_The action of the play takes place on the same day._ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ACT I _JOHN SCALLY’S kitchen. Large and comfortably furnished. A large table and a small one, a number of chairs, an old lounge, and a tall cupboard with glass doors above and wooden doors below. The upper part is packed with china, the under part with linen, etc._ _At the back are two windows and a half-glass door opening to the farmyard. Another door left communicates with the hall and the other rooms. Fireplace on the right._ _It is a July morning. A strong sun is shining on the back windows._ _PEGGY SCALLY is doing laundry-work at the larger table. She is an attractive country girl about twenty-six years old._ PEGGY. I wish this day was finished! _After a hasty glance at the back windows she takes several pieces of jewellery from her pocket and places them on a paper. Before rolling them up she slips a ring on and off her finger, then puts it with the rest and ties the parcel._ If he would just come now and have it over! _HUGH O’CAHAN enters on tiptoe at the left. He is twenty-five years old, dressed in horsey attire which has seen better days, and has an old riding whip in his hand. He wears neither a collar nor tie._ O’C. I was listening, Peggy, to make sure you were alone, and heard you wishing he’d come. Am I the party? PEGGY. Hugh! how did you get in? O’C. By the old route, dear; the parlour window. PEGGY. I suppose you knocked down the plant? O’C. You and that plant, Peggy! I’ve only touched it once in four years, and that night there was an eclipse of the moon. PEGGY. Are you riding? O’C. No, worse luck. For the first morning in my life I’ve no horse to ride. Just this whip left.... I wonder how long it is since the O’Cahans had no horse? How long since the stable at Rush Hill was last empty? It must be a good few hundred years. PEGGY. You’d a horse yesterday. O’C. Yes, Havoc. But he, poor thing, was removed last night after dark. He went away as sad as a Christian. That left me without a four-footed animal, save the cat. I’m a pretty handy fellow, Peggy, but I can’t ride a cat. PEGGY. Did anyone see you coming in the window? O’C. Not a soul, Peggy. Your mother’s feeding young calves in the paddock, your father’s driving out a long string of cows, and hours ago I saw your brothers and sisters going down the moss road to work. They were singing like birds. PEGGY. They’ve gone over to the other farm to make hay. O’C. Their industry is shocking. PEGGY. Nobody can say that about you, Hugh. O’C. That’s the style. Are you set on giving me a final lecture? A few nice proverbs on the day I’m to be auctioned out would improve me. Go on, Peggy. Squander your good advice.