Part 8 (1/2)

ELIZA: I've seen the day that lie'd have roused ... But now, It's not worth while ... worth while. I've never felt Such heat: it smothers me: it's like a nightmare, When you wake with your head in the blankets, all asweat: Only, I cannot wake ... It snowed the night That Peter went ...

EZRA: Blabbering of heat and snow: And all that money gone--my hard-earned savings!

We're beggared, woman--beggared by your son: And then, to sit and yammer like a yieldewe: Come, stir your stumps; and clap your bonnet on: Up and away!

ELIZA: And where should I away to?

EZRA: I'll have the law of him: I'll have him gaoled, And you must fetch the peeler.

ELIZA: Policemen throng Round Krindlesyke, as bees about a thistle!

And I'm to set the peelers on my son?

If he'd gone with Peter, they'd have tracked his hobnails ...

It snowed that night ... The snowflakes buzz like bees About the p.r.i.c.kling thistles in my head-- Big b.u.mblebees ... I never felt such heat.

EZRA: And I must sit, tied to a chair, and hearken To an old wife, havering of b.u.mblebees, While my hard-earned sovereigns lie snug and warm In the breeches' pocket of a rascal thief-- Fifty gold sovereigns!

ELIZA: Fifty golden bees-- Golden Italian queens ... My father spent A sight of money on Italian queens: For he'd a way with bees. He'd handle them With naked hands. They swarmed on his beard, and hung, Buzzing like fury: but he never blinked-- Just wagged his head, swaying them, till they dropped, All of a bunch, into an upturned skep....

My head's a hive of buzzing bees--bees buzzing In the hot, crowded darkness, dripping honey ...

EZRA: You're wandering, woman--maffling like a madpash.

Jim's stolen your senses, when he took my gold.

ELIZA: Don't talk of money now: I want to think.

Six sons, I had. My sons, you say. You're right: For menfolk have no children: only women Carry them: only women are brought to bed: And only women labour: and, when they go, Only the mothers lose them: and all for nothing, The coil and c.u.mber! If I could have left one son, Wedded, and settled down at Krindlesyke, To do his parents credit, and carry on ...

First Peter came: it snowed the night he came-- A feeding-storm of fisselling dry snow.

I lay and watched flakes fleetering out of the dark In the candles.h.i.+ne against the wet black gla.s.s, Like moths about a lanthorn ... I lay and watched, Till the pains were on me ... And they buzzed like bees, The snowflakes in my head--hot, stinging bees ...

It snowed again, the night he went.... In the smother I lost him, in a drift down b.l.o.o.d.ysyke ...

I couldn't follow further: the snow closed in-- Dry flakes that stung my face like swarming bees, And blinded me ... and buzzing, till my head Was all ahum; and I was fair bet.w.a.ttled ...

I've not set eyes ...

EZRA: Gather your wits together.

There's no one else; and you must go to Rawridge-- No daundering on the road; and tell John Steel Jim's gone: and so, there's none to look to the sheep.

He must send someone ... Though my money melt In the hot pocket of a vagabond, They must be minded: sheep can't tend themselves.

ELIZA: I'll go. 'Twas cruel to leave them in this heat, With none to water them. This heat's a judgment.

They were my sons: I bore and suckled them.

This heat's a judgment on me, pressing down On my brain like a redhot iron ...

(_She rises with difficulty, and goes, bareheaded, into the suns.h.i.+ne.

In a few moments she staggers back, and stumbles, with unseeing eyes, towards the inner room. She pauses a second at the door, and turns, as if to speak to EZRA; but goes in, without a word. Presently a soft thud is heard within: then a low moan._)

EZRA: Who's there? Not you, Eliza? You can't be back already, woman?

Why don't you speak? You yammered enough, just now-- Such havers! Haven't you gone? What's keeping you?

I told you to step out. What's wrong? What's wrong?

You're wambling like a wallydraigling waywand.

The old ewe's got the staggers. Boodyankers!

If I wasn't so crocked and groggy, I'd make a fend To go myself--ay, blind bat as I am.

Come, pull yourself together; and step lively.

What's that? What's that? I can't hear anything now.