(_She goes out. Enter_ SHAWN EARLY _and_ MRS. TULLY.) TIM CASEY. Listen, Shawn Early! Listen, Mrs. Tully, to the news! Jack Smith and Bartley Fallon had a falling out, and Jack knocked Mrs. Fallon's basket into the road, and Bartley made an attack on him with a hayfork, and away with Jack, and Bartley after him. Look at the sugar here yet on the road! SHAWN EARLY. Do you tell me so? Well, that's a queer thing, and Bartley Fallen so quiet a man! MRS. TULLY. I wouldn't wonder at all. I would never think well of a man that would have that sort of a moldering look. It's likely he has overtaken Jack by this. (_Enter_ JAMES RYAN _and_ MRS. TARPEY.) JAMES RYAN. That is great news Mrs. Tarpey was telling me! I suppose that's what brought the police and the magistrate up this way. I was wondering to see them in it a while ago. SHAWN EARLY. The police after them? Bartley Fallen must have injured Jack so. They wouldn't meddle in a fight that was only for show! MRS. TULLY. Why wouldn't he injure him? There was many a man killed with no more of a weapon than a hayfork. JAMES RYAN. Wait till I run north as far as Kelly's bar to spread the news! (_He goes out._) TIM CASEY. I'll go tell Jack Smith's first cousin that is standing there south of the church after selling his lambs. (_Goes out._) MRS. TULLY. I'll go telling a few of the neighbors I see beyond to the west. (_Goes out._) SHAWN EARLY. I'll give word of it beyond at the east of the green. (_Is going out when MRS. TARPEY seizes hold of him._) MRS. TARPEY. Stop a minute, Shawn Early, and tell me did you see red Jack Smith's wife, Kitty Keary, in any place? SHAWN EARLY. I did. At her own house she was, drying clothes on the hedge as I passed. MRS. TARPEY. What did you say she was doing? SHAWN EARLY (_breaking away_). Laying out a sheet on the hedge. (_He goes._) MRS. TARPEY. Laying out a sheet for the dead! The Lord have mercy on us! Jack Smith dead, and his wife laying out a sheet for his burying! (_Calls out_) Why didn't you tell me that before, Shawn Early? Isn't the deafness the great hardship? Half the world might be dead without me knowing of it or getting word of it at all! (_She sits down and rocks herself._) O my poor Jack Smith! To be going to his work so nice and so hearty, and to be left stretched on the ground in the full light of the day! (_Enter_ TIM CASEY.) TIM CASEY. What is it, Mrs. Tarpey? What happened since? MRS. TARPEY. O my poor Jack Smith! TIM CASEY. Did Bartley overtake him? MRS. TARPEY. O the poor man! TIM CASEY. Is it killed he is? MRS. TARPEY. Stretched in the Five-Acre Meadow! TIM CASEY. The Lord have mercy on us! Is that a fact? MRS. TARPEY. Without the rites of the Church or a ha'porth! TIM CASEY. Who was telling you? MRS. TARPEY. And the wife laying out a sheet for his corpse. (_Sits up and wipes her eyes._) I suppose they'll wake him the same as another? (_Enter_ MRS. TULLY, SHAWN EARLY, _and_ JAMES RYAN.)