SALLY _(going to the door muttering)_ Go down the road a bit! 'Deed and I will not till I know the whole ins and outs of it. Sure I'm as much concerned in it as herself! "No man sees his house afire but watches his rick," he was saying. Ah, there's few of them could think of as fine a thing as that. _Matt comes in._ MATT Well, Sally, were you home lately? SALLY I was--leastways as far as the door. Father and oul' Martin were discoursing. MATT I've given them something to discourse about. Maybe you'll be treated better from this day. Sally. SALLY O Matt, I'm sorry. _She goes out._ MATT _(going to Ellen)_ It happened at last, Ellen; the height of the quarrel came. ELLEN It was bound to come. I knew it would come, Matt. MATT He was a foolish man to put shame on me after all I did for the land. ELLEN You had too much thought for the land. MATT I had in troth. The others went when there was less to be done. They could not stand him. Even the girls stole away. ELLEN There was the high spirit in the whole of you. MATT I showed it to him. "Stop," said I; "no more, or I fling lands and house and everything aside." ELLEN You said that. MATT Ay. "Your other children went for less," said I; "do you think there's no blood in me at all?" ELLEN What happened then? MATT "I'm your last son," I said; "keep your land and your twenty years' purchase. I'm with the others; and it's poor your land will leave you, and you without a son to bring down your name. A bit of land, a house," said I; "do you think these will keep me here?" ELLEN I knew they could not keep you here, Matt. You have broken from them at last; and now the world is before us. Think of all that is before us--the sea, and the ships, the strange life, and the great cities. MATT Ay--there before us--if we like. ELLEN Surely we like. MATT I was always shy of crowds. I'm simple, after all, Ellen, and have no thought beyond the land. ELLEN You said that house and land could not keep you. You told him you were going as your brothers went. MATT And I felt I was going. I frightened him. He'll be glad to see me back. It will be long before he treats me that way again. ELLEN _(suddenly)_ Matt! MATT What is it, Ellen? ELLEN I don't know--I was upset--thinking of the quarrel _(putting her hands on his shoulders)_ My poor Matt. It was about me you quarrelled. MATT Ay, he spoke against you. I couldn't put up with that. ELLEN He does not know your high spirit. He does not know your strength. MATT Ellen, it's no shame for a man to have harsh words said to him when it's about a woman like you. ELLEN Let nothing come between us now. I saw you in the winter making drains and ditches, and it wet. It's a poor story, the life of a man on the land. MATT I had too much thought for the land.