The Admirable CrichtonBarrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
General
The Admirable Crichton
Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
Manners and customs -- Drama; Shipwrecks -- Drama
Tweeny is sitting there, very busy plucking the feathers off a bird and
dropping them on a sheet placed for that purpose on the floor. She is
trilling to herself in the lightness of her heart. We may remember that
Tweeny, alone among the women, had dressed wisely for an island when
they fled the yacht, and her going-away gown still adheres to her,
though in fragments. A score of pieces have been added here and there
as necessity compelled, and these have been patched and repatched in
incongruous colours; but, when all is said and done, it can still be
maintained that Tweeny wears a skirt. She is deservedly proud of her
skirt, and sometimes lends it on important occasions when approached in
the proper spirit.
Some one outside has been whistling to Tweeny; the guarded whistle
which, on a less savage island, is sometimes assumed to be an indication
to cook that the constable is willing, if the coast be clear. Tweeny,
however, is engrossed, or perhaps she is not in the mood for a follower,
so he climbs in at the window undaunted, to take her willy nilly. He
is a jolly-looking labouring man, who answers to the name of Daddy,
and--But though that may be his island name, we recognise him at once.
He is Lord Loam, settled down to the new conditions, and enjoying life
heartily as handy-man about the happy home. He is comfortably attired in
skins. He is still stout, but all the flabbiness has dropped from him;
gone too is his pomposity; his eye is clear, brown his skin; he could
leap a gate.
In his hands he carries an island-made concertina, and such is the
exuberance of his spirits that, as he lights on the floor, he bursts
into music and song, something about his being a chickety chickety chick
chick, and will Tweeny please to tell him whose chickety chick is she.
Retribution follows sharp. We hear a whir, as if from insufficiently
oiled machinery, and over the passage door appears a placard showing
the one word ‘Silence.’ His lordship stops, and steals to Tweeny on his
tiptoes.
LORD LOAM. I thought the Gov. was out.
TWEENY. Well, you see he ain’t. And if he were to catch you here
idling--
(LORD LOAM pales. He lays aside his musical instrument and hurriedly
dons an apron. TWEENY gives him the bird to pluck, and busies herself
laying the table for dinner.)
LORD LOAM (softly). What is he doing now?
TWEENY. I think he’s working out that plan for laying on hot and cold.
LORD LOAM (proud of his master). And he’ll manage it too. The man who
could build a blacksmith’s forge without tools--
TWEENY (not less proud). He made the tools.
LORD LOAM. Out of half a dozen rusty nails. The saw-mill, Tweeny; the
speaking-tube; the electric lighting; and look at the use he has made
of the bits of the yacht that were washed ashore. And all in two years.
He’s a master I’m proud to pluck for.
(He chirps happily at his work, and she regards him curiously.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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