[_She sinks down slowly to the floor. The sisters have stirred and looked about stupidly. PEARL now sees GRANNY and bends over her._] PEARL [_With a cry._] Ah—Granny Maumee’s dead. [_She runs terror-stricken to the door at back, crouching beside it. SAPPHIE then, after gazing intently at GRANNY, suddenly runs toward the door and dragging it open rushes out, followed by her sister._] BOTH GIRLS [_Outside._] Granny Maumee’s dead! Granny Maumee’s dead! [_Their voices gradually die away in the distance, the door blows shut. The body of GRANNY MAUMEE is left alone in the room._] CURTAIN. THE RIDER OF DREAMS THE RIDER OF DREAMS SCENE: _Night in a room used for kitchen, dining-room and laundry by a colored family. A lamp is set upon a central table laid with a spotless table cloth. Baskets of clothes stand on several chairs. At the back is a cook-stove and to the left of this a door. There are also doorways at the right and left of the room. LUCY SPARROW, a worn, sweet-faced woman of forty, is sprinkling clothes at an ironing-board at left with her back turned to the table beside which, on a high stool, is perched a small boy, BOOKER SPARROW. Both the boy and the woman as well as the room show a painstaking neatness despite the disorder necessary in the process of a professional “wash.”_ LUCY Who make you? BOOKER God. Ain’t the mush done now? LUCY It’s done but I ain’t done wif you. You got to learn good befo’ you can eat good. Who redeem you? BOOKER Christ. I’ll stop being hungry for it if I don’t get it now. LUCY Bettah lose youah wishes an’ youah ahms an’ laigs an’ everything youah body’s fix wif an’ keep youah immortal soul. Who sanctify you? BOOKER The Holy Ghost. I don’t want nothing but mush. LUCY Well, you ain’ goin’ to git hit twell you luhns de questions. What de chief en’ of man? BOOKER Chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy himself for ever. LUCY [_Coming swiftly forward and confronting him with a threatening look_:] Enjoy _hisself_! I ain’ neveh teach you dat. You know betteh’n dat. Man got no right to enjoy hisself. He got to enjoy Gawd. You knows dat as well as you knows eatin’. An’ you got to say it an’ what’s mo’ you got to live it. Now what de chief en’ of man? BOOKER Enjoy God forever. LUCY Dat’s mo’ like it. [_She turns her back and going to the ironing-board resumes her labours, still talking._] I’m raisin’ you fo’ de Kingdom an’ you’ah goin’ in de Kingdom ef pushin’ ’ll lan’ you dere. Because dis time anutheh yeah you may be in some lonesome graveyard. [_Singing_:] In some lonesome graveyard, Oh, Lawd, no time to pray.