No More Learning

Hurry on, Father, and waken him.

FATHER JOHN.

I will not waken him. I will not bring him back from where he is.

JOHNNY.

And how long will it be before he will waken of himself?

FATHER JOHN.

Maybe to-day, maybe to-morrow, it is hard to be certain.

BIDDY.

If it is _away_ he is he might be away seven years. To be lying like
a stump of a tree and using no food and the world not able to knock a
word out of him, I know the signs of it well.

JOHNNY.

We cannot be waiting and watching through seven years. If the business
he has started is to be done we have to go on here and now. The
time there is any delay, that is the time the Government will get
information.
Waken him now, Father, and you'll get the blessing of the
generations.

FATHER JOHN.

I will not bring him back. God will bring him back in his own good
time. For all I know he may be seeing the hidden things of God.

JOHNNY.

He might slip away in his dream. It is best to raise him up now.

ANDREW.

Waken him, Father John. I thought he was surely dead this time,
and what way could I go face Thomas through all that is left of my
lifetime, after me standing up to face him the way I did? And if I do
take a little drop of an odd night, sure I'd be very lonesome if I did
not take it. All the world knows it's not for love of what I drink, but
for love of the people that do be with me! Waken him, Father, or maybe
I would waken him myself. [_Shakes him. _]

FATHER JOHN.