SMITH: Well, good-bye. Good day, sir. Good day, ma'am. SILAS: (_following him to the door_) Nice horse you've got. SMITH: Yes, seems all right. (SILAS _stands in the doorway and looks off at the hill_.) GRANDMOTHER: What are you going to do with the hill, Silas? SILAS: After I get a little glass of wine--to celebrate Felix and me being here instead of farther south--I'd like to tell you what I want for the hill. (_to_ FEJEVARY _rather bashfully_) I've been wanting to tell you. FEJEVARY: I want to know. SILAS: (_getting the wine from the closet_) Just a little something to show our gratitude with. (_Goes off right for glasses_.) GRANDMOTHER: I dunno. Maybe it'd be better to sell the hill--while they're anxious. FEJEVARY: He seems to have another plan for it. GRANDMOTHER: Yes. Well, I hope the other plan does bring him something. Silas has worked--all the days of his life. FEJEVARY: I know. GRANDMOTHER: You don't know the hull of it. But I know. (_rather to herself_) Know too well to think about it. GRANDMOTHER: (_as_ SILAS _returns_) I'll get more cookies. SILAS: I'll get them, mother. GRANDMOTHER: Get 'em myself. Pity if a woman can't get out her own cookies. SILAS: (_seeing how hard it is for her_) I wish mother would let us do things for her. FEJEVARY: That strength is a flame frailness can't put out. It's a great thing for us to have her,--this touch with the life behind us. SILAS: Yes. And it's a great thing for us to have you--who can see those things and say them. What a lot I'd 'a' missed if I hadn't had what you've seen. FEJEVARY: Oh, you only think that because you've got to be generous. SILAS: I'm not generous. _I'm_ seeing something now. Something about you. I've been thinking of it a good deal lately--it's got something to do with--with the hill. I've been thinkin' what it's meant all these years to have a family like yours next place to. They did something pretty nice for the corn belt when they drove you out of Hungary. Funny--how things don't end the way they begin. I mean, what begins don't end. It's another thing ends. Set out to do something for your own country--and maybe you don't quite do the thing you set out to do-- FEJEVARY: No. SILAS: But do something for a country a long way off. FEJEVARY: I'm afraid I've not done much for any country. SILAS: (_brusquely_) Where's your left arm--may I be so bold as to inquire? Though your left arm's nothing alongside--what can't be measured. FEJEVARY: When I think of what I dreamed as a young man--it seems to me my life has failed. SILAS: (_raising his glass_) Well, if your life's failed--I like failure. (GRANDMOTHER MORTON _returns with her cookies_.) GRANDMOTHER: There's two kinds--Mr Fejevary. These have seeds in 'em. FEJEVARY: Thank you. I'll try a seed cookie first. SILAS: Mother, you'll have a glass of wine? GRANDMOTHER: I don't need wine. SILAS: Well, I don't know as we need it. GRANDMOTHER: No, I don't know as you do. But I didn't go to war.