Why, Fool? FOOL What is eaten is gone--I want pennies for my bag. I must buy bacon in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time the sun is weak, and snares to catch the rabbits and the hares, and a big pot to cook them in. WISE MAN I have more to think about than giving pennies to your like, so run away. FOOL Give me a penny and I will bring you luck. The fishermen let me sleep among their nets in the loft because I bring them luck; and in the summer time, the wild creatures let me sleep near their nests and their holes. It is lucky even to look at me, but it is much more lucky to give me a penny. If I was not lucky I would starve. WISE MAN What are the shears for? FOOL I won't tell you. If I told you, you would drive them away. WISE MAN Drive them away! Who would I drive away? FOOL I won't tell you. WISE MAN Not if I give you a penny? FOOL No. WISE MAN Not if I give you two pennies? FOOL You will be very lucky if you give me two pennies, but I won't tell you. WISE MAN Three pennies? FOOL Four, and I will tell you. WISE MAN Very well--four, but from this out I will not call you Teigue the Fool. FOOL Let me come close to you, where nobody will hear me; but first you must promise not to drive them away. (_Wise Man nods._) Every day men go out dressed in black and spread great black nets over the hills, great black nets. WISE MAN A strange place that to fish in. FOOL They spread them out on the hills that they may catch the feet of the angels; but every morning just before the dawn, I go out and cut the nets with the shears and the angels fly away. WISE MAN (_Speaking with excitement_) Ah, now I know that you are Teigue the Fool. You say that I am wise, and yet I say, there are no angels. FOOL I have seen plenty of angels. WISE MAN No, no, you have not. FOOL They are plenty if you but look about you. They are like the blades of grass. WISE MAN They are plenty as the blades of grass--I heard that phrase when I was but a child and was told folly. FOOL When one gets quiet. When one is so quiet that there is not a thought in one's head maybe, there is something that wakes up inside one, something happy and quiet, and then all in a minute one can smell summer flowers, and tall people go by, happy and laughing, but they will not let us look at their faces. Oh no, it is not right that we should look at their faces. WISE MAN You have fallen asleep upon a hill, yet, even those that used to dream of angels dream now of other things. FOOL I saw one but a moment ago--that is because I am lucky. It was coming behind me, but it was not laughing. WISE MAN There's nothing but what men can see when they are awake. Nothing, nothing. FOOL I knew you would drive them away. WISE MAN Pardon me, Fool, I had forgotten who I spoke to. Well, there are your four pennies--Fool you are called, And all day long they cry, 'Come hither, Fool.'