Gale, Zona
The neighbours
A play by ZONA GALE
The
NEIGHBOURS
NEW YORK: B. W. HUEBSCH, INC
.
c
THE NEIGHBOURS
:: ZONA GALE ::
RA50S
New York B. W. HUEBSCH, INC. Mcmxxi
COPYRIGHT, 1914, BY B. W. HUEBSCH
First printing as a separate volume February, 1920
Second printing as a separate volume January, 1921
P5
35/3 A3I4A/U.
PRINTED IN U. S. A*
THE NEIGHBOURS BY ZONA GALE
THE NEIGHBOURS
may be performed under the following conditions:
The royalty on THE NEIGHBOURS is Ten Dollars for every perfor- mance to which admissionis asked ; or Five Dollars when there is no admission.
RURAL ROYALTY
For rural communities the offer is made to permit the play to be given without royalty on condition that some group or person plant in the community a roadside fruit tree; or else contribute in some definite way to community consciousness and and community development.
The royalty is payable to either the publisher or the author.
PERSONS OF THE PLAY
GRANDMA INEZ
Mis' DIANTHA ABEL Mis' ELMIRA MORAN
EZRA WILLIAMS Mis' TROT
PETER 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*?
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 for4?
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 off 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?
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?
[GRANDMA, who has stopped picking off 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 u
MIS' ABEL
They ain't no thin' 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 takin5 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?
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, 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
[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 it.} 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 one.
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 'em1?
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,
II 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' 11 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 comer. 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."
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 —
[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 : j8. 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 child4?
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 Kane4? 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?
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' 11 be up into my lace curtains. How you goin' to go at gettin' the stuff together?
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 her 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 with 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*?
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 Pd set there on the porch so's to have a look at him when she got back.
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 surprise.] 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 Jruft. 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 it4? 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, puttinr in our own cow and chickens. Yes, I'll do it — buffalo bug or no buffalo bug. A gallon'll 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
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.] Support4? 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 no thin'. . . .
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 9 Us ladies'll 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 7 158.
EZRA
[Who has stood shaking his head, edging away.} Yah — pa'cel 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' 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? 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? 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 2
[Sets down her iron and, an elbow in her lhand, 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 don'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. . . . [tie 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
[Stands 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 ^ybody 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 forenoon1? 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 somethin7 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 Mis5 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 piling up 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? 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' 11 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 feather5 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 use4? 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't goin' to give him to me. Somebody else has took him.
EZRA
Well, ain't that a shame. [Bristling. 1 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, though4? 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 itJ\ 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, fosses 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 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.
ONE -ACT PLAYS OF DISTINCTION
WISCONSIN PLAYS
Including: The Neighbours by Zona Gale In Hospital by T. H. Dickinson Glory of the Morning ly W. E. Leonard $1.50.
WISCONSIN PLAYS Second Series
Including: The Feast of the Holy Innocents
by S. Marshall Ilsley On the Pier by Laura Sherry The Shadow by H. M Jones We Live Again by Thornton Gilman $1.50.
EVERYBODY'S HUSBAND by GILBERT CANNAN
75 centi. CRIMINALS by GEORGE' MIDDLETON
60 cents.
THE PIONEERS by JAMES OPPENHEIM 60 cents.
TEN PLAYS by DAVID PINSKI
$ 2.00.
OBTAINABLE OF ALL BOOKSELLERS OR OF THE PUBLISHER
B. W. H U E B S C H NEW YORK
O VUL.
PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY