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 Darner's Gold 
 
 A Comedy in Two Acts 
 
 Br 
 Lady Gregory 
 
 G. P. Putnam's Sons 
 London and New York
 
 Made im Grbat Britain 
 
 Copyright 1913 
 
 BY ■ 
 
 LADY GREGORY 
 
 These pisys have been copyrighted and published simultaneously in the 
 United States and Great Britain. 
 
 All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages 
 
 Ail acting rights, both professional and amateur, are reserved, in the United 
 States, Great Britain, and all countries of the Copyright Union, by the author. 
 Performances forbidden and right of representation reserved. 
 
 Application for the right of performing these plays or reading them in public 
 should be made to Samuel French, 28 West 38th Street, New York City, or 26 
 Southampton Street, f.uaud, L<;.i<icu. 
 
 Prntied by 
 
 MACKAYS Lti> , CH^THAM
 
 DAMER'S GOLD 
 
 A COMEDY IN TWO ACTS
 
 Persons 
 Patrick Kirwan 
 
 Staffy Kirwan 
 Delia Hessian 
 Ralph Hessian 
 Simon Niland 
 
 CALLED DAMER 
 
 KIS BROTHER 
 
 HIS SISTER 
 
 HER HUSBAND 
 
 THEIR NEPHEW
 
 LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORN 
 
 DAMER'S GOLD 
 
 Act I 
 
 Scene: The kitchen in Darner's house. Outer 
 door at back. Door leading to an inner room 
 to right. A dresser, a table, and a couple of 
 chairs. An old coat and hat hanging on the 
 wall. A knocking is heard at door at back. 
 It is unlatched from outside. Delia comes in. 
 
 Delia: {Looking round cautiously and going 
 back to door.) You may come in, Staffy and 
 Ralph. There would seem to be no person here. 
 
 Staffy: Take care would Damer ask us to 
 cross the threshold at all. I would not ask to 
 go pushing on him, but to wait till he would call 
 to us himself. He is not an easy led man. 
 
 Delia: (Crossing and knocking at inner door.) 
 He is not in it. He is likely slipped out unknownst. 
 ^ Ralph: Herself that thought to find him at the 
 brink of death and nearing his last leap, after what 
 happened him with the jennet. We heard tell 
 of it as far as we were. 
 
 Delia: What ailed him to go own a jennet, 
 he that has means to stable a bay horse would
 
 2 Darner's Gold 
 
 set the windows rattling on the pubHc road, and 
 it sparkling over the flintstones after dark? 
 
 Staffy: Sure he owns no fourfooted beast only 
 the dog abroad in its box. To make its way into 
 the haggard the jennet did, the time it staggered 
 him with a kick. To forage out some grazing it 
 thought to do, beyond dirt and scutchgrass among 
 the stones. Very cross jennets do be, as it is a 
 cross man it met with. 
 
 Delia: A queer sort of a brother he is. To go 
 searching Ireland you wouldn't find queerer. 
 But as soon as I got word what happened I bade 
 Ralph to put the tacklings on the ass. We must 
 have nature about us some way. There was 
 silence between us long enough. 
 ' Ralph: She was thinking it might be the cause 
 of him getting his death sooner than God has it 
 promised to him, and that it might turn his mind 
 more friendly like towards us, he knowing us to 
 be at hand for to settle out his burying. 
 
 Delia: Why would n't it, and we being all the 
 brothers and sisters ever he had, since Jane 
 Niland, God rest her soul, went out last Little 
 Christmas from the troubles and torments of the 
 world. 
 
 Staffy: There is nothing left of that marriage 
 now, only one yoimg lad is said to be mostly a fool. 
 
 Delia: It is ourselves can bear witness to that, 
 where he came into the house ere yesterday, hav-
 
 Darner's Gold 3 
 
 ing no way of living, since death and misfortune 
 scattered him, but as if he was left down out of 
 the skies. 
 
 Ralph: He has not, imless the pound piece 
 the mother put into his hand at the last. It is 
 much she had that itself. The time Tom Niland 
 died from her, he didn't leave her hardly the 
 cat. 
 
 Staffy: The lad to have any wit around him 
 he would have come travelling hither along with 
 yourselves, to see would he knock any kindness 
 out of Darner. 
 
 Ralph: It is what herself was saying, it would 
 be no advantage to him to be coming here at all, 
 he being as he is half light, where there is nothing 
 only will or wit could pick any profit out of Damer. 
 She did not let on to him what side were we facing, 
 and we travelling out from Loughtyshassy. 
 
 Staffy: It is likely he will get tidings as good 
 as yourself. It is said, and said largely, Damer 
 has a fiill gallon jar of gold. 
 
 Ralph: There is no one could lift it — God bless 
 it — they were telling me. Filled up it is and 
 brimmed to the very brink. 
 
 Staffy: His heart and his soul gone into it. 
 He is death on that gallon of gold, 
 
 Delia: He would give leave to the poorhouse 
 to bury him, if he could but put in his will they 
 shoiild leave it down with his bones.
 
 4 Darner's Gold 
 
 Staffy: A man could live an easy life surely 
 and that much being in the house. 
 
 Delia: There is no more grasping man within 
 the four walls of the world. A strange thing he 
 turning to be so ugly and prone to misery, where 
 he was reared along with myself. I have the 
 first covetous person 3''et to meet I would like! 
 I never would go thrusting after gold, I to get 
 all Lord Clanricarde's estate. 
 
 Ralph: She never would, only at a time she 
 might have her own means spent and consumed. 
 
 Staffy: The house is very racked beside what 
 it was. The hungriest cabin in the whole ring 
 of Connemara would not show out so empty and 
 so bare. 
 
 Delia: (Taking up a jug.) No sign in this 
 vessel of anything that would leave a sign, I '11 
 go bail he takes his tea in a black state, and the 
 milk to be rotting in the chum. 
 
 Ralph: {Handling a coat and hat hanging on a 
 nail.) That 's a queer cut of a hat. That now 
 should have been a good top-coat in its time. 
 
 Delia: For pity's sake! That is the top-coat 
 and the hat he used to be wearing and he riding 
 his long-tailed pony to every racecourse from 
 this to the Curragh of Kildare. A good class of 
 cloth it should be to last out through seventeen 
 years. 
 
 Staffy: The time he was young and fundless
 
 Darner's Gold S 
 
 he had not a bad reaching hand. He never was 
 thrifty but lavish till he came into the ownership 
 of the land. It is as if his luck left him, he growing 
 timid at the time he had means to lose. 
 
 Delia: Every horse he would back at that time 
 it wotdd surely win all before it. I saw the people 
 thronging him one time, taking him in their arms 
 for joy, and the winnings coming into his hand. 
 It is likely they ran out through the fingers as 
 swift nearly as they flowed in. 
 
 Staffy: He grew to be very dark and crabbed 
 from the time of the father's death. His mind 
 was on his halfpenny ever since, 
 
 Delia: {Looking at dresser.) Spiders' webs 
 heaped in ridges the same as windrows in a bleach 
 of hay. What now is that there above on the 
 upper shelf? 
 
 Ralph: {Taking it from top shelf.) It is but 
 a pack of cards. 
 
 Staffy: They should maybe be the very same 
 that brought him profit in his wild days. He 
 always had a lucky hand. 
 
 Delia: {Dusting them.) You would give your 
 seven oaths the dust to have been gathering on 
 them since the time of the Hebrews' Flood. I '11 
 tell you now a thing to do. We being here before 
 him in the house, why would n't we ready it and 
 put some sort of face upon it, the way he would 
 be in humoiu* with us coming in.
 
 6 Darner's Gold 
 
 Ralph: And the Vv-ay he might incHne to put 
 into our hand some good promise or some gift. 
 
 Delia: {Dusting.) I would wish no gift from 
 any person at all, but that my mind is set at this 
 time on a fleet of white goats and a guinea-hen are 
 to be canted out from the Spanish woman at Lis- 
 atuwna cross by reason of the hanging gale. 
 
 Staffy: That was the way with you, Delia, 
 from the time you could look out from the half- 
 door, to be coveting pictures and fooleries, that 
 would shape themselves in your mind. 
 
 Delia: There is no sin coveting things are of 
 no great use or profit, but woiild show out good 
 and have some grandeur around them. Those 
 goats now! Browsing on the blossoms of the 
 bushes they would be, or the herbs that give out 
 a sweet smell. Stir yourself, Staffy, and throw 
 your eye on that turf beyond in the comer. It is 
 that wet you could wring from it splashes and 
 streams. Let you rise the ashes from the sods 
 are on the hearth and redden them with a goose- 
 wing, if there is a goosewing to be found. There is 
 no greater beauty to be met with than the leaping 
 of a little yellow flame. 
 
 Staffy: In my opinion there will no pay-day 
 come for this work, but only a thank-you job; 
 a Coimty Clare payment, ' God spare you the 
 health!' 
 
 Delia: Let you do it, Ralph so. {Takes pota-
 
 Darner's Gold 7 
 
 toes from a sieve.) A roasted potato would be a 
 nice thing to put before him, in the place of this 
 old crust of a loaf. Put them in now around the 
 sods, the way they will be crispy before him. 
 
 Ralph: {Taking them.) And the way he will 
 see you are a good housekeeper and will mind well 
 anything he might think fit to give. 
 
 Delia: {At clock.) I '11 set to the right time 
 of day the two hands of the clock are pointing a 
 full hour before the sim. Take, Staffy, that pair 
 of shoes and lessen from them the clay of the land. 
 That much of doing will not break your heart. 
 He will be as proud as the fallen angels seeing 
 the way we have all set out before him. 
 
 {A harsh laugh is heard at inner door. They 
 turn and see Darner watching them.) 
 
 Ralph: Glory be to God! 
 
 Delia: It is Damer was within all the time ! 
 
 Staffy: What are you talking about, Delia? 
 It is Patrick you were meaning to say. 
 
 Damer: Let her go on prattling out Damer 
 to my face, as it is often she called it behind my 
 shoiilders. Damer the chandler, the miser got the 
 spoil of the Danes, that was mocked at since 
 the time of the Danes. I know well herself and 
 the world have me christened with that nickname. 
 
 Ralph: Ah, it is not to dispraise you they put 
 it on you, but to show you out so wealthy and so 
 rich.
 
 8 Darner's Gold 
 
 Darner: I am thinking it is not love of my four 
 bones brings you on this day imder my thatch ? 
 
 Staffy: We heard tell you were after being 
 destroyed with a jennet. 
 
 Damcr: Picking up newses and tidings of me 
 ye do be. It is short the delay was on you coming. 
 
 Delia: And I after travelling through the most 
 of the day on the head of you being wounded and 
 hurt, thinking you to be grieving to see one of 
 your own! And I in dread of my life stealing 
 past your wicked dog. 
 
 Darner: My joy he is, scaring you with his 
 bark! If it was n't for him you would have me 
 clogged and tormented, coming in and bothering 
 me every whole minute. 
 
 Delia: There is no person in Ireland only 
 yourself but would have as much welcome for me 
 to-day as on the first day ever they saw me ! 
 
 Darner: What 's that you are doing with my 
 broom? 
 
 Delia: To do away with the spider's webs I 
 did, where the shelves were looped with them and 
 smothered. Look at all that came off of that 
 pack of cards. 
 
 Darner: What call had you to do away with 
 them, and they belonging to myself? Is it to 
 bleed to death I should and I to get a tip of a 
 billhook or a slasher? You and 3^our vagaries 
 to have left me bare, that I would be without
 
 Darner's Gold 9 
 
 means to quench the blood, and it to rise up from 
 my veins and to scatter on every side ! 
 
 Delia: Is it that you are without e'er a rag, 
 and that ancient coat to be hanging on the 
 wall? 
 
 Darner: The place swept to flitters! What is 
 that man of yours doing and he handling my turf? 
 
 Ralph: It was herself thought to be service- 
 able to you, setting out the fuel that was full of 
 dampness where it would get an air of the fire. 
 
 Darner: To dry it is it? {Seizes sods and takes 
 them from the hearth.) And what length would it 
 be without being burned and consumed and it 
 not to be wet putting it on? {Pours water over it.) 
 And I after stacking it purposely in the comer 
 where there does be a drip from the thatch. 
 
 Ralph: She but thought it would be more 
 answerable to you being dry. 
 
 Darner: What way could I bear the expense 
 of a fire on the hearth and it to leave smouldering 
 and to break out into a blaze? A month's cutting 
 maybe to go to ashes within three minutes, and 
 into wisps of smoke. And the price of turf in this 
 year gone wild out of measure, and it packed so 
 roguish you could read the printed speeches on 
 the paper through the sods you do be buying in 
 the creel. 
 
 Staffy: I was saying myself not to meddle with 
 it. It is hurry is a worse friend than delay.
 
 ID Darner's Gold 
 
 Darner: Where did you get those spuds are 
 roasting there upon the hearth ? 
 
 Ralph: Herself that brought them out from 
 the sieve, thinking to make ready your meal. 
 
 Darner: My seed potatoes! Samples I got 
 from the guardians and asked in the shops and in 
 stores till I 'd gather enough to set a few ridges 
 in the gardens would serve me through the length 
 of the year! 
 
 Delia: Let you be satisfied so with your mouldy 
 bit of loaf. {Breaks a bit from it and hands it to 
 him.) 
 
 Damer: Do not be breaking it so wasteful! 
 The mice to have news there was as much as that 
 of crumbs in the house, they would be running the 
 same as chickens around the floor ! 
 
 Ralph: Thinking to be comfortable to you 
 she was, the way you would make us welcome 
 from this out. 
 
 Damer: Which of ye is after meddling with 
 my clock? 
 
 Delia: It was a full hour before its time. 
 
 Damer: It to be beyond its time, would n't 
 that save fire and candles sending me to my bed 
 early in the night? Leave down those boots! 
 {Takes them from Staff y.) Is it that you are 
 wearing out the uppers with scraping at them and 
 scratching ! Is it to rob me ye are come into this 
 place?
 
 Darner's Gold -ii 
 
 Delia: I tell you we only came in getting word 
 that 3^ou were done and dying. 
 
 Darner: Ha! Is it to think I was dying ye 
 did ? Well, I am not. I am not so easy quenched. 
 Strength and courage I have, to keep a fast grip 
 of what I own. 
 
 Delia: Let you not be talking that way! We 
 are no grabbers and no thieves ! 
 
 Darner: I have it in my mind that ye are. 
 Very ravenous to run through my money ye are. 
 
 Delia: The world knows I am not ravenous! 
 I never gave m.y heart to silver or to gold but only 
 to the thing it would bring in. But to hold from 
 me the thing my heart is craving after, you might 
 as well blacken the hearth. 
 
 Darner: Striving to scare me out of my courage 
 and my wits, the way I '11 give in to go making 
 my will. 
 
 Ralph: She would not be wishful you to do that 
 the time your mind would be vexed. 
 
 Darner: I '11 make it, sick or sound, if I have a 
 mind to make it. 
 
 Delia: Little thanks you '11 get from me if 
 you make it or do not make it. That is the naked 
 truth. 
 
 Darner: The whole of ye think yourselves to 
 be very managing and very wise ! 
 
 Delia: Let you go will it so to an asylum for 
 fools.
 
 12 Darner's Gold 
 
 Darner: Why would n't I ? It is in the asylums 
 all the sense is these times. There is only the 
 fools left outside. 
 
 Delia: You to bestow it outside of your own 
 kindred for to benefit and comfort your soul, all 
 the world will say it is that you had it gathered 
 together by fraud. 
 
 Staffy: Do not be annoying him now. 
 
 Delia: I will not. But the time he will be 
 lying under the flagstone, it is holly rods and 
 brambles will spring up from out of his thorny 
 heart. 
 
 Darner: A hasty, cranky woman in the house 
 is worse than you to lay your hand upon red coals ! 
 I know well your tongue that is as sharp as the 
 sickle of the moon ! 
 
 Delia: The character you will leave after you 
 will be worse out and out than Herod's ! 
 
 Darner: The devil upon the winds she is ! That 
 one was born into the world having the use of the 
 bow and arrows ! 
 
 Delia: You not to give fair play to your own, 
 it is a pitiful ghost will appear in your image, 
 questing and craving our prayers ! 
 
 Darner: I know well what is your aim and your 
 drift! 
 
 Delia: I say any man has a right to give thanks 
 to the heavens, and he having decent people to will 
 his means to, in place of people having no call to it.
 
 Darner s Gold 13 
 
 Darner: Whoever I '11 will it to will have call 
 to it! 
 
 Delia: Or to part with it to low people and to 
 mean people, and you having it to give. 
 
 Darner: Having it to give is it? Do you see 
 that lock on the door? 
 
 Delia: I do see it and have eyes to see it. 
 
 Darner: Can you make any guess what is 
 inside of it? 
 
 Delia: It is likely it is what there is so much 
 talk about, your own full gallon of gold. 
 
 {Ralph takes off his hat.) 
 
 Darner: Lay now your eye to that lock hole. 
 
 Ralph: {Looking through keyhole.) It is all 
 dusky within. It fails me to see any shining 
 thing. {Staffy and Delia put their eyes to key- 
 hole but draw back disappointed.) 
 
 Darner: If you cannot see it, try can you get 
 the smell of it. Take a good draw of it now; 
 lay your head along the hinges of the door. 
 So now ye may quit and scamper out of this, 
 the whole throng of ye, robbers and hangmen 
 and bankbreakers, bargers and bad characters, 
 and you may believe me telling you that is the 
 nearest ye ever will come to my gold ! {He bangs 
 back into room locking door after him.) 
 
 Delia: He has no more nature than the brutes 
 of the field, hunting and howling after us. 
 
 Staffy: Yourself that rose him out of his wits
 
 t4 Darner's Gold 
 
 and his senses. We will sup sorrow for this day's 
 work where he will put curses after us. It is 
 best for us go back to my place. It may be to- 
 morrow that his anger will be cured up. 
 
 Ralph: I thought it was to lay him out with cand- 
 les we were brought here. I declare I came nearer 
 furnishing out a corpse myself with the start I got. 
 Delia: There is no dread on me. When he 
 gets in hiimour I will tackle up again to him. 
 It is too far I came to be facing back to Loughty- 
 shassy and I fasting from the price of my goats! 
 Little collars I was thinking to buckle around their 
 neck the same as a lady's lapdog, and maybe so 
 far as a small clear-sounding bell. 
 
 {They go out, Dafner comes back. He puts 
 on clock, rakes out fire, picks tip pota- 
 toes and puts them back in sieve, takes 
 bread into his room. There is a knock 
 at the door. Then it is cautiously opened 
 and Simon Niland comes in, and stands 
 near the hearth. Darner comes back 
 and sees him.) 
 Darner: What are you looking for? 
 Simon: For what I won't get seemingly, that 
 is a welcome. 
 
 Damer: Maybe it 's for fists you are looking? 
 Simon: It is not, before I will get my rest. I 
 could n't box to-night if I was the Queen of 
 England.
 
 Darner's Gold 15 
 
 Darner: Have you any traffic with that con- 
 gregation is after going out? 
 
 Simon: I seen no person good or bad, but a 
 dog and it on the chain. 
 
 Darner: You to have in you any of the breed 
 of the Kirwans that is my own, I 'd rise the tongs 
 and pitch you out from the door ! 
 
 Simon: I suppose you would not begrudge me 
 to rest myself for a while. {Sits down.) 
 
 Damer: I '11 give leave to no strolling vagabond 
 to sit in any place at all. 
 
 Simon: All right so. {Tosses a coin he takes 
 from his pocket, tied in a spotted handkerchief.) 
 
 Damer: What 's that you 're doing? 
 
 Simon: Pitching a coin I was to see would it 
 bid me go west or east. 
 
 Damer: Go toss outside so. 
 
 Simon: {Stooping ajid groping.) I will after 
 I will find it. 
 
 Damer: Hurry on now. 
 
 Simon: Wait till I '11 kindle a match. {Lights 
 one and picks up coin.) 
 
 Damer: What is that in your hand? 
 
 Simon: You should know. 
 
 Damer: Is it gold it is? 
 
 Simon: It is all I have of means in the world. 
 I never handled a coin before it, but my bite to be 
 given me and my bed. 
 
 Damer: You '11 mind it well if you have sense.
 
 j5 Darner's Gold 
 
 Simon: It is towards the east it bade me go. 
 I '11 travel as far as the races of Knockbarron 
 to-morrow. 
 
 Darner: You '11 be apt to lose it going to races. 
 
 Simon: I '11 go bet with it, and see what way 
 will it turn out. 
 
 Darner: You to set all you own upon a horse 
 that might fail at the leaps! It is a very foolish 
 thing doing that. 
 
 Simon: It might not. Some have luck and 
 are born lucky and more have run through their 
 luck. If I lose it, it is lost. It would not keep me 
 long anyway. I to win, I will have more and 
 plenty. 
 
 Damer: You will surely lose it. 
 
 Simon: If I do I have nothing to get or to fall 
 back on. It is some other one must take my 
 charges. 
 
 Damer: A great pity to go lose a gold sovereign 
 to some schemer you never saw before. 
 
 Simo7i: Sure you must take some risk. You 
 cannot put your hands around the world. 
 
 Damer: It to be swept by a trick of the loop 
 man! 
 
 Simon: It is not with that class I will make free. 
 
 Damer: To go lose the whole of it in one second 
 of time ! 
 
 Simon: I will make four divides of it. 
 
 Damer; To go change it into silver and into
 
 Darner's Gold 17 
 
 copper! That would be the most pity in the 
 world. 
 
 Simon: I '11 chance it all upon the one jock 
 so. 
 
 Darner: Gold! Believe me it is a good thing 
 to hold and a very heartbreak the time it is lost. 
 {Takes it in his hand.) Pure gold! There is not 
 a thing to be got with it as worthy as what it is 
 itself! There is no comfort in any place and it 
 not in it. The Queen's image on it and her crown. 
 Solid between the fingers ; weighty in the palm of 
 the hand ; as beautiful as ever I saw. 
 
 Simon: It is likely it is the same nearly as any 
 other one. 
 
 Darner: Gold! My darling it is! From the 
 hollows of the world to the heights of the world 
 there is no grander thing to be found. My bone 
 and my marrow! Let me have the full of my 
 arms of it and I '11 not ask the flowers of field or 
 fallow or the dancing of the Easter sim ! 
 
 Simon: I am thinking you should be Damer. 
 I heard said Damer has a full crock of gold. 
 
 Damer: He has not ! He has not ! 
 
 Simon: That is what the world says anyway. 
 I heard it as far as the seaside. 
 
 Damer: I wish to my God it was true ! 
 - Simon: Full and brimming to the brink. That 
 is the way it was told. 
 
 Damer: It is not full! It is not! Whisper
 
 i8 Darner's Gold 
 
 now. It is many a time I thought it to be full, 
 full at last, full at last ! 
 
 Simon: And it was n't after? 
 
 Darner: To take it and to shake it I do. It is 
 often I gave myself a promise the time there will 
 be no sound from it, I will give in to nourish my- 
 self, I will rise out of misery. But every time I will 
 try it, I will hear a little clatter that tells me there 
 is some space left; some small little hole or gap. 
 
 Simon: What signifies that when you have so 
 much in it? 
 
 Darner: Weightier it gets and weightier, but 
 there will always be that little sound. I thought 
 to stop it one time, putting in a fistful of hayseed ; 
 but I felt in my heart that was not dealing fair 
 and honest with myself, and I rose up and shook 
 it out again, rising up from my bed in the night 
 time. I near got my death with the cold and the 
 draught fell on me doing that. 
 
 Simon: It is best for me be going on where I 
 might find my bed. 
 
 Darner: Hearken now. T am old and the long 
 road behind me. You are young and in your 
 strength. It is you is rich, it is I myself that is 
 poor. You know well, you to get the offer, you 
 would not change your lot with my own. 
 
 Simon: I suppose I might not. I 'd as lief 
 keep my countenance and my run. 
 
 Darner: Is n't it a great pity there to be that
 
 Darner's Gold ig 
 
 hollow within in my gallon, and the little coin 
 that would likely just fill it up, to be going out 
 of the house? 
 
 Simon: Is it that you are asking it of me? 
 
 Darner: You might never find so good a way 
 to open Heaven to yourself with a charity. To be 
 bringing peace to an old man that has not long 
 to live in the world! You wouldn't think now 
 how quiet I would sleep, and the good dreams 
 would be going through me, and that gallon jar 
 to be full and to make no sound the time I would 
 roll it on the floor. That would be a great deed 
 for one little pound piece to do ! 
 
 Simon: I '11 toss you for it. 
 
 Darner: I would not dare put anything at all 
 upon a chance. 
 
 Simon: Leave it alone so. (Turns away.) 
 
 Damer: {Seizing him.) It would make such 
 a good appearance in the little gap ! 
 
 Simon: Head or harp? 
 
 Damer: No, I 'm in dread I might lose. 
 
 Simon: Take your chance or leave it. 
 
 Damer: 1 to lose, you may kill me on the 
 moment! My heart is driven down in the sole 
 of my shoe ! 
 
 Simon: That is poor courage. 
 
 Damer: There is some shiver forewarning me 
 I will lose! I made a strong oath I never would 
 give in again to try any sort of chance.
 
 20 Darner's Gold 
 
 Simon: You did n't make it but with yourself. 
 
 Darner: It was through my kick leaving me I 
 swore against betting and gaming. 
 
 Simon: It might turn back fresh and hearty 
 "where you gave it so long a rest. 
 
 Damer: Well — maybe 
 
 Simon: Here now. 
 
 Damer: I dare not. 
 
 Simon: {Going to door.) I '11 make my bet 
 so according to a dream I had. It is on a red 
 horse I will put it to-morrow. 
 
 Damer: No — stop — wait a minute. 
 
 Simoji: 1 '11 win surely following my dream. 
 
 Damer: I might not lose. 
 
 Simon: I 'm in dread of that. All turns to 
 the man is rich. 
 
 Damer: I '11 chance it ! 
 
 Simon: You said no and I '11 take no. 
 
 Damer: You cannot go back of your word. 
 
 Simon: Let me go out from you tempting me. 
 
 Damer: (Seizing him.) Heads! I say heads! 
 
 Simon: Harps it is. I win. 
 
 Damer: My bitter grief ! Ochone! 
 
 Simon: I '11 toss you for another. 
 
 Damer: You will not. What 's tosses? Look 
 at here what is put in my way! {Holds up pack 
 of cards.) 
 
 Simon: Where 's the stakes? 
 
 Damer: Wait a second. {Goes into room.)
 
 Darner's Gold 21 
 
 Simon: Hurry on or I won't stop. 
 
 Darner: Let you not stir out of that! {Comes 
 hack and throws money on table.) 
 
 Simon: Come on so. {Shuffles cards.) 
 
 Damer: Give me the pack. {Cuts.) I did n't 
 feel a card between my fingers this seven and a 
 half-score years ! 
 
 Simon: Spades are trumps. 
 
 Damer: {Lighting candle.) I '11 win it back! 
 I won't begrudge spending a penny candle, no, or 
 two penny candles! I '11 play you to the brink 
 of day ! 
 
 Curtain
 
 Act II 
 
 The next morning. The same kitchen. Simon 
 Niland is lying asleep on the hearth. Ralph 
 and Staffy are looking at him. 
 
 Staff y: "Who is it at all is in it? 
 
 Ralph: Who would it be but Simon Niland, 
 that is come following after us. 
 
 Staffy: Stretched and sleeping all the same as 
 if there was a pin of slumber in his hair, as in the 
 early times of the world. The day passing with- 
 out anything doing. That one will never win to a 
 fortune. 
 
 Ralph: It would be as well for ourselves maybe 
 he not to be too great with Darner. 
 
 Staffy: Will Delia make any headway I 
 wonder. She had good courage to go face him, 
 and he abroad on the land, sitting stooped on the 
 bent body of a bush. 
 
 Ralph: I wonder what way did that lad make 
 his way into this place. Wait now till I '11 waken 
 and question him. (Shakes Simon.) 
 
 Simon: (Drowsily.) Who is that stirring me? 
 
 Ralph: Rouse yourself up now. 
 22
 
 Darner's Gold 23 
 
 Simon: Do not be rousing me, where I am 
 striving to catch a hold of the tail of my last dream. 
 
 Staffy: Is it seeking for a share of Darner's 
 wealth you are come? 
 
 Simon: I never asked and never looked for it. 
 
 Staffy: You are going the wrong road to reach 
 to it. 
 
 Simon: A bald cat there was in the dream, was 
 keeping watch over jewelleries in a cave. 
 
 Staffy: No person at all would stretch out his 
 hand to a lad would be rambling and walking the 
 world, and it in its darkness and sleep, and be 
 drowsing and miching from labour through the 
 hours the sun has command of. 
 
 Delia: {At the door.) Is it that ye are within, 
 Staffy and Ralph? 
 
 Ralph: We are, and another along with us. 
 
 Delia: Put him out the door! 
 
 Ralph: Ah, there 's no danger of him coming 
 aroimd Damer. He is simple and has queer talk 
 too. 
 
 Delia: Put him out I say ! {Pushes Simon to 
 door.) Let him drowse out the day in the car shed ! 
 I tell you Damer is at hand! 
 
 Ralph: Has he the frown on him yet? 
 
 Staffy: Did his anger anyway cool down? 
 
 Delia: He is coming I say. I am partly in 
 dread of him. I am afeard and affrighted! 
 
 Ralph: He should be in terrible rages so.
 
 24 Darner's Gold 
 
 There was no dread on you yesterday, and he 
 cursing and roaring the way he was. 
 
 Delia: He is mad this time out and out. Wait 
 now till you '11 see ! 
 
 {She goes behind dresser. Darner comes to 
 the door. Staffy goes behind a chair. 
 Ralph seizes a broom.) 
 
 Darner: {A t door.) Are you acquainted with any 
 person, Ralph Hessian, is in need of a savage dog? 
 
 Staffy: Is it that you are about to part Jubair 
 your dog? 
 
 Damer: I have no use for him presently. 
 
 Staffy: Is it that you are without dread of 
 robbers coming for to knock in your skull with 
 a stone? Or maybe out in the night it is to bum 
 you out of the house they would. 
 
 Damer: What signifies, what signifies? All 
 must die, all must die. The longest person that 
 will live in the world, he is bound to go in the heel. 
 Life is a long road to travel and a hard rough track 
 under the feet. 
 
 Staffy: Mike Merrick the huckster has an 
 apple garden bought against the harvest. He 
 should likely be seeking for a dog. There do be 
 little lads passing to the school. 
 
 Damer: He might want him, he might want 
 him. {He leans upon half -door.) 
 
 Staffy: Is it that you are tired and wore out 
 carrying the load of your wealth?
 
 Darner's Gold 2^ 
 
 Darner: It is a bad load surely. It was the 
 love of money destroyed Buonaparte where he 
 went robbing a church, without the men of learn- 
 ing are telling lies. 
 
 Staffy: I would never go so far as robbery, but 
 to bid it welcome I would, and it coming fair and 
 easy into my hand. 
 
 Darner: There was a king out in Foreign went 
 astray through the same sin. His people that 
 made a mockery of him after his death, filling up 
 his jaws with rendered gold. Believe me, any 
 person goes coveting after riches puts himself under 
 a bad master. 
 
 Staffy: That is a master I 'd be willing to 
 engage with, he to give me my victuals and my 
 ease. 
 
 Darner: In my opinion it was to keep tempta- 
 tion from our path the gold of the world was 
 covered under rocks and in the depths of the 
 streams. Believe me it is best leave it where it 
 is, and not to meddle with the Almighty. 
 
 Staffy: You 'd be best without it. It is the 
 weight of it is bowing you to your grave. When 
 things are vexing your mind and you are trouble 
 minded they '11 be going through your head in the 
 night time. There is a big shift and a great change 
 in you since yesterday. There is not the half of 
 you in it. You have the cut of the misfortune. 
 
 Darner: I am under misfortune indeed.
 
 26 Darner's Gold 
 
 Staffy: Give over now your load to myself 
 before the coming of the dusk. The way you are 
 there '11 be nothing left of you within three days. 
 There is no way with you but death. 
 
 Delia: {To Ralph.) Let you raise your voice 
 now, and come around him on my own behalf. 
 
 Ralph: It is what herself is saying, you to be 
 quitting the world as it seems, it is as good for you 
 make over to her your crock of gold. 
 
 Darner: I would not wish, for all the glories of 
 Ireland, to leave temptation in the path of my 
 own sister or my kin, or to twist a gad for their 
 neck. 
 
 Delia: {To Ralph.) Tell him I '11 chance it. 
 
 Darner: At the time of the judgment of the 
 mountain, when the sun and moon will be all one 
 with two blackberries, it is not being pampered 
 with plenty will serve you, beside being great with 
 the angels! 
 
 Delia: {Shrinking hack.) I would as soon 
 nearly not get it at all, where it might bring me to 
 the wretched state of Damer ! {Dog heard barking.) 
 
 Darner: I '11 go bring my poor Jubair out of 
 this. A great sin and a great pity to be losing 
 provision with a dog, and the image of the saints 
 maybe to be going hungry and bare. How do I 
 know what troop might be bearing witness against 
 me before the gate of heaven? To be cherishing 
 a ravenous beast might be setting his teeth in their
 
 Darner's Gold 27 
 
 limbs! To give charity to the poor is the best 
 reHgion in Ireland. Did n't our Lord Himself 
 go beg through three and thirty years? {He goes.) 
 
 Delia: (Coming forward.) Will you believe 
 me now telling you he is gone unsteady in the 
 head? 
 
 Staffy: I see no other sign. He is a gone man 
 surely. His understanding warped and turned 
 backward. To see him blighted the way he is 
 would stir the heart of a stone. 
 
 Ralph: He surely got some vision or some 
 warning, or there lit on him a fit or a stroke. 
 
 Staffy: Twice a child and only once a man. 
 He is turned to be innocent with age. 
 
 Ralph: It would be a bad thing he to meet 
 with his death unknown to us. 
 
 Delia: It would be worse again he that is gone 
 out of his latitude to be brought away to the 
 asylum. 
 
 Ralph: I don't know. 
 
 Delia: But I know. He to die, and to make 
 no will, it is ourselves, by rule and by right, that 
 would lay claim to his wealth. 
 
 Staffy: So we could do that, and he to come 
 to his end in the bad place, God save the mark ! 
 
 Delia: Would you say there would be no fear 
 the Government might stretch out and take 
 charge of it, saying him to be outside of his reason? 
 
 Ralph: That would be the worst of all. We
 
 28 Darner's Gold 
 
 to be forced to hire an attorney against them, till 
 we woiild break one another at law. 
 
 Delia: He to be stopping here, and being light 
 in the brain, it is likely some thief travelling the 
 road might break his way in and sweep all. 
 
 Ralph: It would be right for us keep some sort 
 of a watch on it. 
 
 Staffy: What way would we be sitting here 
 watching it, the same as a hen on a pebble of flint, 
 through a quarter or it might be three quarters 
 of a year? He might drag for a good while yet, 
 and live and linger into old days. 
 
 Delia: To take some cross turn he might, and 
 to come at us violent and maybe tear the flesh 
 from our bones. 
 
 Staffy: It is best for us do nothing so, but to 
 leave it to the foreknowledge of God. 
 
 Delia: There is but the one thing to do. To 
 bring it away out of this and to lodge it within 
 in my own house. We can settle out a place imder 
 the hearth. 
 
 Staffy: We can make a right division of it at 
 such time as the end will come. 
 
 Ralph: What way now will we bring away the 
 crock? 
 
 Delia: Let you go outside and be watching the 
 road while Staffy will be bringing out the gold. 
 
 Staffy: Ah, I 'm not so limber as what Ralph is. 
 There does be giddiness and delay in my feet. It
 
 Darner's Gold 29 
 
 might fail me to heave it to a hiding place and to 
 bring it away unknownst. 
 
 Delia: Let you go out so and be keeping a 
 watch, and Ralph will put it on the ass-car under 
 sacks. 
 
 Ralph: Do it you. I am not of his own kindred 
 and his family. Any person to get a sketch of me 
 bringing it away they might neariy take myself 
 to be a thief. 
 
 Delia: We are doing but what is fair and is 
 right. 
 
 Ralph: Maybe so. But any neighbour to be 
 questioning me, it might be hard put a skin on 
 the story. 
 
 Delia: There is no person to do it but the one. 
 {Calls from the door.) Come in here from the shed, 
 Simon Niland, if the sluggishness is banished from 
 your eyesight and from your limbs. 
 
 Simon: {At door.) I was thinking to go travel 
 my road. 
 
 Delia: Have you any desire to reach out your 
 hand for to save a mortal life? 
 
 Simon: {Coming in.) Whose life is that ? 
 
 Staffy: The man of this house that is your 
 uncle and is owner of wealth closed up in a jar. 
 We now being wittier than himself, that has lost 
 his wits, have our mind made up to bring it away. 
 
 Simon: Outside of his knowledge is it? 
 
 Staffy: It will be safe and well minded and
 
 30 Darner's Gold 
 
 lodged in loyal keeping, it being no profit to him 
 that is at this time shook and blighted, but only 
 a danger to his days. 
 
 Delia: The seven senses to be going astray on 
 him, what would ail any tramp or neuk would be 
 passing the road, not to rob him and to lay him 
 stone dead? 
 
 Staff y: Go in now and bring out from the room 
 and to such place as we will command, that gallon 
 jar of gold. 
 
 Ralph: It being certain it will be brought 
 away from him, it is best it to be kept in the family, 
 and not to go noiirishing lawyers or thieves. 
 
 Simo7i: Is it to steal it I should? 
 
 Staffy: What way will it be stealing, and the 
 whole of us to be looking on at your deed? 
 
 Simon: Ah, what call have I to do that much 
 and maybe put myself in danger of the judge, for 
 the sake of a man is without sense. 
 
 Delia: Let you do it for my own sake so. You 
 heard me giving out news on yesterday of the 
 white goats are on the bounds of being sold. 
 The neighbours will give me no more credit, where 
 they loaned me the price of a crested side car was 
 auctioned out at a quality sale. 
 
 Ralph: Picking the eyes out of my own head 
 they are, to pay the little bills they have against 
 her. 
 
 Delia: I am no way greedy, I would ask neither
 
 Darner's Gold 3^ 
 
 food or bite, I would not begrudge turning Sunday 
 into Friday if I could but get my heart's desire. 
 Such a thing now as a guinea-hen would be bring- 
 ing fashion to the door, throwing it a handful of 
 yellow meal, and it in its speckled plumage giving 
 out its foreign call ! 
 
 Simon: I have no mind to be brought within 
 the power of the law. 
 
 Delia: You that are near in blood to refuse me 
 so small an asldng, what chance would I have 
 sending requests to Heaven that is beyond the 
 height of the clouds ! {Weeps.) 
 
 Staffy: That *s the way with them that are 
 reared poor, they are the hardest after to humour, 
 striving to bring everything to their own way. 
 But there 's a class of people in the world would n't 
 do a hand's ttim, no more than the bird upon the 
 tree. 
 
 Ralph: I wonder you not to give in to us, 
 when all the world knows God formed young 
 people for to be giving aid to elder people, and 
 beyond all to them that are near to them in blood. 
 
 Staffy: Look now, Simon, let you be said and 
 led by me. •- You having no great share of wisdom 
 we are wishful to make a snug man of you and to 
 put you on a right road. Go in now and you will 
 not be kept out of your own profit and your share, 
 and a harbour of plenty beyond all. 
 
 Simon: It might be guarded by a serpent in a
 
 32 Darner's Gold 
 
 tree, or by unnatiiral things wotild be in the simil- 
 itude of cats. 
 
 Staffy: Ah, that class is done away with this 
 good while. 
 
 Ralph: There is no person having sense, but 
 would take means, by hook or by crook, to make 
 his pocket stiff and he to be given his fair chance. 
 It is to save you from starvation we are wishful 
 to do, as much as to bring profit to ourselves. 
 
 Staffy: You not to follow our say you will be 
 brought to bum green ferns to boil your victuals, 
 or to devour the berries of the bush. 
 
 Simon: I would not wish a head to follow me 
 and leap up on the table and wrestle me, or to 
 drink against me with its gory mouth. 
 
 Staffy: You that have not the substance of a 
 crane's marrow, to go shrink from so small a 
 bidding, let you go on the shaughraun or to the 
 workhouse, where you would not take our advice. 
 
 Simon: I '11 go do your bidding so. I will go 
 bring out the crock. 
 
 Staffy: There is my whiteheaded boy! I '11 
 keep a watch, the way Damer will not steal in on 
 us without warning. 
 
 - Ralph: He should have the key in some secret 
 place. It is best for you give the lock a blow of 
 your foot. 
 
 Simon: I *11 do that. {He gives door a kick. 
 It opens easily.)
 
 Darner's Gold 33 
 
 Delia: "Was I right now saying Damer is 
 turned innocent? Sure the door was noc locked 
 at all. 
 
 Simon: {Dragging out jar.) Here it is now. 
 
 Ralph: So it is and no mistake. 
 
 Staffy: There should be great weight in it. 
 
 Ralph: I am in dread it might work a hole down 
 through the timber of the car. 
 
 Delia: Why would n't we open it here? It 
 would be handier bringing it away in small 
 divides. 
 
 Ralph: The way we would make siire of getting 
 our own share at the last. 
 
 Delia: Let you draw out the cork from it. 
 
 Ralph: I don't know can I lift it. {Stoops 
 and lifts it easily.) The Lord protect and save 
 us ! There is no weight in it at all ! 
 
 Staffy: {Seizing and shaking it.) Not a one 
 penny in it but clean empty. That beats all. 
 
 Delia: It is with banknotes it is stuffed that 
 are deaf and do be giving out no sound. {She 
 pokes in a knitting pin.) Nothing in it at all, but 
 as bare as the canopy of heaven ! 
 
 Ralph: There being nothing within in it, 
 where now is the gold? 
 
 Staffy: Some person should have made away 
 with it. 
 
 Delia: Some robber or some great rogue. A 
 terrible thing such ruffians to be around in the
 
 34 Darner's Gold 
 
 world! To turn and rob a poor man of all he 
 had spared and had earned. 
 
 Staffy: They have done him a great wrong 
 surely, taking from him all he had of comfort in 
 his life. 
 
 Ralph: My grief it is there being no more 
 hangings for thieves, that are worse again than 
 miirderers that might do their deed out of heat. 
 It is thieving is the last crime. 
 
 Staffy: We to lay our hand on that vagabond 
 we '11 give him cruelty will force him to Christian 
 habits. ■ 
 
 Ralph: Take care might he be nearer than 
 what you think! {He points at Simon. AH look 
 at him.) 
 
 Staffy: Sure enough it is with himself only we 
 found him on the hearth this morning. 
 
 Delia: He has n't hardly the intellect to be 
 the thief. 
 
 Simon: I tell you I never since the day I was bom 
 could be charged with the weight of a brass pin ! 
 
 Staffy: It is to Damer, my fine boy, you will 
 have to make out your case. 
 
 Simon: So I will make it out. Where now is 
 Damer? , 
 
 Staffy: He is gone down the road, where he 
 brought away Jubair the dog. 
 
 Simon: What are you saying? The dog gone 
 is it? {Goes to door.)
 
 Damer^s Gold 35 
 
 Ralph: {Taking hold of him.) What makes you 
 go out in such a hurry? 
 
 Simon: What is that to you? 
 
 Delia: What cause has he to be making a nm? 
 
 Simon: Let me mind my own business. 
 
 Stafy: It is maybe our own business. 
 
 Simon: To make a search I must in that dog's 
 kennel of straw. 
 
 Delia: Go out, Ralph, till you will bring it in. 
 
 {Ralph goes out.) 
 
 Staff y: {Seizing him.) A man to go rush out 
 headlong and money after being stolen, I have no 
 mind to let him make his escape. 
 
 Delia: If you are honest let you stop within 
 and not to put a bad appearance upon yourself 
 making off. 
 
 Simon: Let me out ! I tell you I have a thing 
 concealed in the box. 
 
 Staffy: A strange place to go hiding things 
 and a queer story altogether. 
 
 Delia: Do not let go your hold. He to go out 
 into the street, he has the wide world before him. 
 
 Ralph: {Dragging kennel in.) Here now is 
 the box. 
 
 Simon: {Breaking away and searching it.) 
 Where at all is it vanished? 
 
 Staffy: It is lies he was telling. There is noth- 
 ing at all within in it only a wisp of barley straw, 
 
 Simon: Where at all is it?
 
 36 Darner's Gold 
 
 Staffy: What is it is gone from you? 
 
 Simoft: Not a one pound left ! 
 
 Delia: Why would you look to find coins of 
 money down in Jubair's bed ? 
 
 Simon: It is there I hid it. 
 
 Staffy: What is it you hid? 
 
 Simon: All that was in the crock and that I 
 took from it. Where now is my bag of gold? 
 
 Staffy: Do you hear what he is after saying? 
 
 Ralph: A lad of that sort will not be safe but 
 in the gaol. Let us give him into the grip of the 
 law. 
 
 Delia: No, but let the man owned it do that. 
 
 Staffy: So he can task him with it, and he 
 drawing to the door. 
 
 Delia: {Going to it.) It is time for you, Patrick, 
 come in. 
 
 (Damer comes in dragging a sack.) 
 
 Ralph: You are after being robbed and left bare. 
 
 Delia: Not a one penny left of all you have 
 cast into its mouth. 
 
 Ralph: Herself made a prophecy you would be 
 robbed with the weakening of your wits, and sure 
 enough it has come about. 
 
 Delia: Not a tint of it left. What now do you 
 say, hearing that? 
 
 Damer: {Sitting down by the hearth and laying; 
 down sack.) If it should go it must go. That was 
 allotted to me in the skies.
 
 Darner's Gold 37 
 
 Delia: Is it that you had knowledge ere this 
 of it being swept and lost? 
 
 Darner: If I had not, why would I have been 
 setting my mind upon eternity and striving to 
 bring to mind a few prayers? And to have parted 
 with my wicked dog? 
 
 Delia: Let you turn around till you will see 
 before you the man that is the robber and the thief ! 
 
 Simon: Thief yourself! You that had a plan 
 made up to bring it away. 
 
 Darner: Delia, Delia, what was I laying down 
 a while ago? It is the love of riches has twisted 
 your heart and your mind. 
 
 Delia: Is it that you are contented to be made 
 this one's prey? 
 
 Darner: It was foretold for me. I to go stint 
 the body till I near put myself to death without 
 the Lord calling on me, and to lose every whole 
 pound after in one night's card playing. 
 
 Delia: Is it at cards you lost it? 
 
 Darner: With that same pack of cards you 
 laid out under my hand, I lost all I had gathered 
 to that one. 
 
 Staff y: Well, there is nothing so certain in the 
 world as the running of a fool to a fool. 
 
 Delia: Is it taking that lad you are to be a 
 fool? I thinking him to be as simple as you 'd see 
 in the world, and he putting bread upon his own 
 butter as we slept !
 
 38 Darner's Gold 
 
 Ralph: We to have known all then we know 
 now, we need not have wasted on him our advice. 
 
 Darner: Give me, boy, one answer. What in 
 the world wide put venture into you that made you 
 go face the dog? 
 
 Simon: Ah, what venture? And he being as 
 he is without teeth? 
 
 Darner: You know that, what no one in the 
 parish or out of it ever found out till now! You 
 should have put your hand in his jaw to know that 
 much! A right lad you are and a lucky lad. I 
 would nearly wish you of my own blood and of 
 my race. 
 
 Delia: Of your own blood is it? 
 
 Darner: That is what I would wish. 
 
 Delia: Is it that you are taking Simon Niland 
 to be a stranger? 
 
 Darner: What Simon Niland? 
 
 Delia: Your own nephew and only son to your 
 sister Sarah. 
 
 Darner: Do you tell me so! What way did it 
 fail me to recognise that, and he having daring 
 and spirit the same as used to be rising up in 
 myself in my early time? 
 
 Delia: He was bom the very year of you com- 
 ing into possession of this place. 
 
 Darner: The same year my luck turned against 
 me, and every horse I would back would get the 
 staggers on the course, or would fail to rise at the
 
 Darner's Gold 39 
 
 leaps. All the strength of fortune went from me 
 at that time, it is into himself it flowed and ran. 
 The dead spit and image of myself he is. Stop 
 with me here through the winter season and through 
 the summer season ! You to be in the house it is 
 not an imlucky house will be in it. The Royalty of 
 England and of Spain cannot touch upon yourself. 
 I am prouder of you than if you wrote the wars of 
 Homer or put down Turgesius of the Danes ! You 
 are a lad that can't be beat. It is you are the 
 Lamb of Luck! 
 
 Staffy: What call has he or any of us to be 
 stopping under Damer's roof and he owning but 
 the four walls presently and a poor Httle valley 
 of land.-* 
 
 Ralph: There is nothing worth while in his 
 keeping, and all he had gathered after being robbed. 
 
 Darner: Is that what you are saying? Well, I 
 am not so easy robbed as you think! (Takes bag 
 from the sack and shakes it.) Is that what you call 
 being robbed? 
 
 Simon: That is my treasure and my bag ! 
 
 Staffy: I thought it was after being brought 
 away from the two of you. 
 
 Damer: You are out of it! It is Jubair did 
 that much for me. Jubair, my darling, it is to- 
 night I '11 bring him back to the house! It is not 
 in the box he will be any more but alongside the 
 warmth of the hearth. The time I went unloosing
 
 40 Darner's Gold 
 
 his chain, did n't he scrape with his paw till he 
 showed me all I had lost hid in under the straw, and 
 it in a spotted bag! {Opens and pours out money.) 
 
 Simon: It is as well for you have it back where 
 it stopped so short with myself. 
 
 Darner: Is it that I would keep it from you 
 where it was won fair? It is a rogue of a man 
 would do that. Where would be the use, and I 
 knowing you could win it back from me at your 
 will, and the five trumps coming into your hand? 
 It is to share it we will and share alike, so long as 
 it will not give out! 
 
 Delia: A little handsel to myself would do the 
 both of you no harm at all. 
 
 Darner: Delia, my darling, I '11 go as far as 
 that on this day of wonders. I '11 handsel you 
 and welcome. I '11 bestow on you the empty jar. 
 {Gives it to her.) 
 
 Delia: I '11 take it. I '11 let on it to be weighty 
 and I facing back into Loughtyshassy. 
 
 Ralph: The neighbours seeing it and taking 
 you to be his heir you might come to yoiu* goats yet. 
 
 Delia: Ah, what 's goats and what is guinea- 
 hens? Did ever you see yoked horses in a coach, 
 their skin shining out like shells, rising their steps 
 in tune the same as a patrol of police? There are 
 peacocks on the lawns of Lough Cutra they were 
 telling me, having each of them a hundred eyes. 
 {Goes to door.)
 
 Darner's Gold 41 
 
 Simon: (PtUting his hand on the jar.) I don't 
 know. {To Darner) It might be a nice thing for 
 the two of us to start gathering the full of it again. 
 
 Darner: Not a fear of me. Where heaping 
 and hoarding that much has my years withered 
 and blighted up to this, it is not to storing treasure 
 in any vessel at all I will give the latter end of my 
 days, or to working the skin off my bones. Give 
 me here that coat. {Ptits it on.) If I was tossed 
 and racked a while ago I '11 show out good from 
 this out. Come on now, out of this, till we '11 
 face to the races of Loughrea and of Knock- 
 barron. I was miserable and starved long enough. 
 {Puts on hat.) I 'm thinking as long as I '11 be 
 living I '11 take my view of the world, for it 's long 
 I '11 be lying when my eyes are closed and seeing 
 nothing at all ! 
 
 {He seizes a handful of gold and puts it in 
 Simon* s pocket and another in his own. 
 They turn towards the door.) 
 
 Curtain
 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 Santa Barbara 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW. 

 
 3 1205 02043 1936 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A A 001 405 079 3