No More Learning

_

SECOND MERCHANT [_aside to FIRST MERCHANT_].

Away now--they are in the passage--hurry,
For they will know us, and freeze up our hearts
With Ave Marys, and burn all our skin
With holy water.

FIRST MERCHANT.

Farewell: we must ride
Many a mile before the morning come;
Our horses beat the ground impatiently.

[_They go out to R. A number of peasants enter at the
same moment by the opposite door. _

CATHLEEN.

What would you?

A PEASANT.

As we nodded by the fire,
Telling old histories, we heard a noise
Of falling money. We have searched in vain.

CATHLEEN.

You are too timid. I heard naught at all.

THE OLD PEASANT.
Ay, we are timid, for a rich man's word
Can shake our houses, and a moon of drouth
Shrivel our seedlings in the barren earth;
We are the slaves of wind, and hail, and flood;
Fear jogs our elbow in the market-place,
And nods beside us on the chimney-seat.
Ill-bodings are as native unto our hearts
As are their spots unto the woodpeckers.

CATHLEEN.

You need not shake with bodings in this house.

[_OONA enters from the door to L. _

OONA.

The treasure-room is broken in--mavrone--mavrone;
The door stands open and the gold is gone.

[_The peasants raise a lamenting cry. _

CATHLEEN.

Be silent. [_The cry ceases. _
Saw you any one?

OONA.

Mavrone,
That my good mistress should lose all this money.

CATHLEEN.

You three upon my right hand, ride and ride;
I will give a farm to him who finds the thieves.