Part 22 (1/2)
Now, go right to bed, children. It is ten o'clock.
(_Takes light and goes with husband into room right. Children undress and scramble into one bed._)
(_Street noises all discontinue, back of room opens out on to the orchard and the music of first scene is heard with dancing children._ EVERYCHILD _comes into the room with her rosy lamp. The three children sit up in bed and rub their eyes._ EVERYCHILD _glides all about the room and looks at the squalid place in dismay, then goes up and smiles at the children._)
_Everychild_
You are some of the lost children. How did you get in here? Come with me. I will give you some better clothes and you can dance and sing with all of them.
(_They get out of bed and she leads them in wonder and joy out into the orchard._)
(CURTAIN FALLS)
SCENE III: _Plain interior of a farmer's kitchen with farmer's wife busy over stove, and kitchen table set for lunch for two. Adjacent room, left, small bedroom in which lies a pallid thin child in bed with dishes and bottles on little bedside table. Very little light. Curtains to a single window down. Farmer in overalls comes in, looking hot and tired. He throws hat on chair, says ”Hullo, Mary, dinner ready?” and proceeds to wash hands and face in a basin on a stool. Then sits down at the table._
_Mary_ (_bringing food from stove and sitting down opposite_)
Here we are, Jim. Guess you're ready for something. It takes a man to sprout a patch o' locusts, and you had breakfast by lamplight.
_Jim_
Some o' them roots seemed as long as from here to the barn.
_Mary_
But you'll have the best pasture in the county next year.
_Jim_
What's the good? We rationed our beef steers the way that government chap taught us, and our pigs, and our sheep, and who got the profit?
_Mary_
A lot more doc.u.ments came from the government to-day--all about _pigs_.
And we haven't got a decent house to live in! If we could only build on that pretty bit of high ground I've had picked out for three years, Rosie would quit havin' these sick spells.
_Jim_
How is she, mother?
_Mary_
I b'lieve she's a little better. Jim, have you got any money left from sellin' the car?
_Jim_
You know we had to pay the interest at the bank first of all, and the rest went for fertilizer.
_Mary_
I miss the car more on Rosie's account than mine. She's been cryin'