_The infirm ward in the Workhouse. Entrance from corridor, right.
Forward, left, are three beds with bedding folded upon them. Back, left, is a door leading into Select Ward. This door is closed, and a large key is in lock. Fireplace with a grating around it, left. Back, right, is a window with little leaded panes_.
_It is noon on a May day, but the light inside the ward is feeble._
_Two paupers are seated at fire. One of them, Mickie Cripes, is a man of fifty, stooped and hollow-chested, but with quick blue eyes.
The other man, Tom Shanley, is not old, but he looks broken and listless. Myles Gorman, still in pauper dress, is standing before window, an expectant look on his face_.
_Thomas Muskerry enters from corridor. He wears his own clothes, but he has let them get into disorder. His hair and beard are disordered, and he seems very much broken down. Nevertheless, he looks as if his mind were composed_.
MUSKERRY It"s dark in here, Michael.
GRIPES It is, sir.
MUSKERRY I find it very spiritless after coming up from the chapel.
Don"t pa.s.s your whole day here. Go down into the yard. _(He stands before the window)_ This is the first fine day, and you ought to go out along the country road. Ask the Master for leave. It"s the month of May, and you"ll be glad of the sight of the gra.s.s and the smell of the bushes. Now here"s a remarkable thing. I venture to think that the like of this has never happened before. Here are the bees swarming at the window pane.
GORMAN You"ll hear my pipes on the road to-day. That"s as sure as the right hand is on my body. _(He goes out by corridor door)_
CRIPES Myles Gorman must have been glad to hear that buzzing.
MUSKERRY Why was Myles glad to hear it?
SHANLEY He was leaving on the first fine day.
CRIPES The buzzing at the pane would let any one know that the air is nice for a journey.
MUSKERRY I am leaving to-day, myself.
CRIPES And where are you going, Mr. Muskerry?
MUSKERRY I"m going to a place of my own.
_Muskerry goes into the Select Ward_.
CRIPES I"ll tell you what brought Thomas Muskerry back to the workhouse to be an inmate in it. Living in a bad house. Living with his own. That"s what brought him back. And that"s what left me here, too.
SHANLEY _(listlessly)_ The others have the flour, and we may hawk the bran.
_An old pauper comes into the ward. His face looks bleached. He has the handle of a sweeping-brush for a staff. He moves about the ward, muttering to himself. He seats himself on chair, right_.
THE OLD MAN _(speaking as if thinking aloud)_ I was at twelve o"clock Ma.s.s. Now one o"clock would be a late Ma.s.s. I was at Ma.s.s at one o"clock. Wouldn"t that be a long time to keep a priest, and he fasting the whole time?
CRIPES I"ll tell you what Thomas Muskerry did when he left the bad house he was in. _(He puts coal on the fire)_
THE OLD MAN I was at one o"clock Ma.s.s in Skibbereen. I know where Skibbereen is well. In the County Cork. Cork is a big county. As big as Dublin and Wicklow. That"s where the people died when there was the hunger.
CRIPES He came before the meeting of the Guardians, and he told them he owed them the whole of his year"s pension. Then he got some sort of a stroke, and he broke down. And the Guardians gave him the Select Ward there for himself.
SHANLEY They did well for him.
CRIPES Why wouldn"t they give him the Select Ward? It"s right that he"d get the little room, and not have to make down the pauper"s bed with the rest of us.
SHANLEY He was at the altar to-day, and he stayed in the chapel after Ma.s.s.
CRIPES He"ll be here shortly.
THE OLD MAN Skibbereen! That"s where the people died when there was the hunger. Men and women without coffins, or even their clothes off.
Just buried. Skibbereen I remember well, for I was a whole man then.
And the village. For there are people living in it yet. They didn"t all die.
SHANLEY We"ll have somebody else in the Select Ward this evening.
CRIPES That"s what they were talking about. The nuns are sending a patient up here.
SHANLEY I suppose the Ward-master will be in here to regulate the room. _(He rises)_
CRIPES Aye, the Ward-master. Felix Tournour, the Ward-master. You"ve come to your own place at last, Felix Tournour.
SHANLEY Felix Tournour will be coming the master over me if he finds me here. _(Shanley goes out)_
CRIPES Felix Tournour! That"s the lad that will be coming in with his head up like the gander that"s after beating down a child.
_Christy Clarice enters. He carries a little portmanteau_.
CHRISTY Is Mr. Muskerry here?
CRIPES He"s in the room. _(A sound of water splashing and the movements of a heavy person are heard)_ Will you be speaking with him, young fellow?
CHRISTY I will.
CRIPES Tell him, like a good little boy, that the oul" men would be under a favour to him if he left a bit of tobacco. You won"t forget that?
CHRISTY I won"t forget it.
CRIPES I don"t want to be in the way of Felix Tournour. We"re going down to the yard, but we"ll see Mr. Muskerry when he"s going away.
_Cripes goes out_.
MUSKERRY _(within)_ Is that you, Christy Clarke?
CHRISTY It is, Mr. Muskerry.
MUSKERRY Have you any news, Christy?
CHRISTY No news, except that my mother is in the cottage, and is expecting you to-day.
MUSKERRY I"ll be in the cottage to-day, Christy. I"m cleaning myself.
_(A sound of splashing and moving about)_ The Guardians were good to get the little house for me. I"d as lieve be there as in a mansion.