The Flutter of the Goldleaf; and Other Plays.
by Olive Tilford Dargan and Frederick Peterson.
THE FLUTTER OF THE GOLDLEAF
SCENE: _Laboratory in the attic of the Warner cottage. At right, toward rear, entrance from down-stairs. A rude part.i.tion, left, with door in centre. Window centre rear. Large kitchen table loaded with apparatus. Shelves, similarly loaded, against wall near table, right.
Wires strung about. A rude couch, bench, and several wooden chairs._
_Time, about 8 p.m. Lamp burns on table._ MRS. WARNER _comes up-stairs, puts her head inside the room nervously, then enters and looks about._
_Mrs. W._
Such a mess! And the doctors will be here in half an hour! (_Tries to get busy but seems bothered. Crosses to table and looks at a little machine that stands upon it._) _That"s_ what"s driving my boy crazy! If I only dared to smash it! The right sort of a mother would do just that!
(_Looks at machine with dire meditation._)
_Warner_ (_without, roaring up the stairs_)
Mary Ann!
_Mrs. W._ (_jumps_)
Yes, Hiram!
_Warner_ (_entering_)
Where"s Philo?
_Mrs. W._
In the orchard. I watched my chance, and thought I"d redd up a little.
He won"t let me touch anything when he"s here.
_Warner_
Just about lives up here, don"t he?
_Mrs. W._
Day and night now, since he"s been too sick to go to the store. And I can"t have Dr. Bellows bring in that specialist from New York with things lookin" as if a woman had never come up the stairs. (_Dusting and rattling._)
_Warner_
Philo"s not onto what the doctors are after, is he?
_Mrs. W._
He thinks they"re coming to look at his machine mostly--and see what"s keepin" him awake nights. But maybe he knows. He"s awful sharp.
_Warner_
Sharp? Wish he knew enough to sell eggs and bacon. He"s ruinin" my business. Weighs a pound of coffee as if he was asleep. I can see customers watchin" him out o" the tail o" their eye. They"re gettin"
_afraid_ of him! Mary Ann, the boy"s going to be a shame to us. He"s crazy!
_Mrs. W._
Don"t you call _my_ boy crazy. I won"t hear it, Hiram.
_Warner_
No, you"ll wait till the whole village tells you! They"re all talkin"
now!
_Mrs. W._
It"s none o" their business!
_Warner_
It"ll be their business if he flies up and hurts somebody.
_Mrs. W._
Philo wouldn"t hurt anything alive. He got mad at me once for killin"
a spider.
_Warner_ (_scornfully_)
Showed his sense there, didn"t he?
_Mrs. W._
If Philo"s queer it"s not from my side of the house. You know what your mother was like--wanderin" round nights starin" at the stars with that old spy-gla.s.s Captain Barker gave her.
_Warner_
She was a good mother, all the same.
_Mrs. W._
Couldn"t cook at all. Your father only kept alive by eating at the neighbors occasionally--and as for sewing and mending, you children went in rags till your Aunt Sary came to live with you.
_Warner_
Mother thought a heap of us, though. I remember how she cried because I wouldn"t go to school and went into the grocery business. And she cried a lot more when I married you. I couldn"t understand her--_then_....