Page:Plays in Prose and Verse (1922).djvu/138

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122
ON BAILE'S STRAND

what are your riches compared with mine? And what sons have you to pay your debts and to put a stone over you when you die? Take the oath, I tell you. Take a strong oath.’

fool [crumpling himself up and whining]. I will not. I'll take no oath. I want my dinner.

blind man. Hush, hush! It is not done et.

fool. You said it was done to a turn.

blind man. Did I, now? Well, it might be done, and not done. The wings might be white, but the legs might be red. The flesh might stick hard to the bones and not come away in the teeth. But, believe me, Fool, it will be well done before you put your teeth in it.

fool. My teeth are growing long with the hunger.

blind man. I’ll tell you a story—the kings have story-tellers while they are waiting for their dinner—I will tell you a story with a fight in it, a story with a champion in it, and a ship and a queen’s son that has his mind set on killing somebody that you and I know.

fool. Who is that? Who is he coming to kill?

blind man. Wait, now, till you hear. When you were stealing the fowl, I was lying