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Title: Icebound - A Play
Author: Davis, Owen
Language: English
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ICEBOUND
By Owen Davis
THE DETOUR
ICEBOUND
ICEBOUND
_A Play_
BY
OWEN DAVIS
[Illustration]
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1923
_Copyright, 1922, 1923_,
BY OWEN DAVIS.
_All rights reserved_
Published July, 1923
No performance of this play, professional or amateur,--or public
reading of it--may be given without the written permission of the
author and the payment of royalty. Application for the rights of
performing “Icebound” must be made to Sam H. Harris, Sam H. Harris
Theatre, New York City.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FOREWORD
With the production of “The Detour,” about a year ago, I managed to
secure some measure of success in drawing a simple picture of life
as it is lived on a Long Island farm; encouraged by this, I am now
turning toward my own people, the people of northern New England,
whose folklore, up to the present time, has been quite neglected in
our theatre. I mean, of course, that few serious attempts have been
made in the direction of a genre comedy of this locality. Here I
have at least tried to draw a true picture of these people, and I am
of their blood, born of generations of Northern Maine, small-town
folk, and brought up among them. In my memory of them is little of
the “Rube” caricature of the conventional theatre; they are neither
buffoons nor sentimentalists, and at least neither their faults nor
their virtues are borrowed from the melting pot but are the direct
result of their own heritage and environment.
OWEN DAVIS.
1923.
ICEBOUND
“Icebound” was originally produced in New York, February 10, 1923,
with the following cast:
HENRY JORDAN _John Westley_
EMMA, his wife _Lotta Linthicum_
NETTIE, her daughter by a former marriage _Boots Wooster_
SADIE FELLOWS, once Sadie Jordan, a widow _Eva Condon_
ORIN, her son _Andrew J. Lawlor, Jr._
ELLA JORDAN, the unmarried sister _Frances Neilson_
DOCTOR CURTIS _Lawrence Eddinger_
JANE CROSBY, a second cousin of the Jordans _Phyllis Povah_
JUDGE BRADFORD _Willard Robertson_
BEN JORDAN _Robert Ames_
HANNAH _Edna May Oliver_
JIM JAY _Charles Henderson_
ACT ONE.
THE PARLOR OF THE JORDAN HOMESTEAD, 4 P.M., October, 1922.
ACT TWO.
THE SITTING ROOM OF THE JORDAN HOMESTEAD, Two months later. Afternoon.
ACT THREE.
SAME AS ACT I, Late in the following March.
ICEBOUND
ACT ONE
_Scene: The parlor of the Jordan Homestead at Venzie, Maine._
_It is late October, and through the two windows at the back one may
see a bleak countryside, the grass brown and lifeless, and the bare
limbs of the trees silhouetted against a gray sky. Here, in the room
that for a hundred years has been the rallying point of the Jordan
family, a group of relatives are gathered to await the death of the
old woman who is the head of their clan. The room in which they wait
is as dull and as drab as the lives of those who have lived within
its walls. Here we have the cleanliness that is next to godliness,
but no sign of either comfort or beauty, both of which are looked
upon with suspicion as being signposts on the road to perdition._
_In this group are the following characters: Henry Jordan, a heavy
set man of fifty, worn by his business cares into a dull sort of
hopeless resignation. Emma, his wife, a stout and rather formidable
woman of forty, with a look of chronic displeasure; Nettie, her
daughter by a former marriage, a vain and shallow little rustic
beauty; Sadie, a thin, tight-lipped woman of forty, a widow and
a gossip; Orin, her son, a pasty-faced boy of ten with large
spectacles; Ella, a “Maiden lady” of thirty-six, restless and
dissatisfied._
_Ella and Sadie, true Jordans by birth, are a degree above Emma
in social standing, at least they were until Henry’s marriage to
Emma made her a somewhat resentful member of the family. In Emma’s
dialogue and in her reactions, I have attempted a rather nice
distinction between the two grades of rural middle-class folk; the
younger characters here, as in most other communities, have advanced
one step._
_Rise: At rise there is a long silence; the occupants of the room are
ill at ease. Emma is grim and frowning. Nettie sits with a simper of
youthful vanity, looking stealthily at herself from time to time in a
small mirror set in the top of her cheap vanity case. Ella and Sadie
have been crying and dab at their eyes a bit ostentatiously. Henry
makes a thoughtful note with a pencil, then returns his notebook to
his pocket and warms his hands at the stove._
_There is a low whistle of a cold autumn wind as some dead leaves
are blown past the window. Orin, who has a cold in his head, sniffs
viciously; the others, with the exception of his mother, look at him
in remonstrance. An eight-day clock in sight, through the door to the
hall, strikes four._
EMMA (_sternly_)
Four o’clock.
HENRY (_looks at watch_)
Five minutes of. That clock’s been fast for more’n thirty years.
NETTIE (_looks at wrist watch_)
My watch says two minutes after.
HENRY
Well, it’s wrong!
EMMA (_acidly_)
You gave it to her yourself, didn’t you?
SADIE (_sighs_)
Good Land! What does it matter?
NETTIE (_offended_)
Oh! Doesn’t it? Oh!
ELLA
Maybe it does to you. She ain’t your blood relation.
EMMA
Nettie loves her grandma, don’t you dear?
NETTIE
Some folks not so far off may get fooled before long about how much
grandma and I was to each other.
EMMA (_sternly_)
You hush!
[_Again there is a pause, and again it is broken by a loud sniff from
Orin, as the women look at him in disgust. Sadie speaks up in his
defense._
SADIE
He’s got kind of a cold in his head.
HENRY
The question is, ain’t he got a handkerchief?
SADIE
Here, Orin!
[_She hands him her handkerchief._
ELLA
The idea! No handkerchief when you’ve come expectin’ some one to die!
ORIN
I had one, but I used it up.
[_He blows his nose._
HENRY
After four. Well, I expect they’ll have to close the store without me.
ELLA
I left everything just as soon as Jane sent me word!
SADIE
Why should Jane be with her instead of you or me, her own daughters?
HENRY
You girls always made her nervous, and I guess she’s pretty low. (_He
looks at his watch again_) I said I’d be back before closin’ time. I
don’t know as I dare to trust those boys.
EMMA
You can’t tell about things, when Sadie’s husband died we sat there
most all night.
SADIE (_angrily_)
Yes, and you grudged it to him, I knew it then and it isn’t likely
I’m going to forget it.
ELLA
Will was a good man, but even you can’t say he was ever very
dependable.
EMMA
My first husband died sudden--(_she turns to Nettie_)--you can’t
remember it, dear.
ELLA
_You_ didn’t remember it very long, it wa’n’t much more’n a year
before you married Henry.
HENRY (_sighs_)
Well, he was as dead then as he’s ever got to be. (_He turns and
glances nervously out window_) I don’t know but what I could just run
down to the store for a minute, then hurry right back.
SADIE
You’re the oldest of her children, a body would think you’d be
ashamed.
HENRY
Oh, I’ll stay.
[_There is a silence. Orin sniffs. Ella glares at him._
ELLA
Of course he _could_ sit somewheres else.
[_Sadie puts her arm about Orin and looks spitefully at Ella. Doctor
Curtis, an elderly country physician, comes down the stairs and
enters the room, all turn to look at him._
DOCTOR
No change at all. I’m sendin’ Jane to the drug store.
ELLA (_rises eagerly_)
I’ll just run up and sit with mother.
[_Sadie jumps up and starts for door._
SADIE
It might be better if I went.
ELLA
Why might it?
[_They stand glaring at each other before either attempts to pass the
Doctor, whose ample form almost blocks the doorway._
SADIE
_I’ve_ been a wife and a mother.
DOCTOR
Hannah’s with her, you know. I told you I didn’t want anybody up
there but Jane and Hannah.
ELLA
But we’re her own daughters.
DOCTOR
You don’t have to tell me, I brought both of you into the world. The
right nursing might pull her through, even now; nothing else can, and
I’ve got the two women I want. (_He crosses to Henry at stove_) Why
don’t you put a little wood on the fire?
HENRY
Why--I thought ’twas warm enough.
ELLA
Because you was standin’ in front of it gettin’ all the heat.
[_Henry fills the stove from wood basket._
_Jane Crosby enters on stairs and crosses into the room. Jane is
twenty-four, a plainly dressed girl of quiet manner. She has been
“driven into herself” as one of our characters would describe it, by
her lack of sympathy and affection and as a natural result she is not
especially articulate; she speaks, as a rule, in short sentences, and
has cultivated an outward coldness that in the course of time has
become almost aggressive._
JANE
I’ll go now, Doctor; you’d better go back to her. Hannah’s frightened.
DOCTOR
Get it as quick as you can, Jane; I don’t know as it’s any use, but
we’ve got to keep on tryin’.
JANE
Yes.
[_She exits; Doctor warms his hands._
DOCTOR
Jane’s been up with her three nights. I don’t know when I’ve seen a
more dependable girl.
ELLA
She ought to be.
HENRY
If there’s any gratitude in the world.
DOCTOR
Oh, I guess there is; maybe there’d be more if there was more reason
for it. It’s awful cold up there, but I guess I’ll be gettin’ back.
[_He crosses toward door._
HENRY
Doctor!
[_He looks at his watch._
DOCTOR (_stops in doorway_)
Well?
HENRY
It’s quite a bit past four, I don’t suppose--I don’t suppose you can
tell----
DOCTOR
No, I can’t tell.
[_He turns and exits up the stairs._
ELLA
There’s no fool like an old fool.
SADIE
Did you hear him? “Didn’t know when he’d seen a more dependable girl
than her!”
EMMA
Makes a lot of difference who’s goin’ to depend on her. I ain’t, for
one.
NETTIE
If I set out to tell how she’s treated me lots of times, when I’ve
come over here to see grandma, nobody would believe a word of it.
SADIE
Mother took her in out of charity.
ELLA
And kept her out of spite.
HENRY
I don’t know as you ought to say that, Ella.
ELLA
It’s my place she took, in my own mother’s house. I’d been here now,
but for her. I ain’t goin’ to forget that. No! Me, all these years
payin’ board and slavin’ my life out, makin’ hats, like a nigger.
NETTIE (_smartly_)
Oh! So _that’s_ what they’re like. I’ve often wondered!
ELLA (_rises_)
You’ll keep that common little thing of your wife’s from insultin’
me, Henry Jordan, or I won’t stay here another minute.
EMMA (_angry_)
Common!
NETTIE
Mother!
HENRY (_sternly_)
Hush up! All of yer!
SADIE
It’s Jane we ought to be talkin’ about.
EMMA
Just as soon as you’re the head of the family, Henry, you’ve got to
tell her she ain’t wanted here!
HENRY
Well--I don’t know as I’d want to do anything that wasn’t right.
She’s been here quite a spell.
SADIE
Eight years!
ELLA
And just a step-cousin, once removed.
HENRY
I guess mother’s made her earn her keep. I don’t know as ever there
was much love lost between ’em.
EMMA
As soon as your mother’s dead, you’ll send her packing.
HENRY
We’ll see. I don’t like countin’ on mother’s going; that way.
SADIE (_hopefully_)
Grandmother lived to eighty-four.
HENRY
All our folks was long lived; nothin’ lasts like it used to,--Poor
mother!
ELLA
Of course she’ll divide equal, between us three?
HENRY (_doubtfully_)
Well, I don’t know!
SADIE
Orin is her only grandchild; she won’t forget that.
HENRY
Nettie, there, is just the same as my own. I adopted her legal, when
I married Emma.
EMMA
Of course you did. Your mother’s too--just a woman to make
distinctions!
NETTIE
Yes, and the funny part of it is grandma may leave me a whole lot,
for all any of _you_ know.
ELLA
Nonsense! She’ll divide equally between us three; won’t she, Henry?
HENRY (_sadly_)
She’ll do as she pleases, I guess we all know that.
ELLA
She’s a religious woman, she’s _got_ to be fair!
HENRY
Well, I guess it would be fair enough if she was to remember the
trouble I’ve had with my business. I don’t know what she’s worth,
she’s as tight-mouthed as a bear trap, but I could use more’n a third
of quite a little sum.
ELLA
Well, you won’t get it. Not if I go to law.
EMMA
It’s disgusting. Talking about money at a time like this.
HENRY
I like to see folks reasonable. I don’t know what you’d want of a
third of all mother’s got, Ella.
SADIE (_to Ella_)
You, all alone in the world!
ELLA
Maybe I won’t be, when I get that money.
SADIE
You don’t mean you’d get married?
EMMA
At your age!
ELLA
I mean I never had anything in all my life; now I’m going to. I’m the
youngest of all of you, except Ben, and he never was a real Jordan.
I’ve never had a chance; I’ve been stuck here till I’m most forty,
worse than if I was dead, fifty times worse! Now I’m going to buy
things--everything I want--I don’t care what--I’ll buy it, even if
it’s a man! Anything I want!
NETTIE
A man!
[_Nettie looks at Ella in cruel amazement and all but Orin burst into
a laugh--Ella turns up and hides her face against the window as Orin
pulls at his mother’s skirt._
ORIN
Mum! Mum! I thought you told me not to laugh, not once, while we was
here!
HENRY
You’re right, nephew, and we’re wrong, all of us. I’m sorry, Ella,
we’re all sorry.
ELLA (_wipes her eyes_)
Laugh if you want to--maybe it won’t be so long before I do some of
it myself.
HENRY (_thoughtfully_)
Equally between us three? Well, poor mother knows best of course.
[_He sighs._
SADIE
She wouldn’t leave _him_ any, would she,--Ben?
ELLA (_shocked_)
Ben!
HENRY (_in cold anger_)
She’s a woman of her word; no!
SADIE
If he was here he’d get around her; he always did!
HENRY
Not again!
SADIE
If she ever spoiled anybody it was him, and she’s had to pay for it.
Sometimes it looks like it was a sort of a judgment.
HENRY
There hasn’t been a Jordan, before Ben, who’s disgraced the name in
more’n a hundred years; he stands indicted before the Grand Jury
for some of his drunken devilment. If he hadn’t run away, like the
criminal he is, he’d be in the State’s Prison now, down to Thomaston.
Don’t talk _Ben_ to me, after the way he broke mother’s heart, and
hurt my credit!
NETTIE
I don’t remember him very well. Mother thought it better I shouldn’t
come around last time he was here; but he looked real nice in his
uniform.
SADIE
It was his bein’ born so long after us that made him seem like an
outsider; father and mother hadn’t had any children for years and
years! Of course I never want to sit in judgment on my own parents,
but I never approved of it; it never seemed quite--what I call proper.
NETTIE (_to Emma_)
Mother, don’t you think I’d better leave the room?
SADIE (_angrily_)
Not if half the stories I’ve heard about you are true, I don’t.
HENRY
Come, come, no rows! Is this a time or place for spite? We’ve always
been a united family, we’ve always got to be,--leavin’ Ben out, of
course. You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
ORIN
Mum! Say Mum! (_He pulls at Sadie’s dress_) Why should anybody want
to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear?
ELLA
Can’t you stop that boy askin’ such fool questions?
SADIE
Well, as far as that goes, why should they? It never sounded
reasonable to me.
HENRY (_sternly_)
Decent folks don’t reason about religion; they just accept it.
ORIN
You could make a skin purse out of a sow’s ear, but I’ll be darned if
you could make a silk purse out of one. I’ll bet God couldn’t.
HENRY
Are you going to let him talk about God like that, like he was a real
person?
ELLA
I don’t know as a body could expect any better; his father was a
Baptist!
SADIE (_angrily_)
His father was a good man, and if he talked about God different from
what you do, it was because he knew more about him. And as for my
being here at all--(_she rises with her arms about Orin_)--I wouldn’t
do it, not for anything less than my own mother’s deathbed.
HENRY
This family don’t ever agree on nothin’ but just to differ.
EMMA
As far as I see, the only time you ever get together is when one of
you is dead.
ELLA
Maybe that’s the reason I got such a feelin’ against funerals.
[_The outside door opens and Jane enters, a druggist’s bottle in her
hand; she is followed by John Bradford, a man of about thirty-five.
He is better dressed than any of the others and is a man of a more
cosmopolitan type,--a New Englander, but a university man, the local
judge and the leading lawyer of the town._
JANE
I met Judge Bradford on the way.
JUDGE (_John Bradford_)
Court set late. I couldn’t get here before. Jane tells me that she’s
very low.
HENRY
Yes.
JUDGE
I can’t realize it; she has always been so strong, so dominant.
ELLA
In the midst of life we are in death.
ORIN
Say, Mum, that’s in the Bible too!
SADIE
Hush!
ORIN
Well, ain’t it?
SADIE
Will you hush?
HENRY
It’s our duty to hope so long as we can.
JUDGE
Yes, of course.
JANE
I’ll take this right up.
[_She exits up the stairs._
JUDGE (_removes his coat_)
I’ll wait.
SADIE
She can’t see you; she ain’t really what a body could call in her
right mind.
JUDGE
So Jane said.
[_He crosses to stove and warms his hands._
ELLA (_sighs_)
It’s a sad time for us, Judge!
JUDGE
She was always such a wonderful woman.
HENRY
An awful time for us. Did you come up Main Street, Judge?
JUDGE
Yes.
HENRY
Did you happen to notice if my store was open?
JUDGE
No.
HENRY
Not that it matters----
SADIE
Nothing matters now.
HENRY
No--Mother wasn’t ever the kind to neglect things; if the worst does
come she’ll find herself prepared. Won’t she? Won’t she, Judge?
JUDGE
Her affairs are, as usual, in perfect order.
HENRY
In every way?
JUDGE (_looks at him coldly_)
Her will is drawn and is on deposit in my office, if that is what you
mean.
HENRY
Well--that _is_ what I mean--I’m no hypocrite.
EMMA
He’s the oldest of the family. He’s got a right to ask, hasn’t he?
JUDGE
Yes.
HENRY (_honestly_)
If I could make her well by givin’ up everything I’ve got in the
world, or ever expect to git, I’d do it!
SADIE
All of us would.
HENRY
If it’s in my mind at all, as I stand here, that she’s a rich woman,
it’s because my mind’s so worried, the way business has been, that
I’m drove most frantic; it’s because, well--because I’m human;
because I can’t help it.
ELLA (_bitterly_)
You’re a man! What do you think it’s been for me!
SADIE (_with arm about Orin_)
His father didn’t leave much, you all know that, and it’s been scrimp
and save till I’m all worn to skin and bone.
ELLA
Just to the three of us, that would be fair.
HENRY
Judge! My brother’s name ain’t in her will, is it? Tell me that?
Ben’s name ain’t there!
JUDGE
I’d rather not talk about it, Henry.
ELLA
She’d cut him off, she said, the last time he disgraced us, and she’s
a woman of her word.
SADIE (_eagerly, to Judge_)
And the very next day she sent for you because I was here when she
telephoned; and you came to her that very afternoon because I saw you
from my front window cross right up to this door.
JUDGE
Possibly. I frequently drop in to discuss business matters with your
mother for a moment on my way home.
SADIE
It was five minutes to four when you went in that day, and six
minutes to five when you came out, by the clock on my mantel.
JUDGE
Your brother has been gone for almost two years; Your memory is very
clear.
ELLA
So’s her window.
NETTIE
I know folks in this town that are scared to go past it.
SADIE (_to her_)
I know others that ought to be.
HENRY (_discouraged_)
Every time you folks meet there’s trouble.
[_Jane enters down the stairs and into the room._
JUDGE (_looks at her_)
Well, Jane?
JANE
No change. It’s--it’s pitiful, to see her like that.
[_Sadie sobs and covers her face._
HENRY
It’s best we should try to bear this without any fuss, she’d ’a’
wanted it that way.
SADIE
She didn’t even want me to cry when poor Will died, but I did; and
somehow I don’t know but it made things easier.
HENRY
When father died she didn’t shed a tear; she’s been a strong woman,
always.
[_The early fall twilight has come on and the stage is rather dim,
the hall at R. is in deep shadow, at the end of Henry’s speech
the outside door supposedly out at R. is open, then shut rather
violently._
ELLA (_startled_)
Someone’s come in.
SADIE
Nobody’s got any right----
[_She rises as some one is heard coming along the hall._
HENRY (_sternly_)
Who’s that out there? Who is it?
ORIN
Mum! Who is it!
[_He clings to his mother afraid, as all turn to the door, and Ben
Jordan steps into the room and faces them with a smile of reckless
contempt. Ben is the black sheep of the Jordan family, years younger
than any of the others, a wild, selfish, arrogant fellow, handsome
but sulky and defiant. His clothes are cheap and dirty and he is
rather pale and looks dissipated. He doesn’t speak but stands openly
sneering at their look of astonishment._
JANE (_quietly_)
I’m glad you’ve come, Ben.
BEN (_contemptuously_)
_You_ are?
JANE
Yes, your mother’s awful sick.
BEN
She’s alive?
JANE
Yes.
BEN
Well--(_He looks contemptuously about_)
Nobody missin’. The Jordans are gathered again, handkerchiefs and all.
HENRY
You’ll be arrested soon as folks know you’ve come.
BEN (_scornfully_)
And I suppose you wouldn’t bail me out, would you, Henry?
HENRY (_simply_)
No, I wouldn’t.
BEN
God! You’re still the same, all of you. You stink of the Ark, the
whole tribe. It takes more than a few Edisons to change the Jordans!
ELLA
How’d you get here? How’d you know about mother?
BEN (_nods at Jane_)
She sent me word, to Bangor.
SADIE (_to Jane_)
How’d you get to know where he was?
JANE (_quietly_)
I knew.
HENRY
How’d you come; you don’t look like you had much money?
BEN
She sent it. (_He nods toward Jane_) God knows, it wasn’t much.
ELLA (_to Jane_)
Did mother tell you to----?
BEN
Of course she did!
JANE (_quietly_)
No, she didn’t.
HENRY
You sent your own money?
JANE
Yes, as he said it wasn’t much, but I didn’t have much.
BEN (_astonished_)
Why did you do it?
JANE
I knew she was going to die; twice I asked her if she wanted to see
you, and she said no----
HENRY
And yet you sent for him?
JANE
Yes.
HENRY
Why?
JANE
He was the one she really wanted. I thought she’d die happier seeing
him.
ELLA
You took a lot on yourself, didn’t you?
JANE
Yes, she’s been a lonely old woman. I hated to think of her there, in
the churchyard, hungry for him.
BEN
I’ll go to her.
JANE
It’s too late; she wouldn’t know you.
BEN
I’ll go.
JANE
The doctor will call us when he thinks we ought to come.
BEN (_fiercely_)
I’m going now.
HENRY (_steps forward_)
No, you ain’t.
BEN
Do you think I came here, standin’ a chance of bein’ sent to jail, to
let _you_ tell me what to do?
HENRY
If she’s dyin’ up there, it’s more’n half from what you’ve made her
suffer; you’ll wait here till we go to her together.
EMMA
Henry’s right.
SADIE
Of course he is.
ELLA
Nobody but Ben would have the impudence to show his face here, after
what he’s done.
BEN
I’m going just the same!
HENRY
No, you ain’t.
[_Their voices become loud._
EMMA
Henry! Don’t let him go!
SADIE
Stop him.
ELLA (_grows shrill_)
He’s a disgrace to us. He always was.
HENRY
You’ll stay right where you are.
[_He puts his hand heavily on Ben’s shoulder--Ben throws him off
fiercely._
BEN
Damn you! Keep your hands off me!
[_Henry staggers back and strikes against a table that falls to the
floor with a crash. Nettie screams._
JANE
Stop it--stop! You must!
JUDGE
Are you crazy? Have you no sense of decency?
[_Doctor Curtis comes quickly downstairs._
DOCTOR
What’s this noise? I forbid it. Your mother has heard you.
HENRY (_ashamed_)
I’m sorry.
BEN (_sulkily_)
I didn’t mean to make a row.
HENRY
It’s him. (_He looks bitterly at Ben_) He brings out all the worst in
us. He brought trouble into the world with him when he came, and ever
since.
[_Hannah, a middle-aged servant, comes hastily half-way downstairs
and calls out sharply._
HANNAH
Doctor! Come, Doctor!
[_She exits up the stairs, as the Doctor crosses through the hall and
follows her._
ORIN (_afraid_)
Is she dead, Mum? Does Hannah mean she’s dead!
[_Sadie hides her head on his shoulder and weeps._
JANE
I’ll go to her.
[_She exits._
ELLA (_violently_)
She’ll go. There ain’t scarcely a drop of Jordan blood in her veins,
and _she’s_ the one that goes to mother.
EMMA (_coldly_)
Light the lamp, Nettie; it’s gettin’ dark.
NETTIE
Yes, mother.
[_She starts to light lamp._
HENRY
I’m ashamed of my part of it, makin’ a row, with her on her deathbed.
BEN
You had it right, I guess. I’ve made trouble ever since I came into
the world.
NETTIE
There!
[_She lights lamp; footlights go up._
JUDGE (_sternly_)
You shouldn’t have come here; you know that, Ben.
BEN
I’ve always known that, any place I’ve been, exceptin’ only those two
years in the Army. That’s the only time I ever was in right.
JUDGE (_sternly_)
I would find it easier to pity you if you had any one to blame
besides yourself.
BEN
Pity? Do you think I want your pity?
[_There is a pause._
_Jane is seen on stairs, they all turn to her nervously as she comes
down and crosses into room. She stops at the door looking at them._
HENRY (_slowly_)
Mother--mother’s--gone!
JANE
Yes.
[_There is a moment’s silence broken by the low sobs of the women who
for a moment forget their selfishness in the presence of death._
HENRY
The Jordans won’t ever be the same; she was the last of the old
stock, mother was--No, the Jordans won’t ever be the same.
[_Doctor Curtis comes downstairs and into the room._
DOCTOR
It’s no use tryin’ to tell you what I feel. I’ve known her since I
was a boy. I did the best I could.
HENRY
The best anybody could, Doctor, we know that.
DOCTOR
I’ve got a call I’d better make--(_He looks at watch_)--should have
been there hours ago, but I hadn’t the heart to leave her. Who’s in
charge here?
HENRY
I am, of course.
DOCTOR
I’ve made arrangements with Hannah; she’ll tell you.
I’ll say good night now.
HENRY
Good night, Doctor.
JANE
And thank you.
DOCTOR
We did our best, Jane.
[_He exits._
SADIE
He’s gettin’ old. When Orin had the stomach trouble a month ago, I
sent for Doctor Morris. I felt sort of guilty doin’ it, but I thought
it was my duty.
JUDGE
You will let me help you, Jane?
JANE
Hannah and I can attend to everything. Henry! (_She turns to him_)
You might come over for a minute this evening and we can talk things
over. I’ll make the bed up in your old room, Ben, if you want to stay.
EMMA (_rises and looks at Jane coldly_)
Now, Henry Jordan, if she’s all through givin’ orders, maybe you’ll
begin.
ELLA
Well, I should say so. Let’s have an understandin’.
SADIE
You tell her the truth, Henry, or else one of us will do it for you.
HENRY (_hesitates_)
Maybe it might be best if I should wait until after the funeral.
ELLA
You tell her now, or I will.
JANE
Tell me what?
HENRY
We was thinkin’ now that mother’s dead, that there wasn’t much use in
your stayin’ on here.
JANE
Yes?
[_She looks at him intently._
HENRY
We don’t aim to be hard, and we don’t want it said we was mean about
it; you can stay on here, if you want to, until after the funeral,
maybe a little longer, and I don’t know but what between us, we’d be
willing to help you till you found a place somewheres.
JANE
You can’t help me, any of you. Of course now she’s dead, I’ll go.
I’ll be glad to go.
ELLA
Glad!
JANE (_turns on them_)
I hate you, the whole raft of you. I’ll be glad to get away from you.
She was the only one of you worth loving, and she didn’t want it.
EMMA
If that’s how you feel, I say the sooner you went the better.
HENRY
Not till after the funeral. I don’t want it said we was hard to her.
JUDGE (_quietly_)
Jane isn’t going at all, Henry.
HENRY
What’s that?
ELLA
Of course she’s going.
JUDGE
No, she belongs here in this house.
HENRY
Not after I say she don’t.
JUDGE
Even then, because it’s hers.
SADIE
Hers?
JUDGE
From the moment of your mother’s death, everything here belonged to
Jane.
HENRY
Not everything.
JUDGE
Yes, everything--your mother’s whole estate.
BEN
Ha! Ha! Ha!
[_He sits at right laughing bitterly._
JANE
That can’t be, Judge, you must be wrong. It’s a mistake.
JUDGE
No.
HENRY
My mother did this?
JUDGE
Yes.
HENRY
Why? You’ve got to tell me why!
JUDGE
That isn’t a part of my duties.
HENRY
She couldn’t have done a thing like that without sayin’ why. She said
something, didn’t she?
JUDGE
I don’t know that I care to repeat it.
HENRY (_fiercely_)
You must repeat it!
JUDGE
Very well. The day that will was drawn she said to me, “The Jordans
are all waiting for me to die, like carrion crows around a sick cow
in a pasture, watchin’ till the last twitch of life is out of me
before they pounce. I’m going to fool them,” she said, “I’m going to
surprise them; they are all fools but Jane--Jane’s no fool.”
BEN (_bitterly_)
No--Ha! Ha! Ha! Jane’s no fool!
JUDGE
And she went on--(_He turns to Jane_) You’ll forgive me Jane; she
said, “Jane is stubborn, and set, and wilful, but she’s no fool.
She’ll do better by the Jordan money than any of them.”
ELLA
We’ll go to law, that’s what we’ll do!
SADIE
That’s it, we’ll go to law.
HENRY (_to Judge_)
We can break that will; you know we can!
JUDGE
It’s possible.
HENRY
Possible! You _know_, don’t yer! You’re supposed to be a good lawyer.
JUDGE
Of course if I _am_ a good lawyer you can’t break that will, because
you see I drew it.
ELLA
And we get nothing, not a dollar, after waitin’ all these years?
JUDGE
There are small bequests left to each of you.
SADIE
How much?
JUDGE
One hundred dollars each.
ELLA (_shrilly_)
One hundred dollars.
JUDGE
I said that they were small.
BEN
You said a mouthful!
ELLA
Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!
[_She laughs wildly._
HENRY (_sternly_)
Stop your noise, Ella.
ELLA
I----Ha! Ha! Ha!----I told you I was going to have my laugh, didn’t
I? Ha! Ha! Ha!
ORIN (_pulls Sadie’s dress_)
Mum! What’s she laughin’ for?
SADIE
You hush!
EMMA (_faces them all in evil triumph_)
If anybody asked me, I’d say it was a judgment on all of yer. You
Jordans was always stuck up, always thought you was better’n anybody
else. I guess I ought to know, I married into yer!--You a rich
family?--You the salt of the Earth--You Jordans! You paupers--Ha! Ha!
Ha!
ORIN (_pulls Sadie’s skirt_)
Ain’t she still dead, Mum! Ain’t grandma still dead?
SADIE (_angrily_)
Of course she is.
ORIN
But I thought we was all goin’ to cry!
SADIE
Cry then, you awful little brat.
[_She slaps his face and he roars loudly; she takes him by the arm
and yanks him out of the room, followed by Henry, Emma, Nettie and
Ella--through his roars, they all speak together as they go._
EMMA (_to Henry_)
One hundred dollars! After all your blowin’.
HENRY
It’s you, and that child of your’n; you turned her against me.
NETTIE
Well, I just won’t spend my hundred dollars for mournin’. I’ll wear
my old black dress!
ELLA
And me makin’ hats all the rest of my life--just makin’ hats!
[_The front door is heard to shut behind them. Jane, Ben and Judge
are alone. Judge stands by stove. Jane is up by window, looking out
at the deepening twilight. Ben sits at right._
BEN
Ha! Ha! Ha! “Crow buzzards” mother called us--the last of the
Jordans--crow buzzards--and that’s what we are.
JUDGE
You can’t stay here, Ben; you know that as well as I do. I signed the
warrant for your arrest myself. It’s been over a year since the Grand
Jury indicted you for arson.
BEN
You mean you’ll give me up?
JANE
You won’t do that, Judge; you’re here as her friend.
JUDGE
No, but if it’s known he’s here, I couldn’t save him, and it’s bound
to be known.
JANE (_to Ben_)
Were you careful coming?
BEN
Yes.
JUDGE
It’s bound to be known.
BEN
He means they’ll tell on me. (_He nods his head toward door_) My
brother, or my sisters.
JUDGE
No, I don’t think they’d do that.
BEN
Let ’em! What do I care. I’m sick of hiding out, half starved! Let
’em do what they please. All I know is one thing,--when they put her
into her grave her sons and daughters are goin’ to be standin’ there,
like the Jordans always do.
JANE (_quietly_)
Hannah will have your room ready by now. There are some clean shirts
and things that was your father’s; I’ll bring them to you.
BEN (_uneasily_)
Can I go up there, just a minute?
JANE
To your mother?
BEN
Yes.
JANE
If you want to.
BEN
I do.
JANE
Yes, you can go.
[_Ben turns and exits up the stairs. Jane crosses and sits by stove,
sinking wearily into the chair._
JUDGE
And she left him nothing, just that hundred dollars, and only that
because I told her it was the safest way to do it. I thought he was
her one weakness, but it seems she didn’t have any.
JANE
No.
JUDGE
She was a grim old woman, Jane.
JANE
I think I could have loved her, but she didn’t want it.
JUDGE
And yet she left you everything.
JANE
I don’t understand.
JUDGE
She left a sealed letter for you. It’s in my strong box; you may
learn from it that she cared more about you than you think.
JANE
No.
JUDGE
There was more kindness in her heart than most people gave her credit
for.
JANE
For her own, for Uncle Ned, who never did for her, for Ned, for the
Jordan name. I don’t understand, and I don’t think I care so very
much; it’s been a hard week, Judge.
[_She rests her head against the back of the chair._
JUDGE
I know, and you’re all worn out.
JANE
Yes.
JUDGE
It’s a lot of money, Jane.
JANE
I suppose so.
JUDGE
And so you’re a rich woman. I am curious to know how you feel?
JANE
Just tired.
[_She shuts her eyes. For a moment he looks at her with a smile,
then turns and quietly fills the stove with wood as Ben comes slowly
downstairs and into the room._
BEN
If there was only something I could do for her.
JUDGE
Jane’s asleep, Ben.
BEN
Did she look like that, unhappy, all the time?
JUDGE
Yes.
BEN
Crow buzzards! God damn the Jordans!
[_Front door bell rings sharply, Ben is startled._
JUDGE
Steady there! It’s just one of the neighbors, I guess. (_Bell rings
again as Hannah crosses downstairs and to hall_) Hannah knows enough
not to let any one in.
BEN (_slowly_)
When I got back, time before this, from France, I tried to go
straight, but it wasn’t any good, I just don’t belong----
[_Hannah enters frightened._
HANNAH
It’s Jim Jay!
BEN (_to Judge_)
And you didn’t think my own blood would sell me?
[_Jim Jay, a large, kindly man of middle age, enters._
JIM
I’m sorry, Ben, I’ve come for you!
[_Jane wakes, startled, and springs up._
JANE
What is it?
JIM
I got to take him, Jane.
BEN (_turns fiercely_)
Have you!
JIM (_quietly_)
I’m armed, Ben--better not be foolish!
JANE
He’ll go with you, Mr. Jay. He won’t resist.
JIM (_quietly_)
He mustn’t. You got a bad name, Ben, and I ain’t a-goin’ to take any
chances.
BEN
I thought I’d get to go to her funeral, anyway, before they got me.
JIM
Well, you could, maybe, if you was to fix a bail bond. You’d take
bail for him, wouldn’t you, Judge?
JUDGE
It’s a felony; I’d have to have good security.
JANE
I’m a rich woman, you said just now. Could I give bail for him?
JUDGE
Yes.
BEN (_to her_)
So the money ain’t enough. You want all us Jordans fawnin’ on you for
favors. Well, all of ’em but me will; by mornin’ the buzzards will be
flocking round you thick! You’re going to hear a lot about how much
folks love you, but you ain’t goin’ to hear it from me.
JANE (_turns to him quietly_)
Why did you come here, Ben, when I wrote you she was dying?
BEN
Why did I come?
JANE
Was it because you loved her, because you wanted to ask her to
forgive you, before she died--or was it because you wanted to get
something for yourself?
BEN (_hesitates_)
How does a feller know why he does what he does?
JANE
I’m just curious. You’ve got so much contempt for the rest, I
was just wondering? You were wild, Ben, and hard, but you were
honest--what brought you here?
BEN (_sulkily_)
The money.
JANE
I thought so. Then when you saw her you were sorry, but even then the
money was in your mind--well--it’s mine now. And you’ve got to take
your choice,--you can do what I tell you, or you’ll go with Mr. Jay.
BEN
Is that so? Well I guess there ain’t much doubt about what I’ll do.
Come on, Jim?
JIM
All right. (_He takes a pair of handcuffs from his pocket_) You’ll
have to slip these on, Ben.
BEN (_steps back_)
No--wait--(_He turns desperately to Jane_) What is it you want?
JANE
I want you to do as I say.
BEN (_after a look at Jim and the handcuffs_)
I’ll do it.
JANE
I thought so. (_She turns to Judge_) Can you fix the bond up here?
JUDGE
Yes. (_He sits at table and takes pen, ink and paper from a drawer_)
I can hold court right here long enough for that.
JIM
This is my prisoner, Judge, and here’s the warrant.
[_He puts warrant on table._
JANE
First he’s got to swear, before you, to my conditions.
BEN
What conditions?
JANE
When will his trial be, Judge?
JUDGE
Not before the spring term, I should think--say early April.
JANE
You’ll stay here till then, Ben; you won’t leave town! You’ll work
the farm,--there’s plenty to be done.
BEN (_sulkily_)
I don’t know how to work a farm.
JANE
I do. You’ll just do what I tell you.
BEN
Be your slave? That’s what you mean, ain’t it?
JANE
I’ve been about that here for eight years.
BEN
And now it’s your turn to get square on a Jordan!
JANE
You’ll work for once, and work every day. The first day you don’t
I’ll surrender you to the judge, and he’ll jail you. The rest of the
Jordans will live as I tell them to live, or for the first time in
any of their lives, they’ll live on what they earn. Don’t forget,
Ben, that right now I’m the head of the family.
JUDGE (_to Ben_)
You heard the conditions? Shall I make out the bond?
BEN (_reluctantly_)
Yes.
[_He sits moodily at right, looking down at the floor. Jane looks at
him for a moment, then turns up to window._
JANE
It’s snowing!
JIM
Thought I smelled it. (_He buttons his coat_) Well, nothin’ to keep
me, is there, Judge?
JUDGE
No. (_He starts to write out the bond with a rusty pen_) This pen is
rusty!
JIM
I was sorry to hear about the old lady. It’s too bad, but that’s the
way of things.
JUDGE (_writes_)
Yes.
JIM
Well--It’s early for snow, not but what it’s a good thing for the
winter wheat.
[_He exits._
CURTAIN
ACT TWO
_Scene: Sitting room of the Jordan homestead some two months later._
_This room also shows some traces of a family’s daily life, and to
that extent is less desolate than the “parlor” of the first act,
although the stern faith of the Puritan makes no concession to
the thing we have learned to call “good taste.” The old-fashioned
simplicity seen in such a room as this has resulted from poverty,
both of mind and of purse, and has nothing akin to the simplicity of
the artist; as a matter of fact, your true descendant of the settlers
of 1605 would be the first to resent such an implication; to them the
arts are directly connected with heathen practices, and any incense
burned before the altars of the Graces still smells to them of
brimstone._
_At back center folding doors, now partly open, lead to dining room.
In this room may be seen the dining table, back of the table a window
looking out on to the farm yard, now deep in midwinter snow. At right
is an open fireplace with a log fire. Below fireplace a door to hall.
Up left door to small vestibule in which is the outside door. Down
left a window overlooking a snowbound countryside. The clock above
the fireplace is set for quarter past four. Several straight-backed
chairs and a woodbox by fireplaces. A sewing table and lamp at
center. A sewing machine near window at left. A wall cupboard on the
wall right of the doors to the dining room. An old sofa down left,
two chairs at right. When the door at left, in vestibule, is opened,
one may see a path up to the door, between two walls of snow._
_Discovered: Ella sits right at sewing machine, hemming some rough
towels. Orin and Nettie are by fireplace. Sadie sits right of center.
Sadie and Orin are dressed for outdoors. Nettie’s coat, hat and
overshoes are on a hat-rack by door at left. Orin, as the curtain
goes up, is putting a log on the fire._
SADIE (_acidly to Ella_)
Why shouldn’t he put wood on the fire if he wants to?
ELLA (_at sewing machine_)
Because it ain’t your wood.
SADIE
No, it’s _hers_! Everything is hers!
ELLA
And maybe she just don’t know it.
NETTIE (_at fireplace_)
Ah! (_She bends closer to the fire as the log blazes up_) I do love a
good fire! Oh it’s nice to be warm!
SADIE
There’s somethin’ sensual about it.
NETTIE
Mother told me that the next time you started talkin’ indecent I was
to leave the room.
SADIE
Tell your mother I don’t wonder she’s sort of worried about you. I’d
be if you was _my_ daughter.
ELLA
I don’t see why you can’t let Nettie alone!
NETTIE
She’s always picking on me, Aunt Ella! To hear her talk anybody would
think I was terrible.
SADIE
I know more about what’s going on than some folks think I do.
NETTIE
Then you know a lot. I heard Horace Bevins say a week ago that he
didn’t know as it was any use tryin’ to have a Masonic Lodge in the
same town as you.
SADIE
They never was a Bevins yet didn’t have his tongue hung from the
middle; the day his mother was married she answered both the
responses.
ORIN
Mum! Mum! Shall I take my coat off; are we going to stay, Mum?
SADIE
No, we ain’t going to stay. I just want to see Cousin Jane for a
minute.
ELLA
She’s in the kitchen with Hannah.
SADIE
Watchin’ her, I bet! I wonder Hannah puts up with it.
ELLA
If you was to live with Jane for a spell, I guess you’d find you had
a plenty to put up with.
SADIE
It’s enough to make the Jordans turn in their graves, all of ’em at
once.
ELLA
I guess all she’d say would be, “Let ’em if it seemed to make ’em any
more comfortable.”
[_Jane enters. She has apron on and some towels over her arm._
JANE
Are those towels finished?
ELLA
Some is! Maybe I’d done all of ’em if I’d been a centipede.
JANE
Oh! I didn’t see you, Sadie.
SADIE
Oh! Ha, ha! Well, I ain’t surprised.
JANE (_with Ella, selecting finished towels_) Well, Orin, does the
tooth still hurt you?
ORIN
Naw, it don’t hurt me none now. I got it in a bottle.
[_He takes small bottle from pocket._
NETTIE
Oh you nasty thing. You get away!
SADIE (_angrily_)
What did I tell you about showin’ that tooth to folks!
JANE
Never mind, Orin, just run out to the barn and tell your Uncle Ben
we’ve got to have a path cleared under the clothes-lines.
ORIN
All right.
[_He crosses toward door._
JANE
Hannah’s going to wash to-morrow, tell him. I’ll expect a good wide
path.
ORIN
I’ll tell him.
[_He exits._
SADIE
I must say you keep Ben right at it, don’t you?
JANE
Yes. (_She takes the last finished towel and speaks to Ella_) I’ll
come back for more.
SADIE (_as Jane crosses_)
First I thought he’d go to jail before he’d work, but he didn’t, did
he?
JANE
No.
[_She exits right._
SADIE
Yes. No! Yes. No! Folks that ain’t got no more gift of gab ain’t got
much gift of intellect. I s’pose Hannah’s out there.
ELLA
Yes, she keeps all of us just everlastingly at it.
SADIE
When Jane comes back, I wish you and Nettie would leave me alone with
her, just for a minute.
ELLA (_as she works over sewing machine_)
It won’t do you much good; she won’t lend any more money.
SADIE
Mother always helped me. I’ve got a right to expect it.
ELLA (_as she bites off a thread_)
Expectin’ ain’t gettin’.
SADIE
I don’t know what I’ll do.
ELLA
You had money out of her; so has Henry.
SADIE (_shocked, to Nettie_)
You don’t mean to say your father’s been borrowin’ from her.
[_This to Nettie._
NETTIE
He’s always borrowin’. Didn’t he borrow the hundred dollars grandma
left me? I’m not going to stand it much longer.
ELLA
Henry’s havin’ trouble with his business.
SADIE
We’re fools to put up with it. Everybody says so. We ought to contest
the will.
ELLA
Everybody says so but the lawyers; they won’t none of ’em touch the
case without they get money in advance.
SADIE
How much money? Didn’t your father find out, Nettie?
NETTIE
The least was five hundred dollars.
ELLA
Can you see us raisin’ that?
SADIE
If we was short, we might borrow it from Jane.
ELLA
We’d have to be smarter’n I see any signs of; she’s through lendin’.
SADIE
How do you know?
ELLA
I tried it myself.
SADIE
What do you want money for. Ain’t she takin’ you in to live with her?
ELLA
I don’t call myself beholden for that. She had to have some one, with
Ben here, and her unmarried, and next to no relation to him.
NETTIE
Everybody’s callin’ you the chaperon! (_She laughs_) Not but what
they ought to be one with _him_ around; he’s awful good lookin’.
SADIE
You keep away from him. He’s no blood kin of yours, and he’s a bad
man, if he is a Jordan. Always makes up to everything he sees in
petticoats, and always did.
NETTIE
Thanks for the compliment, but I’m not looking for any jailbirds.
ELLA
It will be awful, Ben in State’s Prison,--and I guess he’ll have to
go, soon as he stands his trial.
SADIE
He got drunk and had a fight with the two Kimbal boys, and they
licked him, and that night he burned down their barn; everybody knows
it.
ELLA
He’s bad, all through, Ben is.
NETTIE
He’ll get about five years, father says. I guess that will take some
of the spunk out of him.
[_A sound in the hall at right._
ELLA
Hush! I think he’s coming.
[_Ben enters at right with a big armful of firewood and crosses
and drops it heavily into woodbox, then turns and looks at them in
silence._
SADIE
Seems kind of funny, your luggin’ in the wood.
BEN (_bitterly_)
Does it?
SADIE
Did you see Orin out there?
BEN
Yes, he went along home.
SADIE
How do you like workin’?
BEN
How do you think I like it? Workin’ a big farm in winter, tendin’ the
stock and milking ten cows. How do I like it?
[_As he stands by fire Nettie looks up at him._
NETTIE
I think it’s just a shame!
SADIE (_turns to Ella_)
Are you going to make towels all the afternoon?
ELLA
I am ’til they’re done, then I expect she’ll find somethin’ else for
me to do.
NETTIE (_to Ben_)
Do you know I’m sorry for you, awful sorry.
[_She speaks low. Ella and Sadie are at the other side of room._
BEN
Then you’re the only one.
NETTIE
Maybe I am, but I’m like that.
BEN
Another month of it, then State’s Prison, I guess. I don’t know as
I’ll be sorry when the time comes.
NETTIE
Oh, Uncle Ben! No, I’m not goin’ to call you _that_. After all,
you’re not really any relation, are you? I mean to me?
BEN
No.
NETTIE (_softly_)
I’m just going to call you Ben!
BEN
You’re a good kid, Nettie.
NETTIE
Oh, it isn’t that, Ben, but it does just seem too awful.
[_As she looks up at him, the outside door opens and Henry and Emma
enter. They see Nettie and Ben together by the fire._
EMMA (_sternly_)
Nettie!
NETTIE (_sweetly_)
Yes, mother?
EMMA
You come away from him.
BEN (_angrily_)
What do you mean by that?
EMMA
You tell him, Henry.
HENRY
I don’t know as it’s any use to----
EMMA (_sternly_)
Tell him what I mean.
HENRY (_to Ben_)
Emma thinks, considerin’ everything, that it’s best Nettie shouldn’t
talk to you.
BEN
Why don’t you keep her at home then? You don’t suppose I want to talk
to her.
EMMA
Oh, we ain’t wanted here, I guess. We know that, not by you, or by
_her_;--and Henry’s the oldest of the Jordans. All this would be his,
if there was any justice in the world.
NETTIE
Father wouldn’t have taken that hundred dollars grandma left me if
there had been any justice in the world. That’s what I came here for,
not to talk to him. To tell Cousin Jane what father did, and to tell
her about Nellie Namlin’s Christmas party, and that I’ve got to have
a new dress. I’ve just got to!
SADIE
A new dress, and my rent ain’t paid. She’s got to pay it. My Orin’s
got to have a roof over his head.
HENRY
I don’t know as you’ve got any call to be pestering Jane all the time.
ELLA
She’s always wantin’ something.
SADIE
What about you? Didn’t you tell me yourself you tried to borrow from
her?
ELLA
I got a chance to set up in business, so as I can be independent. I
can go in with Mary Stanton, dressmakin’. I can do it for two hundred
dollars, and she’s got to give it to me.
HENRY
You ought to be ashamed, all three of you, worryin’ Jane all day
long. It’s more’n flesh and blood can stand!
NETTIE (_to him_)
Didn’t you say at breakfast you was coming here to-day to make Cousin
Jane endorse a note for you? Didn’t you?
EMMA (_fiercely_)
You hush!
BEN (_at back by window_)
Ha! Ha! Ha! Crow buzzards.
HENRY
Endorsing a note ain’t lending money, is it? It’s a matter of
business. I guess my note’s good.
BEN
Take it to the bank without her name on it and see how good it is.
EMMA
You don’t think we want to ask her favors, but Henry’s in bad trouble
and she’ll just have to help us this time.
BEN
There’s one way out of your troubles. One thing you could all do, for
a change, instead of making Jane pay all your bills. I wonder you
haven’t any of you thought of it.
HENRY
What could we do?
BEN
Go to work and earn something for yourselves.
SADIE
Like you do, I suppose.
EMMA
The laughing-stock of all Veazie!
ELLA
Everybody’s talkin’ about it, anywhere you go.
NETTIE
Jane Crosby’s White Slave, that’s what they call you. Jane Crosby’s
White Slave.
BEN (_fiercely_)
They call me that, do they?
ELLA (_to Nettie_)
Why can’t you ever hold your tongue?
BEN (_in cold anger_)
I’ve been a damned fool. I’m through.
[_Hannah enters._
HANNAH
She wants you.
BEN
Jane?
HANNAH
Yes.
BEN
I won’t come.
HANNAH
There’ll be another row.
BEN
Tell her I said I wouldn’t come.
[_He sits._
HANNAH
She’s awful set, you know, when she wants anything.
BEN
You tell her I won’t come.
HANNAH
Well, I don’t say I hanker none to tell her, but I’d rather be in my
shoes than your’n.
[_She exits._
SADIE
Well, I must say I don’t blame you a mite.
EMMA
If the Jordans is a lot of slaves, I guess it’s pretty near time we
knew it.
HENRY (_worried_)
She’ll turn you over to Judge Bradford, Ben; he’ll lock you up. It
ain’t goin’ to help me none with the bank, a brother of mine bein’ in
jail.
BEN
So they’re laughing at me, are they, damn them.
NETTIE (_at door right_)
She’s coming!
[_There is a moment’s pause and Jane enters door right. Hannah
follows to door and looks on eagerly._
JANE
I sent for you, Ben.
BEN
I won’t budge.
JANE (_wearily_)
Must we go through all this again?
BEN
I ain’t going to move out of this chair to-day. You do what you
damned please.
JANE
I am sorry, but you must.
BEN
Send for Jim Jay, have me locked up, do as you please. Oh, I’ve said
it before, but this time I mean it.
JANE
And you won’t come?
BEN
No.
JANE
Then I’ll do the best I can alone.
[_She crosses up to wall closet and opens it and selects a large
bottle, and turns. Ben rises quickly._
BEN
What do you want of that?
JANE
It’s one of the horses. I don’t know what’s the matter with her.
She’s down in her stall, just breathing. She won’t pay any attention
to me.
BEN
Old Nellie?
JANE
Yes.
BEN
What you got? (_He steps to her and takes the bottle from her and
looks at it_) That stuff’s no good. Here! (_He steps to cabinet and
selects another bottle_) If you hadn’t spent five minutes stalling
around, I might have had a better chance.
[_He exits quickly at left._
HANNAH
I allers said ’twas easier to catch flies with honey than ’twas with
vinegar.
HENRY
What’s Ben know about horses?
JANE
A lot.
HENRY
I didn’t know that.
JANE
Neither did Ben, six weeks ago.
[_She exits._
HENRY
Mother was like that, about animals. I guess Ben sort of takes after
her.
EMMA (_shocked_)
Ben! Like your mother!
HANNAH
Of course he is. He’s the “spit and image of her.”
[_She exits._
NETTIE
She made him go! It wouldn’t surprise me a mite if she’d pushed that
old horse over herself.
[_Jane enters._
JANE
He wouldn’t let me in the barn. (_For the first time in the play,
she laughs lightly_) Well--(_She looks about at them_) we have quite
a family gathering here this afternoon. I am wondering if there is
any--special reason for it?
HENRY
I wanted to talk with yer for just a minute, Jane.
SADIE
So do I.
JANE
Anybody else?
[_She looks about._
ELLA
I do.
NETTIE
So do I.
JANE
I’ve a lot to do; suppose I answer you all at once. I’m sorry, but I
won’t lend you any money.
HENRY
Of course, I didn’t think they’d call that note of mine; it’s only
five hundred, and you could just endorse it.
JANE
No!
SADIE
I was going to ask you----
JANE
No!
ELLA
I got a chance to be independent, Jane, and----No. I haven’t any
money. I won’t have before the first of the month.
EMMA
No money!
HENRY
I bet you’re worth as much to-day as you was the day mother died.
JANE
To a penny. I’ve lived, and run this house, and half supported all
of you on what I’ve made the place earn. Yesterday I spent the first
dollar that I didn’t have to spend. I mean, on myself. But that’s no
business of yours. I _am_ worth just as much as the day I took the
property, and I’m not going to run behind, so you see, after all, I’m
a real Jordan.
EMMA
Seems so. I never knew one of ’em yet who didn’t seem to think he
could take it with him.
HENRY
Well, Jane, I don’t know as it’s any use tryin’ to get you to change
your mind?
JANE
I’m sorry.
EMMA
You can leave that for us to be. I guess it’s about the only thing
we’ve got a right to. Get your things on, Nettie!
NETTIE
I’m going to stay a while with Aunt Ella; I won’t be late.
HENRY
I don’t know what I’m goin’ to do about that note. I s’pose I’ll find
some way out of it.
JANE
I hope so.
EMMA
Thank yer. Of course we know there’s always the poorhouse. Come,
Henry.
[_She exits at left, leaving the outside door open._
HENRY
Emma is a little upset. I hope you won’t mind her talk. I guess her
part of it ain’t any too easy.
[_He exits, shutting the door._
ELLA (_to Jane_)
Poor Henry! Of course I s’pose you’re right not to lend it to him.
But I don’t know as _I_ could do it, but I’m sensitive.
JANE
Perhaps it’s harder to say no than you think.
[_Hannah enters._
HANNAH
I got everything ready for to-morrow’s wash, but the sheets off your
bed, Miss Ella.
ELLA
Good Land! I forgot ’em. Nettie will bring ’em right down.
NETTIE (_to Jane_)
After that, I’m going to stay and help Aunt Ella. I was wondering if
you’d be here all the afternoon.
JANE
Yes.
NETTIE (_charmingly_)
Nothing special, you know. I’d just like to have a little visit with
you.
[_She exits at left with Ella._
HANNAH (_looks after her_)
Every time I listen to that girl I get fur on my tongue.
JANE
Fur?
HANNAH
Like when my dyspepsia’s coming. There’s two things I can’t abide,
her and cucumbers.
[_She crosses to door left._
JANE
Hannah!
HANNAH (_stops_)
Well?
JANE (_rather shyly_)
We are going to have rather a special supper to-night.
HANNAH (_doubtfully_)
We are?
JANE
Yes. That’s why I had you roast that turkey yesterday.
HANNAH (_firmly_)
That’s for Sunday!
JANE
No, it’s for to-night.
HANNAH (_angrily_)
Why is it?
JANE
It’s my birthday.
HANNAH
I didn’t know that.
JANE
No, it isn’t exactly a national holiday, but we’ll have the turkey,
and I’ll get some preserves up, and I want you to bake a cake, a
round one. We’ll have candles on it. I got some at the store this
morning.
HANNAH (_shocked_)
Candles?
JANE
Yes.
HANNAH
Who’s going to be to this party?
JANE (_a little self-conscious_)
Why--just--just ourselves.
HANNAH
Just you and Mr. Ben and Miss Ella?
JANE
Yes.
HANNAH
You don’t want candles on that cake, you want crape on it.
[_She exits door left._
[_Jane crosses up and starts to clear the dining-room table of its
red table cover, as Ben enters door left._
BEN (_cheerfully_)
Well, I fixed Old Nellie up. (_He puts his bottle back in its place
in the wall cabinet_) Just got her in time. Thought she was gone for
a minute, but she’s going to be all right.
JANE
That’s good.
[_She folds the tablecloth up and puts it away._
BEN (_in front of fire_)
She knew what I was doin’ for her too; you could tell by the way she
looked at me! She’ll be all right, poor old critter. I remember her
when she was a colt, year before I went to high school.
[_Jane crosses into room, shutting the dining-room door after her._
JANE
You like animals, don’t you, Ben?
BEN (_surprised_)
I don’t know. I don’t like to see ’em suffer.
JANE
Why?
BEN
I guess it’s mostly because they ain’t to blame for it. I mean what
comes to ’em ain’t their fault. If a woman thinks she’s sick, ’til
she gets sick, that’s her business. If a man gets drunk, or eats like
a hog, he’s got to pay for it, and he ought to. Animals live cleaner
than we do anyhow--and when you do anything for ’em they’ve got
gratitude. Folks haven’t.
JANE
Hand me that sewing basket, Ben.
[_She has seated herself at left center by table. Ben at left of
table, hands her the basket as she picks up some sewing._
BEN
It’s funny, but except for a dog or two, I don’t remember carin’
nothin’ for any of the live things, when I lived here I mean.
JANE
I guess that’s because you didn’t do much for them.
BEN
I guess so--Sometimes I kind of think I’d like to be here when spring
comes--and see all the young critters coming into the world--I should
think there’d be a lot a feller could do, to make it easier for ’em.
JANE
Yes.
BEN
Everybody’s always makin’ a fuss over women and their babies. I guess
animals have got some feelings, too.
JANE (_sewing_)
Yes.
BEN
I _know_ it--Yes, sometimes I sort of wish I could be here, in the
spring.
JANE
You’ll be a big help.
BEN
I’ll be in prison. (_He looks at her. She drops her head and goes on
sewing_) You forgot that, didn’t yer?
JANE
Yes.
BEN
What’s the difference? A prison ain’t just a place; it’s bein’
somewheres you don’t want to be, and that’s where I’ve always been.
JANE
You liked the army?
BEN
I s’pose so.
JANE
Why?
BEN
I don’t know, there was things to do, and you did ’em.
JANE
And some one to tell you what to do?
BEN
Maybe that’s it, somebody that knew better’n I did. It galled me at
first, but pretty soon we got over in France, an’ I saw we was really
doin’ something, then I didn’t mind. I just got to doin’ what I was
told, and it worked out all right.
JANE
You liked France, too?
BEN
Yes.
JANE
I’d like to hear you tell about it.
BEN
Maybe I’ll go back there some time. I don’t know as I’d mind farming
a place over there. Most of their farms are awful little, but I don’t
know but what I’d like it.
JANE
Farming is farming. Why not try it here?
BEN
Look out there! (_He points out of the window at the drifted snow_)
It’s like that half the year, froze up, everything, most of all the
people. Just a family by itself, maybe. Just a few folks, good an’
bad, month after month, with nothin’ to think about but just the mean
little things, that really don’t amount to nothin’, but get to be
bigger than all the world outside.
JANE (_sewing_)
Somebody must do the farming, Ben.
BEN
Somebody like the Jordans, that’s been doin’ it generation after
generation. Well, look at us. I heard a feller, in a Y.M.C.A. hut,
tellin’ how nature brought animals into the world, able to face what
they had to face----
JANE
Yes, Ben?
BEN
That’s what nature’s done for us Jordans,--brought us into the world
half froze before we was born. Brought us into the world mean, and
hard, so’s we could live the hard, mean life we have to live.
JANE
I don’t know, Ben, but what you could live it different.
BEN
They _laugh_ over there, and sing, and God knows when I was there
they didn’t have much to sing about. I was at a rest camp, near
Nancy, after I got wounded. I told you about the French lady with all
those children that I got billeted with.
JANE
Yes.
BEN
They used to _sing_, right at the table, and laugh! God! It brought a
lump into my throat mor’n once, lookin’ at them, and rememberin’ the
Jordans!
JANE
I guess there wasn’t much laughing at your family table.
BEN
Summers nobody had much time for it, and winters,--well, I guess you
know.
JANE
Yes.
BEN
Just a few folks together, day after day, and every little thing you
don’t like about the other raspin’ on your nerves ’til it almost
drives you crazy! Most folks quiet, because they’ve said all the
things they’ve got to say a hundred times; other folks talkin’,
talkin’, talkin’ about nothing. Sometimes somebody sort of laughs,
and it scares you; seems like laughter needs the sun, same as flowers
do. Icebound, that’s what we are all of us, inside and out.
[_He stands looking grimly out window._
JANE
Not all. I laughed a lot before I came here to live.
BEN (_turns and looks at her_)
I remember, you were just a little girl.
JANE
I was fourteen. See if there’s a spool of black sewing cotton in that
drawer.
BEN (_looking in drawer_)
You mean thread?
JANE
Yes.
BEN
This it?
[_He holds up a spool of white thread._
JANE
Would you call that black?
BEN (_looks it over_)
No--it ain’t black. (_He searches and finds black thread_) Maybe this
is it!
JANE
Maybe it is! (_She takes it_) You were with that French family quite
a while, weren’t you?
BEN
Most a month; they was well off, you know; I mean, they was, before
the war. It was a nice house.
JANE (_sewing_)
How nice?
BEN (_hesitates_)
I don’t know, things--well--useful, you know, but nice, not like this.
[_He looks about._
JANE (_looks around with a sigh_)
It’s not very pretty, but it could be. I could make it.
BEN
If you did, folks would be sayin’ you wasn’t respectable.
JANE
Tell me about the dinner they gave you the night before you went back
to your company.
BEN
I told you.
JANE
Tell me again.
BEN (_smiles to himself at the remembrance_)
They was all dressed up, the whole family, and there I was with just
my dirty old uniform.
JANE
Yes.
BEN (_lost in his recollections_)
It was a fine dinner, but it wasn’t that. It was their doin’ so much
for me, folks like that--I’ve sort of pictured ’em lots of times
since then.
JANE
Go on.
BEN
All of the young ones laughing and happy, and the mother too,
laughing and tryin’ to talk to me, and neither one of us knowing much
about what the other one was sayin’.
[_He and Jane both laugh._
JANE
And the oldest daughter? The one that was most grown up?
BEN
She was scared of me somehow, but I don’t know as ever I’ve seen a
girl like her, before or since.
JANE
Maybe ’twas that dress you told me about; seems to me you don’t
remember much else about her; not so much as what color her hair was,
only just that that dress was blue.
BEN (_thoughtfully_)
Yes.
JANE (_sewing_)
Sometimes you say dark blue!
[_She is watching him closely through half-shut eyes._
BEN (_absently_)
I guess so.
JANE
And then I say, dark as something I point out to you, that isn’t dark
at all, and you say, “No, lighter than that!”
BEN (_absently_)
Just--sort of blue.
JANE
Yes, sort of blue. It had lace on it, too, didn’t it?
BEN
Lace? Maybe--yes, lace.
JANE
There’s more than one blue dress in the world.
BEN
Like enough. Maybe there’s mor’n one family like that lady’s, but
I’ll be damned if they live in Veazie. (_He crosses and opens
cupboard and selects a bottle_) I might as well run out and see how
the old mare is getting on.
[_He selects bottle from shelf._
JANE
And you’ve got to shovel those paths for the clothes lines yet.
BEN
I know.
JANE
Well, don’t forget.
BEN
It ain’t likely you’ll let me.
[_He exits at door right. Jane laughs softly to herself, and runs
to closet and takes out a large cardboard box and putting it on the
table, she cuts the string and removes the wrapping paper, then
lifts the cover of the box and draws out a dainty light-blue gown
with soft lace on the neck and sleeves. She holds it up joyfully,
then covering her own dress with it, she looks at herself in a mirror
on wall. As she stands smiling at her reflection, there is a sharp
knock on the outside door. Jane hastily returns dress to box and as
the knock is repeated, she puts the box under the sofa at left and
crosses and opens the outside door._
_Judge Bradford enters._
JANE
Oh, it’s you, Judge! Come in.
JUDGE
I thought I’d stop on my way home and see how you were getting on,
Jane.
JANE
I’ll take your coat.
JUDGE
I’ll just put it here. (_He puts coat on chair_) Have you time to sit
down a minute?
JANE
Of course.
[_They sit._
JUDGE (_looks at her_)
That isn’t a smile on your lips, is it, Jane?
JANE
Maybe----
JUDGE (_laughingly_)
I’m glad I came!
JANE
It’s my birthday.
JUDGE
Why, Jane! (_He crosses to her and holds out his hand. She takes it_)
Many happy returns!
JANE (_thoughtfully_)
Many--happy returns--that’s a lot to ask for.
JUDGE
You’re about twenty-two, or twenty-three, aren’t you?
JANE
Twenty-three.
JUDGE
Time enough ahead of you. (_His eye falls on the box, imperfectly
hidden under the sofa; out of it a bit of the blue dress is
sticking_) Hello! What’s all that?
JANE
My birthday present.
JUDGE
Who gave it to you?
JANE
I did.
JUDGE
Good! It’s about time you started to blossom out.
JANE
I ordered a lot of things from Boston; they’ll be here to-morrow.
JUDGE
I suppose that one’s a dress?
JANE
Yes.
JUDGE (_bends over to look_)
Light blue, isn’t it?
JANE (_smiles_)
Just sort of blue--with lace on it.
JUDGE
Oh, you’re going to wear it, I suppose, in honor of your birthday?
JANE (_startled_)
To-night--oh, no--soon maybe, but not to-night.
JUDGE (_smiles_)
How soon?
JANE
Soon as I dare to; not just yet.
JUDGE
You have plenty of money; you ought to have every comfort in the
world, and some of the luxuries.
JANE (_gravely_)
Judge! I want you to do something for me.
JUDGE
And of course I’ll do it.
JANE
I want you to get Ben off. I want you to fix it so he won’t go to
State’s Prison.
JUDGE
But if he’s guilty, Jane?
JANE
I want you to go to old Mr. Kimbal for me and offer to pay him for
that barn of his that Ben burned down. Then I want you to fix it so
he won’t push the case, so’s Ben gets off.
JUDGE
Do you know what you are asking of me?
JANE
To get Ben off.
JUDGE
To compound a felony.
JANE
Those are just words, Judge, and words don’t matter much to me. I
might say I wasn’t asking you to compound a felony. I was askin’ you
to save a sinner, but those would be just words too. There’s nobody
else; you’ve _got_ to help me.
JUDGE (_thoughtfully_)
I’ve always thought a lot could be done for Ben, by a good lawyer.
JANE
It doesn’t matter how, so long as it’s done.
JUDGE
He was drinking, with a crowd of young men; the two Kimbal boys
jumped on him and beat him up rather badly. That’s about all we know,
aside from the fact that Ben was drunk, and that that night the
Kimbals’ barn was set on fire.
JANE
Just so long as you can get him off, Judge.
JUDGE
I think a case of assault could be made against the Kimbal boys, and
I think it would stand.
JANE
What of it?
JUDGE
It is quite possible that the old man, if he knew that action was
to be taken against his sons, and if he could be tactfully assured
of payment for his barn, say by Ben, in a year’s time, might be
persuaded to petition to have the indictment against Ben withdrawn.
In that event, I think the chances would be very much in Ben’s favor.
JANE
I don’t care what names you call it, so long as it’s done. Will you
fix it?
JUDGE
Well, it’s not exactly a proper proceeding for a Judge of the Circuit
Court.
JANE
I knew you’d do it.
JUDGE
Yes, and I think you knew why, didn’t you?
JANE
Ever since she’s died, you’ve helped me about everything. Before she
died you were just as good to me, and nobody else was.
JUDGE
I am glad you said that, because it clears me from the charge of
being what poor Ben calls “one of the crow buzzards,” and I don’t
want you to think me that.
JANE
No, you’re not that.
JUDGE
I love you, Jane.
JANE
No!
JUDGE
Yes--I’ve done that for a long while. Don’t you think you could get
used to the thought of being my wife?
JANE (_gently_)
No.
JUDGE
I think I could make you happy.
JANE
No.
JUDGE
I am afraid being happy is something you don’t know very much about.
JANE
No.
JUDGE
It isn’t a thing that I am going to hurry you over, my dear, but
neither is it a thing that I am going to give up hoping for.
JANE
When you told me, that day, that Mrs. Jordan had left me all her
money, I couldn’t understand; then, afterwards, you gave me the
letter she left for me. I want you to read it.
JUDGE
What has her letter to do with us?
JANE
Maybe, reading it, you’ll get to know something you’ve got a right to
know, better than I could tell it to you.
JUDGE
Very well.
JANE
It’s here. (_She opens drawer, and selects a letter in a woman’s
old-fashioned handwriting, from a large envelope of papers_) She was
a cold woman, Judge. She never let me get close to her, although I
tried. She didn’t love me. I was as sure of it then as I am now.
(_She holds out the letter_) Read it.
JUDGE
If it’s about the thing I’ve been speaking of, I’d rather hear it in
your voice.
JANE (_reads_)
“My dear Jane, the doctor tells me I haven’t long to live, and so
I’m doing this, the meanest thing I think I’ve ever done to you. I’m
leaving you the Jordan money. Since my husband died, there has been
just one person I could get to care about; that’s Ben, who was my
baby so long after all the others had forgotten how to love me. And
Ben’s a bad son, and a bad man. I can’t leave him the money; he’d
squander it, and the Jordans’ money came hard.”
JUDGE
Poor woman! It was a bitter thing for her to have to write like that.
JANE (_reads on_)
“If squandering the money would bring him happiness, I’d face all the
Jordans in the other world and laugh at them, but I know there’s only
just one chance to save my boy,--through a woman who will hold out
her heart to him and let him trample on it, as he has on mine.”
JUDGE (_in sudden fear_)
Jane!
JANE (_reads on_)
“Who’d work, and pray, and live for him, until as age comes on, and
maybe he gets a little tired, he’ll turn to her. And you’re that
woman, Jane; you’ve loved him ever since you came to us. Although he
doesn’t even know it. The Jordan name is his, the money’s yours, and
maybe there’ll be another life for you to guard. God knows it isn’t
much I’m leaving you, but you can’t refuse it, because you love him,
and when he knows the money is yours, he will want to marry you. I’m
a wicked old woman. Maybe you’ll learn to forgive me as time goes
on--It takes a long time to make a Jordan.” (_Jane drops her hand to
her side_) Then she just signed her name.
JUDGE
Is the damnable thing she says there true?
JANE
Yes, Judge.
JUDGE
And you’re going to do this thing for her?
JANE
No, for him.
JUDGE (_bitterly_)
He isn’t worth it.
JANE
I guess you don’t understand.
JUDGE
No.
[_He crosses and picks up his coat._
JANE
You can’t go like that, angry. You have to pay a price for being a
good man, Judge--I need your help.
JUDGE
You mean _he_ needs my help?
JANE
Yes, and you’ll have to give it to him, if what you said a little
while ago was true.
JUDGE (_after a pause_)
It _was_ true, Jane. I’ll help him.
[_He picks up his hat._
JANE
I’ve an errand at the store. I’ll go with you.
[_She takes hat and coat from rack and puts them on._
JUDGE
Is it anything I could have sent up for you?
JANE (_putting on coat_)
I guess not. You see, I’ve got to match a color.
JUDGE
Another new dress?
JANE (_they start toward door_)
Just a ribbon, for my hair.
JUDGE
I didn’t know women still wore ribbons in their hair.
JANE
It seems they do--in France.
[_They exit together at left to the outside door and off._
_Nettie and Ella enter quickly, after a slight pause, Nettie running
in from right, followed more sedately by Ella._
NETTIE
You see! I was right! She went with him.
[_She has run to window left and is looking out._
ELLA
That’s what money does. If mother hadn’t left her everything, he
wouldn’t have touched her with a ten-foot pole.
NETTIE
Well, if she’s fool enough to stay in this place, I guess he’s about
the best there is.
ELLA
Then trust her for gettin’ him; by the time she gets through in
Veazie, this town will be barer than Mother Hubbard’s cupboard by the
time the dog got there. (_Her eye falls on Jane’s box, partly under
sofa._) What’s that?
[_She bends over, looking at it._
NETTIE
What?
ELLA
I never saw it before. (_She draws it out_) Looks like a dress. See!
Blue silk!
NETTIE
Open it.
ELLA (_hesitates_)
Must be hers! Maybe she wouldn’t like it.
NETTIE
Maybe she wouldn’t know it.
ELLA
A cat can look at a king!
[_She opens the box and holds up the blue dress._
NETTIE
Oh! Oh!
ELLA (_really moved_)
Some folks would say a dress like that wasn’t decent, but I wouldn’t
care, not if it was mine, and it might have been mine--but for her.
NETTIE
Yours! Grandma wouldn’t have left her money to you. She hated old
people. Everybody does. She’d have left it to me, but for Jane
Crosby!
ELLA (_looks at dress_)
I always wanted a dress like this; when I was young, I used to dream
about one, but mother only laughed. For years I counted on gettin’ me
what I wanted, when she died; now I never will.
NETTIE (_fiercely_)
I will--somehow!
ELLA
Maybe but not me. Oh, if I could have the feelin’ of a dress like
that on me, if I could wear it once, where folks could see me--Just
once! Oh, I know how they’d laugh--I wouldn’t care----
NETTIE (_almost in tears_)
I can’t stand it if she’s going to wear things like that.
ELLA
I’ll put it back.
[_She starts to do so._
NETTIE (_catches her hand_)
Not yet.
ELLA
I guess the less we look at it, the better off we’ll be.
[_There is a ring at the front door._
NETTIE
Who’s that?
ELLA
Here! (_She hands the box to Nettie_) Shove it back under the sofa.
I’ll go and see. (_She turns and crosses to door left and out to the
vestibule. Nettie, with the box in her arms, hesitates for a moment
then turns and exits at right, taking the box with her. Ella opens
the outside door at left, showing Orin on the doorstep. Ella looks at
him angrily_) For time’s sake, what are _you_ ringing the bell for?
ORIN
Mum says for me not to act like I belonged here.
ELLA
Well, I’m goin’ to shut the door. Git in or git out!
ORIN
I got a note. (_He enters room as Ella shuts door_) It’s for her.
ELLA (_holds out hand_)
Let me see it.
ORIN
Mum said not to let on I had nothin’ if you came nosin’ around.
[_Jane enters from left._
JANE
I just ran across to the store. I haven’t been five minutes.
[_She takes coat off._
ELLA
He’s got a note for you, from Sadie.
JANE
Oh, let me see it, Orin.
ORIN (_gives her note_)
She said, if you said is they an answer, I was to say yes, they is.
JANE
Just a minute.
[_She opens note and reads it._
ELLA
I must say she didn’t lose much time.
JANE (_after reading note_) Poor Sadie! Wait, Orin! (_She sits at
table and takes checkbook from the drawer and writes_) Just take this
to your mother.
ELLA
You don’t mean you’re goin’ to----
JANE
Be quiet, Ella. Here, Orin. (_She hands him check_) Don’t lose it,
and run along.
ORIN
All right. Mum said we was goin’ to have dinner early, and go to a
movie! Good night.
JANE (_again writing in checkbook_)
Good night.
[_Orin exits._
ELLA
So you sent her her rent money, after all?
JANE
Here!
[_She rises and hands a check to Ella._
ELLA
What’s that?
JANE
Two hundred dollars. You can try that dressmaking business if you
want to, Ella.
ELLA
[_Looks at check._
Two hundred dollars!
JANE
You needn’t thank me.
ELLA
That ain’t it. I was just wonderin’ what’s come over you all of a
sudden.
[_Ben enters._
JANE
It’s my birthday, that’s all. Did you know it was my birthday, Ben?
BEN (_carelessly_)
Is it? I shoveled them damned paths!
[_He crosses and sits by fire._
JANE
Ella’s going into the dressmaking business, Ben.
BEN (_moodily_)
What of it?
ELLA
That’s what I say. It ain’t much of a business.
[_She exits at right; outside it grows to dusk._
JANE
Are you tired?
BEN
Maybe.
[_He stretches his feet out toward fire._
JANE
You’ve done a lot of work to-day.
BEN
And every day.
JANE
I don’t suppose you know how much good it’s done you, how well you
look!
BEN
Beauty’s only skin deep.
JANE
Folks change, even in a few weeks, outside and in. Hard work don’t
hurt anybody.
BEN
I got chilblains on my feet. The damned shoes are stiffer than they
ever was.
JANE
Icebound, you said. Maybe it don’t have to be like that. Sometimes,
just lately, it’s seemed to me that if folks would try, things
needn’t be so bad. All of ’em try, I mean, for themselves, and for
everybody else.
BEN
If I was you, I’d go out somewheres and hire a hall.
JANE
If you’d put some pork fat on those shoes to-night, your feet
wouldn’t hurt so bad.
BEN
Maybe.
[_He sits looking moodily into the fire. After a moment’s hesitation,
Jane crosses and sits in the chair beside his, the evening shadows
deepen around them but the glow from the fire lights their faces._
JANE
I’m lonesome to-night. We always made a lot of birthdays when I was a
girl.
BEN
Some do.
JANE
Your mother didn’t. She found me once trying, the day I was fifteen.
I remember how she laughed at me.
BEN
All the Jordans have got a sense of humor.
JANE
She wasn’t a Jordan, not until she married your father.
BEN
When a woman marries into a family, she mostly shuts her eyes and
jumps in all over.
JANE
Your mother was the best of the whole lot of you. Anyway, I think so.
BEN
I _know_ it. I always thought a lot of her, in spite of our being
relations.
JANE
She loved you, Ben.
BEN
She left me without a dollar, knowin’ I was going to State’s Prison,
and what I’d be by the time I get out.
JANE
Maybe some day you’ll understand why she did it.
BEN
Because she thought you’d take better care of the money than any of
the rest of us.
JANE
And you hate me because of that, the way all the rest of the Jordans
do?
BEN
Sometimes.
JANE (_sadly_)
I suppose it’s natural.
BEN
But I ain’t such a fool as Henry, and the women folks. They think
you took advantage and fooled her into what she did. I thought so at
first, now I don’t.
JANE
What do you think now, Ben?
BEN
She’d watched you; she knew you were worth mor’n all of us in a lump.
I know it, too, but some way it riles me worse than if you wasn’t.
JANE
That’s silly!
BEN (_with growing resentment_)
Don’t you suppose I know what you’ve been doin’ to me. Tryin’ to make
a man of me. Tryin’ to help me. Standing up to me and fightin’ me
every day, tryin’ to teach me to be decent. Workin’ over me like I
was a baby, or somethin’, and you was tryin’ to teach me how to walk.
Gettin’ me so upset that every time I don’t do what I ought to do, I
get all het up inside; I never was so damned uncomfortable in all my
life.
JANE
And I never was so happy.
BEN
I s’pose God knew what he was about when he made women.
JANE
Of course he did.
BEN
Anyhow, he gave ’em the best of it, all right.
JANE
You don’t mean that! You _can’t_!
BEN
I do. Let a man get miserable, and he is miserable. A woman ain’t
really happy no other way.
JANE
Maybe you think I’m having an easier time right now than you are.
BEN
I know it.
JANE
They all hate me, and they all want something, all the time. I can’t
say yes, and it’s hard to always say no. Then there’s the farm, big,
and poor, and all worked out. The Jordans have been taking their
living out of this soil for more than a hundred years, and never
putting anything back.
BEN
Just themselves, that’s all.
JANE
Worked right, like they do out West, this place could be what it
ought to be. How can I do that; it needs a man.
BEN
I been thinkin’ lately things could be done a whole lot different.
JANE
By a man, if he loved the old place-- You Jordans robbed this soil
always. Suppose one of you tried to pay it back--it would mean work
and money, for a couple of years maybe, then I guess you’d see what
gratitude meant.
BEN
It could be done; it ought to be.
JANE
By you, Ben!
BEN
No--I guess I ain’t got the judgment.
JANE
You’ve got it, if you’d learn to use it.
BEN
Anyhow, I’ve got just a month, that’s all.
JANE
Maybe you’ll have more.
BEN
I’m as good as convicted as I sit here. I’ve only got a month.
JANE
Then help me for that month. We could plan how to start out in the
spring. I’ve got books that will help us, and I can get more. We
could do a lot!
BEN
I don’t know but what we could!
JANE (_bends toward him_)
Will you shake hands on it?
[_She offers her hand._
BEN (_surprised_)
What for?
JANE
Oh, just because we never have.
BEN
We ain’t goin’ to change _everything_, are we?
JANE
One thing. We’re going to be friends.
BEN (_takes her hand awkwardly_)
You’re a good sport, game as a man, gamer maybe.
JANE
And now for the surprise.
BEN
The what!
JANE (_draws her hand away and rises_)
You’ll see. I want you to sit right here, until I open those doors.
[_She points to doors to dining room._
BEN
I wasn’t thinkin’ of movin’.
JANE
Just sit right there.
BEN
And do what?
JANE
Think.
BEN
What of?
JANE
Oh, anything--so long as it’s pleasant--of the spring that’s
coming----
BEN
In the prison down at Thomaston.
JANE
Of France then, of the family that was so good to you--of the
beautiful lady--of the daughter, if you want to, the one that was
most grown up--and of the wonderful blue dress. Just shut your eyes
and think, ’til I come back!
[_She exits through doors to dining room and closes the doors after
her. Ben sits in glow from the fire, his eyes closed. In a moment the
door at right is thrown open and Nettie stands in the doorway, the
light from the hall falling on her. She has on Jane’s blue dress and
is radiant with youth and excitement._
NETTIE
Ben! Look at me! Look, Ben!
BEN
What?
NETTIE
Look Ben!
[_He looks at her and for a moment sits in stupid wonder, then rises
slowly to his feet._
BEN
It’s--It’s Nettie!
NETTIE
Did you ever see anything so lovely, did you?
BEN
You’re--you’re a woman, Nettie!
NETTIE
Of course I am, you stupid!
BEN (_crosses down to her_)
God! How I’ve starved for somethin’ pretty to look at! God! How I’ve
starved for it!
NETTIE
That’s why I came down, I wanted you to see! I waited there in the
hall till she went out.
BEN
And you’ve been here all the time, and I haven’t so much as looked at
you!
NETTIE (_softly_)
You’ve been in trouble, Ben!
BEN
I’ll get out of that somehow! I’m going to make a fight. I ain’t
goin’ to let ’em take me now.
NETTIE
Honest, Ben?
BEN
Not now. Oh, you pretty kid! You pretty little thing!
[_He catches her fiercely in his arms._
NETTIE
You mustn’t, Ben!
BEN (_triumphant_)
Mustn’t! You don’t know me!
NETTIE
Just one then! (_She holds up her lips, and as he kisses her
ardently, the dining-room doors back of them open and Jane stands
in the doorway, looking at them. She has removed her apron and has
made some poor attempt at dressing up. Back of her we see the table
bravely spread for the festive birthday party. There is a large
turkey and other special dishes, and a round cake on which blaze
twenty-two tiny candles. They turn their heads, startled, as Jane
looks at them, and Ben tightens his arms defiantly about Nettie_) Let
me go!
BEN (_holding her and looking past her to Jane_) No! (_Then to Jane_)
Why are you looking at me like that?
NETTIE
Let me go.
BEN (_to Jane_)
To hell with your dream of grubbing in the dirt. Now I know what I
want, and I’m going to get it.
NETTIE
Let go, dear. (_She draws away_) I’m ashamed about wearin’ your
dress, Cousin Jane. I’ll take it right off.
JANE
You needn’t. I guess I don’t want it any more. (_For the first time
her eyes leave Ben’s face. She turns and steps past them to the door
at right and calls_) Supper’s ready, Ella!
[_Hannah enters at back in dining room with a plate of hot biscuits._
CURTAIN
ACT III
_Scene: Same as Act One. Parlor at the Jordans’, two months later._
_At rise the characters are grouped exactly as they were at the
opening of the play. The white slip covers, however, have been
removed from the chairs, and the backing through the window shows
partly melted snow drifts. Henry sighs; the clock strikes two. Henry
looks at his watch._
_There is a pause. The outside door slams and Ben enters and looks
about._
BEN
Well--here we all are again.
SADIE (_sadly_)
Yes.
HENRY
I ain’t been in this room before since the funeral.
SADIE
And I ain’t, and the last time before that was when father died.
EMMA
I sat right here, in the same chair I’m settin’ in now, but to your
grandfather’s funeral, right after I married Henry, I was treated
like one of the poor relations! I had to stand up.
HENRY
I remember; it made considerable trouble.
ELLA
I don’t know as it was ever what I called a cheerful room.
HENRY (_severely_)
A parlor’s where a person’s supposed to sit and think of God, and you
couldn’t expect it to be cheerful!
ELLA (_looks about_)
Seems like we’d had trouble and disgrace enough in this family
without her takin’ all the slip covers off of the chairs and sofa!
EMMA
It ain’t _right_!
SADIE
That Boston woman that’s building the house over on Elm Street ain’t
so much as goin’ to have a parlor. I stopped her right on the street
and asked her what she was plannin’ to do soon as the first of ’em
died.
EMMA
What did she say?
SADIE
Said she tried not to think about such things.
HENRY (_sternly_)
We got Atheists enough in this town right now.
BEN
Well, if Jane’s coming I wish she’d come; this ain’t exactly my idea
of pleasant company.
ELLA
She says we’re all to wait in here for Judge Bradford.
SADIE
What did she send for us for?
ELLA
I don’t know.
EMMA
Why didn’t you ask her?
ELLA
I did, and she most bit my head off.
BEN
She most bites mine off every time I see her. I must say she’s
changed, Jane has; she ain’t the same girl at all she was a few weeks
ago.
NETTIE
She’s actin’ just awful, especially to me!
SADIE
Of course, I’d be the last one to say anything against her, but----
BEN
But nothin’! There ain’t one of you here fit to tie her shoes!
SADIE
_We_ ain’t?
BEN
And I ain’t! The only difference between us is I ain’t worth much and
I know it, and you ain’t worth nothin’ and you don’t.
EMMA
I guess you’d better be careful how you talk!
NETTIE
If anybody says anything about Jane lately, that’s the way he always
talks! The worse she treats him the better he seems to like it.
SADIE
Well, I don’t know as I’m surprised more about his insultin’ the
rest of us, but it’s sort of comical his talkin’ that way about you,
Nettie.
EMMA
Nettie! What’s Nettie got to do with him?
SADIE
Oh! Excuse me! I didn’t know ’twas supposed to be a secret.
EMMA
What is?
SADIE
About the way those two have been carryin’ on together!
HENRY
What!
ELLA
Ben and Nettie!
NETTIE (_afraid_)
Stop her, Ben, can’t you?
BEN
If I knew a way to stop women like her I’d patent it and get rich!
EMMA (_sternly_)
Him and Nettie?
SADIE
They passed my house together _once_ a week ago Wednesday, _once_ the
Tuesday before that, and _twice_ the Sunday after New Year’s.
HENRY
Together!
SADIE
And Eben Tilden’s boy told Abbie Palsey that Tilly Hickson heard
Aaron Hamlin say he’d seen ’em together at the picture show!
HENRY (_to Ben_)
Is it true?
EMMA
You’ve been with him after all I told you!
BEN
It ain’t going to hurt her none just to talk to me, is it?
EMMA
Them that touches pitch gets defiled!
HENRY (_to Nettie_)
I want you to tell me everything that’s took place between you two.
SADIE
Wait!
HENRY
What?
SADIE
Orin! Leave the room!
NETTIE
He don’t have to leave the room. I don’t care who knows what happened!
HENRY
Go on then.
NETTIE
Well--Ben and I--We--Just for a few days--anyway, it was all his
fault.
BEN
She threw me down because I was going to prison.
NETTIE
He said he’d get out of it somehow, but he can’t, and I just won’t
have folks laughing at me!
BEN
It’s all right, it never meant nothin’ to her, and I guess it didn’t
mean much to me. It’s just as well it’s over.
NETTIE
It’s a whole lot better.
HENRY
Well--what’s passed is passed. Folks that plant the wind reap the
whirlwind! There’s no use cryin’ over spilled milk.
ORIN
Say, Mum! What do you s’pose Uncle Henry thinks he means when he says
things?
HENRY
Somehow I can’t help wishin’ you was my son for just about five
minutes.
[_Hannah and Judge Bradford enter._
HANNAH
They’re all in here, Judge.
JUDGE
Good afternoon.
HENRY
How are you, Judge?
SADIE
It’s a mild day; winter’s most over. Stop scratching yourself.
[_This last to Orin who seems to be uneasy and frequently scratches
himself._
HANNAH (_at door_)
I’ll tell her you’re here, Judge. She’ll be right down.
[_Hannah exits._
ELLA
Won’t you sit?
JUDGE
Thanks.
[_He sits by table._
HENRY
What’s it about? Why did she say we was to all be here at two o’clock?
JUDGE
She will probably be able to answer that question herself, Ben.
SADIE (_to Orin_)
Don’t.
ORIN
What?
SADIE
Scratch!
ORIN
Oh.
[_Jane enters. The Judge rises._
JUDGE
Well, Jane?
JANE
Don’t get up, Judge.
JUDGE
Will you sit here?
[_Judge turns to get a chair for Jane. Orin scratches himself. Ella
rises._
ELLA
What is the matter with this brat?
ORIN
I itch!
SADIE
It’s warm, and he’s got on his heavy flannels! He’s as clean as you
are!
[_Jane and Judge sit._
BEN
You said to heat this room up and wait here for you and the Judge.
Why? I got my stock to tend.
HENRY
It’s a bad time for me to get away from the store; What was it you
wanted of us?
JANE
I’m afraid it isn’t going to be easy to tell you.
JUDGE
Won’t you let me do it, Jane?
JANE
No. I’ve come to know that your mother didn’t really want that I
should have the Jordan money.
SADIE
What’s that?
JANE
I put it as simply as I could.
BEN
You mean a later will’s been found?
JUDGE
No.
JANE
In a way, Judge, it’s like there had. Your mother left me a letter
dated later than the will.
ELLA
Leavin’ the money different?
JANE
Tellin’ what she really wanted.
BEN
Well, what did she want?
JANE
It was like she left me all her money in trust, so I could keep it
safe until the time she was hopin’ for come, and in a way it did
come, not quite like she wanted it, but near enough so I can give up
a burden I haven’t strength enough to carry any more.
[_She stops._
JUDGE
Let me finish, Jane. Jane has asked me to draw a deed of gift, making
the Jordan property over to Ben.
BEN
Why?
JANE
She wanted you to have it.
BEN
Why didn’t she will it to me, then?
JANE
She was afraid to trust you.
BEN
Well?
JANE
You’ve learned to work; you’ll keep on working.
HENRY
You mean to say my mother wanted him to have it all?
JANE
Yes.
HENRY
I am a religious man, but there was a time when even Job gave up!
So--all our money goes to Ben--and he can’t even buy himself out of
prison!
JANE (_after a pause_)
Ben isn’t going to prison.
BEN
Why? Who’s to stop it?
JUDGE (_after a look from Jane_)
Kimbal agreed not to press the charge against you. It seems that
there were certain extenuating circumstances. A motion has been made
for the dismissal of the indictment, and it won’t be opposed.
BEN
Why did he? Who fixed this thing.
JANE
Judge Bradford did.
[_She looks at Judge._
BEN (_slowly_)
It means a lot to me. There’s things I’d like to do. I haven’t dared
to think about ’em lately--now I’ll do ’em.
[_There is a pause._
HENRY
Well, Ben, so you’ve got the money! I guess maybe it’s better than
her havin’ it; after all blood’s thicker than water! We’ll help you
any way we can and--er--of course you’ll help us.
BEN
Why will I?
HENRY
We’re brothers, Ben! We’re old Jordans!
BEN
What was we when I got back from France? There was a band met us boys
at the station. I was your brother all right that day, only somehow,
in just a little while you forgot about it. I was a Jordan when I was
hidin’ out from the police, and all that kept me from starvin’ was
the money Jane sent me! I was your brother the night mother died, and
you said you wouldn’t go my bail.
ELLA
You ain’t going to be hard, Ben!
BEN
I’m the head of the family now, ain’t I, and you can bet all you’ve
got I’m going to be a real Jordan.
HENRY
I think, Ben----
BEN
From now on, there ain’t nobody got any right to think in this house
but just me! So run along home, the whole pack of you, and after
this, when you feel like you must come here--come separate.
ELLA
Turn us out, Ben?
BEN
Sure, why not?
NETTIE (_crosses to him. Sweetly_)
There ain’t any reason why _we_ can’t be friends, is there?
BEN
Well, I don’t know. There’s only one way I could ever get to trust
you.
NETTIE
What way, Ben?
BEN
I’d have to go to jail for five years and see if you’d wait for me!
EMMA
It’s an awful thing for a mother to have a fool for a child.
ELLA (_goes upstage with Nettie_)
Well, I must say you made a nice mess of things!
NETTIE (_exits with Ella_)
Well, I don’t care! I don’t see how anybody would expect me to be a
mind reader!
SADIE
Come, Orin--say good-by to your Uncle Ben.
ORIN
What will I do that for?
SADIE
Because I tell you to!
ORIN
Yesterday you told me he wasn’t worth speakin’ to!
SADIE
Are you going to move, you stupid little idiot.
[_She drags him out._
ORIN (_as they go_)
What did I say? You let me alone!
HENRY
I was wonderin’, Ben, how you’d feel about endorsing that note of
mine.
BEN
You was?
HENRY
Yes, I don’t know what I’m going to do about it.
BEN
As far as I care, you can go nail it on a door. (_Henry and Emma
start to exit_) No, hold on, I’ll pay it.
HENRY
You will!
BEN
Yes, I don’t know as it would do me much good at the bank, havin’ a
brother of mine in the poorhouse.
[_Ben laughs as Henry and Emma exit._
JUDGE
Well, Ben? “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”
BEN (_down to stove_)
Depends on the head. Mine’s thick, I guess. Anyhow, none of them is
going to bother it. I’m boss here now.
JUDGE
You’ll find a copy here of the inventory of the estate, and other
legal papers. Everything is in order.
JANE
And my accounts, Ben; you’ll find the exact amount your mother left.
I spent some money about six weeks ago, on myself, but I’ve been
careful ever since and I’ve made up for it.
BEN
You said, Judge, she didn’t have to go by that letter of my mother’s,
if she didn’t want to? She didn’t have to give anything back at all?
JUDGE
No, she didn’t.
BEN
Then if I was you--(_to Jane_) I wouldn’t talk so much about the
little you spent on yourself. I guess to look at you it wasn’t much.
JANE
Yes, it was.
BEN
Well, we’ll fix things so you can keep on spendin’. Only let’s see
somethin’ come of it. I never was so damned sick of anything in my
life as I am of that old black dress of yours!
[_Crosses stage up and over right._
JANE
I’ve got plenty of clothes upstairs. I’m sorry now I ever bought
them, but I’ll take them with me when I go.
BEN
Go? Go where?
JANE
To Old Town. I’ve got a place there, clerking in the Pulp Mill.
BEN
You!
JANE
Yes.
BEN
But what about me?
JUDGE
Don’t you think Jane has done about enough for you?
BEN
She’s done a lot, she’s given up the money. I don’t know as I like
that; ’course I like gettin’ it, but not if she’s going away.
JANE
I couldn’t stay now, and I wouldn’t want to.
BEN
I don’t suppose you remember about plannin’ what you and me was to do
with this old farm?
JANE
I remember.
BEN
Well--then what are you going away for?
JANE
Because I couldn’t be happy here, Ben--It’s been harder than anything
I ever thought could come to anybody, the last few weeks here--and so
I’m going. (_She turns to Judge_) I’ll go upstairs and get my things.
I’ll stop at your office, Judge, on the way to the station.
JUDGE
Thank you, Jane.
BEN
You’re goin’ to-day? Before I order my new farm machinery or
anything? You’re goin’ to leave me with all this work on my hands?
JANE
Yes, Ben.
[_She exits._
BEN
Well--that’s a lesson to me! Oh, she’s a good woman! I ain’t denyin’
that--but she’s fickle!
JUDGE
You’re a fool, Ben!
BEN
I been doin’ kitchen police around this town for quite a spell now,
Judge, but from this day on I ain’t goin’ to take that sort of talk
from anybody.
JUDGE
I assure you that you won’t have to take any sort of talk at all from
me.
[_He starts for the door._
BEN
I didn’t mean that. I don’t want you to think I ain’t grateful for
all you’ve done for me.
JUDGE (_coldly_)
I have done nothing for you.
BEN
If it wasn’t for you, I’d want to die; that’s what I did want. I was
afraid of that prison, just a coward about it. Now I’m a free man,
with a big life openin’ out ahead of me--I got everything in the
world right here in my two hands, everything--and I owe it to you!
JUDGE
I am very glad to say that you don’t owe me anything. I don’t like
you, I haven’t forgiven you for what you did to your mother’s life.
Nor for a worse thing, one you haven’t brains enough to even know
you’ve done. Don’t be grateful to me, Ben, please. I think nothing
could distress me more than that.
BEN
You’ve been a good friend to me.
JUDGE
I haven’t meant to be, as I said I don’t like you. I haven’t any
faith in you. I don’t believe in this new life of yours. You made a
mess of the old one, and I think you will of the new.
BEN
No matter what you say, you can’t get away from me. I’ll be grateful
till I die. But for you I’d have gone to that damned prison!
JUDGE
But for Jane.
BEN
How Jane?
JUDGE
How Jane? Jane went your bond the day your mother died. Jane took
you in and taught you how to work, made you work, taught you
through the one decent spot in you something of a thing you’d never
know, self-respect. Worked over you, petted you, coaxed you--held
you up--Then you hurt her--but she kept on--She went herself to
Kimbal, after he had refused me, and got his help to keep you out
of prison--then, against my will, against the best that I could
do to stop her, she turns over all this to you--and goes out with
nothing--and you ask “How Jane?”
BEN
Why? Why has she done this, all this, for me?
[_The Judge looks at Ben with contempt and turns and exits. Ben is
left in deep thought. Jane comes downstairs dressed for a journey
with a hand bag, etc. She enters._
JANE
Good-by, Ben. (_She crosses to him, her hand out_) Good-by. Won’t you
say good-by?
BEN
First, there’s some things I got to know about.
JANE (_smiles_)
I guess there’s not much left for us to say, Ben.
BEN (_she crosses to door, but he gets ahead of her_)
There’s things I got to know. (_She looks at him but does not speak_)
The Judge tells me ’twas you got Kimbal to let me go free. (_He looks
at her--she half turns away_) Answer me. (_Pause_) The Judge tells
me you gave up what was yours--to me--without no other reason than
because you wanted me to have it. That’s true, ain’t it? (_Pause_)
You sent me every cent you had, when you knew mother was dying, then
you went bail for me, like he said--and did all them other things. I
don’t know as any woman ever did any more--. I want to know why!
JANE
Why do you think?
BEN
I don’t know--I sort of thought--sort of hoped----
JANE (_bravely_)
It was because I loved her, Ben----
BEN
Oh.
[_He turns away disappointed._
JANE
You’re forgetting, I guess, how long we was alone here--when you was
in France--then the months we didn’t know where you was, when the
police was looking for you--She used to make me promise if ever I
could I’d help you.
BEN
Well--all I’ve got to say is you’re no liar.
JANE
Good-by.
[_She turns to go._
BEN
Wait. (_Closes door_) Let’s see that letter you said she left for you.
JANE
No. I won’t do that. I’ve done enough; you’re free, you’ve got the
money and the farm.
BEN (_crosses in front of table and sits left of table_) They ain’t
worth a damn with you gone--I didn’t know that till just now, but
they ain’t.
JANE
It’s sort of sudden, the way you found that out.
BEN
Oh, it don’t take long for a man to get hungry--it only takes just a
minute for a man to die; you can burn down a barn quick enough, or
do a murder; it’s just living and getting old that takes a lot of
time--Can’t you stay here, Jane?
JANE
There’s Nettie.
BEN
Nettie--that couldn’t stand the gaff--that run out on me when I was
in trouble.
JANE
It doesn’t matter what folks do, if you love ’em enough.
BEN
What do you know about it? I suppose you’ve been in love a lot of
times?
JANE
No.
BEN
Then you be quiet and let an expert talk. I was lonesome and I wanted
a woman; she was pretty and I wanted to kiss her--that ain’t what I
call love.
JANE
You. You don’t even know the meaning of the word.
BEN
That don’t worry me none--I guess the feller that wrote the
dictionary was a whole lot older’n I am before he got down to the L’s.
JANE
You’ve got good in you, Ben, deep down, if you’d only try. (_Ben
turns_) I know, it’s always been that way! You’ve never tried for
long; you’ve never had a real ambition.
BEN
When I was a kid I wanted to spit farther than anybody.
JANE
Good-by.
[_She starts up to door._
BEN
And so you’re going to break your word?
JANE (_hurt--turns_)
BEN
I don’t know what ’twas you promised mother, but you’ve broke your
word. No man ever needed a woman more’n I need you, and you’re
leaving me.
JANE
That isn’t fair.
BEN
It’s true, ain’t it; truth ain’t always fair--You ain’t helped me
none, you’ve hurt me--worse than being broke, worse than bein’ in
jail.
JANE
It don’t seem like I could stand to have you talk like that.
BEN
What you done you done for her. I didn’t count, I never have, not
with you.
JANE
When you’ve been trying to do a thing as long as I have, it gets to
be a part of you.
BEN
You done it all for her--well--she’s dead--you’d better go.
JANE
Maybe I had, but if I do it will be with the truth between us. Here’s
the letter she left for me, Ben--I got a feeling somehow like she
was here with us now, like she wanted you to read it. (_She holds it
out_) It’s like she was guiding us from the grave--Read it.
[_Crosses up to window._
BEN (_reads_)
“My dear Jane: The doctor tells me I haven’t long to live and so I
am doing this, the meanest thing I think I’ve ever done to you. I’m
leaving you the Jordan money. Since my husband died there has been
just one person I could get to care about, that’s Ben, who was my
baby so long after all the others had forgotten how to love me.” (_He
mumbles the letter to himself, then brings out the words_) “Hold out
her heart and let him trample on it, as he has on mine.”
[_Slowly he breaks down, sobbing bitterly._
JANE
Don’t, Ben----
BEN
Look what I done to her. Look what I done.
JANE (_hand on his shoulder_)
Oh, my dear--my dear!
BEN
I did love her, mor’n she thought, mor’n I ever knew how to tell her!
JANE (_kneels beside him_)
It wasn’t all your fault--you were a lonely boy--she never said
much--she was like you, Ben, ashamed to show the best that’s in you.
BEN (_bitterly_)
The best in me. I ain’t fit that you should touch me Jane--you’d
better go.
JANE
Not if you need me, Ben, and I think you do.
BEN
I love you--mor’n I ever thought I could--tenderer--truer--but I’m no
good--You couldn’t trust me--I couldn’t trust myself.
JANE
Spring’s coming, Ben, everywhere, to you and me, if you would only
try.
BEN
Can a feller change--Just ’cause he wants to?
JANE
I don’t want you changed. I want you what you are, the best of
you--just a man that loves me--if you do love me, Ben.
BEN
Can’t you help me to be fit?
JANE
I’m going to do the thing I always meant to do--Good times and bad,
Ben, I’m going to share with you.
BEN
God knows I----
JANE
Hush, Ben--I don’t want another promise.
BEN
What do you want?
JANE
You said I was a good sport once--You shook hands on what we’d do to
bring this old place back--there’s plenty to be done. I’ll stay and
help you if you want me.
BEN
A good sport? (_He takes her hand_) I’ll say you’re all of that.
[_Hannah enters._
HANNAH
If you ain’t careful you’ll miss that train.
JANE
That’s just what I want to do.
HANNAH
You ain’t going?
JANE
I’m never going, Hannah.
HANNAH
You going to marry him?
BEN
You bet your life she is!
HANNAH
I guess you’ll be mighty happy--marriage changes folks--and any
change in him will be a big improvement.
[_She picks up Jane’s bag and exits--Jane and Ben laugh._
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
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