sympathetic way. HUSBAND [Shakes the hand holding the hat as if to shake aside any more formal greetings. He speaks as IN HOSPITAL 81 if with an effort, his voice is husky > and the organs do not immediately respond to his command. There is now no demand that he keep up appear ances.] How is she? INTERNE Best reports this morning, glad to say. HUSBAND Have you seen her 1 ? INTERNE No, she isn't in my ward, but her nurse tells me she slept nicely, very nicely indeed. HUSBAND I am glad of that. ... I didn't sleep. INTERNE Didn't sleep, eh 4 ? Well, I don't know as I blame you. Still you owe it to yourself you know HUSBAND I went to bed . . . but I couldn't sleep. I wandered around . . . outdoors. [He makes a futile gesture to indicate the aimlessness of his wanderings. 82 WISCONSIN PLAYS INTERNE Oh, of course, if you're nervous it's necessary to get it out of your system somehow. Only you ought to remember this, that you ought to keep yourself in good trim so that you can take good care of her when she goes home. HUSBAND I've heard all of that before. . . A man does the best he can. INTERNE Oh, you mustn't take it too hard. [Lightly. ] Operation every day here. HUSBAND Not this kind of an operation. INTERNE [In pretended surprise.] My dear man, it's not so unusual. HUSBAND \Puts his hat down on the high table and turns wearily to the INTERNE.] Maybe not. Maybe not. But I'd give my right arm to escape this for her. [The INTERNE proceeds with his work. [The door opens and the SURGEON enters. IN HOSPITAL 83 He is a man of middle age. Long years of neglect of his own body have made him stooped, and unkempt, and shabby. His hair is thin and colourless and rough. His eyes are keen but shift easily from place to place. His hands are shameless and worn, but the fingers are of an utmost dexterity and refinement in action. Un der his right elbow a soft hat is crushed to his side. He carries his case in the right hand, while with his left hand he holds the knob of the door which he has just opened. SURGEON [Speaking at the door to some one in the hall.] I'm busy now. See me after ten o'clock. [Places his hat and case on the table and proceeds to take off his gloves. His voice as he speaks is a squeak which comes in congruously from his large frame. [The HUSBAND comes forward and stands before the SURGEON. SURGEON Hello, you beat me. 84 WISCONSIN PLAYS HUSBAND Yes. SURGEON Well, how're you getting on this morning? HUSBAND Better, I guess. SURGEON That's good. That's good. HUSBAND Doctor, did you think I was a coward last night? SURGEON No, I don't remember that I thought particu larly about it. [Places his hat on the rack. HUSBAND I want to tell you how it was. I had dozed off in my chair. I couldn't sleep in bed, and all at once I thought I saw her lying before me. I don't believe in signs, Doctor, I'm not superstitious; but that well, it broke me up. Without think ing I rushed to the telephone and called your num* ber. Thank you for being so kind to me. IN HOSPITAL 85 SURGEON [Taking off his coat.] That's all right. [To the INTERNE.] Are you ready, Vic? INTERNE Whenever you are. SURGEON Well, you might take a look around to see that everything is at hand. You know my way. [The INTERNE goes out the right door. The SURGEON proceeds to take off his coat and hangs it up. HUSBAND Aren't you going to see her before she goes in there? SURGEON Nothing to see her about now. HUSBAND She just goes in there like into the dark? SURGEON [Patiently.] My experience is that it's better not to excite patients. She won't see me until she wakes up. 86 WISCONSIN PLAYS HUSBAND Doctor, I've got to ask you some questions. SURGEON Fire away. HUSBAND Can she take the anaesthetic all right? SURGEON Don't you worry about that. [Gathers up his case and starts to the right.] Well . . . [Speaking in general without reference to any one. HUSBAND [Stopping him.~\ Doctor, give me a minute. Wait. Things seem to be moving so fast my courage for one minute doesn't help me the next. SURGEON [Sets down case on bench and r peers keenly at HUSBAND.] Go on I'll give you a minute. HUSBAND How do you look upon a thing like this? . . . Do you go into that room determined to save life? IN HOSPITAL 87 SURGEON Suppose I answer, what do you expect to gain by it 2 HUSBAND I want to understand you so that whatever happens I won't blame you. SURGEON You're all right. You want the truth and I s'pose I owe it to you. No, that isn't what I'm thinking about when I go in there. HUSBAND I was afraid so. You value something else more than you value the life of your patient*? SURGEON It isn't a question of what I value. It's a ques tion of the thing that's put into my hands to do, HUSBAND Of the operation you've got to perform. SURGEON That's it precisely. Now I'll illustrate it to you. Now, listen, for I want you to understand that I wouldn't talk to you unless I thought I 88 WISCONSIN PLAYS ought to. [HUSBAND nods.] Uh yes this'll do. What do you s'pose the sailor man thinks when they put him to working the pumps? Does he say, "I've got a thousand lives to save," or does he say, "I've got to get the water out of that there hold?" What does he say? HUSBAND He says he's got to get the water out of the hold. SURGEON You're right. Take another case. What does the soldier say when things get good and hot around him? Does he strike a pose like a play actor and say, "I've got to save my country and the grand old flag?" Not much he don't. I'll tell you what he says. He says, "I've got to get over that stone wall there and plug the man on the other side." That's what he says, ain't it? HUSBAND Yes, SURGEON And if a racer is getting into a ticklish place he doesn't watch the judge's stand, does he, but watches the track and pegs away? IN HOSPITAL 89 HUSBAND Yes. SURGEON Well, that's the doctor's way of looking at it. He watches the track and lets the flag take care of itself. HUSBAND And ignores the possible consequences'? SURGEON And lets the consequences take care of them selves. We've got a job to do and we do it. HUSBAND And your purpose isn't to save life"? SURGEON Not exactly; it's to do a good operation. HUSBAND From my point of view it's your first business to save my wife's life. SURGEON Well, it's jolly lucky you ain't your wife's doc tor. From my point of view it is my first busi ness to perform the operation and give the treat ment called for by the diagnosis. 90 WISCONSIN PLAYS HUSBAND And you shut your eyes to everything else"? SURGEON Shut our eyes! No, sirree! Shut our eyes nothing. We see everything that goes on. We see death coming along and we ain't scared. We've got to see him if we're going to fight him. And we see folks suffering and we can't stop for sympathy. Sympathy in a doctor is near to weak ness. What do we do? We just keep ahead and do our stint. We can't pay any attention to life and death. But they live, by George, tlhey live, if we do the stint right. The best motto I evei heard for a doctor was, "Keep your eyes open, keep your heart closed, keep your hands clean, and heal the sick." [Grasping the handle of his case suddenly.] What was it you said you wanted to talk to me about*? HUSBAND Nothing now, doctor. I am willing to leave her in your hands. SURGEON [Reaching again for his case.] Eh, well. . . , IN HOSPITAL 91 HUSBAND May I see her before she goes in there? SURGEON Eh, see her 1 ? You want to talk with her 1 ? Let's see you. [Again he drops the case upon the table, this time placing his hand upon HUSBAND'S shoulder and turning him so that he can look into his face and study him.] How's your grit 1 ? [HUSBAND nods and smiles .] Let's see your teeth. [HUSBAND opens his lips and shows his teeth firmly pressed together.] Now your eyes. [He opens HUSBAND'S lids and the eyes gaze at him without a quiver, .] Now swallow. [HUS BAND does so. They both smile. SURGEON slaps him on the shoulder with a jovial laugh.] You're all right. You're a man, all right. HUSBAND I think you can trust me. SURGEON Yes, I reckon I can. At any rate I can trust her. And I'm going to guarantee that I can trust you. HUSBAND Very good. 92 WISCONSIN PLAYS SURGEON I'm going to tell you what she said when this came on. Do you know what she said*? She said, "Don't tell him how serious my condition is. I couldn't bear for him to know." HUSBAND She said that? SURGEON She did. HUSBAND> She wanted to protect me. SURGEON You're right. She wanted to protect you. Just think of it, will you"? You couldn't be a coward after that [He looks HUSBAND in the eye.] Could you*? HUSBAND No. SURGEON [Again slapping him heartily upon the shoul der^ repeats in a loud, encouraging tone.} No!! [He turns awkwardly to go out.} She may come here for ten minutes. IN HOSPITAL 93 [He rings an electric bell on the wall, gathers up his things and goes out at the right, [HUSBAND stands in his place. [INTERNE enters from the right. INTERNE Hello, that sun is bright. It makes a clear line straight across the room. HUSBAND I couldn't ask for a more beautiful morning. [Enter by the centre door WIFE and NURSE. [WIFE advances weakly but easily and gracefully toward the centre of the room. She is dressed in a bright kimono which sets of modestly her slight but charming outlines. Her long rich hair is parted in the middle and braided in two strands, one of which hangs down her back. The other is thrown over her shoulder and hangs in front. She is smiling brightly and with only the slightest tinge of wist- fulness up at her husband. [The NURSE comes around to the INTERNE, who stands at the right side of the room. 94 WISCONSIN PLAYS INTERNE You are to go into the operating room. Doctor needs you. [NURSE goes out, followed by the INTERNE. [// is clear that HUSBAND will have com- plete control of himself. WIFE [Playfully.] Hello, Rumble Growler. HUSBAND Why, Pet, are they making you walk all alone? WIFE Of course. What do you think I am"? An invalid? HUSBAND Not the least bit in the world. But when I'm paying this hospital all the money they are charg ing me I want them to give you some attention. WIFE You're to pay me the attention now. HUSBAND Very well, then you are not to stand any more. You're to sit down. IN HOSPITAL 95 WIFE Oh, it won't hurt me to stand. You're to look at me first. How do you think I look? HUSBAND Fine! WIFE And how do you like my hair 1 ? See my pig tails? [She fishes around behind her and brings the other strand to the front and holds both out to him. HUSBAND [Reaches down to take the closed hands in his own.} Great! How long is it? Um! WIFE You mustn't touch me. It's expressly against orders. Stay your distance. HUSBAND Must I? That's hard. WIFE Orders ! 96 WISCONSIN PLAYS HUSBAND It's orders, too, that I should take the best of care of you while you are visiting me ; and so you are to sit down here and never move. [He gets chair and she sits down. WIFE All right; you sit there. HUSBAND [Sitting down near her.] Right here. WIFE Grumbler, you're not looking well. I think Sarah isn't giving you good meals. HUSBAND Oh, yes, she is. WIFE Do you have them just at the right time? You're always so careless, you know, if I don't watch you. HUSBAND Promptly on the dot. WIFE Does she cook your steak right and do you al ways have your salad? IN HOSPITAL 97 HUSBAND Well, now, we'll let those little details pass if you will tell me something. What do you put your hair up that way for 1 ? WIFE Oh, so I ... [Remembering that this in fringes on a forbidden topic. .] Because it's nicer that way. It's more becoming. Don't you think so? [Turns around on the chair to give him the effect. HUSBAND It certainly is. I think you ought to wear it in two braids all the time, don't you? WIFE I think I will after this. I like it. ... You ought to see the care the nurses take of me. One nurse all the time and sometimes two or three. And they give me everything I want. HUSBAND That's good. WIFE And often they think of things and do them before I even know I want them. But they're 98 WISCONSIN PLAYS always just what I'd have wanted if I'd thought. HUSBAND That's good. Might as well do something for their money. WIFE And Grumbler. HUSBAND ,Yes. WIFE [Slyly.] The doctors are very nice. One of them HUSBAND You know what I said I'd do to the fellow who came hanging around. WIFE [Shaking her head playfully and defiantly.] Nope ! HUSBAND Well, I'll do it, doctor or no doctor. WIFE You always said I couldn't have a lady's maid, too. I have one here all to myself. IN HOSPITAL 99 HUSBAND You can have one for a couple of weeks. But you will make up for it after that. When you come home you'll have to go to work. WIFE What if I don't do it? What if I'm spoiled here? HUSBAND You know what we do to the children when they won't work. They go to bed without eating. WIFE Cruel old Rumble Growler! HUSBAND You don't know how cruel I will be when you come home. [He rises from his chair and turns around suddenly with his back to her. The bright look for a moment departs from her face, leaving it wan. When next he speaks it is in a different voice, still, however, under perfect con trol.} Have you noticed how bright the sun light is and how beautiful the morning? WIFE [Also in a deeper voice, .] Yes. As I lay in my bed this morning I awoke early, you know ioo WISCONSIN PLAYS I watched a narrow sunbeam get wider and longer and finally cross the room until it pointed right at me. Why, this sunbeam is moving, too. Oh, I love the sun. HUSBAND So do I and everything that is under the sun. {Both are silent for a while. He walks to the window.] Out there in the street a little shaver is riding in his cart behind a dog. Several steps behind is a little girl, his sister, I'll bet. Yes, she is his sister, for she is crying with her mouth wide open but he won't stop. Isn't it strange how quiet it is in here? All the noise of the street is si lenced. Man's inhumanity to woman. Go on, little warrior, in your cart ! WIFE Tell me about the children. HUSBAND Oh, they are getting on so, so. WIFE I know they will. HUSBAND But you should see them! [Turning toward 'her. She nods without speaking.] They're try- IN HOSPITAL 101 ing hard to be good, but it's a stiff pull for the little rascals. Well, I don't blame them. Fred die put me in quite a hole the other day. "What's the use of being good when mother's away 1 ?" he asked. [She smiles.] For the life of me I couldn't think of an answer. What would you say 1 ? WIFE I'd be as bad off as you were. HUSBAND But Robert wasn't. He had an answer. "So mother will be happy when she comes back," he said. Wasn't that good*? WIFE Just like Robert. HUSBAND I don't know what we should have done with out Robert. He serves at the table. He answers the door and the telephone. He ties the baby's bib. How he thinks of everything I don't know. I I'm so helpless. Why didn't you ever teach me to take charge of the house ? 102 WISCONSIN PLAYS WIFE Fancy teaching you anything you didn't want to learn. HUSBAND [After a moment's deep silence.'] All the kid dies send you their love. WIFE Even Freddie? HUSBAND Oh, Freddie, to be sure. Guess you know about what he's doing. Upstairs and downstairs. Outdoors and in. WIFE I hope he won't get hurt. HUSBAND Trust him for that. But how do you keep him in aprons'? They're all dirty already. Yester day he got all scratched up trying to put Kitty to bed and make him say his prayers. He has fallen in the flour bin, put the telephone out of commis sion, pulled the table-cloth and dishes off the table. There isn't anything he hasn't done. Freddie will welcome you back with a dish-pan band, when you come home. IN HOSPITAL 103 WIFE [Closing her eyes.} Yes HUSBAND [Pretending not to notice, though it is clear that he does.} Did I tell you about night be fore last? WIFE No. HUSBAND Well, that night he slept over at Cousin Ruthie's house. All his nightgowns were dirty so Aunt Ella made him wear one of Ruthie's. But she had the hardest time making him wear it. The next morning he said to me, "I'm glad I ain't a woman, ain't you, Paw?" "Yes, I suppose so," said I. "Why?" "Oh, they're all right, I guess," he said, "but before I'll wear another of those women's nightgowns I'll go to bed raw." WIFE [Smiling.} Little man. Does he ask for me mnch? HUSBAND Just this morning he said, "Pop, you tell mamma to come back quick or I'll elope with the 104 WISCONSIN PLAYS ice man." . . . Well, they're good children. I don't think any one ever had better. And that's something, isn't it? WIFE That's everything. They make me very happy. . . . You know, dear, I have been doing a good deal of thinking since I came here. I've seen things very clearly, clearer than even at home. I think I've been able to tell why I've been so happy. You find out what's really worth while in a time like this, don't you*? [HUSBAND nods. WIFE I won't say anything about you. You know. But the children. [She smiles.] Yes, I know why I've been happy. HUSBAND Why, we've both been happy. WIFE See! The sun is crossing the room just like it did this morning. It is coming nearer and nearer to you. Oh, I'm so glad it's a sunshiny morning. IN HOSPITAL 105 HUSBAND It travels pretty rapidly, doesn't it? The point of it is just touching that stand over there. You remember how far away it was before"? WIFE Yes, and it will go right on. In an hour it will reach the top of the stand and then it will begin to shine on the door on the other side. . . . In an hour, dear. HUSBAND Yes, not long. . . . About an hour. WIFE I think [She 'pauses.] When it begins to shine on the door [She breaks off.] You'll watch the sunbeam, won't you*? I may need you. [HUSBAND nods without answering, and raises his arms a little from his side with a futile gesture. WIFE Don't speak. ... It isn't necessary, is it? HUSBAND [With difficulty.] No. io6 WISCONSIN PLAYS WIFE You said everything was very silent out of doors. It seems to be silent in here, too. . . . There are times that silence is better than any thing else. . . . Doesn't it seem to you that some how Time is going on silently ... just like that beam of light"? HUSBAND [Trying to smile. ,] Yes, I suppose so. WIFE There, there. And Grumbler, listen. I've never been so happy in my life. And I haven't any pain, now. Isn't that strange? And isn't that the way it should be? Think how promising it is. [Steps are heard at the right.] And we're both ready, aren't we? [She smiles up at him bravely. There slowly breaks over his heavy face a smile no less brave and quiet than hers. HUSBAND Yes. [The door on the right opens. IN HOSPITAL 107 INTERNE [Speaking off the stage to the NURSE.] Tell your patient we are ready. [The NURSE comes out the right door. WIFE [Turning steadily.] Do you want me now? NURSE [Coming to support her.] Yes . . . all ready ... do you want my help*? WIFE Oh, no. I can walk perfectly. [Over her shoulder lightly.] By by, Grumbler. HUSBAND So long, Pet. [WIFE and NURSE walk to the door and go out. NURSE closes the door. HUSBAND stands in the middle of the room watch ing until they have disappeared. Then he walks to the door and stands near it as if look ing and listening. The room is very quiet. After a moment he backs away from the door to the centre of the room and there seats himself in the chair in which she had sat. His io8 WISCONSIN PLAYS which is cast straight to the front with drawn lustreless eyes, is blank and impassive. He is waiting. The sunbeams begin to fall on the wall near the door. But he does not see them. His hands are drawn together until his fists are taut knobs. Now and again he turns with a vacant stare and an immobile face toward the door. Nothing enlightened he turns again and rests his eyes on space waiting for news. Now and then his mouth twitches. His lips become dry and he moistens them with his tongue. The right side of his jaw sinks, pulling his mouth down until it becomes an irregular line cutting his gaunt features. Then he draws his features back into control again and the expression of vacant pain returns to his face. Thirty seconds pass, representing a long space of time in the operating room on the right. The beams of the sun fall steadily in a diagonal line toward the door. Then suddenly he first sees the beam. His eyes light with understanding, the vacant expression leaves his face. From this time on he follows the course of the sun-ray with deep attention. He leans forward, his IN HOSPITAL 109 feet drawn close under him, his hands clasping the arms of his chair. Once he rises and backs of that he may better watch the ray of light. He gives all his attention to the quiet room toward which the sunbeam is moving. A minute has passed on the stage; a minute and a half. Perhaps three or four minutes elapse on the stage before the symbolism of the long period of time in the operating room on the right can be considered complete. During this time he sits in absolute silence, a silence made more 'profound by the sense of significance which his attitude attaches to it. As time goes on he becomes quieter, whether with resignation or strength. No sound pierces the dense quiet of the room in which time moves forward on the limpid rails of light. The man's attitude is so tense that it seems as if he fears to break the steady course of the sunbeam. As time goes on he seems, if possible, to watch the door more closely. Now the beam of light becoming broader breaks over the stand by the wall and throws a spot of light over the door of the oper ating room. In another moment the whole side of the wall zs alight. The hour is complete. As the time no WISCONSIN PLAYS for which he was to wait passes, the attitude of the man changes again. He springs from his chair and spaces twice across the room with soft steps. Then he suddenly stops and leans against a chair, and as second follows second, his head sinks. {There are sounds of motion in the room on the right. The door opens and the NURSE comes hurriedly out. HUSBAND Is there anything ? NURSE Do not stop me now. [She goes out by the centre door. HUSBAND watches the door through which she has gone. NURSE returns leaving the doors open. HUSBAND [With greater strength.} I beg you NURSE [Impatiently.} Please! You must wait! [HUSBAND steps back. NURSE goes out the right door. HUSBAND watches this as be- IN HOSPITAL ill fore. Immediately this door is opened and the INTERNE'S voice is heard. INTERNE Easy now . . . easy. [To NURSE.] You go first. [Enter the NURSE drawing one end of a wheeled cot on which lies a still form un der blankets. At the other end enters the INTERNE carefully guiding the cot. INTERNE Careful, careful, of this joint. Watch out for the desk. There you go. Easy. That's all right. Hold your end. There's the door. [HUSBAND watches silently and as if from a great distance an absorbing drama in which he is permitted to play no part. INTERNE Now. There. All right. I can close the door. [They take their burden out by the centre doors and the INTERNE closes them behind him. The HUSBAND is left in a silence as vast as before but more empty. Enter, through the open door at the right, the 112 WISCONSIN PLAYS SURGEON. He is almost unrecognisable. Dressed in white from head to foot, one trouser leg is crumpled above his shoe, his coat sleeves are drawn u over his wrists, his white skull cap has slipped down over one ear, and the bandage over his mouth has been chewed into a wet rag which cov ers his lower teeth and gets in the way of his tongue. He is vigorously wiping his hands and wrists with a large towel. HUSBAND [Compressing all of his questions into the words.] My wife"? SURGEON Eh eh Oh! [Removing the rag from his mouth.] A beautiful operation! Beautiful! She will live. [HUSBAND reaches to the high table for sup port and stands limply nodding his head without speaking. GLORY OF THE MORNING A PLAY IN ONE ACT BY WILLIAM ELLIRY LEONARD THE PEOPLE OF THE STORY GLORY OF THE MORNING, The Chevalier's Winnebago squaw THE CHEVALIER, called the HALF MOON, a nobleman, now an adventurer in the French fur-trade RED WING, a boy } . _, _ . , v i heir children OAK LEAF, a girl J BLACK WOLF, a visionary old medicine-man, not with out some homely wisdom An Autumn afternoon long ago. To the left a wigwam. A disused cradle-board. A water jar. A wooden mortar and pestle. A corn shock. A little to the rear and to the right, two sticks with upright forks supporting a cross-bar, from which hangs a copper kettle. To the farthest right a canoe with paddles, drawn up among the rushes from the shore of the inland lake beyond. An oak tree, with its fallen leaves of red and brown strewn about. Two or three boulders. A buffalo skull. Far ther to the rear away from the lake-side, glimpses of the rest of the Indian village. After a moment GLORY OF THE MORNING, a comely Indian woman of thirty, emerges from the wigwam: she pulls an ear of corn from the shock, grinds it, and sifts through her fingers into the kettle; she draws water from the beach for the kettle; she arranges leaves and sticks for Copyright, 1912, by William Ellery Leonard 117 ii8 WISCONSIN PLAYS the fire; meanwhile humming some low wild notes and stopping at her work to look out over the lake. At last, seating herself on the ground ', she continues sewing beads on a buckskin shirt, with a glance now and then far away. After another moment or two, RED WING, her twelve year old boy, comes running in from behind the wigwam, with bow and quiver and a quarry of squirrels. RED WING {Throwing down the squirrels.] Count them, Mother. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Handling.] One, two, three, four, five, six. Papoose will lead the buffalo hunt. RED WING That's more squirrels than any of the other boys got. GLORY OF THE MORNING The other boys will elect Red Wing little Chief. RED WING I made Round Turtle, and Blue Snake, and Crow Tongue go with me; and Rainspot too. GLORY OF THE MORNING 119 And Rainspot hit only one, and he's three win ters taller than I am. GLORY OF THE MORNING This autumn, out gathering sassafras below: Acorn Hill, I have seen many squirrels' nests in the bare treetops. RED WING But to-day we were not on Acorn Hill. We were other side Wild Rice Cove [pointing to the left and rear] in the woods beyond the Big Eagle Mound. And one squirrel sitting on a boul der . . . GLORY OF THE MORNING Beyond the Big Eagle . . . the Thunderbird! Black Wolf will scold you. RED WING Black Wolf will give me a new bow. GLORY OF THE MORNING Black Wolf will be angry. RED WING Queer old Black Wolf! Forever standing on the Thunderbird and talking to the sunset. Wails 120 WISCONSIN PLAYS like a wolf. Halloos like a screech owl. But he's forgotten how to shoot. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Continuing with her bead work.] You laugh too often at the Black Wolf. You must not. He sees visions. He speaks to the Manitou. He is wise. He knows what was and what is to be. RED WING But Black Wolf won't find out where I got them, if Rainspot or somebody doesn't tell him. GLORY OF THE MORNING I don't know. He is wise. RED WING He can't shoot, but he can tell stories. GLORY OF THE MORNING I know you like him. RED WING I like his stories. GLORY OF THE MORNING He told your mother a new story this morn ing. GLORY OF THE MORNING 121 RED WING [Dropping to the ground.] I am listening, Mother. GLORY OF THE MORNING But perhaps I'm not going to tell it. RED WING Then I'll ask Black Wolf. GLORY OF THE MORNING It will make your eyes big. RED WING Is it about the Chippewa? GLORY OF THE MORNING No. RED WING He has found out who stole the war-club of Grandfather Big Canoe! GLORY OF THE MORNING No. RED WING It is about you. GLORY OF THE MORNING It is a story I have long waited to hear. 122 WISCONSIN PLAYS RED WING There he goes there he comes again ! GLORY OF THE MORNING [Startled and expectant.} Who? RED WING The lame rabbit that got out of my trap yes terday. GLORY OF THE MORNING You must listen. It's a very short story. RED WING Tell it then, quick. GLORY OF THE MORNING Red Wing, Black Wolf's new story says that your father comes back to-day from the French man's town by the Big River. RED WING The Half Moon comes back"? GLORY OF THE MORNING He comes back. RED WING That's not like the stories Black Wolf tells me. GLORY OF THE MORNING 123 GLORY OF THE MORNING Are you not glad"? RED WING Yes. GLORY OF THE MORNING The Half Moon will be proud of his son and the squirrels. He will put his hand on your shoul der. He will pay you six iron arrow-heads for the skins. RED WING Iron arrow-heads. Six iron arrow-heads. GLORY OF THE MORNING .Yes. RED WING Mother, I don't like the iron arrow-heads that father always brings back to the village. GLORY OF THE MORNING Many of the young braves like them. They don't break or nick. They are strong and sharp. RED WING [Standing up.] But the Winnebago didn't make them. They are not real arrow-heads. 124 WISCONSIN PLAYS They didn't grow from the rocks in the Yellow Ridge. GLORY OF THE MORNING Where did you learn those thoughts'? RED WING I am a Winnebago. GLORY OF THE MORNING You are talking like Grandfather Big Canoe. RED WING Besides they are bad medicine. They are to blame for the blackbirds eating up tL\. wild rice this summer. GLORY OF THE MORNING And now you talk like Black Wolf. RED WING Nobody shall bind father's arrow-heads into the ends of the shafts in my quiver, Mother. I will kill squirrels and deer and buffalo with these points of flint. GLORY OF THE MORNING Where did you get them*? GLORY OF THE MORNING 125 RED WING Grandfather Big Canoe taught me how to chip them with the bone flaker. GLORY OF THE MORNING Your Grandfather Big Canoe has taught you many things, hasn't he 1 ? RED WING More than the Half Moon. GLORY OF THE MORNING Your father is busier than Grandfather Big Canoe, and must go to the white man's land. RED WING [Dropping down again.} Mother, Black Wolf says Father is a squaw-man. What is ... GLORY OF THE MORNING See, Red Wing, the Half Moon's new buck skin shirt is almost done. He will put it on this very day and you will clap your hands. RED WING What is a squaw-man? 126 WISCONSIN PLAYS GLORY OF THE MORNING [Putting her hand on his head.] Papoose, won't you be glad to see your father again after these long, long months at the Big River"? RED WING Where is the Big River? GLORY OF THE MORNING [Walking and pointing out into the lake.] Far away beyond the Four Lakes, beyond the Nip- pising and the rapids of the Ottawa, far away beyond the Hunting-grounds and the forests of the Huron, nearly to the Big Sea Water and the Morning Star. It is very far away. RED WING I wish Father would stay home and fight the Chippewa. GLORY OF THE MORNING The Half Moon has to visit his friends and sell his skins. [Cheerily.] But to-day he ... RED WING [Heedlessly.] What is a squaw-man? [Enter from the side toward the lake OAK LEAF, the thirteen year old daughter, fol- GLORY OF THE MORNING 127 lowed by BLACK WOLF, who carries a calumet on which he has been binding the sacred eagle-feathers, dyed in yellow and 'scarlet. OAK LEAF Mother, Mother, Mother! GLORY OF THE MORNING [Busy at the half -built fire. ] Well, Oak Leaf? OAK LEAF I know something ! GLORY OF THE MORNING Yes. OAK LEAF Black Wolf had a dream last night. GLORY OF THE MORNING Yes. OAK LEAF Father is coming home before the stars. QLORY OF THE MORNING Silly child, I know. OAK LEAF O do you know too ! 128 WISCONSIN PLAYS GLORY OF THE MORNING Don't you suppose I've had Black Wolf for a friend ever so much longer than you have"? He whispers me many of his secrets. He told me two hours ago that the Half Moon was coming home. OAK LEAF And will he bring me presents? GLORY OF THE MORNING Yes. OAK LEAF O the red cloth he promised me ! GLORY OF THE MORNING Yes. OAK LEAF And the blue beads and the little shining ban gles ! GLORY OF THE MORNING ; Yes. OAK LEAF On a golden cord, Mother ! GLORY OF THE MORNING You want to see him almost as much as your mother does. GLORY OF THE MORNING 129 OAK LEAF O more, Mother Glory of the Morning! And I know he wants to see Oak Leaf. GLORY OF THE MORNING More too than he wants to see Glory of the Morning? OAK LEAF How should I know ! GLORY OF THE MORNING Oak Leaf, when the father loves the daughter, the mother is made glad. OAK LEAF But Mother, won't the maidens be jealous at the next Dance-of-the-Virgins and sorry for their buckskin skirts and their snail shell necklaces ! O how fine I'll be ! RED WING The maidens won't like you. OAK LEAF [Running up and pushing him over where he sits.} But won't the braves come staring round the lodge, Red Wing! [She turns -with dancing steps.} Look at me, Black Wolf. Am I not the 130 WISCONSIN PLAYS pretty one, Half Moon's lovely daughter! [Pre tending.} No, not too near, old medicine-man! GLORY OF THE MORNING But Oak Leaf, have you anything for him*? Red Wing's just brought home six squirrels. OAK LEAF [Jumping down on her knees. } O the plump little puppies! I will dress them for the feast of his coming home. [Teasing.} Black Wolf will help. BLACK WOLF [ With dignity.} Oak Leaf, Black Wolf is not a squaw. OAK LEAF [Mocking} Black Wolf, Oak Leaf is not a medicine-man. BLACK WOLF Black Wolf will never do a squaw's work. You like too well to play the white woman when you are happy. OAK LEAF Old Moose! Anyway come and sit down by me. [BLACK WOLF seats himself on a boulder GLORY OF THE MORNING 131 near OAK LEAF and is busy 'with arrang ing the feathers on the bowl of his calu met. RED WING sprawls at full length on his back with his hands behind his head. GLORY OF THE MORNING sits again at her bead work with the shirt in her lap. BLACK WOLF Oak Leaf, the young braves will not come to sing before the wigwam if you treat them as you treat Black Wolf. RED WING Sister Oak Leaf, you are going to marry Rain- spot. OAK LEAF Yes. RED WING When? OAK LEAF When the pines turn yellow and the sumach- berries white and the wild rice grows in the moon. [Disdainfully.'] Rainspot! [GLORY OF THE MORNING walks toward the water. 132 WISCONSIN PLAYS RED WING Rainspot hurled the ice-arrow on the lake far ther than I could last year. But I'll beat him this winter. OAK LEAF [Rolling with a quick wild grace. \ Rainspot! I'll tell you who I'll marry. RED WING Who? OAK LEAF I will marry Pierre, the trader. RED WING He doesn't want you. OAK LEAF [Throwing a twig at RED WING.] Yes he does. Whenever he comes over to the village from the Panther Woods after rice and corn and maple sugar, he gives me ribbons and says funny things to me in the white man's tongue. Father told me what they meant once. RED WING The dogs don't like Pierre. They snap at his heels as soon as he beaches his canoe. I don't like him either. GLORY OF THE MORNING 133 OAK LEAF But he's a Frenchman, a fur-trader, like Father. RED WING [Turning over, with palm on chin.} Black Wolf, what is a squaw-man*? Why did Mother . . . GLORY OF THE MORNING [Returning.} Black Wolf, I fear your visions sometimes fail. We do not see the Half Moon's canoe. I am not so sure that the Half Moon is coming back to-day. OAK LEAF But he is! He is! I had a dream too O, what did I dream? I dreamed I saw him in the white man's coat with the gleaming buttons, and a long, long knife in a narrow quiver swinging from a belt on his left side; like the Frenchman who lived in our lodge, at the time of the last Bird Dance. RED WING And used to grin when Mother Glory of the Morning scolded him for kissing you. 134 WISCONSIN PLAYS BLACK WOLF Did you dream that? OAK LEAF Yes. BLACK WOLF Oak Leaf, I don't like your dreams. OAK LEAF Why? Won't Father come back? BLACK WOLF The Half Moon comes back before the rising stars. Black Wolf knows. OAK LEAF I only dream after you, Black Wolf just for fun. RED WING [Again sprawling on his back.] I know what a squaw-man is. Grandfather Big Canoe told me. It was last year at the falling of the leaves when the braves were out on the warpath of the Chip- pewa. Rainspot and Crow Tongue began calling me squaw-man's papoose, because Half Moon had been way off in the white man's town again GLORY OF THE MORNING 135 through all the months-of-the-green-growing-corn, and hadn't come back yet. OAK LEAF What did Grandfather Big Canoe say? RED WING Grandfather Big Canoe said: "A squaw-man is a Pale Face playing Indian for the bear and beaver and buffalo skins he can get from the real Indians to send back over the Big Sea Water." GLORY OF THE MORNING Your grandfather was cruel. He knows why I married the Half Moon. OAK LEAF O Mother, he married you because you were the glory of the morning, and as beautiful as Oak Leaf. BLACK WOLF [Standing.] He married you because we had lost so many of the young men in the wars with the Chippewa and thought we needed to be friends with the white men. Chief Big Canoe exchanged the Wampum bead-belts. Red Wing, do you know what the three long purple lines across the wampum mean 4 ? 136 WISCONSIN PLAYS RED WING [Sitting up.] They mean that the roads are open between the two tribes. BLACK WOLF Yes, that the roads are open. Chief Big Canoe gave the Half Moon his daughter that the roads might be open between the Indian and the white man. But when I speak to him about it to-day, he bows his head. GLORY OF THE MORNING And comes no more to visit the wigwam of his daughter. BLACK WOLF But the Half Moon rejoiced in the open roads. And a wigwam among the Winnebago has filled his pack with the wealth of the Indian Hunting- grounds. GLORY OF THE MORNING Black Wolf, you are all cruel ; you do not un derstand. The men sold me to the Half Moon. The Half Moon bought me. Then I worked for the Half Moon; I laid the dead fish in the corn hills and planted the seed, and brought the ears home for him to eat; from the spring I drew the GLORY OF THE MORNING 137 water for him to drink; I shook from the bended reeds the grains of the wild rice into my canoe for him; for him I pounded the buffalo meat and dried it and pressed it and laid it away in a skin against the coming of the snow; at the lodge I built the fire to warm him through the winter and sewed him his shirts and his moccasins. I gave him children. He needed me. But now the Half Moon is more needful to Glory of the Morning than Glory of the Morning is to the Half Moon, BLACK WOLF All the village knows you have been a good squaw. GLORY OF THE MORNING Besides Black Wolf is a medicine-man. He re members old stories of the animal earthworks of our forefathers, and he sees visions. But he can not understand a squaw's heart. And Red Wing is still a child. Do you understand a squaw's heart, Oak Leaf ? OAK LEAF Haven't I one, just like you*? 138 WISCONSIN PLAYS GLORY OF THE MORNING [Lifting the girl's white hand.] I wonder . . . perhaps. RED WING But Mother, I'm not a child. BLACK WOLF Black Wolf knew that a squaw's heart would beat to hear that the Half Moon comes back to day. GLORY OF THE MORNING That was good. [Walking and looking out over the lake.] Where is he 1 ? He has always come crossing the long arm of the lake around Bear Island [pointing] from Pierre's block-house in the Panther Woods. How many times I have sat here and seen him paddling home at last. The sun is nearly set. BLACK WOLF You are a woman. You care most for your own wigwam. I do understand. But you do not understand Black Wolf. You think you believe his stories and visions; but you do not unless they are about the Half Moon or your own wig wam. That is the way with the squaws. GLORY OF THE MORNING 139 GLORY OF THE MORNING Who made me a squaw? The Great Spirit made me a squaw. BLACK WOLF Ah, what does it matter to you? You have forgotten. You have forgotten the days of our strength, when a thousand braves built the Great Mound of the Eagle, the Thunderbird, at the . . . RED WING O tell us about the thousand braves ! OAK LEAF [Mockingly playful.} Do, wise old Black Wolf and why you are always standing out there alone in the dusk. BLACK WOLF [ With the large mien of his full barbaric height. RED WING now sits facing him, more and more intent, with back to you and me.} The Great Thunderbird at the ancient festival in the days when the clan still knew the swift Eagle as its father. You have forgotten that. His spirit dwelt there for twenty generations of warriors. Now that spirit is fled. The place is a heap of dead earth. The woods hide it. The autumn 140 WISCONSIN PLAYS leaves fall upon it. Every spring the melting snow washes it bit by bit away. And the wood- chucks make their holes in it. Again and again I go to call the Eagle Spirit back to its old dwell ing place. But the Great Eagle Mound is dead. The children of the Winnebago go thither to hunt the squirrel. RED WING Six fat ones, Black Wolf. How . . . how did you know? BLACK WOLF [Continuing to GLORY OF THE MORNING.] The eyes of the squaws cannot look back into the shadows. You all turn towards the east. To ward the road of the white men. You like their trinkets their red cloth, their lead spoons, their tinkling bangles. [Pointing with the calumet.] You boil Indian meat in the copper kettles of the white men. [Pointing with the calumet to the shirt on the ground.] You sew the white man's beads on the Indian's shirt. OAK LEAF [Interrupting.] But the shirt that Mother makes for Father is a white man's shirt. GLORY OF THE MORNING 141 BLACK WOLF [Continuing. ,] You destroy the hearts of the braves. They do nothing but trap the beaver and give the skins away for the white man's iron tomahawks. They forget the cunning of their fathers. They cannot peck the stone with the flint and polish to an edge with the sandstone in water, and bind with the buck-thongs to the ashen handle, like the old men. RED WING Grandfather Big Canoe is going to teach me. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Near the kettle, turning.} Won't the white man's tomahawk cleave the skull of the Chip- pewa? BLACK WOLF Never, never in the hand of the Winnebago. The Great Spirit says every people must hold the war-weapon of its own handicraft. When it loses its cunning to make, it must lose its power to fight. RED WING But the iron tomahawk is not the white man's war-weapon. 142 WISCONSIN PLAYS BLACK WOLF No; he makes it to steal with. We have seen the white man's weapon and the Half Moon's magic smoke-tube has spoken even here to the wild geese far up in the cold blue sky ere the ice was gone from the lake. But should it speak at Black Wolf, Black Wolf would fall forward on his face, and the life would depart out of his eyes forever. GLORY OF THE MORNING You must not say that . . . the Half Moon calls Black Wolf brother. BLACK WOLF And the young braves drink at the feasts no more the maple sap and the juice of the wild grape since they have tasted the Frenchman's fire-water. OAK LEAF I have tasted the fire-water, Black Wolf. It is good for the heart. BLACK WOLF They lay on the spirit-stones of the Manitou not now the old offerings of goldenrod and sun flower, but the red ribbons of the white men in the wind. GLORY OF THE MORNING 143 OAK LEAF I should think the Great Spirit would love the bright ribbons more than the flowers that fester and wither away. BLACK WOLF They will sometime lay there the white man's tobacco. But in the council the old men will never smoke the white man's tobacco in Black Wolf's calumet. [Holding up the ceremonial RED WING When I am an old man, I will never smoke the white man's tobacco in Black Wolf's calumet. BLACK WOLF I believe you, boy. And the white man's med icine-man has made, like the hunter and trader, his paths through the forests and streams. I met him long ago at Montreal, the town by the Big River. He wore wide black robes and a little black hat. He stopped. He held his silver med icine charm up to my eyes and mumbled his magic words and tried to bewitch Black Wolf away from the Great Spirit. The Charm was shaped like this. [Makes in the air with his calumet the sign of the cross. 144 WISCONSIN PLAYS RED WING Show us again. BLACK WOLF Like this. [Puts left hand horizontally across stem of calumet held vertically in right hand.] It is called a cross. RED WING A cross ! The white man's medicine-man stole the Indian's sign of the Earth-Maker ! BLACK WOLF It was shaped like the Indian sign of the Earth- Maker; but the sign of the Earth-Maker it was not indeed. It was the white man's totem. I saw it on the top of their Big Medicine Lodge where the bell rings at the sunrise. That is the totem that makes the white men strong. RED WING How does it make them strong? BLACK WOLF The white men put their bearded lips upon it, and the white women wear it on the bosoms that nurse the white men's children. GLORY OF THE MORNING 145 RED WING What does that do? BLACK WOLF Black Wolf is wise in the history of his people; the lore of the white men he will not learn. But ten summers after, it was that medicine-man who came to the village and took Half Moon and Glory of the Morning, with the two little pa pooses, out before the lodge and married them over again in the white man's way and he had again the white man's totem in his hand. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Sitting again to her sewing. ~\ Black Wolf, the Pere La Rou was kind. He played with my babies down there on the sand. BLACK WOLF Glory of the Morning, three years before that, the village danced the Dance-of-the-Calumet at your wedding. Myself I stood in the midst and pointed with the calumet to the four skies. GLORY OF THE MORNING And I was so happy. I was indeed the glory of the morning then. 146 WISCONSIN PLAYS OAK LEAF if I had only been there, Mother ! BLACK WOLF Good will not come forever to the Indian who is married in the white man's way. GLORY OF THE MORNING Black Wolf, you must not longer remind me of that. My husband wished it. RED WING Tell me why he wished it. GLORY OF THE MORNING 1 am not ashamed. Black Wolf, it was be cause he loved his children. It brought him no gain, no more skins than before. They say the other traders run away from their Indian chil dren, because Frenchmen think in their hearts that marriage in the Indian way does not bind the white man, when the white man grows weary. He asked me to come before the Pere La Rou. A squaw must obey her husband. That is the Indian way too. BLACK WOLF Good will not come forever to the Indian who is married in the white man's way. GLORY OF THE MORNING 147 GLORY OF THE MORNING Black Wolf, how strange you are. You have seen not gladly the Indian's skins in the Half Moon's pack when he goes forth, nor the white man's presents in the Half Moon's pack when he returns. But to the Half Moon himself often and often you have given your right hand. You are good; you told me he was coming back to day. BLACK WOLF He is coming back yet even when he shall be gone forever, the young braves will still let the white man give new names to the hills and the springs and the rivers and the trees. [Pause.] Many years has Black Wolf seen the autumn haze stealing nearer and nearer over the old Hunting- grounds of our people; many years has Black Wolf listened to stories, as he counted the fall ing of the leaves. But the young braves and the squaws laugh at my dreams. Last night, when the camp-fires were low before the hundred lodges, and deep sleep was on the dogs, and there was no sound but the dropping of the acorns and the splash of the waves on the beach, Black Wolf saw the Half Moon coming back. He has told you. True, but then the dream changed. [More 148 WISCONSIN PLAYS solemnly. ,] It seemed to be at the time of the Evening Star. Over the village hung a huge yel low cloud. Shaped like the Great Eagle Mound of our people. And a mighty wind blew in heaven. And the cloud was driven to the west. And the wings [Enter THE CHEVALIER from the trail, dressed like a trapper "with pack and gun, but wearing a military jacket and cap. GLORY OF THE MORNING sees him first, and jumping up "with a cry buries her head on his shoulder. GLORY OF THE MORNING Half Moon! [He gently releases himself and takes her by the right hand. She still has the buck skin shirt in her left. THE CHEVALIER It seems good to see you again, Glory of the Morning. [The children have jumped up. As he turns to embrace them, she stands puzzled, sus picious, and hurt, and withdraws a little toward RED WING. GLORY OF THE MORNING 149 OAK LEAF O Father, Black Wolf said you would come to-day. THE CHEVALIER {Loosening gun and packs from his shoulders.] I have come back to Oak Leaf to-day. OAK LEAF I'm so glad. [She takes care of her father's gun and packs. THE CHEVALIER [Shaking hands with BLACK WOLF.] Greet ings, Black Wolf. I know you've been taking good care of Oak Leaf. [Turning to RED WING.] You scamp, come here. GLORY OF THE MORNING We've been watching for your canoe over the water all the long afternoon. THE CHEVALIER 1 took the North Elk Trail from Bisonnette's trading-post. Bisonnette sends greetings to you, Black Wolf. He wants to be friends with the Black Wolf. [Putting forth an arm to snatch RED WING.] Come here, I say. Have you kept 150 WISCONSIN PLAYS the Half Moon's wigwam stocked with fish and game for Oak Leaf? [RED WING avoids his father's arm. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Pointing to the squirrels.} Red Wing has done his morning's work. THE CHEVALIER You are a mighty hunter. The white men will want to send you to shoot the buffalo for them along the banks of the Wisconsin. GLORY OF THE MORNING Why do you come thus, Half Moon? like . . . like a Frenchman. THE CHEVALIER O this gay shirt! Why, I've been putting on the white man's war paint and feathers. {Turn ing to RED WING.] And how many squirrels did you get? RED WING [Shortly.] Six, Half Moon. THE CHEVALIER Half Moon! you rascal, you have forgotten altogether to be my son. GLORY OF THE MORNING 151 GLORY OF THE MORNING The white man's war paint but the roads are open. There is the white man's peace in the coun try of the Four Lakes. THE CHEVALIER The Four Lakes is not the world. GLORY OF THE MORNING It is our world. THE CHEVALIER Yes, and I will not jest. I thought you would like it. I put it on partly to celebrate my com ing home. BLACK WOLF The Half Moon wishes to astonish the Indian eyes with the glory of the white man. THE CHEVALIER That's it too, Black Wolf. BLACK WOLF [Striding off 'with folded arms toward the wa ters in the background.] Black Wolf is not as tonished. 152 WISCONSIN PLAYS OAK LEAF Mother's afraid of Father in his new dress. I think it's gorgeous as the rising sun. [Counting the buttons.] One, two, three, four, five . . . my ! give me that one ! GLORY OF THE MORNING You say you took the North Elk Trail . . . you never did before. THE CHEVALIER No, never before. GLORY OF THE MORNING Next time I will take the children and watch from Acorn Hill. THE CHEVALIER But indeed I never will come by the North Elk Trail again. GLORY OF THE MORNING 1 am glad; you know how often I've waited for you over the lake. That is why you let me set up the wigwam off here from the long-houses of the village. THE CHEVALIER But I had business to close with Bisonnette. GLORY OF THE MORNING 153 GLORY OF THE MORNING Half Moon, I too wanted to celebrate your home-coming. Put on the new buckskin shirt. [She holds it up. THE CHEVALIER [Sitting down on a stone. .] Deft fingers made that embroidery. GLORY OF THE MORNING The fingers of Glory of the Morning. THE CHEVALIER But I can't wear it to-night. BLACK WOLF [Seated by the waters, scarcely turning his head.} The Half Moon will celebrate his re turn to the Indian country by wearing the white man's coat ... for the roads are open. GLORY OF THE MORNING The one night of all nights it would please me to see it on you, Half Moon. THE CHEVALIER I'd like to please you, Glory of the Morning . . . indeed I would. 154 WISCONSIN PLAYS OAK LEAF Anyway, I like you better in the white man's shirt; Red Wing does too. RED WING [To OAK LEAF and BLACK WOLF.] Yes. The buckskin of the Winnebago is for the shoul ders of the Winnebago. [He squats and begins chipping two stones on each other with right and left fist. GLORY OF THE MORNING [On a knee.] Half Moon, put on the buck skin shirt to-night. THE CHEVALIER I cannot. The Frenchman who travels in the war-dress given him by his King dare not put it off till his work is done. GLORY OF THE MORNING You are making a white man's jest. THE CHEVALIER No. [Rising.} I must paddle over to Pierre's block-house, Pierre's little jack-knife trading-post, in the Panther Woods to-night. GLORY OF THE MORNING 155 GLORY OF THE MORNING You have messages for Pierre from the white man's town? THE CHEVALIER And business to close and a bundle of ribbons and jewels for him. OAK LEAF And some for me too. You promised. THE CHEVALIER Some for Oak Leaf too. OAK LEAF [Reaching for his things.} O let me see them now. THE CHEVALIER They are in with Pierre's packages. To-mor row will be time enough. GLORY OF THE MORNING We will watch in the morning as you paddle back, and pretend that you hadn't come to-day. THE CHEVALIER You need not watch in the morning. 156 WISCONSIN PLAYS GLORY OF THE MORNING We will watch, as to-day, in the afternoon. THE CHEVALIER You need not watch in the afternoon. GLORY OF THE MORNING Our eyes will follow the canoe as it comes glid ing back on the shining path of the rising moon. THE CHEVALIER It will not come back with the rising moon. GLORY OF THE MORNING Not even with the rising moon? BLACK WOLF [Significantly from his seat in the background by the waters.] His canoe will not come back with the rising moon. THE CHEVALIER {With determination, taking her hand not un kindly.] Glory of the Morning, I fear I shan't paddle back to-morrow. OAK LEAF But my ribbons and jewels, Father"? GLORY OF THE MORNING 157 THE CHEVALIER You shall have them. GLORY OF THE MORNING Glory of the Morning has learned how to wait. I will watch the day after. THE CHEVALIER [Still holding her hand.} No nor the day after. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Withdrawing her hand.} Then . . . then I must wait in the snowdrifts and the north wind while you are gone again to the town by the Big River . . . gone all the wild winter. THE CHEVALIER [With a touch of feeling.} All winter, Glory of the Morning, and all summer. GLORY OF THE MORNING All winter and all summer until the autumn leaves fall again. THE CHEVALIER I think I shall not be back when the autumn leaves fall. 158 WISCONSIN PLAYS GLORY OF THE MORNING Is ... is that good-bye, Half Moon? THE CHEVALIER I must take the white man's road again, Glory of the Morning. BLACK WOLF Take the white man's road the road is open. GLORY OF THE MORNING When the Half Moon is weary of the prettier squaw among the white women in the town by the Big River, he will come back to Glory of the Morning. THE CHEVALIER You need not be jealous, Glory of the Morn ing. That is not it. GLORY OF THE MORNING I am not jealous. I love Half Moon. THE CHEVALIER My life with the tribe of the Four Lakes ir done. GLORY OF THE MORNING Done? GLORY OF THE MORNING 159 THE CHEVALIER The barter is over. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Quietly.} The old wigwam was only a place for barter. THE CHEVALIER And my business in the town by the Big River is done too: I shall not trade any more skins. RED WING Nor iron tomahawks ! GLORY OF THE MORNING Neither in the country of the Four Lakes nor in the town by the Big River. THE CHEVALIER I am going back over the Big Sea Water. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Half to herself.] Over the Big Sea Water is beyond the Morning Star. THE CHEVALIER I have liked this wild life. 160 WISCONSIN PLAYS GLORY OF THE MORNING You have returned singing to the country of the Four Lakes many autumns. THE CHEVALIER But one cannot sing forever. New duties have suddenly come to the Chevalier. GLORY OF THE MORNING New duties'? THE CHEVALIER My father has died. The great house where I was born and grew up now belongs to me. And there is fighting in my country, and I have to lay aside the buckskin shirt for this white man's war- coat. The Great King calls me home. GLORY OF THE MORNING Home . . . home beyond the Morning Star. BLACK WOLF [Rising, but remaining in the background by the waters.] Where the Great Spirit gave lakes and hills to the white race even as he gave these lakes and hills to the Winnebago. GLORY OF THE MORNING 161 THE CHEVALIER [To GLORY OF THE MORNING.] I've grown fond of these lakes and hills . . . fond of the old wigwam and you. GLORY OF THE MORNING You have lived here many winters. THE CHEVALIER Many pleasant winters ; but you need not work for me any longer, Glory of the Morning. GLORY OF THE MORNING To have the Half Moon to work for has been like the sun and the air. THE CHEVALIER I fear it was, after all, only a piece of me that belonged here. GLORY OF THE MORNING It was enough for Glory of the Morning. THE CHEVALIER There is no help for it. There is more to a man's life than a woman you must try to under stand. 162 WISCONSIN PLAYS GLORY OF THE MORNING A squaw cannot understand. That's what they both say the man of the Pale Faces and the man of the Winnebago. OAK LEAF Father, you must take Red Wing and me with you beyond the Big Sea Water. Take Mother too. THE CHEVALIER [To OAK LEAF.] No, Oak Leaf, your mother would not be very happy, I think, over there in the big stone lodge, the Chevalier's chateau, with its high towers and its wide rooms and its long halls. GLORY OF THE MORNING 1 would sweep it. THE CHEVALIER [To GLORY OF THE MORNING.] But it's longer than the long-houses of the Winnebago; taller than the Half Moon's wigwam; wider than Pierre's block-house over yonder too big for Glory of the Morning to sweep. GLORY OF THE MORNING 163 GLORY OF THE MORNING I would boil the buffalo meat, and scour the wooden bowls and the lead spoons. THE CHEVALIER Thirty braves will often eat in the hall with the Chevalier. And yet not one will ever taste the buffalo meat, nor ever hold the wooden bowl between his knees nor the lead spoon in his hand. GLORY OF THE MORNING I would pull the weeds from round the door. THE CHEVALIER But you could not trim the shrubs in the parks and scatter the gravel on the garden paths and clean the marble basin of the fountain and burnish the brazen lamp before the gate. GLORY OF THE MORNING You have often told me of the fountain and the brazen lamp. But some one must plant the corn and gather the wild rice. THE CHEVALIER The braves in the country of the Great King do not let their wives plant the corn and the wild 164 WISCONSIN PLAYS rice does not grow in the country of the Great King. GLORY OF THE MORNING I would sew the shirt. [Half pleadingly she holds up the buckskin shirt. THE CHEVALIER But I could not wear it either before the braves, or the grand ladies, or the Great King. GLORY OF THE MORNING There would be nothing for me to do. THE CHEVALIER Nothing. And you would not be happy with the grand ladies. GLORY OF THE MORNING No. THE CHEVALIER Because they would smile at your pretty brown arms and brown neck. GLORY OF THE MORNING And the Chevalier would not be pleased. THE CHEVALIER Indeed, I would not. GLORY OF THE MORNING 165 GLORY OF THE MORNING The woman of the Winnebago will never be mocked by the squaws in the country of the Great King. THE CHEVALIER , You are proud and strong. I knew you wouldn't cry like the other squaws. GLORY OF THE MORNING No. The daughter of Big Canoe will not cry. THE CHEVALIER Yet I've been dreading this hour. It hurts me too, Glory of the Morning. GLORY OF THE MORNING But you have obeyed the Great King. THE CHEVALIER I have obeyed the Great King. BLACK WOLF Black Wolf has known that the Half Moon would some day hear voices calling from beyond the Big Sea Water. RED WING [Risiftff.] Bid him take Pierre, the trapper* Let them gather up the iron tomahawks from the 166 WISCONSIN PLAYS village and give them back to the Great King. [He turns his back on THE CHEVALIER. BLACK WOLF There would come another Pierre, and yet an other. The Half Moon goes, but the winds will blow evermore out of the east. OAK LEAF Father, Father Half Moon, the Great King shall not take you away from Oak Leaf. GLORY OF THE MORNING [To the children.} The Great King knows not nor cares that I gave him Oak Leaf and Red Wing. THE CHEVALIER He shall know. GLORY OF THE MORNING It would matter nothing to him. THE CHEVALIER I will tell him that you were their mother. GLORY OF THE MORNING He would not bid you return to your children. GLORY OF THE MORNING 167 THE CHEVALIER No. But he will be good to the children. OAK LEAF He will send us presents from over the Big Sea Water a scarlet dress for Oak Leaf, a long shining knife with jewels for Red Wing. THE CHEVALIER yes. He will give you presents. GLORY OF THE MORNING The children will not need his presents, Half Moon. THE CHEVALIER Let the children decide that, Glory of the Morn ing. RED WING Let the Great King keep his long shining knife. BLACK WOLF The Great King will send no presents. THE CHEVALIER Surely, for the sake of Half Moon, his friend, and the father of the Half Moon's children. 168 WISCONSIN PLAYS i BLACK WOLF [Advancing a step.] The white man gives no presents to the Indians, except for the sake of gain, and the Great King wants not the friendship of the young children of the Winnebago. THE CHEVALIER You do not know the goodness of the Great King. BLACK WOLF [Striding gravely toward him.\ Half Moon, you go then, go like a man. Talk straight into the Indian's eyes. Say good-bye to the Indian squaw and the Indian children. Say good-bye to Black Wolf. Then turn your back on the Four Lakes and go like a man. THE CHEVALIER Brother Black Wolf, go like a man? BLACK WOLF Yes, and tell no white man's lies to ease the Indian heart. THE CHEVALIER I speak the truth. The Great King will give presents to the children of Glory of the Morning. GLORY OF THE MORNING 169 GLORY OF THE MORNING You think that you cannot forget Glory of the Morning when beyond the Big Sea Water. THE CHEVALIER The children will keep me from forgetting. GLORY OF THE MORNING [With a voice that is no echo of his.] The children will keep me from forgetting. THE CHEVALIER I shall be glad to think so. GLORY OF THE MORNING But not even presents from the Great King will keep them from forgetting the Half Moon. THE CHEVALIER They will not forget him. GLORY OF THE MORNING Perhaps not ... if their mother can open her lips to speak to them of him. THE CHEVALIER Glory of the Morning, I will take care of the children. 170 WISCONSIN PLAYS GLORY OF THE MORNING Take care of the children? THE CHEVALIER I will take care of the children. They are both young. They can learn. GLORY OF THE MORNING They can learn? THE CHEVALIER Oak Leaf is already more than half a white girl ; and Red Wing is half white in blood, if not in manners-^-Yz ira. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Beginning to realise.] No, no. They arc mine! THE CHEVALIER [Reaching out his arms to take them.] No. GLORY OF THE MORNING They are mine, they are mine! THE CHEVALIER The Great King will give them presents. GLORY OF THE MORNING No, no! GLORY OF THE MORNING 171 THE CHEVALIER He will lay his hands on their heads. GLORY OF THE MORNING He shall not, he shall not ! THE CHEVALIER I have said that I will tell him you were theil mother. GLORY OF THE MORNING I am their mother I am their mother. THE CHEVALIER And he will praise Glory of the Morning. GLORY OF THE MORNING They are mine, they are mine ! THE CHEVALIER I have come to take them back with me over the Big Sea Water. GLORY OF THE MORNING [The buckskin shirt falls from her hands as she spreads her arms and steps between him and her children.} No, no, no! They are not yours! They are mine! The long pains were mine! Their food at the breast was mine! Year after 172 WISCONSIN PLAYS year while you were away so long, long, long, I clothed them, I watched them, I taught them to speak the tongue of my people. All that they are is mine, mine, mine ! THE CHEVALIER [Drawing OAK LEAF to him and holding up her bare arm.] Is that an Indian skin 1 ? Where did that colour come from 1 ? I'm giving you the white man's law. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Struggling with the CHEVALIER.] I do not know the white man's law. And I do not know how their skin borrowed the white man's colour. But I know that their little bodies came out of my own body my own body. They must be mine, they shall be mine, they are mine ! [The CHEVALIER throws her aside so that she falls. THE CHEVALIER Glory of the Morning, the Great Spirit said long before you were born that a man has a right to his own children. The Great Spirit made woman so that she should bring him children. Black Wolf, is it not so^ GLORY OF THE MORNING 173 BLACK WOLF It is so. THE CHEVALIER [To GLORY OF THE MORNING, standing aparf.] Black Wolf is the wise man of your people. BLACK WOLF And knows the Great Spirit better than the white men. THE CHEVALIER Indeed, I think so. BLACK WOLF And the Great Spirit made the man so that he should stay with the squaw who brought him the children, except when off hunting meat for the wigwam or on the warpath for the tribe. GLORY OF THE MORNING \With some spirit and dignity. ,] The white man Half Moon has said that he believes Black Wolf. THE CHEVALIER The white man has not come to argue with the Red Skin, but to take the white man's children. 174 WISCONSIN PLAYS BLACK WOLF [In his role of practical wisdom.] The Half Moon will listen to Black Wolf. THE CHEVALIER [With conciliation.] If the Black Wolf speaks wisely. BLACK WOLF Half Moon, Red Wing and Oak Leaf have grown up with the birch tree and the wild rose. They have played the moccasin game before the wigwam with the children of the village. They have caught the frogs and the turtles on the rocks in the cove. They have paddled the canoe in the sun through the rice stalks and the flag leaves. And under the full moon they have heard the singing of the whippoorwill. They have kissed Glory of the Morning, and listened to Black Wolf's stories. THE CHEVALIER I can tell them stories. BLACK WOLF Their roots are deep in the black earth of their Winnebago home. They have grown tall under the rainbow, under the warm and glittering show- GLORY OF THE MORNING 175 ers of the Winnebago skies. And the snows of the Four Lakes have made them hardy, and the winds have made them free. THE CHEVALIER The day draws toward evening, Black Wolf. BLACK WOLF Neither Oak Leaf nor Red Wing is a mere papoose to be snatched from the mother's back. THE CHEVALIER The Half Moon shares Black Wolf's pride in the Half Moon's children. BLACK WOLF {Pointing to the discarded cradle-board.] The mother long since loosened the thongs that bound them to the cradle-board, propped against the wigwam. THE CHEVALIER And when she unbound the thongs of the cradle-board, they learned to run toward their father. BLACK WOLF But invisible thongs may now bind them round, which even the Half Moon might not break, with- 376 WISCONSIN PLAYS out rending the flesh from their bones and pre paring sorrows and cares for his head. THE CHEVALIER Let us have done, Black Wolf. BLACK WOLF Thongs which none could break, unless Oak Leaf and Red Wing themselves should first un bind them. [To the children.] Will Oak Leaf, will Red Wing unbind the mystic thongs of clan and home? Let the children decide. THE CHEVALIER Black Wolf is wise. My children are babes no longer. They can think and speak. BLACK WOLF Let them speak. THE CHEVALIER They know who has brought them good gifts from White Man's Land and romped with them on the buffalo robe many a winter morning. They know who can make them happy. GLORY OF THE MORNING Yes, I could not romp with them all the morn ing for the Half Moon had to be fed. I could GLORY OF THE MORNING 177 not make them many gifts for the Half Moon had to be clothed. THE CHEVALIER Glory of the Morning, I've been good to you I never beat you, as Big Canoe used to beat your mother I never played with the other squaws in the village, like Little Turtle or Spec kled Snake. And I want to part fairly. Black Wolf is right. Let the children decide. GLORY OF THE MORNING Yes. {With a voice that is no echo of his.] Let the children decide. BLACK WOLF Oak Leaf, do you want to leave Black Wolf and Glory of the Morning to go with Half Moon over the Big Sea Water*? OAK LEAF [Looking up at her mother.'} O do I, Mother? GLORY OF THE MORNING I cannot tell. I love you, Oak Leaf. OAK LEAF [Withdrawing toward her father. ,] Mother, make Father Half Moon take you with us too. 178 WISCONSIN PLAYS GLORY OF THE MORNING The Half Moon has told you that he no longer needs Glory of the Morning. THE CHEVALIER [Taking OAK LEAF'S hand caressingly.] Oak Leaf, you are too beautiful to wither and wrinkle here digging and grinding and stitching, though the handsomest brave of the Winnebago bought you for his squaw. Beyond the Big Sea Water you won't have to dig and grind and stitch. And sometime a noble brave of my nation will come in a blue suit with gold braid to the chateau and say: "I love Oak Leaf; will you give Oak Leaf tome?' OAK LEAF [Gladly.] And you'll give me to him, Father! THE CHEVALIER If he promises you all that I bid him. OAK LEAF You will bid him to do many good things for Oak Leaf. THE CHEVALIER Yes. To give you fine dresses, and necklaces, with festivals and dances, and to be always wise and gentle. GLORY OF THE MORNING 179 GLORY OF THE MORNING My daughter, Black Wolf has told us that good will not come forever to the Indian who is mar ried in the white man's way. THE CHEVALIER [Petting her hand.] This hand, which your father will sometime put into the hand of a brave in the country of the Great King, is not the hand of an Indian. And it is too soft and pretty for the rude lands of the wild rice. [Drawing her.] Come, child. [OAK LEAF leans against her father, with a half frightened glance at GLORY OF THE MORNING. THE CHEVALIER You see, Glory of the Morning. GLORY OF THE MORNING [With restraint.} I will say good-bye to Oak Leaf. BLACK WOLF Red Wing, are you going with your sister and with Half Moon over the Big Sea Water? i8o WISCONSIN PLAYS RED WING Sister, are you really going 1 ? You are always making believe. OAK LEAF Father, tell him. THE CHEVALIER She is going, Red Wing. RED WING There is nothing for me beyond the Big Sea Water. THE CHEVALIER Over there your father is a famous chief, and you might wear a sword and fight beside the Great King. RED WING 1 shall not fight beside the Great King; and I shall not wear the white man's sword. THE CHEVALIER [Takes his arm, coaxingly.~\ Little chief, why not? why not, my son? GLORY OF THE MORNING [Coldly and firmly.} Because he is my son. GLORY OF THE MORNING 181 RED WING [Standing off; to the CHEVALIER with boyish pride. ~\ Because I am a Winnebago. THE CHEVALIER [Almost angry.} You are going to come with me. [Almost forgetting that those to whom he speaks are in the Indian world.} You are my heir the son of my house and my line. BLACK WOLF [Intercepting, as THE CHEVALIER starts to $ull the boy by the arm.] Half Moon, let the boy choose. THE CHEVALIER Black Wolf, you are wise. You have seen what the white men are. Make the lad know his own good. What you have called the thongs of clan and home will but bind him to the dead. His mother's people can be nothing to him. BLACK WOLF I know what the white men are; I know what the Winnebago have been. Red Wing, I will finish the dream I was telling as the Half Moon, like a stranger, came upon us. It seemed to be at the time of the Evening Star. Over the vil- i82 WISCONSIN PLAYS lage hung a huge yellow cloud. Shaped like the great Eagle Mound, the Thunderbird of our peo ple. And a mighty wind blew in heaven. And the Thunderbird cloud was driven to the west. And the wings were torn away. And then the head. But the body fell into the sunset. The Winnebago will not fish forever in these waters . . . but their graves will remain forever on the bluffs. Red Wing, will you choose a grave with the Indian or with the white man"? RED WING [Deliberately.} I will not go over the Big Sea Water. BLACK WOLF Red Wing has chosen. THE CHEVALIER [RED WING is near the wigwam.} You have forgotten your father. RED WING [Advancing.} You are a squaw-man. I am a Winnebago. GLORY OF THE MORNING Will the Chevalier eat before he goes 4 ? GLORY OF THE MORNING 183 RED WING The Indian's squirrels are for the Indian's feast. THE CHEVALIER It grows late. Pierre will have something for me over in the Panther Woods. [Pause.] Glory of the Morning, I'm not to blame. I can no longer do my work in your world; you cannot follow me into mine. This has happened thou sands of times before you were born : it will hap pen thousands and thousands of times after you and I are dead. GLORY OF THE MORNING The Chevalier is talking in the white man's tongue. THE CHEVALIER [Shaking hands.] Black Wolf, good-bye; and be kind to the poor foolish boy. [To GLORY OF THE MORNING.] Glory of the Morning, I am giving you this. [He unbinds a silver cross from his vest under his coat.] This silver cross will protect you from harm I hope so and will re mind you of the Half Moon who tried so many times to explain our blessed religion to you. Some day the boy will have a squaw, and you will 184 WISCONSIN PLAYS show the token to your grandchildren. Pere La Rou gave it to me only two months ago at Mon treal and he asked about you. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Taking the cross mechanically.} Pere La Rou ... I remember him. BLACK WOLF [Pointing with the calumet.} Give back to the white man the white man's totem. GLORY OF THE MORNING [With longing.] Let me . . . let me keep it, Black Wolf. BLACK WOLF The white man's totem shall not remain in the village with Black Wolf's calumet. [GLORY OF THE MORNING returns in silence the keepsake to THE CHEVALIER. THE CHEVALIER Good-bye, Glory of the Morning. [GLORY OF THE MORNING gives him her hand in silence. Good-bye, Red Wing. [RED WING turns proudly away. GLORY OF THE MORNING 185 GLORY OF THE MORNING [Firmly.] Give him your hand, my son. RED WING [Obeying.] Good-bye. [THE CHEVALIER and OAK LEAF are going toward the shore. GLORY OF THE MORNING [Stepping after, and embracing and kissing the child.] My little girl, my little girl ! THE CHEVALIER Come! [THE CHEVALIER and OAK LEAF go down to the canoe upon the bank to the right. They launch it and are off. OAK LEAF [Shouting back from the distance.] Good bye, Black Wolf! Good-bye, Red Wing! [After a brief pause, with eery voice.] Good bye, Glory of the Morning ! [Motionless and silent, GLORY OF THE MORNING, RED WING, and (at a little distance} BLACK WOLF stand watching the canoe gliding away toward the Panther Woods. In a few moments BLACK 186 WISCONSIN PLAYS WOLF sits down in the rear on a boulder by the oak tree, and is busied again with the feathers on his calumet. Then RED WING squats on the ground beside him. After a moment or so, GLORY OF THE MORNING turns, picks up quietly the buck' skin shirt, goes over toward the wigwam, em'pties water from the jar into the kettle, and begins gathering sticks and leaves and arranging them under the kettle. RED WING jumps ufi and helps. BLACK WOLF Red Wing, you are a man now. Building the fire for supper is squaw's work. [RED WING, half ashamed, goes back and squats again by BLACK WOLF. GLORY OF THE MORNING lights with the tinder the fire. RED WING [After a moment, ,] Mother Glory of the Morning. GLORY OF THE MORNING [On her knees, half turning her head.] Yes, Red Wing. GLORY OF THE MORNING 187 RED WING Won't Rainspot be sorry he couldn't say good bye to Oak Leaf? This book is DUE on the last date stamped below Form L-9-35m-8,'28 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 001347622 1 t PLEAj: DO NOT REMOVE THIS BOOK CARDZJ ^l-LIBRARY/9 University Research Library "D 'X' (J; CO if- -J en