GILES. And where is that, old master?
OLD MAN. Towards Camel Farm.
GILES. You’re right. ’Tis there and nowhere else that we are going.
OLD MAN. Ah, us’ll have to go smartish if us is to be there in time.
GILES. In time for what, my good man?
OLD MAN. In time for to see the marrying, my lord.
GILES. The marrying? What’s that you’re telling me?
OLD MAN. ’Tis at noon this day that she’s to be wed.
GILES. Who are you speaking of, old man?
OLD MAN. And where is your lordship journeying this day if ’tis not to
the marrying?
GILES. Who’s getting wed up yonder, tell me quickly?
OLD MAN. ’Tis th’ old farmer’s daughter what’s to wed come noon-tide.
GILES. [_Starting_.] Millie! O that is heavy news. [_Looking at his
hand_.] Then ’tis as I feared, for since daybreak yesterday the
brightness has all gone from out of the seven stones. That’s how ’twould
be, she told me once.
[_He turns away from the others in deep distress of mind_.
GEORGE. Us’ll see no Camel Farm this day.
JOHN. And th’ inside of I be crying out for victuals.
OLD MAN. Then you be not of these parts, masters?
GEORGE. No, us be comed from right over the seas, along of master.
JOHN. Ah, ’tis a fine gentleman, master. But powerful misfortunate in
things of the heart.
GEORGE. Ah, he’d best have stopped where he was. Camel Farm baint no
place for the like of he to go courting at.
JOHN. Ah, master be used to them great palaces, all over gold and marble
with windows as you might drive a waggon through, and that you might.
GEORGE. All painted glass. And each chair with golden legs to him, and
a sight of silver vessels on the table as never you did dream of after a
night’s drinking, old man. [GILES _comes slowly towards them_.
GILES. And who is she to wed, old man?
OLD MAN. Be you a-speaking of the young mistress up at Camel Farm, my
lord?
GILES. Yes. With whom does she go to church to-day?
OLD MAN. ’Tis along of Master Andrew that her do go. What lives up
Cranham way.
GILES. Ah, th’ old farmer was always wonderful set on him. [_A pause_.
OLD MAN. I be a poor old wretch what journeys upon the roads, master,
and maybe I picks a crust here and gets a drink of water there, and the
shelter of the pig-stye wall to rest the bones of me at night time.
GILES. What matters it if you be old and poor, master, so that the heart
of you be whole and unbroken?
OLD MAN. Us poor old wretches don’t carry no hearts to th’ insides of
we. The pains of us do come from the having of no victuals and from the
winter’s cold when snow do lie on the ground and the wind do moan over
the fields, and when the fox do bark.
GILES. What is the pang of hunger and the cold bite of winter set
against the cruel torment of a disappointed love?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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