_Scene, the same. Time, the following evening, about seven o'clock. The table is half laid, with a large cup and saucer, plate, etc., ready for Holroyd's dinner, which, like all miners, he has when he comes home between four and five o'clock. On the other half of the table Mrs. Holroyd is ironing. On the hearth stands newly baked loaves of bread. The irons hang at the fire._ _Jack, with a bowler hat hanging at the back of his head, parades up to the sofa, on which stands Minnie engaged in dusting a picture. She has a soiled white apron tied behind her, to make a long skirt._ JACK Good mornin', missis. Any scissors or knives to grind? MINNIE (_peering down from the sofa_) Oh, I can't be bothered to come downstairs. Call another day. JACK I shan't. MINNIE (_keeping up her part_) Well, I can't come down now. (_Jack stands irresolute_) Go on, you have to go and steal the baby. JACK I'm not. MINNIE Well, you can steal the eggs out of the fowl-house. JACK I'm not. MINNIE Then I shan't play with you. (_Jack takes off his bowler hat and flings it on the sofa; tears come in Minnie's eyes_) Now I'm _not_ friends. (_She surveys him ruefully; after a few moments of silence she clambers down and goes to her mother_) Mam, he won't play with me. MRS. HOLROYD (_crossly_) Why don't you play with her? If you begin bothering, you must go to bed. JACK Well, I don't want to play. MRS. HOLROYD Then you must go to bed. JACK I don't want to. MRS. HOLROYD Then what do you want, I should like to know? MINNIE I wish my father'd come. JACK I do. MRS. HOLROYD I suppose he thinks he's paying me out. This is the third time this week he's slunk past the door and gone down to Old Brinsley instead of coming in to his dinner. He'll be as drunk as a lord when he does come. [_The children look at her plaintively._ MINNIE Isn't he a nuisance? JACK I hate him. I wish he'd drop down th' pit-shaft. MRS. HOLROYD Jack!--I never heard such a thing in my life! You mustn't say such things--it's wicked. JACK Well, I do. MRS. HOLROYD (_loudly_) I won't have it. He's your father, remember. JACK (_in a high voice_) Well, he's always comin' home an' shoutin' an' bangin' on the table. (_He is getting tearful and defiant_) MRS. HOLROYD Well, you mustn't take any notice of him. MINNIE (_wistfully_) 'Appen if you said something nice to him, mother, he'd happen go to bed, and not shout. JACK I'd hit him in the mouth. MRS. HOLROYD Perhaps we'll go to another country, away from him--should we? JACK In a ship, mother? MINNIE In a ship, mam? MRS. HOLROYD Yes, in a big ship, where it's blue sky, and water and palm-trees, and-- MINNIE An' dates--? JACK When should we go? MRS. HOLROYD Some day. MINNIE But who'd work for us? Who should we have for father? JACK You don't want a father. I can go to work for us. MRS. HOLROYD I've got a lot of money now, that your uncle left me. MINNIE (_after a general thoughtful silence_)