ACT III. SCENE 1 A BEAUTIFUL HIGHLAND SHORE: AFTERNOON
Reading edition
In the distance up the glen there is seen smoke evidently rising from a house hidden somewhere in the trees. In the foreground there are heather and rocks and a beautiful alder-tree with thick foliage. Curlews and sea-gulls are crying, and a breeze is tossing the waves into white horses. At this moment Finn enters, looking rather wretched and storm-tossed. He sits down on a boulder, with a weary sigh.
Finn
[Yawning.]
Heigh-ho!—Hay-hum-harry!
This box is a weary weight to carry.
Climber’s Voice
[Calling from the alder-tree.]
I wish you’d let me take a share!
Finn
[Starting violently, and looking up.]
Certainly not! What are you doing up there?
Climber
[Pushing her head out through the leaves.]
I went up after a squirrel.
Finn
At your age that’s not proper for a girl.
Climber
[Singing.]
Oh, to-day I’m twenty-seven!
What delight to rhyme with Heaven!
I’m as happy as can be,
Here inside the alder-tree.
All my life’s a song that flows
With the river and the rose,
All my life’s a song to me
Like the lovely alder-tree.
All the years I’ve left behind
Are translated in my mind
Into something new and free,
Like the seed-pod on the tree.
All that’s past is unforgotten;
I have wrapped it up in cotton,
Like the larva that I see
In the leaf upon the tree.
It will grow and change and gather
Knowledge of a mind, its Father;
Some morning in its glee
It will float above the tree.
Oh, to-day I’m twenty-seven!
Just a little nearer Heaven
Than I ever used to be
When I climbed the alder-tree.
For I feel at last that I,
Like the larva, change and fly
Yet a grander, fuller me,
On the self-same alder-tree.
Finn
[Who has listened with delight to the song.]
You’re a very eccentric sort of girl.
Climber
[Coming down hastily.]
No! Eccentricity I hate!
It’s just a name for off the straight;
And, if you’ll only pay me more attention,
You’ll find it’s almost too far off to mention.
[Finn looks at her doubtfully.]
Climber
[Coaxingly.]
I wish you’d let me take a share
Of that old box you’re carrying there.
Finn
[Hastily.]
I wouldn’t dream of such a thing!
Climber
Take care! It needs a stronger piece of string.
And if you drop it, that would be a pity;
It looks as if the contents were so pretty.
What is inside it? May I know?
Finn
Guess!
Climber
I can’t. It seems to show
All bright about the edge.
[She tries the weight.]
I can’t see quite
What makes it heavy when it looks so light?
Finn
Tears of all sorts, and colours to suit each eye.
Climber
Then why
Is it so light when it feels such a weight?
Finn
Oh! that’s just Fate.
A glint of laughter
Getting through each tear
A little after.
Climber
[Clapping her hands.]
Oh dear!
How beautiful! I’ve guessed it—a rainbow!
You’ve got a rainbow there,
I knew last night the morning would be fair!
Finn
[Astonished.]
How did you guess?
Climber
I saw the rain-clouds yesterday
Coming up Crianlarich way,
Black as peat and full of dark.
Suddenly God set His mark
Over them all in a rainbow,
And so
I knew
The sun was somewhere getting through,
And, turning, saw him come
Hurriedly over the hills above Tyndrum.
[She turns and sees Finn looking at her with a wistful expression.]
What are you thinking about?
Finn
Nothing at all. A dream.
Climber
Look out! They are not what they seem!
Finn
They’re harmless enough. They aren’t real.
Climber
They’re made of stuff
That’s very apt to steal
Intact
Into actual fact.
For instance, look at these.
[She points to some mountain pansies in the grass.]
Finn
Explain the connection, please.
Climber
Don’t you see it, sumph?
Finn
Umph!
They seem to give you a lot of pleasure.
Climber
[Sniffing delightedly.]
Yes, without measure.
Don’t they give it you?
Finn
Oh! Well enough.
Though, as a rule, I think
That I prefer a more substantial stuff,
Something to eat or drink,
Yet somehow now I feel dead beat;
I couldn’t stand the sight of meat.
Climber
[Rapturously.]
Oh, I could feed
On flowers for ever!
Finn
Well, then, you must be very clever.
Climber
[Hastily.]
Oh no! there is no need.
It happened through a violet’s power,
For that’s my favourite flower.
[Shyly, in a burst of sudden confidence.]
I’ll tell you how it came about
If you’d care to find out.
Finn
[Settling himself on the bank.]
All right, I don’t mind if you do;
But it won’t be the same for me as you.
Climber
[Sitting up and clasping her hands round her knees shyly.]
I was attracted by a violet,
For purple’s my favourite colour, and you get
Such a delightful perfume out of these
When the wind makes a breeze
Among the petals.
God said: “That settles
It. Now she’ll come back here
Another year,
And look for me where she has found her pleasure.”
I did not measure
God’s far arrangement thus; but sure enough
(Since purple’s my favourite colour), when the puff
Of spring cast up her wild young flowery wrack,
I looked to see if the violet were blown back.
[She begins to lose her self-consciousness. Finn watches her interestedly.]
Sufficient she was there!
I pushed my hair
Back from my brow, and on my knees I went
To catch her scent.
Oh, it was joy
I thought would never cloy!
And God, who saw me on the grass beside
That purple pride,
Laughed softly to Himself, and said: “I knew
She’d not resist My blue.
Now I’ll be bound she’ll come again next year
To find my fragrance here.”
[She continues with increasing animation, having quite lost all self-consciousness.]
In very deed I came,
But now a flame
Of ultra-violet flickered on my thought.
It wasn’t just the scent that brought
Me back like that, nor yet the lovely blue;
It was because I felt that God was true.
And that was how, having had my attention called
To something that came back and never palled,
But seemed each year more lovely than the last,
I passed
To looking for the far-off deeper things
That God had tucked behind the violet’s wings.
I said to myself: “This is some sort of sign
Of constancy divine,
And I expect there must be some such mark
Set on our ultimate dark;
For we are all just one material here—
My heart, the violet clear.
[Dreamily, to herself.]
Oh! Isn’t it delightful thus to grow
Together yet apart a little while?
God needs this time to shape us to the style
Of His eternity, as, strong and slow,
The separate shadows of the flowery prime
Become one purple deep at evening-time.
[She takes a violet in her hands and looks at it. To herself.]
Here’s all the evidence of things unseen,
Delicious substance of a life to be,
Where maybe I’ll share His identity,
And we’ll be One to all eternity.
Finn
What?
Climber
[Who has forgotten that she is not alone, blushing self-consciously and starting violently.]
Nothing! It’s not
Meant for you to hear.
Finn
Go on about next year.
Climber
[Very shyly, with averted face.]
Well, in the spring I came, with joyous thirst,
To find the violet where I found her first;
Till, kneeling there one day, I felt my heart
Quicken and start,
And pushing back the lid, to look within,
I saw a thin
Long tongue of lavender amid the red,
And God knelt there, and spread
His strong white hands above the warm, bright stain,
And laughed, and said: “I have found faith again
On earth.”
[She pauses, and adds in a whisper.]
But I, too much amazed for mirth,
Could only gaze and stammer: “Sir, not yet,
It was Your violet.”
[There is silence. The Climber remains with shy averted face.]
Finn
[After an embarrassed pause.]
I don’t see how a violet’s shown
You that. Tell me it all again.
Climber
[Jumping up, with a nervous laugh.]
Oh dear! I wish I could explain
Better. But it’s the sort of thing
You’ll have to find alone. I’m off to bring
The others. I’ll be back in a minute.
[She runs away, with a very red face. Finn yawns, sighs, and, picking a violet, sniffs and sniffs again.]
Finn
Delicious! I believe there’s something in it!
[He puts the violet in his buttonhole.]
Even if it isn’t much
It’s something I could almost touch
A morsel of just now.
[Enter the Listener, whistling, and chipping himself a whistle out of an alder branch.]
Finn
Hallo! Where are the others?
Listener
Patching up the boat a bit in smothers
Of spray. The wind seems blowing this way.
[He waves his hand in the direction in which the Climber has gone.]
Still feeling sick?
Finn
Certainly not. I wasn’t sick!
Listener
Oh! I thought that was why
You wouldn’t come down to tea,
When you said you wished we’d let you die.
Finn
[Hastily.]
Certainly not!
Listener
Then why——
Finn
[Hurriedly.]
There’s a sort of spell on me.
I can’t consider common stuff like tea
Until I have found the one that considers me.
Listener
[Sympathetically.]
I say! How beastly! Worse than being in love.
Finn
[Indignantly.]
Not at all! It’s not the least the same.
Listener
[Innocently.]
Why? What’s the difference?
Finn
[Crossly.]
Oh, go away! How should I know?
Listener
Would you like to hear what I heard up above
The tree-tops, before I came
Out of the wood?
Finn
[Crossly.]
Not unless it’s easily understood.
Listener
[Cheerily.]
Oh yes!
It’s the sort of thing that any child could guess.
[He begins to pipe a very cheery little tune, and then stops and looks at Finn enquiringly.]
Finn
[Brightening.]
That’s not bad. Go on!
Listener
[Beginning to sing.]
Tiravee! Tiravee! Tiravee!
The year has heard the spring
In far recesses smouldering.
Tiravee! Tiravee! Tiravee!
The robins sing,
Daffadowndillies and lilies
And crocuses are hiding,
Under the garden abiding,
Soon you’ll see! Soon you’ll see!
Soon you’ll see!
For along the west border,
All in their proper order,
Just like last year—
Look!—the tops of the snowdrops are here!
Tiravee! Tiravee! Tiravee!
Oh, how wonderful it is to see
The spring again just as she used to be!
Showing how the bulbs grow
Under the ground,
Making a sound
Where silence lay low.
Displaying
The beauty of the earth,
Saying:
“There is no death.
For consider the lilies
How they grow, and the daffadowndillies,
Underground
They have found
The spring!”
Oh, Robin, sing!
Oh, come away and see
The tops
Of the first snowdrops!
Tiravee! Tiravee! Tiravee!
[During the song the others, drawn by the sound of piping, all begin to come in one by one, with the exception of the Climber, beginning with the Marksman and ending with the Carpenter, dancing and humming the tune. When the Listener has done they all applaud him delightedly, and the Marksman lets fly an arrow seaward.]
Listener
[Astonished.]
What’s that for?
Marksman
You hit the mark that time.
Listener
[Running to look.]
Where? I didn’t see!
Marksman
Nobody did but me.
Who taught you that song sublime?
Listener
A robin back there in the wood;
I haven’t got it very good.
Finn
You have a very fine ear.
Is there anything else you can hear?
Listener
[Putting his ear to the ground and listening intently.]
I can hear the voice of your mother.
Finn
[Eagerly.]
What is she saying?
Listener
She’s saying she’s unravelling
Your fetters of travelling
And straying;
She’s saying
She’s sending your father
To help you to gather
The children he’s losing
Through none of her choosing.
Finn
[Bewildered.]
Talk sense!
Listener
[Offended.]
I do; but it’s too immense
For you to comprehend
With your unenlightened end!
[Aside.]
There! didn’t I tell you she’d send!
[At this moment the Climber runs in excitedly.]
Climber
I’ve just met a woman in the wood
Who says she’s losing
Her children through none of her choosing,
And that you are the only man
Who can
Help her, if you’ll be so very good.
Finn
[Amazed.]
That’s what the Big Young Hero said to me
This morning, brought him through the strife
Of night-watching and tempest of sea!
I wonder who this woman can be?
Climber
[Excitedly.]
I believe she is his wife?
Finn
How is she losing the children?
Climber
She says she’s losing them in the night
That claps down on men,
For a Hand comes in at the window ere it’s light,
And takes them all away ben.
Finn
[After a pause.]
I can’t help that!
Climber
Yes, she says you can,
If you were half a man.
Finn
Why, what must I be at?
Climber
She says you must watch through the night
Within her house, until you see daylight.
Finn
[Sighing wearily.]
I want my supper now. I really couldn’t keep
My eyes open; I’m sure I’d go to sleep.
Climber
[Very earnestly and impressively.]
Although she has laid supper in her house,
Please do not touch it yet, or you’ll arouse
The Hand
Before you understand
How you must use the body to discern
The proper system of the mind, and learn
You were not built like the bewildered moon,
To dwindle ere you’ve found another face,
Revolving inwards like an old buffoon,
Too much attracted by an earthly grace;
But, on a nervous pivot justly hung,
Bringing your mind to bear upon the clay,
Can turn your sleepy body round among
The starry systems of another day;
For that is how I think we’re meant to gather
Her earthly treasure for a Heavenly Father,
Till He recall us from her dewy field
At evening-time, building a finer bield
For souls returning mindful of earth’s beauty,
Not naked as they came.
Finn
I’ll do my duty
If you’ll show me the way
To the place where I’m to stay.
Climber
[Delighted.]
All right!
We must look sharp as long as there’s this light.
[She beckons the others to follow.]
Finn
[Pausing suddenly.]
Why, what was that that fell?
I believe it was the spell.
[He looks about.]
I feel hungry enough for two
All of a sudden. Aren’t you?
Climber
[Warningly.]
No, I had something to eat before I came,
And in the morning you will get the same
If only now you’ll try not to eat double;
For if you do we’ll all get into trouble.
[Exit all after the Climber.]