Patriotic Plays and Pageants for Young People Part 29

GOODY GLEASON (moaning).

Alack! Alack! Will the posset never be done?

SARAH (instantly remorseful).

Gran'am! Your posset! To think I could forget you! (Runs to fire.) And yet--and yet----(Looks in kettle.) Alas! Alas! I am not skilled in brewing.

RESOLUTE (half against her will).

There's cure for ague in our forest herbs.

SARAH.

Oh, had I but your knowledge--! (With an effort towards healing the breach.) If you'll take back your words about sin and ignorance, never again will I call you a mincing white-faced moppet--even if you are one.

RESOLUTE(provokingly prim).

I may not take back words that I have spoken.

SARAH.

Then you _are_ a prim-mouthed, white-faced jade, even as I have said.

RESOLUTE.

And that you dwell in sin and ignorance becomes more and more certain.

[They face each other as if with crossed swords, left.

GOODY GLEASON (sighing).

Is the posset done?

SARAH (despairing).

I cannot tell whether it be done or no.

RESOLUTE (with her back turned).

If the brew be clear, then the posset is not yet done; but if a little wax float on the top----(Sees Sarah's perplexity, and comes to fire with the air of one bestowing wisdom.) All maids should know how to make healing potions. I marvel that you've learned no hearthstone arts.

SARAH (as Resolute seats herself at fire).

Mayhap, if I had a hearth I could compa.s.s such knowledge, Mistress. But we be forest folk with no roof but the stars.

RESOLUTE.

You chose----

SARAH (busying herself with pouring the posset into cup and giving it to Goody Gleason).

Aye, Mistress, I know well what you would say. We chose to live the life of Merrymount. We brooked no Puritan rule: therefore on our heads be it! We suffer for the love of freedom. (Keenly.) Do you not suffer, too, for the same cause? It was for freedom you and yours left England.

It was for freedom we and ours left Wollaston. You could not brook restraint: no more could we.

RESOLUTE.

But your revels--your songs and dancing----

SARAH.

We meet misfortune with a laugh instead of with a groan: where is the harm in that?

RESOLUTE (with dawning friendliness).

Indeed you give me much to ponder on.

SARAH (with a burst of candor).

Since I've known you I do not think so hard on Puritans. (Half- wistfully.) I wish--I wish I had your arts and knew wise household ways. I fear we be but addle-pates at Merrymount. I cannot brew a medicine, nor spin, nor----

RESOLUTE (rising).

Come, I will teach you! (They go to spinning-wheel.) Aye, sit you so, and mind you do not break the thread. So! So!

[While the spinning lesson is going on, Scarlett and his followers enter from left background, carrying fish, game, and wild fruits, Scarlett in advance of the others. For a moment he stands transfixed by what he sees. Then tiptoes back, beckons to others, and points out the picture. Pantomime of surprise and stifled mirth.

SCARLETT (mockingly).

Look! Look! Our Sarah hath turned Puritan! While as for Mistress Endicott--! Come, Faunch, a tune, lad, a tune! A wreath for our worthy guest! (Approaching Resolute.) Mistress, 'tis time you learned to trip it about the maypole. I claim your hand for a measure----

SARAH (suddenly returning from seeing to the preparations for feasting which are going on in background).

You shall do no such folly. Mistress Resolute shall not dance if she holds that dancing is a sin. Take that in your teeth, Simon Scarlett!

SCARLETT.

Are you bewitched? Hath the Puritan turned your head?

SARAH.

My wits, good Simon, are as clear as thine. 'Tis true that the constables put our Bess in the stocks; but 'twas none of Resolute's doing! And when you stole her hence that debt was paid. Moreover, of her own free will she has made a healing brew for our gran'am, and for that I stand her friend.

ROBIN WAKELESS (drawing near and hearing the controversy).

Is there no mirth left in you, Sarah Scarlett, that you cannot see the jest of making a sniveling Puritan to----

SARAH (promptly and blazingly).

Cease your talk, Robin Wakeless! And when you speak of sniveling Puritans, speak of them that do snivel. For though you brought Mistress Endicott here in a rough and unseemly fas.h.i.+on, she has not once winced, no, nor plead for mercy. You are quick to laud a brave front in yourselves: are you less quick to laud it in your neighbors?

SCARLETT (as some of the other Merrymount folk gather about the scene).

'Tis true what Sarah says. The maid is not given to whining. (To Resolute, with an entire change of manner.) Well, then, Mistress, though our feast go forward, you shall not sup with us unless it pleases you. Say but the word, and we will take you back to Wollaston, you and your means of industry!

SARAH (eagerly).

Will you not sup with us first?

RESOLUTE.

I thank you, Sarah Scarlett.

SARAH (delightedly).

Come, then!

FAUNCH (singing, as he puts his fiddle under his chin, while Scarlett tosses a wreath in the air).

"Fortune, my foe, why dost thou frown on me, And will thy favors----"

TIB (rus.h.i.+ng wildly in from right).

Hush your music, Faunch! Down with your trumpery, Simon! The Puritans are upon us--Pritchard and Norcross and Warren and Hilton--all a- marching up the hill! Armed to the teeth they are, Simon, and there's not an ounce of shot amongst us!

SCARLETT (as Puritans begin to appear, right).

Zounds! They're upon us!

GILLIAN PRITCHARD (as he and his followers come forward from right background).