SCENE 22 - Night outside, a short distance from the BIRCH cottage
KATY: Oh, CAESAR, was it not dreadful of HARVEY's father to walk before
he was laid in his grave. It must have been the money that disturbed his
spirit; they say Captain Kidd walks near the spot where he buried his gold.
CAESAR: I neber t'ink Mr. BIRCH have such a big eye.
KATY: I'm sure 'twould be a botherment to lose so much money. HARVEY
will be nothing but an utterly despisable poverty-stricken wretch. I wonder
who he thinks would even be his housekeeper.
CAESAR: Maybe a spooke take HARVEY away, too.
(After deliberating some time, the two decide to go back, and if possible
learn the fate of the peddler. Much time was spent in cautiously approaching
the cottage to be certain not to encounter the Skinners again.)
(They found the peddler performing the last offices of the dead. CAESAR's
continuing dissertation on the dire appearance of Mr. BIRCH, and stories
of many "spookes", comes to an end when he volunteers to walk
the two miles with orders to a carpenter for a proper size coffin.)
SCENE 23 - Same night in the woods
(The Skinners stop running in the woods to muster their courage and rest
their panic-stricken limbs, pausing to breathe heavily.)
HEAD SKINNER: What in the name of fury seized your coward hearts?
2nd SKINNER: The same question might be asked yourself.
3rd SKINNER: From your fright I thought DeLancy's men were on us.
4th SKINNER: We follow our captain.
HEAD SKINNER: Then follow me back and let us secure the scoundrel and
receive the reward.
2nd SKINNER: Yes, and by the time we reach the house, that black rascal
will have the mad Virginian on us, and by my soul, I would rather meet fifty
Refugees than that single man.
HEAD SKINNER (angry): Fool, don't you know DUNWOODIE's horsemen are
at Four Corners, a full two miles from here?
2nd SKINNER: I care not where the dragoons are, but I will swear that
I saw Captain LAWTON enter the house of old WHARTON, while I lay watching
an opportunity of getting the British Colonel's horse from the stable.
HEAD SKINNER: And if he should come, won't a bullet silence a dragoon
from the south as well as one from old England?
2nd SKINNER: Ay, but I don't choose a hornet's nest around my ears;
raze the skin of one of that corps, and you will never see another peaceable
night's foraging again.
SCENE 24 - Dawn next morning, inside the LOCUSTS
(The doctor has spent the night at the bedside of his most critically
wounded patient, Captain SINGLETON, now and then checking his other two
patients. The ladies of the house are up early and in one of the parlors
facing the sunrise, as Dr. SITGREAVES and Capt. LAWTON enter.)
(AUNT JEANETTE, gazing out the window, sees KATY emerging through the
morning mist, and hurries to open the front door for her to enter then ushers
her into the parlor.)
AUNT JEANETTE: KATY, is he gone?
KATY sings TERRIBLE:
"It's terrible, terrible, terrible ... what happened
when HARVEY got home ... those robbers rushed in ... when his father was
dying ... and robbed him of all his gold."
AUNT JEANETTE sings:
"How could anyone have the heart ... to plunder a man in
such distress?"
KATY sings on:
"Hearts? Theirs are like a cold stone wall ... Men like
them have no bowels at all ... Plunder and distress, indeed ... all to satisfy
their greed ... There in the iron pot in plain sight ... were fifty-four
guineas on this dreadful night ... besides what lay underneath the hearthstone
... which I wouldn't touch cause it weren't my own ... so there wasn't less
than two hundred guineas all told."
KATY: HARVEY is little better than a beggar, and a beggar, Miss JEANETTE,
is an awful despisable of all creatures.
AUNT JEANETTE: poverty is to be pitied, not despised, but how is the
old man, and does this loss affect him much?
KATY: He is happily removed from the cares of the world. The clinking
of the money made him get out of bed, and the poor soul found the shock
too great for him. He died about two hours before the cock crowed, as near
as we could say. We shall need help with the funeral.
Dr. SITGREAVES: And what was the nature of his disorder?
KATY (adjusting her dress at seeing the gathering): 'Twas the troubles
of the times, and the loss of property that brought him down. He wasted
from day to day and all my care and anxiety were lost; for now HARVEY is
no better than a beggar and who will pay me for what I have done?
AUNT JEANETTE: God will reward you for all the good you have done.
KATY: Yes, but then I have left my wages for three years past in the
hands of HARVEY, and how am I to get them? My brothers told me again and
again to ask for my money, but I always thought accounts between relations
were easily settled.
AUNT JEANETTE: Were you related then to Mr. BIRCH?
KATY: Why, I thought we were as good as so. I wonder if I have no claim
on the house and garden; though they say, now it is HARVEY's, it will surely
be confiscated.
(Turning to LAWTON, who sits down as she speaks, with his piercing eyes
glowering at her through his thick brows in silence:)
KATY: Perhaps this gentleman knows; he seems to take an interest in
my story.
LAWTON sings KNOWLEDGE:
"Madam, both you and your tale ... are extremely int'resting
... but my humble knowledge is limited ... to military things ... not what
extended service ... by a devoted servant brings." (Repeat melody)
"I suggest your needs for this ... asked of Doctor ARCHIBALD ... for
he has unbounded attainments and ... unleashed philanthropy ... but foe
of unleashed cut- ... ting and the milk of ... great sympathy.
KATY: (turning to the doctor) I suppose, sir, a woman has no dower in
her husband's property, unless they be actually married?
Dr. SITGREAVES: I judge not. If death has anticipated you nuptials,
I am fearful you have no remedy against his stern decrees.
(KATY, not understanding what the doctor meant:)
KATY: I did think he only waited till the death of the old gentleman
before he married; but now he is nothing more than despisable, or what's
the same thing , a peddler without a house, a pack or money. It might be
hard for a man to get a wife at all in such a predicary - don't you think
it would, Miss PEYTON?
AUNT JEANETTE: I seldom trouble myself with such things.
(LAWTON, studying KATY's manner with ludicrous gravity):
LAWTON: You think it was age and debility that removed the father at
last?
KATY: And the troublesome times. Trouble is a heavy pull-down to a sick
bed, but I suppose his time had come, and when that happens, it matters
little what doctor's stuff we take.
Dr. SITGREAVES: Let me set you right in that particular. We must all
die it is true, but it is permitted to use the lights of science in arresting
dangers as they occur, until -
LAWTON: We can die secundum artem.
Dr. SITGREAVES: Perhaps, in this instance, judicious treatment might
have prolonged the life of the patient. Who administered to the case?
KATY: No one yet, I expect he has made his last will in the testament.
(The ladies smile at KATY's misinterpreting the question.)
Dr. SITGREAVES: It is doubtless wise to be prepared for death, but under
whose care was the sick man during his indisposition?
KATY: Under mine, and care thrown away I may well call it; for HARVEY
is quite too despisable to be any sort of compensation at present.
(The mutual ignorance of each other's meaning makes very little interruption
to the dialogue, for both take a good deal for granted, and the doctor pursues
his subject.)
DR. SITGREAVES: And how did you treat him?
KATY (tartly): Kindly, you may be certain.
(LAWTON, With a face that would have honored a funeral):
LAWTON: The doctor means medically, madam.
KATY (smiling as if conscious of error): I doctored him mostly with
learned remedies of my mother.
Dr. SITGREAVES: With simples? They are safer in the hands of the unlettered
than more powerful remedies; but why had you no regular attendant?
KATY: I'm sure HARVEY has suffered enough already from having so much
concerns with the rig'lars; he has lost his all and made himself a vagabond
through the land; and I have reason to rue the day I ever crossed the threshold
of his house.
LAWTON: The doctor does not mean a rig'lar soldier, but a regular physician,
madam.
KATY: Oh, (correcting herself again) for the best of all reasons: there
was none to be had, so I took care of him myself. If there had been a doctor
at hand, I'm sure we would have had him; for my part, I am clear for doctoring,
though HARVEY says I am killing myself with medicines; but I'm sure it will
make but little difference to him whether I live or die.
Dr. SITGREAVES: Therein you show your sense.
(He approaches the spinster who sat holding the palms of her hand and
soles of her feet to the fire, making the most of comfort amid all her troubles.)
Dr. SITGREAVES: You appear to be a sensible discreet woman, and some
who have had opportunities of acquiring more correct views might envy you
your respect for knowledge and lights of science.
(Although KATY does not altogether comprehend the doctor's meaning, she
knows he had paid her a compliment, and is highly pleased.)
KATY: It was always said of me that I wanted nothing but opportunity
to make a physician myself; so long as before I came to live with HARVEY's
father, they called me the petticoat doctor.
Dr. SITGREAVES: More true than civil, I dare say. In the absence of
more enlightened counselors, the experience of a discreet matron is frequently
of great efficacy in checking the progress of disease; it is dreadful to
have to contend with ignorance and obstinacy.
KATY: Bad enough, as I well know from experience. HARVEY is as obstinate
about such things as a dumb beast; one would think the care I took of his
bed-ridden father might learn him better than to despise good nursing, but
some day he may want a careful woman in his house, though now I am sure
he is too despisable to have a house.
Dr. SITGREAVES: Indeed, I can easily comprehend the mortification you
must have felt in having one so self-willed to deal with, but you should
rise superior to such opinions, and pity the ignorance by which they are
engendered.
(KATY hesitates, at loss to comprehend all that the surgeon expressed,
yet she felt it complimentary and kind, therefore, suppressing her natural
flow of language - :)
KATY: I tell HARVEY his conduct is often commendable, and last night
he made my words good; but the opinions of unbelievers is not very consequential;
yet it is dreadful to think how he behaves at times: now, when he threw
away the needle -
Dr. SITGREAVES: What? Does he affect to despise the needle? But it is
my lot to meet men daily, who are equally perverse and show a more disrespect
for the information that flows from lights of science.
(The doctor looks at LAWTON while saying this, but cannot see his grave
expression.)
KATY: Then HARVEY is a disbeliever in the tides.
Dr. SITGREAVES: Not believe in the tides? Does the man distrust his
senses? Perhaps it is the influence of the moon that he doubts.
(KATY almost shakes with delight at meeting a man of learning who could
support her favorite opinions.)
KATY: That he does! If you would hear him talk, you would think he didn't
believe there was such a thing as a moon at all.
Dr. SITGREAVES: The mind, once rejecting useful information, insensibly
leans to superstition and conclusions on the order of nature. That any man
in his senses can doubt of the flux of the tides is more than I could have
thought possible; yet obstinacy is a dangerous inmate to harbor, and may
lead us into any error.
KATY: You think, then, they have an effect on the flux?
(Miss PEYTON rises and beckons her nieces to follow her into the pantry.
The doctor, reflecting whether he rightly understood the meaning of the
question, and making due allowance for the love of learning, acts upon a
want of education.)
Dr. SITGREAVES: The moon, you mean, - many philosophers have doubted
how far it affects the tides; but I think it is willfully rejecting the
lights of science not to believe it causes both the flux and reflux.
(As reflux is a disorder with which KATY was not acquainted, she thinks
it prudent to be silent; yet burning with curiosity to know the meaning
of certain portentous lights to which the doctor so often referred, she
ventures to ask -.)
KATY: Are them lights he spoke of what was called northern lights in
these parts?
(In charity to her ignorance, the surgeon would have entered into an
explanation of his meaning if he had not been interrupted by the laughter
of LAWTON, who had listened with composure, but could no longer restrain
himself and laughs long and loudly until his aching bones remind him of
his fall and tears roll over his cheeks in larger drops than had ever been
there before. At length the physician seizes an opportunity of a pause -
.)
Dr. SITGREAVES: To you, Captain LAWTON, it may be a source of triumph,
that an uneducated woman could make a mistake in a subject, on which men
of science have long been at variance; but yet find this respectable matron
does not reject the lights - does not reject the use of proper instruments
in repairing injuries sustained by the human frame. you may possibly remember,
sir, her allusion to the use of the needle.
LAWTON: Ay, sir, to mend the peddler's breeches.
(The doctor looks out at the brilliant morning, striving to avoid the
eyes of his comrade, mutters something concerning the condition of his patients,
and retreats from the room.)
(Miss PEYTON returns and inquires of the situation at the house of the
peddler, listening patiently while KATY recounts the circumstances of the
past night as they occurred, dwelling on the loss sustained by HARVEY and
in no manner sparing her disdain at his betraying a secret which might so
easily have been kept.)
KATY: For you, Miss PEYTON, I would have given up life before I would
have given up that secret. At the most they could only have killed him,
and now a body may say they have slain both soul and body; or, what's the
same thing, they have made him a despisable vagabond. I wonder who he thinks
would be his wife, or who would keep his house. For my part, my good name
is too precious to be living with a lone man; though, for that matter he
is never there. I am resolved to tell him this day:
KATY sings UNLESS HE MARRIES ME:
"No man will see my bed ... unless he marries me ...
because ... I'm a lady ... a lady ... and always will be ... and I'm not
staying to work for him ... unless he marries me ... because ... I'm a lady
... a lady ... that's how it will be ... Now that he's the only one at home
... I'm not staying with him alone ... unless he marries me."
(The mild mistress of the LOCUSTS suffers the exuberance of the housekeeper's
feeling to expend itself, then denoted a more intimate knowledge of the
human heart in matters of Cupid. She extracts enough from KATY to learn
the improbability of HARVEY's ever presuming to offer himself, with his
broken fortunes, to the acceptance of KATY HAYNES.)
(Miss PEYTON, therefore mentions her own want of assistance in the present
state of her household, and expresses a wish that KATY would change her
residence to the LOCUSTS, in case the peddler had no more use of her services.
After a few preliminary conditions on the part of the wary housekeeper,
the arrangement is concluded.)
Making a few more lamentations on the weight of her own losses, the stupidity
of HARVEY, united with a curiosity to know the future fate of the peddler,
KATY withdraws to make preparations for the funeral, which is to be held
that day.)
SCENE 25 - Same morning, DR. SITGREAVES's room
(After some time is occupied in attention to the severely wounded officer,
Captain SINGLETON, the doctor retires for a much needed rest from his all
night vigil and enters in the privacy of his accommodations, but, within
a few minutes, he is surprised by the entrance of Captain LAWTON.)
LAWTON: SITGREAVES, administer a little of the aid of lights of science
to my body, if you please.
DR. SITGREAVES: Does Capt. LAWTON want anything at my hands?
LAWTON: Look for yourself, my dear sir, here seem to be most of the
colors of the rainbow, on this shoulder.
Dr. SITGREAVES: You have reason for saying so, (handling the part with
care) but happily nothing is broken.
LAWTON: I have been a tumbler from my youth, and am past minding a few
falls from a horse, but, SITGREAVES, do you remember this bit of work? (points
to a scar on his body.)
SITGREAVES: Perfectly well, JOHN, it was bravely obtained and neatly
extracted, but don't you think I had better apply oil to these bruises?
LAWTON: Certainly.
SITGREAVES: Now, my dear boy, do you not think it would have been better
to have done all this last night? (as he applies oil.)
LAWTON: Quite probable.
SITGREAVES: Yes, JOHN, but if you had let me perform the operation of
phlebotomy when I first saw you, it would have been of infinite service.
LAWTON (in determined voice) No phlebotomy.
SITGREAVES: It is now too late, but a dose of oil would carry off the
humors famously. (changing subject) It is a pity you did not catch the rascal,
after the danger and trouble you incurred. ---
(LAWTON does not answer, so the doctor continues ----)
SITGREAVES: If I have any wish at all to destroy human life; it is the
pleasure of seeing that traitor hanged.
LAWTON: I thought your business was to cure, not to slay.
SITGREAVES: Ay, but he has caused us such heavy losses by his information,
that I sometimes feel a very unphilosophical temper towards that spy.
LAWTON: You should not encourage such feelings of animosity to any of
your fellow creatures.
(LAWTON had spoken in a tone that caused the doctor to drop a pin he
was arranging in the bandages in his hand, and look at the patient in the
face to remove all doubts of his identity. Finding it was his old comrade,
Capt. JOHN LAWTON, who had spoken, the physician rallied his astonished
faculties, and proceeded with -
DR SITGREAVES: Your doctrine is just, and in general I subscribe to
it, but, JOHN, my dear fellow - is the bandage easy?
LAWTON: Quite.
SITGREAVES: I agree with you as a whole, but no case exists without
an exception. LAWTON, do you feel easy.
LAWTON: Very.
SITGREAVES: It is not only cruel to the sufferer, but sometimes unjust
to others, to take human life where a less punishment would answer the purpose.
Now, JOHN, if you were only - move your arm a little - if you were only
- I hope you feel easier, my dear friend.
LAWTON: Much.
SITGREAVES: If, my dear JOHN, you would teach your men to cut with more
discretion, it would answer you the same purpose - and give me great pleasure.
(The doctor drew a heavy sigh, as he was able to get rid of what was
nearest his heart; and the dragoon coolly replaced his coat.)
LAWTON: I know no troop that cuts more judiciously; they generally shave
from the crown to the jaw.
(The disappointed surgeon shrugs and proceeds to the room of Colonel
WELLMEYER.)
SCENE 26 - Same morning, Capt. GEORGE SINGLETON's room,
(After observing that Col. WELLMEYER needed little service, Dr. SITGREAVES
enters Capt. SINGLETON's room to sit for an hour at the bedside of his severely
injured patient. Laying his fingers on the pulse of the youth, he mutters
to himself:)
Dr. SITGREAVES: Growing symptoms of a febrile pulse - no, no, my dear
GEORGE, you must remain quiet and dumb; though your eyes look better, and
your skin has even moisture.
GEORGE: Nay, my dear SITGREAVES, you see there is no fever about me;
look- is there any of JOHN LAWTON'S hoar frost on my tongue?
(Putting a spoon in the lad's mouth and forcing it open as though to
see down into the interior-)
Dr. SITGREAVES: No, indeed. The tongue is well and the pulse begins
to lower again. The bleeding did you good. Phlebotomy is a sovereign specific
for southern climates, but your eye is fiery and cheek flushed. I must examine
more closely these symptoms.
GEORGE: Softly, my good friend, softly (he falls back on the pillow).
I believe in extracting the ball, you did for me all that is required; I
am free from pain now, only weak I assure you.
DR. SITGREAVES: Captain SINGLETON, it is presumptuous of you to pretend
to tell your medical attendant when you are free from pain. If we are not
able to decide such matters, of what avails the light of science? For shame,
GEORGE, even that perverse fellow, JOHN LAWTON, could not behave with more
obstinacy.
GEORGE: ARCHIBALD, do tell me -
GEORGE sings FAIRYLIKE:
"Who has been hovering here ... near me ... while I
lay quietly ... pretending to sleep? ..."What spirit from ... heaven
has been around ... gliding within my silent room ... without a sound? ...
No interference ... in my peaceful rest ... only the feeling of tenderness,"
"surrounding my being ... with loving kindness ...My awareness
... of her presence ... and her nursing devo-o-tion ...stirred gentle stimulation
... in my waning emo-o-tions ... With softness of an angel ... and grace
so fairylike ... her caring touched my senses ... bringing them back ...
in ... to life."
Dr. SITGREAVES: If anyone interferes with my patients, I will teach
them, spirit or no spirit, what it is to meddle with another man's concerns.
GEORGE: Tut, my dear fellow, there was no interference made, not any
intended - see, everything is as you left it. -
Dr. SITGREAVES: Had it petticoats, GEORGE?
GEORGE: I saw nothing but it's heavenly eyes - its bloom - its majestic
step - its grace (but the surgeon stopped him -)
Dr. SITGREAVES: It must have been Miss JEANETTE PEYTON - a lady of fine
accomplishments - with something of the kind of step you speak of - a very
complacent eye, and as to the bloom, I dare say a fine color can come to
her cheeks, as glow in the faces of her more youthful nieces.
GEORGE: Nieces, has she nieces, a sister , a niece - but never an aunt.
Dr. SITGREAVES: Hush, GEORGE , your talking has brought up your pulse
again. You must observe quiet, and prepare for a meeting with your sister,
who will be here within an hour.
GEORGE: What! ISABELLA! Who sent for her?
Dr. SITGREAVES: The Major.
GEORGE: Considerate, DUNWOODIE.
(He settles down to relax with his eyes closed. SARAH, who has been moving
about the house attending to needs of the patients, especially concerned
over the well being of Col. WELLMEYER, stops in the doorway to inquire of
his condition quietly-)
SARAH: Doctor, how is the Colonel faring?
Dr. SITGREAVES: Colonel WELLMEYER is in what I call as state of free-will,
madam. He is ill, or he is well, as he pleases. His case young lady, exceeds
my art to heal; and I take it Sir Henry Clinton is the best adviser he can
apply to; though Major DUNWOODIE has made the communications with his leech
rather difficult.
(FRANCES, who approached when the physician began to speak, smiles, turning
her face aside, as the man leaves down the hall, while SARAH moves with
the grace of an offended Juno in the opposite direction.)
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