SCENE 20 - Night, inside Captain LAWTON's room
(Homes in that day contained what was called its best room, and this
was allotted, by the unseen influence of SARAH, to Colonel WELLMEYER. The
down comforter or counterpane, which a frosty night would render extremely
grateful by him over his bruised limbs, decked the English officer's bed.
A massive silver tankard embossed with the WHARTON coat of arms held the
beverage he was to drink during the night, while beautiful vessels of china
were set for the same purpose in the rooms of the two American lieutenants)
(Everything but the liquid was a matter of indifference to Capt. LAWTON,
who spent many nights in his clothes and not a few of them in the saddle.
The doctor proceeds to examine LAWTON by passing his hand over the body
of his patient, until -)
LAWTON: SITGREAVES, do me the favor to lay that rascally saw aside,
or I shall have recourse to my saber in self-defense; the sight of it makes
my blood run cold.
SITGREAVES: CAPT. LAWTON, for a man who has so often exposed life and
limb, you are unaccountably afraid of a very useful instrument.
LAWTON (shrugs): Heaven, keep me from its use.
SITGREAVES: You would not despise the lights of science, nor refuse
surgical aid because this saw might be necessary?
LAWTON: I would!
SITGREAVES: You would?
LAWTON: Yes, you shall never joint me like a quarter of beef, while
I have life to defend myself; but I grow sleepy. Are any of my ribs broken?
SITGREAVES: No.
LAWTON: Any bones?
SITGREAVES: No.
LAWTON: I'll thank you for that pitcher. ( He drank his fill and cried
in the opposite direction) Good night, TOM; good night, GALEN.
SCENE 21 - Night, at the BIRCH cottage
(The WHARTON estate extended to some distance on each side of the house,
with only a few other buildings remaining, most in a state of decay. Little
agriculture was attempted in recent years, as it was useless to waste the
time and labor when crops were either trampled upon by light troops or emptied
by foraging parties. MR. WHARTON limited his efforts to what his own family
could consume and secret away for their use.)
(Drawing off his troops to the heights in the northern part of the county,
General Washington had bidden defiance to attacks of the royal army, and
Sir William Howe fell back to the enjoyment of his barren conquest - a deserted
city. Never afterwards did the opposing armies make the trial of strength
within the limits of West-Chester.)
(The ground on which this day's action was fought had but one dwelling,
that of the BIRCH' cottage, which stood between the place where the cavalry
had met, and that where the charge had been made on the party of Col. WELLMEYER.)
(For KATY HAYNES it had been a day fruitful of incidents. The housekeeper
had kept her political feelings in a state of rigid neutrality. Her friends
had chosen the cause of the country, but the maiden herself never lost sight
of that important moment, when, like females with more illustrious hopes,
she might be required to sacrifice her love of country on the alter of domestic
harmony, in order to be certain of supporting the cause favored by the peddler.)
(The conduct of this mysterious being caused distrust to beset her mind
and discretion to seal her mouth. He seemed a character that distracted
the opinions of those who took a more enlarged view of men and life, that
was beyond the comprehension of his housekeeper.)
( Most of the movements of the peddler were made at the hours which others
allotted to repose. The evening sun would leave him at one end of the valley,
and the morning find him at the other end. His pack was his never-failing
companion, and there were those who closely studied his moments of traffic
and thought his only purpose was accumulation of gold.)
( He would be seen near the Highlands with a body bending under its
load, and again near the Harlem River, traveling with a much lighter step.
For months he disappeared, and no traces of his course were ever known.
Strong parties held the heights of Harlem, and the northern end of Manhattan
Island was bristling with English sentinels, yet the peddler glided among
them unnoticed and uninjured.)
(His approaches to the American lines were also frequent, but generally
so conducted as to baffle pursuit. Many a sentinel, placed in the gorges
of the mountains, spoke of a strange figure that had been seen gliding by
them in the mists of the evening.)
(These stories had reached the ears of the officers, and in two instances
the trader had fallen into the hands of the Americans. The first time he
had escaped from LAWTON, but the second he was condemned to die. On the
morning of the execution, the cage was opened and the bird had flown. This
extraordinary escape had been made from the custody of a favorite officer
of Washington, a sentinel considered worthy to guard the Commander-in-chief.)
(Bribery and treason could not be imputed to men of such high esteem,
so the opinion gained ground among the common soldiery that the peddler
had dealings with the dark one. KATY, however, repelled this opinion with
indignation, for within her bosom, the housekeeper concluded that the evil
spirit did not pay in gold; nor, she knew, did Gen. Washington, paper and
promises were all that the leader of the American troops could dispense
to his servants.)
(After the alliance with France, when silver became more abundant in
the country due to French coinage, KATY, who never let an opportunity pass
for her scrutinizing eyes to examine in HARVEY's deer-skin purse, was never
able to detect the image of King Louis of France intruding into the presence
of George III. In short, the secret hoard of HARVEY sufficiently showed
in its gold contents that all its contributions had been received from the
British, who paid only in gold.)
(The house of BIRCH had been watched by Americans at different times,
with a view to his arrest, but never with success; the reputed spy possessing
a secret means of intelligence, that invariably defeated their schemes.
Once, when a strong body of the continental army was held at Four Corners
for an entire summer, orders came from Washington himself, never to leave
the door of HARVEY BIRCH unwatched.)
(During this period the peddler was unseen; the detachment was withdrawn,
and the following night, HARVEY returned to his house. His father had been
greatly molested, a consequence of the suspicious character of his son;
but the most minute scrutiny of the old man could not substantiate any fact
against him and his property was too small to have rewarded anyone for the
trouble.)
(Age and sorrow are now about to spare him of further molestation, for
the lamp of life has been drained of its oil. The recent separation of father,
JOHN BIRCH, and son, HARVEY, had been painful, but they submitted in what
both thought a duty. The old man had kept his dying situation secret from
the neighborhood, in the hope that he might still have the company of his
child in his last moments.)
JOHN BIRCH sings SHEPHERD BOY:
"Lord ... guard my humble shepherd boy ... on whom you
bestowed such great ... devotion and joy ... He longs to play a hero's role
... and though this ... one he plays ... is both villain and hero ... let
it extol ... the greatness ... of your trust in him ." "He
loves this country more than life ... for it he'd make any sacrifice ...
he can ... for he will stand ... like David on the mountain side ... as
he watched o're his sheep ... so ... forever in your care ... will this
shepherd boy you keep ... for those ... who ... need him ... watching over
them ... as you watch ... over him."
(KATY sends a truant boy, who had shut himself up with them when the
combat started, to the LOCUSTS in quest of a companion to cheer her solitude,
in her despair that the father will die while she is there alone.)
(CAESAR alone could be spared, and is sent by kind-hearted AUNT JEANETTE
loaded with eatables and cordials. The dying man was past the use of medicines
and only centers his anxiety on a last meeting with his child.)
(The noise of a chase is heard by KATY and CAESAR, but they suppose it
to be the return of the detachment of American horse below them. They hear
the dragoons move slowly by the building, but on the prudent suggestion
of the black, the housekeeper does not indulge her curiosity.)
(The old man had closed his eyes, and the attendants believe him to
be asleep. The house contained two large rooms, one served as kitchen and
sitting room, the other for the father's bedroom, plus two small rooms.)
(A huge chimney of stone rose in the middle, serving as partition between
the larger rooms, and fireplaces of equal dimensions were in each. A bright
flame is burning in the sitting room area where CAESAR is cautioning KATY
about idle curiosity.)
CAESAR: Better neber tempt a Satin. I berry like to lose an ear for
carrin' a little bit of a letter. If dere had neber been a man curious to
see Africa, dere would be no color people out of deir own country. Oh, but
I wish HARVEY gets back.
KATY: It is very disregardful in him to be away at such a time. Suppose
his father would want to make his last will in the testament, who is there
to do so solemn and awful an act for him? HARVEY is a very wasteful and
distasteful man!
CAESAR: Perhaps he make 'em b'fore?
KATY: It would not be a wonderment if he had; he is whole days looking
into the Bible.
CAESAR: Then he read a berry good book. Miss FRANCES read in him to
Dinah now and den.
KATY: You are right, CAESAR, the Bible is the best of books, and one
that reads it as often as HARVEY's father, should have the best of reasons
for so doing. This is no more than common sense.
(She rises from her seat, steals softly to a chest in the sick man's
room, and takes from it a large Bible, heavily bound with clasps of brass,
and returns to the negro. The volume is eagerly opened and they proceed
instantly to examine its pages. KATY is far from an expert scholar, and
to CAESAR the characters are absolute strangers.)
CAESAR: Berry well now, look em t'rough.
KATY: Yes, but I must begin at the very beginning. (turns the pages
carefully, and finds one covered with writing.) Here, here are the very
words themselves. Now I would give the world to know whom he left the big
silver shoe buckles to.
CAESAR: Read 'em.
KATY: And the black walnut drawers; for HARVEY would never want furniture
of that quality, as long as he is a bachelor.
CAESAR: Why he no' want 'em as well as the fader?
KATY: And the six silver spoons; HARVEY always uses the iron.
CAESAR: Perhaps he say, widout so much talk.
(He points a finger at the Bible. Thus advised, and impelled by her own
curiosity, KATY begins to read. Anxious to come to the part which most interested
her, she dips at once into the center.
KATY: "Charles BIRCH, born September 1st, 1755."
CAESAR: Well, what he gib him?
KATY: "Abigail BIRCH, born July 12, 1757."
CAESAR: I t'ink he ought to gib her 'e spoon.
KATY: "June 1, 1760. On this awful day, the judgment of an offended
God lighted on my house-"
(A heavy groan from the adjoining room makes the spinster instinctively
close the volume, and CAESAR, for a moment shakes with fear. Neither possesses
sufficient courage to go and examine the condition of the sufferer, but
his heavy breathing continues as usual.)
(KATY feels she dares not reopen the Bible, so carefully secures its
clasps and lays it on the table in silence. CAESAR takes his chair again,
and after looking timidly around the room.)
CAESAR: I t'ought he time war come.
KATY: No, he will live till the tide is out, or the first cock crows
in the morning.
CAESAR: Poor man. I hope he lay quiet after he die.
KATY: 'Twould be no astonishment to me if he didn't; for they say an
unquiet life makes an uneasy grave.
CAESAR: JOHNNY BIRCH a berry good man in he way. All mankind can't be
a minister; for if he do, who would be the congregation?
KATY: Ah, CAESAR, he is good only who does good - can you tell me why
honestly gotten gold should be hidden in the bowels of the earth!
CAESAR: Grach!- I t'ink it must be to keep t'e Skinners from findin
him; if he know where he be, why he dig him up!
KATY: There may be reasons not comprehendible to you, but a rough outside
often holds a smooth inside.
(She moves her chair so that her clothes covered the charmed stone, underneath
which lay the secret treasures of the peddler. She is unable to refrain
speaking of that which she would have been very unwilling to reveal.)
(CAESAR stared around the room, unable to fathom the hidden meaning
of his companion, when his roving eye suddenly becomes fixed, and his teeth
chattered with fright.)
(The change in the countenance of the black was instantly perceived by
KATY, and turning her face, she saw the peddler himself; standing within
the door of the room.)
HARVEY: Is he alive?
(He speaks tremulously, and seemingly afraid to receive an answer.)
KATY: Surely, he must live till day or the tide is down.
(Disregarding all but the fact that his father still lived, the peddler
steals gently into the room of the dying parent. The tie which bound father
and son was of no ordinary kind. In the wide world they were all to each
other.)
(Had KATY but read a few lines farther in the record, she would have
seen the sad tale of their misfortunes. At one blow, competence and kindred
had been swept from them, and from that day to the present hour, persecution
and distress had followed their wandering steps.)
(Approaching the bedside, HARVEY leaned his body forward, and in a voice
nearly choked by his feelings, he whispered near his father's ear-)
HARVEY: Father, do you know me?
(His father slowly opens his eyes, and a smile of satisfaction passes
over his pallid features, leaving behind it the impression of death, more
awful by the contrast.)
(The peddler gives a restorative he had brought with him to the parched
lips of the sick man, and for a few minutes new vigor seems imparted to
his frame. He speaks slowly, and with difficulty.)
(Curiosity keeps KATY silent; awe has the same effect on CAESAR, and
HARVEY seems hardly to breathe, as he listens to the voice of the departing
spirit.)
JOHN BIRCH: My son, God is as merciful as he is just; if I threw the
cup of salvation from my lips when a youth, he graciously offers it to me
in mine age. He has chastised to purify, and I go to join the spirits of
our lost family.
JOHN BIRCH sings PILGRIM:
"You will always be a pilgrim ... even after I am gone
... God ordained you to this challenge ... for this reason you'll be strong
... You will suffer many hardships ... and survive the best you can
... without praise or adoration ... for the daring that you plan."
(A noise in the adjoining room interrupts the dying man, and the impatient
peddler hastens to learn the cause, followed by KATY and the black. The
first glance at the figure in the doorway tells the peddler too well his
errand, and the fate that probably awaits himself.)
(The intruder is a man still young in years, but his linements speak
a mind long agitated by evil passions. His dress is ragged and unseemly,
as to give the appearance of studied poverty. His hair has prematurely whitened,
and his sunken, lowering eye avoids the bold forward look of innocence.)
(There is a restlessness in his movements that proceeds from the workings
of the foul spirit within him. This man is a well known leader of one of
those gangs of marauders who infests the county with a semblance of patriotism,
but who are guilty of every grade of offense, from simple theft to murder.)
(Behind him stand several other figures clad in a similar manner, but
whose countenances express nothing more than indifference of brutal insensibility.
They are well armed with muskets and bayonets, and provided the usual implements
of foot soldiers. HARVEY knows resistance to be in vain and submits to their
directions.)
(Both he and CAESAR are stripped of their outer garments and made to
exchange them with two of the filthiest of the band. They are then placed
in separate corners of the room, and under the muzzle of the muskets, required
to answer interrogations put to them.
HEAD SKINNER: Where is your pack?
HARVEY: Hear me, in the next room is my father in the agonies of death;
let me go to him, receive his blessing, and close his eyes, and you shall
have all, ay, ALL.
HEAD SKINNER: Answer me as I put the questions, or this musket shall
send you to keep the old driveller company; - where is your pack?
HARVEY: I will tell you nothing, unless you let me go to my father.
(His persecutor raises his arm with a malicious sneer, and is about to
execute his threat, when one of his companions checks him.)
2nd SKINNER: You surely forgot the reward. (to HARVEY) Tell us where
are your goods and you shall go to your father.
(HARVEY immediately tells where his pack is, and a man goes in quest
of it, returns and throws the bundle on the floor, swearing it is light
as feathers.)
HEAD SKINNER: Ah, there must be gold somewhere for what it did contain.
Give us your gold, Mr. BIRCH, we know you have it; you will not take continental,
not you.
HARVEY: You break your faith.
3rd SKINNER: Give us your gold. (pricking HARVEY with his bayonet until
blood follows his pushes in streams.)
(At that instant a slight movement was heard in the adjoining room.)
HARVEY: Let me - let me go to my father and you shall have it all.
HEAD SKINNER: I swear you shall go then.
HARVEY: Here, take the trash.
(He throws down his purse which he managed to conceal as he changed clothes.
The robber raises it from the floor with a hellish laugh.)
HEAD SKINNER: Ay, but it shall be to your father in heaven.
HARVEY: Monster! Have you no feeling, no faith, no honesty?
2nd SKINNER: To hear him, one would think there was not a rope around
his neck already. There is no necessity being uneasy, Mr. BIRCH, if the
old man gets a few hours the start of you in the journey, you will be sure
to follow him before noon tomorrow.
(HARVEY listens, however, to the sounds from the next room and hears
his own name spoken in the sepulchral tones of death.)
HARVEY: Father, hush -- father, I come - I come .
(He darts by his keeper, but the next moment is pinned to the wall by
the bayonet of another member of the gang. Fortunately his quick motion
had caused him to escape a thrust aimed at his life, and it is by his clothes
only that he is held.)
3rd SKINNER: No, Mr. BIRCH, we know you too well for a slippery rascal,
to trust you out of sight - your gold - your gold!
HARVEY: You have it!
HEAD Skinner: Ay, we have the purse, but you have more purses. King
George is a prompt paymaster, and you have done him many a piece of good
service. Where is your hoard? Without it you will never see your father.
HARVEY: Remove the stone underneath the woman. - remove it.
KATY: He raves - he raves.
( She moves to a different stone from the one on which she was standing.
In a moment it is torn from its bed. Nothing but earth is seen underneath.)
KATY: He raves. You have driven him from his right mind. Would any man
in his senses keep gold under his hearth?
HARVEY: (to KATY) Peace, babbling fool, lift the corner stone and you
will find what will make you rich and me a beggar.
KATY: Then you will be despisable. A peddler without goods and without
money is sure to be despisable.
HEAD SKINNER: There will be enough left to pay for his halter.
(The English guineas are found and quickly transferred to a bag.)
KATY: I have not been paid what is due for my services; ten of those
guineas belong to me.
(The band ignores her and prepares to take their prize and HARVEY with
them, but HARVEY refuses to move an inch, so they are about to lift him
in their arms when a form appears in their midst which appalls the stoutest
heart among them.)
(The father had risen from his bed and tottered forth at the cries of
his son. Around his body was thrown the sheet of his bed and his fixed eye
and haggard face gave the appearance of a being from another world. Even
KATY and CAESAR think it is the spirit of the older BIRCH, and they scream
and flee the house, followed by the alarmed and confused Skinners in a body.)
(The excitement, which had given the sick man strength, soon vanishes,
and the peddler, lifting him in his arms, reconveys his father to his bed.
The reaction of the system which follows hastens to close the scene.)
(The glazed eye of the father is fixed on his son; his lips move, but
his voice is unheard. HARVEY bends down and with the parting breath of his
parent, receives his dying benediction.)
HARVEY sings FILIAL LOVE:
"Oh, father, what little time I gave to you ... in all
my wanderings ... when we decided I'd be true ... in all these secret things
... We shared the grief when we returned ... and found our home was burned
... and all our family ... had perished tragic'ly, "but now I must
remember ... and keep every fact inside ... for there is no one else on
earth ... in whom I can confide."
"SAVE ONE ... The secrets innermost in me ... dare never
to come out ... for it would taint the trust of those ... so idolized about
... They strive to maintain leadership ... in brutal army games ... and
must not have suspicion ... surround their honored names." .
HARVEY continues with GOODBYE:
" I have survived ... but father ... it was you ...
who were the cause ... by always being here for me ... with guidance and
applause... Now I ... must say ... 'Good-bye' ... to earthly father love
... and trust you to the Lord ... in unknown realms above."
(HARVEY remains, holding his father's hand, as it grows cold.)
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