Did you tell the silly boy about your running away? NATHANIEL I told Jonathan nothing about myself. You are the head of the Clay family and out of custom I respected your position; but, by God, John, you're a failure with this boy. JOHN He-- [_Hank enters carrying Jonathan in his arms. Jonathan is limp and pitiful. His clothes are torn. He is moaning pitifully._ HANK He fell on the rocks out there. NATHANIEL Put him over here. [_Hank places Jonathan on the bench near the piano. Nathaniel places the costume, which Susan left there, under his head for a pillow._ JOHN What was he doing? HANK He was-- NATHANIEL This is no time for questions, John. Call a doctor. [_Jonathan moans and rolls his head, looking vacantly at Hank now and then._ JONATHAN (_moaning_) Good-bye.... Jonathan. JOHN We'd better take him in the house. JONATHAN My mother was the best woman-- NATHANIEL He'd better stay here until the doctor comes. [_John exits._ JONATHAN All on a summer's day-- [_All the time Nathaniel has been passing his hands over Jonathan._ HANK He's out of his head, ain't he? NATHANIEL Perhaps, but sometimes one's heart speaks in a delirium. HANK He acts like his back's broke. NATHANIEL My God--his back! [_Touches the boy's back._ _Jonathan winces with pain._ JONATHAN My back's broken, Hank. HANK Listen, he's saying my name. We wuz pals, sure nuff. JONATHAN My back's broken, Hank. _Curtain._ ACT II Six years have elapsed since Act I as years elapse in a boy's imaginings. Throughout this act the characters are disclosed without reason as in a dream; and the movement of the act represents four terrors of a delirium--anxious effort to make oneself known, a feeling of fetters, climbing and a sudden fall. JONATHAN BUILDS A FEAR [_Before the curtain rises the voices of Jonathan, Hank, Nathaniel and John are heard, muffled and far away._ HANK He fell on the rocks out there. NATHANIEL Put him over here. JOHN What was he doing? HANK He was-- NATHANIEL This is no time for questions, John. Call a doctor. JONATHAN Good-bye.... Jonathan. JOHN We'd better take him in the house. JONATHAN My mother was the best woman-- NATHANIEL He'd better stay here until the doctor comes. JONATHAN All on a summer's day-- HANK He's out of his head, ain't he? NATHANIEL Perhaps, but sometimes one's heart speaks in a delirium. HANK He acts like his back's broke. NATHANIEL My God--his back! JONATHAN My back's broken, Hank. HANK Listen, he's saying my name. We wuz pals, sure nuff. JONATHAN My back's broken, Hank. [_The curtain has risen unnoticed._ _A faint light that grows steadily brighter as light does when one comes out of a swoon discloses Jonathan and Hank seated on a log at the left of the stage, where the bench had been. Jonathan seems much older, and he is crooked and dirty and unkempt, and Hank is somewhat brutalised, less negative._ JONATHAN