Modern Icelandic Plays Part 12

Close your eyes, Kari, and sleep yet a while. Kiss me!

_Kari (kissing her)._

I will sleep with my eyes open.

ACT II

_A resting-place near one of the large folds into which the sheep are driven in the autumn, when they are gathered down from the hills.

A gra.s.s-grown dell. On the left, a steep heather-covered slope, here and there in the heather gray, jutting stones. To the right, a low bluff, where gra.s.s, flowers, and juniper bushes grow in the clefts and on the ledges. Toward the background, the bluff becomes lower and more bushy, and bending somewhat to the left, it partly shuts off the view into a hilly, rock-studded landscape with the distant mountains beyond. In the foreground, at the foot of the bluff, several saddles. The women's saddles have broad, bra.s.s-mounted backs._

_It is a fine autumn day. Gudfinna alone is busy with the luggage._

_Enter Arngrim carrying a roll of paper under his arm.

His face is livid and drawn._

_Arngrim._

So you are all alone here.

_Gudfinna._

Indeed I am. I did not want to leave the luggage, and it seemed a pity to keep the boy from the folds.

_Arngrim._

Is Halla up at the folds?

_Gudfinna._

I don't know where she is now. She is so restless to-day. A while ago she climbed up on a knoll to see if the last drove was coming down from the hills. I hardly know whether it's the sheep or Kari she is looking for.

_Arngrim._

We don't get tired of watching for what we are looking forward to.

I have but one thing to look forward to. (_Sits down on one of the rocks._)

_Gudfinna._

And what is that, poor fellow?

_Arngrim._

To hear the nails being driven into my coffin. Then I should say like the man in the story: "Now I'd laugh if I weren't dead."

_Enter Halla, happy and smiling, wearing a silver girdle around her waist._

_Halla._

The last flock is coming, and it is not the smallest. Kari is with it.

_Gudfinna._

Of course he is with it.

_Halla (laughing)._

Yes, of course. (_To Arngrim._) I am glad to see you here.

_Arngrim._

Did you happen to bring anything good from home?

_Halla (smiling)._

You never can tell. (_Searching in one of the saddle-bags, she finds a blue flask which she hands to Arngrim._) You may keep the bottle.

_Arngrim._

That is just like you. (_Holds the flask up to the light._) There are juniper berries in it. (_Takes a pull._) It is like drinking suns.h.i.+ne.

_Halla (has moved toward the background and stands gazing)._

What a change in the sheep since spring. Then they were yellow and dirty, but now they are white as ptarmigans in winter. It always makes me happy to see a flock of sheep coming down the mountain side.

_Gudfinna._

Kari's shoes must be a sight. He doesn't save his legs, that man.

_Halla._

No, you are right in that. (_Goes to Gudfinna._) But he runs swifter than any one else.

_Arngrim._

No one can run away from his fate, were he fleeter than the wind.

_Halla (turns to Arngrim)._

Are you sure of that? May not a strong will turn the tide of fate?

_Arngrim._

My fate no one can alter. (_Looks up._) An old song comes to my mind when I look at you. I cannot remember how it runs, but it is about some one who had the thoughts of her soul written on her forehead.