I as? SDK JEANNETTE MARKS THE SUN CHASER L_ THE SUN CHASER A PLAY IN FOUR ACTS By JEANNETTE MARKS CINCINNATI STEWART KIDD COMPANY PUBLISHERS ,. * COPYRIGHT, 1922 3BANNETTE MARKS All Rights Reserved COPYRIGHT IN ENGLAND This play is fully protected by the copyright law. No per- formance, either professional or amateur, may be given without the written permission of the author, who may be addressed in care of the publishers, Steward Kidd Company, Cincinnati, Ohio. Printed in the United States of America THE CLAXTON PRESS Everybody for Books." This is one of the Interlaken Library. 590557 ACTS Page I. NORTHERLY, A FRONTIER VILLAGE .... 7 II. THE SUN CHASER S KITCHEN 37 III. INTERIOR OF HARDING S STORE 63 IV. INTERIOR OF THE LOCKUP 107 CHARACTERS OLD JOE, father of Sybil Clark and citizen of Northerly MACK, citizen of Northerly RANNEY HARDING, the storekeeper of Northerly MRS. HARDING, his wife STEPHEN SHORT, the sheriff SIMON BROWN, the Northerly doctor MRS. BROWN, his wife ROSE, their child AMBROSE CLARK, the Sun Chaser SYBIL CLARK, his wife PEARL, their child MINNIE \ SUE v School children TOMMY ) EXXOR \ PIERRE V French Canadian lumberjacks BATEESE ; Two KANUCKS THE SUN CHASER ACT I. NORTHERLY: AN AMERICAN FRONTIER VILLAGE It is the afternoon before Christmas, in an American frontier village called Northerly, in the year 19 10. The houses are all of the "shack" variety, hastily put up, some painted, some unpainted; some clapboarded, some without clapboards, and covered with construc tion paper, crimson and black. Yet, set in the midst of the green and gray, the purple and rose of the hills, the level golden flare of the late afternoon sun over the village and upon banked-up gray snow clouds in the East, the whole effect of the little town is crudely and gaudily beautiful The place looks prosperous, but even the attempted civilizing touches empha size its roughness. To the east (L) is a long straggling village street, winding up into the dark fir-clad hills. To the west (R) is a road, also leading of towards the hills. In the distance, up the road to the west, can be seen the Lockup. Its huge iron-grated door with the afternoon sun stream ing upon it shines like some monstrous gridiron. To the north (back) is a great cliff -like heap of rocks beneath which the village lies. 1 .THE :SUN CHASER :is a group of houses. HARD- : I KG V \MovV vz#* "ris big sign occupy the fore ground backed up just under the cliff. The sign hung below the porch roof reads: HARDING s DRY GOODS, GROSSERIES AND FAMILY LICKERS. On either side of the porch steps, tacked to the porch posts, are two signs, gaily painted in red and green. One reads: BUY YOUR FAVORITE CHRISTMAS PRESENT A BOTTLE OF AMBER S PURE WHISKEY. The porch is dilapidated. There are two double windows on either side of the door, in which are displayed such things as a bunch of bananas, some strings of silver Christmas balls, some pink popcorn balls, a big box of yellow peanut brittle, a Christmas decorated case of chewing gum with a sign over it, WIGLEY S NEAR-MINT CHEW, a big red Santa Claus advertisement, some gaily colored muf flers and mittens, some white net bags of nuts, two or three pairs of skates and a few toys, a cardboard on which is spelt SWEET CYDER FOR SALE, several plugs of tobacco, some pipes, etc., etc. The Doctor s office and house are opposite the store. On the Doctor s gate hangs a sign, SIMON BROWN, M. D. In front of the Doc tor s place is a low cedar hedge, the only touch of the comeliness of an old world visible any where. And there is a rough schoolhouse with a bell hung out from its gable. There are two lamps affixed on posts and others extending east down the straggling street. 8 THE SUN CHASER A group of men are loafing on the porch of the store, spitting, swapping stories, etc., etc. They are Old Joe, a small, pugnacious, white-haired old man; Mack, a Scotchman, big, grizzle- haired; Harding, the storekeeper, unkempt, fat, avaricious, sly; and Stephen Short, the Sher iff, young, strong, earnest, clean, uncommuni cative. Old Joe comes to the edge of the steps from time to time and, shading his eyes, looks eastward, then walks tremulously back. The Doctor s wife and their little girl about six years old are just inside the hedge. Mrs. Brown is a plain, neatly dressed, intelligent- looking woman, somewhat above her neighbors in appearance; Rose is a pretty child, pink- cheeked, healthy, attractively dressed. From time to time they look eastward as if they were watching for someone. ROSE (in a high, sweet, childish voice) Mummy, is he coming to light lamps now? MRS. BROWN No, dear, I don t see him. (She shades her eyes and looks anxiously.) ROSE Mummy, what makes people call him the Sun Chaser for? (Mrs. Harding comes around from the back of the store and crosses the street. She is a middle-aged woman, slatternly and tired in her appearance with a general look of having been beaten down by the experience of living.) THE SUN CHASER MRS. HARDING (gazing eastward into the sky and speaking to Mrs. Brown) My, ain t them clouds just handsome ! MRS. BROWN Snow, I guess, Mrs. Harding, and not any com mon storm, either. MRS. HARDING Well, it s held off dreadful long this year ! MRS. BROWN Yes, but we will be having a white Christmas all the same ! MRS. HARDING (with a sigh) Suits me. Easier to keep things clean at the store. Men is something awful for dirt. MRS. BROWN Yes, they do rather take it for granted that there will always be a woman to clean up after them. MRS. HARDING Cept when they re left plumb alone. Then they re as neat as a pin like Old Joe. His place would do any woman proud for neatness. (She sighs.) ROSE (repeating her question) Mummy, what makes people call him the Sun Chaser? MRS. HARDING My sakes, isn t it like a child to ask all those questions ! (Mrs. Brown smiles at the woman.) ROSE (insistently) Mummy, what makes people call him the Sun Chaser? 10 THE SUN CHASER MRS. BROWN Because he chases the sun. ( The Doctor comes out of the house. He is a big, powerfully built man, but too heavy in his massive proportions. His face is clean-cut, in telligent, kind. He nods to his neighbors. The men from the store porch call "Hello, Doc." The women speak more carefully. He stands by his wife and child.) ROSE (turning to her father and throwing her arm about him) Daddy, has the Sun Chaser ever caught the sun? DOCTOR Not yet. ROSE If he can t catch the sun, then why does he run after it, Daddy? DOCTOR Because he wants to be happy. That s why I got Ambrose Clark the chance to light the lamps. I thought it might help to make him happy. MRS. HARDING (sniffing wearily and gathering her shawl closer) Happy ! Well, Ambrose Clark is drunk all the time, Doctor. That s what he is! I don t see the use of talking about happiness. DOCTOR (thoughtfully) Nevertheless, Mrs. Harding, he is looking for happiness. ii THE SUN CHASER MRS. HARDING (shivering a little) Happiness ! Why doesn t Ambrose get it then and stop (She pauses.) DOCTOR And stop sun chasing? MRS. HARDING Yes. DOCTOR Because so often happiness is hard to find and still harder to keep. MRS. BROWN And just look at Sybil! She isn t the same handsome girl she was when Old Joe Elvey gave her to Ambrose Clark. DOCTOR I know. MRS. HARDING (harshly, as she goes nearer the Doctor) Why couldn t you give him a little dose of poison? Same as you would to a sick dog? Only he suffers more and can do more harm. DOCTOR Society is so organized, Mrs. Harding, that the law does not allow you to poison a man because he is drunk. MRS. HARDING Land sakes, it s a queer world! You can t poison him, but he can poison himself. And it do seem a terrible scourge to fall on all, includ ing Old Joe. ROSE Mummy, what s "drunk" mean? 12 THE SUN CHASER MRS. BROWN He takes something that makes that makes him makes him different, dear, and ROSE And wild, Mummy? MRS. BROWN Yes, that s it. ROSE (impatiently) Isn t he coming now to light the lamps? MRS. BROWN He has a long way to come, dear. (She points eastward at a place in the hills. ) See that gray speck up there way beyond all the houses? That s the Sun Chaser s house, and it must be two miles to get to it. ROSE Listen, Daddy ! Is that wooden-shod making all that noise? (She holds up a little finger.) DOCTOR (listening) Perhaps! ROSE There, don t you hear him, clip-clop, clippity- clop, clip-clop? DOCTOR See the lights come on ! (In the distance a flame, pale yellow in the afternoon sunshine, flashes on. Then another and another, but slowly.) ROSE (clasping her hands excitedly) See! See! Another! If light was flame, Daddy, it would be just like flowers blooming, wouldn t it? 13 THE SUN CHASER DOCTOR Yes, dear, just! (Now is heard the sound of a lame step beating on the hard road.) ROSE Daddy, that is wooden-shod and leather-shod coming together, isn t it? DOCTOR Yes, the Sun Chaser is coming now and that is his lame step. ROSE Is wooden-shod the lame step? DOCTOR Yes. ROSE (very excited) He s comin fast, Daddy, clip-clop, clippity-clop, clip-clop! (Again the reverberation of a lame step is heard.) See the nother light! (Another lamp flashes on.) DOCTOR Listen, he is coming fast! (A curious cry, full of echo and the sound of flapping wings, is heard.) ROSE (holding up a little finger) What s that, Sun Chaser laughing? MRS. BROWN (drawing Rose to her) No, dear, that s some sea gulls crying over there in the Pond beyond the North Rocks. ( To the Doctor.) Oh, Simon, somehow it does not seem right for Rose to think so much about all this! 14 THE SUN CHASER DOCTOR (sternly) Let her understand what she can of it! MRS. HARDING Yes, it do seem hard on the child. DOCTOR Rose shall not be taught from childhood up to escape from a sense of responsibility for others. MRS. BROWN Simon, it s cruel to the child. DOCTOR No, kind. Civilization depends on the degree of our intelligent sympathy one with another. ROSE (full of wonder) Oh! Sun Chaser is comin fast now! See nother light, Daddy ! ( The reverberation of the lame steps becomes louder and louder.) MRS. HARDING (shading her eyes) That him coming, Doctor? DOCTOR Yes, that s Ambrose. MRS. BROWN Pearl is with him, poor child ! MRS. HARDING (hurrying off) Well, I must just get back to them mince pies I was making. I can t abide seeing that little Pearl suffering! DOCTOR I ll cross with you, Mrs. Harding. (He crosses and goes up onto the store porch. Mrs. Hard ing slips around to the back.) 15 THE SUN CHASER MRS. BROWN Come, Rose, come! (She starts in, Rose s hand in hers.) ROSE (going unwillingly and speaking in a high childish voice) What s Pearl try to take care of Sun Chaser for, Mummy? MRS. BROWN Because she loves him. ROSE Hear that, Mummy! (Louder and louder comes the reverberation of the lame step. She lifts up a little finger.) Clip-clop, clippity-clop ! Wooden-shod is working hard, Mummy. MRS. BROWN Yes, come in, dear! (They step inside the door.) DOCTOR (from the store porch, looking down the road) Yes, that s Ambrose coming. I can see him now down there. MACK (shading his eyes) And there s the bonnie wee thing ! Weel, I must just be going hame. It looks stormy there in the east ! HARDING (shrewdly to Mack) Ye ve no cause to hurry, man! The snow is coming, but it ll not overtake you. OLD JOE Mack s loath to see the little one. He s a heart for another s trouble. HARDING You never thought to see your own grandchild caught in a trap, eh ? ^ THE SUN CHASER OLD JOE Yes, and the trap what they call civilization. MACK (pauses to say the one word slowly, then goes) Cee-veel-i-za-tion ! OLD JOE (looks about nervously as the sound of the Sun Chaser s lame step grows louder) How he beats the ground with that wooden foot o his! Oh, God! STEPHEN SHORT (gravely) Something must be done ! OLD JOE (nodding head) Yes, yes, Stephen Short, but see to it you do the right thing! An old man is watching, and there s a woman and a child to profit or lose by what you do. STEPHEN SHORT (ominously) There s but one thing to do ! OLD JOE (strangely) What d happen to me if I went out and knocked him on the head? STEPHEN SHORT Why, you d be arrested for murdering your son- in-law, put in prison and electrocuted like as not. OLD JOE (savagely) You know someone ought to knock him on the head. He s no good to himself any more and he s a danger to my daughter and grandchild. Couldn t you take him away and keep him away forever? (In a whisper.) There s the little thing now ! ( The Sun Chaser and Pearl come in from the THE SUN CHASER east. Pearl is clinging to her father s hand, stumbling along as fast as she can beside his wild step. When he reaches a street lamp, he leaps up at it, trying to light the lamp with shaking hand, and dropping match after match Pearl gives him. The Sun Chaser has a shock of tawny hair rather long. His face is fine-featured, pale, flickering with intensity: his eyes big and wild. He is without hat, his shirt open and thrown back as if he had torn it open for coolness sake. He wears a patched and ragged gray-green suit. Back from his shoulders flaps an old cape. Pearl is clad in a thin little gingham dress. Over her shoulders is pinned a gray worsted shawl. On her head she wears a shabby knitted cap of pale blue. She has on stubby shoes, the brass tip still on the right one, the other without it; the buttons, except for three or four, gone. She is a sweet little thing, about eight years old, thin, wistful, sad, with big eyes and delicate childlike features. Her hands are uncovered and red and cold. She shakes them up and down or puts them to her cheeks after handing the matches to her father.) OLD JOE (calling) Pearl, you come in here to Grandfather! PEARL No, I can t, Grandfather. (She goes on help ing her father.) I m helping Father light the lamps. 18 THE SUN CHASER OLD JOE (shaking his head) Helping Father light the lamps. Helping Fa ther light the lamps. Oh dear ! Oh dear ! It s cold out here cold, cold, cold. STEPHEN SHORT (kindly) Better go in. OLD JOE Stephen, there s that muffler I wanted to ask you did you think the little thing would like it. (He points to the window.) HARDING (avariciously) Come in! Come in. (To Stephen Short.) You come ! (Old Joe, Stephen Short, and Harding go into shop.) PEARL (looking anxiously into the box of matches) Father, our matches are most gone ! (As the lamp flames out pale yellow in the eve ning sunlight, the Sun Chaser clambers down from the lamp-post, laughing foolishly.) SUN CHASER Light lamps by the sun then going after it hold lamp like thish, Pearl (holding up imagi nary lamp) to the sun an (laughing wildly) lamp is lighted! (He hurries on to next lamp post, muttering.) Lamp lighted no matches good for can t hold a candle to the sun 1 ( The Doctor, who has turned first uncertainly towards the store door as if he, too, wanted to escape from the spectacle of Pearl s misery, and 19 THE SUN CHASER then away from it, now comes down the steps, his hand in his pocket, and calls to Pearl.) DOCTOR Pearl! PEARL (turning at the sound of his voice) Yes, sir. DOCTOR (hastily bringing his hand out of his pocket) Take that, Pearl! Take it, child. Tell your mother Mrs. Brown wants to see her. Of course, for this is the night she always brings the washing. Christmas coming! Buy what you need, child! (He thrusts the money into her hand.) PEARL (taking the money and looking up into his face) Oh, sir! ( The Doctor hurries across the street, into his own yard, and through his own door.) SUN CHASER (clinging to the second lamp-post) What s thish? Thish a lamp? PEARL (putting the money into her pocket and hurrying to him, gives him a match) Father, I m coming. This is the last match. SUN CHASER (takes the match and clings crookedly to the post while his hand wavers with the match.) Thash it! Lamp s lighted. Always did have luck! (Another pale yellow flame burns in the eve ning sunlight. He drops to earth and starts *-> 20 THE SUN CHASER PEARL Father, this is the last of the lamps. It s most as far as I can go with you, for Mother doesn t know. SUN CHASER (looking at her curiously and mum bling and shaking) Yes, yes, very far, very far ! PEARL Father, what makes you shake that way now? Father, can t you stop here for a minute before you chase the sun? SUN CHASER I m eager to get on to get on to get on ! PEARL (pointing to the sun) But the sun s right up there, Father. SUN CHASER (starting on while Pearl tries to hold him back) Going after it going after it sun travels very fash nobody knows how fash fasher than I can get the lamps lighted a hot race all day all night forever ! Going after it, Pearl that s your name, Pearl? PEARL (looking up at him wonderingly) Yes, Father. Does your foot pain you very much? SUN CHASER (mumbling) Bad pain. PEARL Then, Father, what does make you go after the sun? SUN CHASER (looking suspiciously at Pearl, who is still clinging to his hand, and stuttering) I I am hungry! 21 THE SUN CHASER (Pearl is embarrassed. She flushes, and grinds the toe of her right shoe around hi the dirt of the road.) PEARL Oh, Father, hungry ! SUX CHASER (staring at the shoe and pointing to It) Give it to me, Pearl ! PEARL (puzzled) My shoe, Father? SUX CHASER (still pointing) No, no, that shines like a coin looks like a coin PEARL The brass tip on my shoe? No, no, Father, don t be silly ! sux CHASER Not silly I m chasing the sun and I m hun gry. PEARL (slipping one hand into her pocket and drawing out a coin which she holds up to him) Father. I guess you won t be hungry any more, will you? SUX CHASER (snatching the coin greedily) I must be going going going to catch the sun! (Pearl watches him lurch wildly forward, elippity, cUpplty-clop, after the sun, his long tawny hair blowing out In the wind, his wild laughter echoing and reechoing from the mountains towards which he flees. She hears him calling, calling, calling: "The Sun! The 22 THE SUN CHASER Sun! Going after the Sun!" And she watches him until she can no longer see the burnished light on her father s hair or the distortion of the fleeing body. The sound of other voices singing is heard. Two French Canadians come gaily singing into town by the west road, their snowshoes slung over their shoulders, their empty packs on their backs. Harding, at the sound of their voices, comes out onto the store porch, rubbing his hands, smiling.) HARDING They re coming. THE KANUCKS (sing) "Pelang! Pelang! Mon cher garcon, I t ink of you t ink of you night and day Don t mak no difference, seems to me De long, long tarn you re gone away. "De snow is deep on de Grande Montagne Lak tender de rapide roar below De sam kin night, ma boy get los On beeg, beeg storm forty year ago." ( They stack their snowshoes on the store porch.) HARDING (pointing to the snowshoes) Stack em out here ! Think a storm is coming? FIRST KANUCK Oui, monsieur, beeg storm, I t ink. She run on us lak le Chasseur du Soliel. 23 THE SUN CHASER HARDING Eh? Oh, you saw the Sun Chaser running? SECOND KANUCK Oui, he run ! Snow come sweesh on de win dow pane tonight. FIRST KANUCK Oui, monsieur, expec some beeg storm. ( They all go into store. Suddenly the school bell on the schoolhouse gate begins to ring. Terri fied, Pearl, who has been watching the Kanucks, starts, and then flees down the village street. The children pour out from the school just in time to catch sight of Pearl running away. They run after her, shouting. In their hands they have Christmas things they have made: one a little Christmas tree all trimmed, another a painted Santa Claus.) MINNIE Pearl s a f raid cat ! SUE Where s the Sun Chaser? TOMMY (waving his Santa Claus) Where s old clippity-clop ? (They shout derisively at Pearl.} OLD JOE (comes out, a newly purchased gay muffler in his hand, and looks eastward at Pearl running away, the children chasing her. Speaking to himself.) My God, they re chasing her ! (Shouts in weak old voice.) Hi, there, hi! You brats! (Stephen Short comes out.) 24 THE SUN CHASER STEPHEN SHORT (puts out his arm and holds back Old Joe) Come, let them settle their own little fusses! OLD JOE She s as afraid of them children as if they was hyenas. STEPHEN SHORT (matter-of-fact voice) Oh, come, Joe ! OLD JOE Nobody s ever tried to do him a mite of good. STEPHEN SHORT And nobody s ever done him harm either. OLD JOE (hotly and shaking) Except letting him slide right straight to hell, dragging my daughter and grandchild with him. STEPHEN SHORT Up to a certain point, if Ambrose Clark wants to go OLD JOE He don t want to go to hell. He can t help it. STEPHEN SHORT (puzzled) Heh? Well, up to a certain point, it s Am brose s affair and nobody else s! OLD JOE Might a foolish old man ask where s that point then? STEPHEN SHORT I m thinking it s about reached. OLD JOE (vindictively) I d like to get him where I could drop a rock on him ! 25 THE SUN CHASER STEPHEN SHORT See here, now, don t you get to thinking thoughts like that or you 11 get into trouble. OLD JOE Ain t that what I m in now, too old to be any good and watching my daughter and her baby being dragged through hell? STEPHEN SHORT Well, I must be going now ! (He goes eastward down the village street and Old Joe reenters store, the muffler in his hand. The Kanucks come out of the store, laughing, chattering, their packs, their packets filed to bursting, bottles sticking out everywhere. Over his shoulder one of them carries a mallet with which he makes playful passes at tine other. He even lifts it between two hands and pretends to knock the other on the neck. They are half- drunk, but still playful and good-natured. Harding comes to the door just as the First Ka- nuck is swinging the mallet at the Second.) HARDING Hi, there, you fellows, quit fooling with that mallet or some one will get hurt ! FIRST KANUCK (quickly and amiably) Oui, monsieur, we have no troub at all ! SECOND KANUCK We heet de pa tridge in de swamp ! FIRST KANUCK We mak de rabbit jomp! HARDING (looking at the sky) Well, you jump or you ll get snowed in here! 26 THE SUN CHASER FIRST KANUCK Oui, monsieur, we good feller, we go! SECOND KANUCK Adieu, monsieur. ( They pick up their snowshoes and travel west ward, singing:) "An I t ink I hear de leetle bird say, Wait till de snow is geev up its dead, Wait till I go, an de robin come, An den you will fin bees cole, cole bed. ( The children come rushing back, laughing with excitement. Old Joe shakes his stick angrily at the children, who stick their tongues out at him. He goes in.) SUE Oh, I thought the Sun Chaser d catch me ! MINNIE (looking at the lamps) No, you silly, he s lighted the lamps and gone away. (Several of them together imitate his lame step, the others laughing merrily.) TOMMY My, ain t I glad I don t have a Dad walks like that! SUE I ain t afraid ! TOMMY Ain t you? Then what d you run for? SUE Cause he might kill me. Mother said he might. 27 THE SUN CHASER ALL CHILDREN (in chorus, giggling and squealing) Has he killed anyone? SUE No, but he ll be in the lockup before long ! See if he ain t. TOMMY Pooh! Who said so? Your ma? (A little head has been visible at the Doctor s window. Then the front door opens and Rose conies down the walk hesitatingly.) SUE (wriggling) Anyway, Pearl s afraid to come to school any more, cause her father is a bad, bad man. MINNIE (as they see Rose) Look out, Rose, or the Sun Chaser ll catch you ! ROSE (gravely) I saw him go by. And he isn t a bad man. CHILDREN (imitating his lame step wildly and laughing again) Like this ! ROSE The Sun Chaser s looking for happiness. (The children all laugh.) TOMMY He s drunk, that s what he is ! MINNIE And he s crazy, too ! ROSE It isn t nice to laugh at the Sun Chaser. TOMMY (defiantly) Why? 28 THE SUN CHASER ROSE Cause he needs help. SUE Pooh! My mother said what the Sun Chaser needed wasn t help, but it was hanging! (Sue flounces airily off up onto the store porch.) Oh, Minnie, come see this Santy Claus ! (She points to the advertisement.) MINNIE (pressing her nose against the window) Can you see the Christmas tree? SUE Nope. Can you? MINNIE No, but Mrs. Harding told my mother there was one and she trimmed it! TOMMY There ain t any Christmas tree in there. MINNIE There is, too! And Mrs. Harding told mom she d hung a Christ-child right on the very tip of it! (As the children rush up onto the store porch, shouting and giggling, a dark figure can be seen painfully scaling the rocks behind the store. Rose catches sight of it.) ROSE (pointing to the rocks) See what s up there ! ( The children do not hear her. She then goes towards the house and brings out her mother.) 29 THE SUN CHASER MINNIE (glueing her nose to the window and wriggling with delight) Ain t it grand, Sue! And those skates! I d take a pair of those skates. Tommy, come here ! TOMMY Gee, couldn t I just skate on them! (Looking at the advertisement Santa Claus.) Gee, it ain t in the same class as mine ! ROSE (pointing upwards) Mother, what s that? A big bird? MRS. BROWN (shading her eyes) It looks like a man! See how he clings with his hands ! ROSE Isn t it the Sun Chaser climbing after the sun? MRS. BROWN (startled) I do believe it is ! He ll be killed, that s sure ! (An audible cry rings out now. The children hear the cry and with shouts of "The Sun Chaser! The Sun Chaser s coming!" they race wildly down the street and to the safety of their own homes.) SUN CHASER (clinging to the rock and gazing up ward at the sun, which soars at the very peak of the rocks. Every word from the nearby cliff is audible.) The sun up there! The sun up there! (He clings with one hand and points upward.) MRS. BROWN He s watching the sun disappear. See how still he hangs! 30 THE SUN CHASER ROSE The sun is swimming away, Mummy. MRS. BROWN Yes, it s going! ROSE Yes, part gone, almost all gone. MRS. BROWN (gazing upward, horror-stricken) How ll he ever get down without killing him self! ( The Doctor comes out.) DOCTOR What s this? (He gazes upward.) MRS. BROWN Oh, Simon ! DOCTOR He has nine lives ! Don t worry ! ( The sun is swimming slowly, slowly out of sight. Every instant it becomes darker, and the Sun Chaser climbs higher.) OLD JOE (coming out) Eh, eh, what s that sound? It came right in at the back of the store ! DOCTOR (points upward) There tis. OLD JOE Oh God, climbing those rocks to catch the sun ! (Whispering.) If he d only fall, that would settle it ! SUN CHASER (with a loud, frenzied cry, clamber ing upwards still more rapidly) The sun losing the sun! (He climbs still higher and vanishes from sight. There is an 31 THE SUN CHASER instant of silence and then a loud cry which echoes and reechoes.) The sun is gone! The sun is gone! The sun is gone! (With the last cry the Sun Chaser is seen hurt ling and tumbling down the rocks. Then there is silence.) OLD JOE Thank God ! (He nods his head up and down, up and down.) He s dead at last! MRS. BROWN (in a frightened whisper) He must be dead ! DOCTOR (running out of the yard) I ll go by the road to the sheep path. (Old Joe follows him.) ROSE (full of wonder) That cry, Mummy, was like a wing flapping! MRS. BROWN Yes. (Harding comes out on the store porch, fol lowed by his wife.) ROSE Mummy, was it drinking made the Sun Chaser think he could be a bird? MRS. BROWN Yes. ROSE But, Mummy, birds don t drink. MRS. BROWN No. ROSE And was it drinking made him fall, too ? 32 THE SUN CHASER MRS. BROWN Yes. ROSE (puzzled) I wonder why he did it, then? MRS. BROWN I can t tell you, dear. (Harding comes across the street and looks up at the rocks. It is growing darker every min ute.) HARDING Humph! I guess he s done for! MRS. BROWN I wonder how long it will ROSE (excitedly) No, Mummy, he s comin , he s cominM (On the road is heard the beat of the Sun Chaser s lame step coming nearer and nearer and growing louder and louder.) MRS. BROWN Coming? ROSE Hear! Clip-clop! Clippity-clop ! (The child holds up her little finger.) HARDING Sure, he is! . . . How he thunders along! It s a terrible hardship on leather shoes! ROSE Yes, but, Mr. Harding, it s wooden-shod makes most of the noise. HARDING Humph ! 33 THE SUN CHASER (The beat of the running lame step is very close.) ROSE I can see him now ! See ! HARDING He runs like something mad looks like a mad dog acts like a mad dog ! ( They all shrink back and slip inside the Doc tor s hedge. MRS. BROWN How his copper hair shines! ( The Sun Chaser pauses in front of the school- house, gazing about puzzled.) SUN CHASER (standing still and uttering a single word) Pearl! (He goes over to the lamp-post and looks up at the light. His face is revealed scratched, cut, and streaked with blood.) Pearl, you up there? (He shakes his head.) No Pearl! (He runs on.) ROSE See, Mummy, he s looking in at that window down there ! MRS. BROWN Yes, it must be the light of the lamp attracts him. He s looking for something. ROSE Daddy said it was happiness. Is it? MRS. BROWN Yes. 34 THE SUN CHASER HARDING Humph ! He s drunk all the time that s what he is ! There ain t a day he ain t up to my store buying licker, and it s made him crazy. (He starts to cross the street.) ROSE Hear him, Mummy! Clip-clop! Clip-clop! See, he is running awful past the undertaker s now ! ( There is the sound of a cry from the Sun Chaser.) Hear him cry! I guess he s afraid! MRS. BROWN Yes, I guess so. ROSE He must have wings for wooden-shod tonight and double wings for leather-shod. MRS. BROWN Yes. I wonder why your father doesn t come? HARDING Well, good-night, ma am! I hope you have a Merry Christmas! MRS. BROWN Good-night, Mr. Harding, and you and Mrs. Harding a prosperous New Year. ROSE (looking after Harding) Mother, if the drink the Sun Chaser takes makes him crazy, why does Mr. Harding sell it to him ? MRS. BROWN Hush ! I can t tell you any reason except that Mr. Harding makes money that way. ROSE There s Daddy coming. 35 THE SUN CHASER ( The Doctor enters very much out of breath from running.) DOCTOR (panting) Just as we were nearing the face of the rocks, he was picking himself up. OLD JOE (hobbling in, wiping of his forehead and panting) We shouted after him, but it wasn t any use. He ain t hurt very much. (He shakes his head mournfully.) DOCTOR He picked himself up and started across that stony field like mad. We couldn t catch him. OLD JOE We lost him and struck for the road again. Even if he ain t killed himself, he ll end by kill ing somebody else, if somebody don t kill him ! (Shaking his head ominously.) If somebody don t kill him! O God, if he was only dead! ROSE Daddy, if the sun went that way (pointing to the west) why did the Sun Chaser come back again? DOCTOR (stooping and patting Rose) He had to come back, my darling. ROSE Must he always ? DOCTOR Always ! CURTAIN ACT II. THE SUN CHASER S KITCHEN. It is a big kitchen, shabby, warm, dimly lighted by one kerosene lamp. On the worn, well- scrubbed board floor are a few rag carpet rugs. Between the north and west windows is a round dining-room table covered by a red cloth: about it are three chairs. On the table is a clumsy pressed-glass tumbler filed with knives, forks, and spoons. There are also a pile of three cups and saucers, three plates and big glass salt and pepper shakers. Beyond the table, between the two north windows, is a big, old-fashioned door. Just by the door, to the left, is a child s express wagon, a clothes-basket inside it. In side the door to the right is an old-fashioned, high-top sewing machine. To the east, against the wall of the kitchen, is the kitchen stove, on it a boiling tea-kettle, and to the south of the stove is a small door opening into a bedroom. Between the northwest window and the stove stands a clotheshorse. On the other side of the stove out towards the centre of the room is a big ironing board, a lighted lamp on one end of it, a flatiron and holder on the other. On the walls are two large lithograph pictures; one of Abraham Lincoln, which hangs by the dining- room table, and a spectacular lithograph panel of the Rocky Mountains tacked between the door and the northeast window. Beside the door, on a nail, hangs a lantern. Beyond the 37 THE SUN CHASER west window and dining table is a big ugly kitchen clock whose loud, hard tick is seldom drowned even by voices. Beneath it is a shelf on which are a few other odds and ends, among them a small jar of ointment t a candlestick, etc. The shades are not drawn. Sybil Clark is ironing rapidly, as if she were behind in her work and every moment counted. She is a young woman still, of medium height, well- featured, carefully but poorly dressed. Pearl stands at the end of the ironing board watching her mother. It is about six o clock on Christmas Eve. PEARL Mother, is sun-chasing very hard work? SYBIL CLARK (her iron hissing over some damp canton flannel) It depends on what you mean by that. (Hold ing the iron in mid-air. ) How still it is ! Not a breath of air stirring! It s getting ready to storm. PEARL Mother, what s sun-chasing mean, anyhow? SYBIL CLARK Just slang. (Holding up the piece she has been ironing.) My, those are nice night clothes little Rose has, so warm and pretty! Wish I could afford the goods to make two for you. PEARL If Grandfather was rich, would he get em for me? 38 THE SUN CHASER SYBIL CLARK Yes, and you d never be cold nights then. I could run them up in no time on the machine. (She puts the nightgown on the clothe shorse.) PEARL And all that pretty blue cross-stitching, too, Mother? SYBIL CLARK No, I guess not that. Twould take too much time. (She takes a fresh flatiron from the stove, testing it with a moistened forefinger. It makes a hissing noise.) PEARL Mother, don t that sound just like an angry cat? SYBIL CLARK (beginning on a new garment ) Yes, it does! It s the wet on the hot iron. When I go out with Mrs. Brown s wash PEARL Mother, can I go? SYBIL CLARK With a storm coming up? No, certainly not! PEARL But, Mother, there s a Christmas tree at Harding s store. SYBIL CLARK Yes, I d counted on your seeing that ! . . . Well, I can leave you a good hot fire to keep you warm. {A heavy gust of wind strikes the house.) 39 THE SUN CHASER PEARL Just listen to that wind strike the house, Mother ! Mother, if a storm should come up, wouldn t it make Father feel worse? SYRIL CLARK (laconically) Might help to keep him home for a while ! PEARL (wistfully) I could take much better care of Father if he stayed home. SYBIL CLARK Yes. But it wouldn t hurt if things were the other way around and your father PEARL Mother, don t! Father s foot hurts him and he never, never catches the sun. SYBIL CLARK (not paying much attention, glances at the child and down the child s thin legs to the shoes from which parts of the vamp and sole are gone. Not for an instant does she cease her ironing.) You need a pair of shoes more than anything else. One of those soles is almost gone, and you ve stubbed even the brass tip off the other. PEARL (anxiously) Mother, I didn t mean to ! SYBIL CLARK (kissing her shyly on the hair) No, darling, it s not your fault. They re old. (Pearl comes up closer to her mother ) one hand fumbling in her little pocket.) PEARL (her face lighting up joyously) Mother, it s here. 40 THE SUN CHASER SYBIL CLARK (without looking) What s here? PEARL The money to buy the shoes with. See, Mother ! (She fakes a piece of money out of her pocket and holds it up under the lamp.) He gave me two of these. SYBIL CLARK Grandfather? PEARL No, the Doctor. SYBIL CLARK It would take more than two quarters these days with such ruination high prices to buy a pair of shoes. But, where s the other? PEARL (looking frightened) You mean the other quarter, Mother? SYBIL CLARK Yes, tell me ! ( There is an instant s silence and then she speaks bitterly.) No, you needn t. YouVe given it to your father. . . . Well, you leave this one here by the lamp. I can make good use of it for you. PEARL (setting it down by the lamp on the ironing board) But, Mother, his foot hurt so he said it did and he said he hadn t had any success in sun-chasing SYBIL CLARK (ironing more and more rapidly) There, there, dear, that ll do! I know every one of those explanations backwards and for wards by this time. Anyway, don t give him that! THE SUN CHASER PEARL But, Mother, SYBIL CLARK You must have a pair of mittens. Christmas Eve is here and for all I know a blizzard is, too. PEARL Is that what makes it so cold ? SYBIL CLARK Yes, hear the way that wind draws and moans ! It ll be whipping a blanket of snow around everything in no time. PEARL Will it be hard going on the road for you to night, Mother? SYBIL CLARK (thumping the iron) Very likely. (Pearl crowds up closer to her mother s right side. She reaches up, clasping her left arm about her mother s waist, and sighs as she turns the quarter under the lamplight.) PEARL Mother, it feels good to be close to you. Does it feel good to you ? SYBIL CLARK (never ceasing her ironing) Yes, dear. PEARL I love you, Mother. And I always will. SYBIL CLARK (leans sidewise from her ironing and kisses the child s hair) You blessing ! 42 THE SUN CHASER PEARL I never expect to get out of loving you and Fa ther and Grandfather, too. SYBIL CLARK (tenderly) My baby ! PEARL Mother, couldn t Grandfather help Father? SYBIL CLARK Not much any more. He s done all he could and given all he could. PEARL What makes Grandfather so old and helpless now? SYBIL CLARK I don t know as I can tell you. He was middle- aged before he was married, and I was born, and then it s been hard for him the way things have turned out. PEARL Mother, there s so much that s hard to under stand, isn t there? SYBIL CLARK Mother s love is plain enough. (She thumps the ironing board.) PEARL Mother, I like the way your arm jerks. It makes you feel nearer. (She is turning the quarter under the lamplight.) Does God feel near? SYBIL CLARK Why do you ask? 43 THE SUN CHASER PEARL (reading slowly) Mother, this quarter says "In God We Trust." Do we? SYBIL CLARK Yes, dear, I hope so. PEARL (turning the quarter around again) Do we trust in man, Mother? SYBIL CLARK (hesitates) Well, not so much. Men mean well, but living is a terribly puzzling business. PEARL (crowding closer to her Mother) Is that why Mother s love is plain? SYBIL CLARK (noncommittally) Perhaps. (Suddenly she puts her iron down and flings her arms about Pearl.) Oh, my baby, my baby ! Mother couldn t live without you ! ( Then, as if a little ashamed of showing emotion, she snatches up her iron again.) PEARL Mother, if it weren t for Father s feeling he must chase the sun, wouldn t we be just the happiest family in the whole world ? SYBIL CLARK That s as might be, child, but perhaps so. PEARL (listening) Mother, what s that step ? SYBIL CLARK (listens) I don t hear any ! (She goes toward the clothes- horse and hangs the nightgown on it.) PEARL (timidly) Mother, can I pull down the shades? 44 THE SUN CHASER SYBIL CLARK No, leave them up. It will help your father to find his way home. PEARL (brightens a little) Yes, the light will help Father. SYBIL CLARK Hear the steady roar of that wind coming up against the house now. PEARL (more and more excited every instant) Mother, what s that? Listen! It sounds just like the rain on our moss-covered roof in spring. But it isn t spring, is it? SYBIL CLARK No, perhaps it s the snow. PEARL Listen! Now, it s like a step! SYBIL CLARK Nonsense ! It s the clock ticking. Well, these clothes are all ready to be packed. (Feeling the other clothes.) They re a little damp yet. But Mrs. Brown will understand. (She begins to pack them.) PEARL (excitedly) Mother, what was that passed the window? SYBIL CLARK Nothing, I guess. I heard nothing. Maybe Grandfather coming up to see how we re getting on. PEARL (with conviction) It wasn t Grandfather, Mother. But, Mother, I saw something. It was SYBIL CLARK (suspiciously) What was it? 45 THE SUN CHASER PEARL It was like a light. SYBIL CLARK (relieved) Maybe it was the lamplight gleaming on the bottom of that waxed iron I left turned over. PEARL No, Mother, I saw something. SYBIL CLARK Did you? Well, the nights are growing cold now, maybe a falling star. Is it snowing? PEARL Mother, there s something out there ! SYBIL CLARK Nonsense! It s just the wind and maybe the snow. Step to the door and see! (Pearl opens the door cautiously only a crack and thrusts her little arm out. The wind rushes through the crack. She brings her arm in covered with moisture.) SYBIL CLARK Land sakes, close that door ! It s blowing all over these fresh clothes. PEARL (shaking) Yes, Mother, it s snowing. But there s some thing besides the snow out there. SYBIL CLARK Nonsense ! PEARL I felt it on my hand. SYBIL CLARK (going on with the packing of the clothes. She holds up a pretty little blue and white sweater.) No, it ain t shrunk any! 46 THE SUN CHASER (Looking at Pearl. ) Something like that would be so pretty for you and keep you warm no matter what the weather was, inside or out. ( The wind moans and cries, but it has not yet settled into a steady roar.) PEARL Mother, how the wind cries ! SYBIL CLARK Yes, it does a little. (She stoops over the last piece which she has taken from the clothes- horse.) There, that s the last. PEARL Mother, I hear that step louder. SYBIL CLARK (not paying much attention) Yes. (She sees a pair of woolen tights for a child still hanging by the stove.) No, there s those woolen tights of Rose s. I ll just take the flatiron and go over them once. (She takes them from the rack, picks up the flatiron, and goes to the ironing board.) PEARL Mother, what was that touched the door latch? (Suddenly there is a wild rush, the door is flung open, and the Sun Chaser stumbles in, covered with snow. Pearl cowers away from him. Sybil confronts him. He points to the lamp on the ironing board.) SUN CHASER See, sun! Piece of sun, shining, golden, there! 47 THE SUN CHASER SYBIL CLARK Don t you touch that lamp ! (She places herself in his way.) Ambrose, you ve been drinking again. SUN CHASER (pointing to the money on the iron ing board) See, see, shines ! Coin ! Give it to me ! SYBIL CLARK (threateningly) You leave that alone ! ( The Sun Chaser makes a rush for the lamp and seizes it.) SUN CHASER It s mine, mine! (He swings it, swaying and gleaming, flaming and shining, dipping and flickering. ) SYBIL CLARK (terrified) Ambrose ! SUN CHASER (brandishing it) It s mine, mine, mine ! In my hand, my own ! Part and parcel of the Great One! I toss it, catch it, brandish it, mine, mine, mine, forever ! SYBIL CLARK (with a loud cry) Ambrose, for God s sake set the lamp down set it down ! SUN CHASER (swinging the lamp and advancing toward Pearl) Fools, fools ! here s the sun ! You didn t know it! Little Pearl shall have all the sun. (He comes closer to her.) Never go out into the night and dark never chase sun again here s sun for my Pearl. (He touches her with the lamp.) 48 THE SUN CHASER PEARL (crying out) Father, it burns so! The lamp s burning me! Oh, Mother! (He swings the lamp, streaming smoke and flame } near the child again.) SYBIL CLARK Ambrose. (She gives one terrible cry and leaps upon him tigerishly.) SUN CHASER (shouting wildly and laughing) Scatter it like this joy and joy and joy! ( The lamp crashes to the floor. The room be comes black. Then are heard the screams of a child, the dull thud and thrashing of struggle upon the floor; and moans and silence. There is a smell of lamp soot and burned hair. The grate of the kitchen stove gleams like an evil eye, throwing light across the prostrate forms on the floor, Pearl and Sybil lying close together, and revealing the snow which whirls through the open door. Muttering, the Sun Chaser raises himself on knee and leather-shod foot, dragging wooden-shod to a place beside it.) SUN CHASER (looking at the windows) Silver windows! Door open! Sun gone! (He moves and touches one of the bodies.) Something soft! Happiness, happiness to spare for all! Wanted to scatter joy on all! See what she has done! Sybil against me! Damn the women ! All against us ! ( Then the Sun Chaser begins to hop around the pros trate bodies of Pearl and Sybil Clark: clip- 49 THE SUN CHASER clop, clippity-clop, around and around them horribly until he has got away from them.) Soft, soft, soft! Something soft! (He fum bles for the ironing board.) Where s the money? (He brushes his hand over the ironing board, but he cannot find it.) Nothing there! No money ! ( Whimpering a little. ) Sybil took it ! Damn the women ! They take it all ! (He puts his hand in his pocket.) Here s the quarter Pearl gave me. Where s the latch? (He hops forward.) Yes, door open! Silver windows! The Dawn ! The Dawn ! Go meet sun ! (From the outside is heard a wild cry.) The sun! The sun! Going after the sun! (And he is gone.) (For a few seconds all is silence in the darkened room. The mother and child lie together, Pearl s head on her mother s left shoulder.) SYBIL CLARK (stirring) Oh ! Oh ! (She moves a little more, opens her eyes and sees the kitchen stove.) Oh! The fire s burning! (Turns her head to the right.) Ambrose! Ambrose, where are you? He s gone! (Her hand in moving touches Pearl s head.) What s that? Pearl! (With a cry she throws her arms about the child.) Blessed, blessed, blessed little one ! ( The child does not reply. Sybil Clark cries out again) Pearl! (No answer. She speaks wonderingly: Is this or maybe (She struggles to her feet.) The door s open. (She touches the broken glass with her feet.) The lamp is broken. I ll light the lantern. (She takes it from the corner and 5 THE SUN CHASER lights it.) It s cold here. I wonder where she is? (She closes the door. She moves a chair by the stove, then picks up Pearl and carries her to it.) PEARL (her head moving limply) Mother ! SYBIL CLARK Oh, yes, yes, darling! Mother s here! PEARL (bewildered) Are you here? SYBIL CLARK Yes, I m here, dear. We re together. We re safe, darling. That s all can matter any more! (She embraces her passionately.) PEARL Oh, I was I was a little frightened, Mother. It hurt so. (She puts her hand up to her fore- head where there is a long, red scar.) SYBIL CLARK (looking at Pearl s forehead) It s a burn! I ll put some ointment on it. (She goes to the shelf under the clock and gets the ointment.) PEARL Mother, did Father mean to hurt me? SYBIL CLARK (grudgingly) No. PEARL Father s sun-chasing must have hurt him terrible then. Did it? SYBIL CLARK Yes, I guess so! Or the quarter you let him have did him no good. 51 THE SUN CHASER PEARL He said he was hungry. SYBIL CLARK There s some hungers a child can t understand. (She looks around.) Where s that other quarter? PEARL I don t know, Mother. You put it by the lamp on the ironing board. SYBIL CLARK (looking) Well, I thought as much I PEARL Thought what? SYBIL CLARK It isn t here. PEARL Where is it? SYBIL CLARK That s the question. PEARL (eagerly) If Father has the quarter, then he isn t hungry. SYBIL CLARK (grimly looking at the clock} No, it s not likely ! Well, I must just be getting along. Mrs. Brown is waiting and the wind has settled down to drawing the snow pretty steadily. (She looks out of the window and shrinks back with an exclamation.) Oh! PEARL What is it, Mother? SYBIL CLARK There s a man out there ! PEARL Is it Grandfather? 52 THE SUN CHASER ( There comes a heavy knock upon the door. No reply comes from within, and the knock is repeated.) SYBIL CLARK (advancing to the door and holding her hand on the latch) What do you want? VOICE (calling) Mrs. Clark! Mrs. Clark! SYBIL CLARK What do you want? Who are you? VOICE It s Stephen Short. SYBIL CLARK (shrinking, but opening the door, with a realization of his intention and with fear expressed in her face and gestures) Come in, Mr. Short! STEPHEN SHORT (stamping snow of his feet on the sill and kicking his boots against the outside of the door jamb) Good evening, ma am. It s a terrible storm, ma am, with snow piling up in drifts as if it meant business. SYBIL CLARK (unrelieved) Yes. STEPHEN SHORT I started up three pheasants out there taking shelter under the white cedars. (He shakes of more snow.) They went off with a "cut-cut-cut" and a swish of long tail feathers. (He takes his cap of and shakes it.) I could just see them. And the wind has got the trees so beaten they re twisted into all sorts of shapes and cracking like old bones. And those larch trees of yours S3 THE SUN CHASER are lashing around like long white hair on an old man s head. Yes, it s a bad night. Yes, we re in for a bad storm. (Looking about him.) Where s Ambrose? SYBIL CLARK He is not here. STEPHEN SHORT What s that yell I heard? SYBIL CLARK Him going away, I guess. STEPHEN SHORT (looking at the glass on the floor) I see you ve had a little accident here. (He looks at Pearl.) Child been burned? SYBIL CLARK Yes. STEPHEN SHORT Ambrose do it? SYBIL CLARK Yes. STEPHEN SHORT That s what I thought. PEARL (going over to her mother) Mother, what s he mean? (They do not hear the child s question.) STEPHEN SHORT Did Ambrose throw the lamp at you two? SYBIL CLARK No. STEPHEN SHORT He might as well have from the burn that child has. Well, where is he, ma am? 54 THE SUN CHASER SYBIL CLARK (defiantly) I don t know; and if I did, I d not tell you. PEARL (whispering) Mother, what s Mr. Short want Father for? (No one pays any attention to her question.) STEPHEN SHORT That s the way you treat the law! And then when the law doesn t do what you want it to do, you find fault with it. SYBIL CLARK I haven t asked the law to do anything for me. I haven t any faith in it. STEPHEN SHORT You know Ambrose isn t fit to stay here, and I ve come to get him. I ll put him in the lock up for a couple of nights and then take him to the state asylum. SYBIL CLARK Why? This is his home. STEPHEN SHORT (not unkindly) You ll have a quieter Christmas, ma am. Your father ll feel better about you and Northerly will, too. SYBIL CLARK I haven t asked for any particular kind of a Christmas, Stephen Short. I ve forgot what any kind of Christmas is like. STEPHEN SHORT Well, there, Mrs. Clark, everybody sees he isn t fit to stay at home any more. SYBIL CLARK All he ll let us do for him, we do. 55 THE SUN CHASER STEPHEN SHORT I ll get him and take him along with me to the lockup. He ll be safe there, and you and Pearl will be a deal sight safer here. SYBIL CLARK No, no ! He s mine, and you can t have him ! STEPHEN SHORT (doggedly) I ll take him just the same! The law makes him mine. (He pulls aside his coat lapel and shows his sheriff s badge. He looks significantly at the red scar on Pearl s forehead.) This has gone on long enough. SYBIL CLARK (catching her breath as she speaks) He didn t mean it it was the lamp he STEPHEN SHORT (starting for the door) Well, I ll just go along and find him. SYBIL CLARK (stands in his way) No, no, you mustn t! Everything would be different if you could make men see things different. Ambrose ain t bad. He is good. Who should know better than I, Stephen Short? It s just that Ambrose hasn t ever settled down to what it means to be a a husband. STEPHEN SHORT Or a father. SYBIL CLARK Or a father, Stephen Short. But there are lots of children in the world who haven t ever had more than one parent, Stephen Short, and lots of married women who haven t ever had what you could call a husband. The birds could teach men lessons they haven t ever learned. I tell you, Stephen Short, men are that way. 56 THE SUN CHASER That s the reason why a woman has no choice sometimes but to forget her man. But, oh, God! even a woman s body remembers! (She hides her face in her hands.) STEPHEN SHORT (embarrassed and moving to wards the door) Well, Mrs. Clark, SYBIL CLARK (not noticing him, her face in her hands) She can t forget! There isn t any man living knows what a woman has to meet. A woman bears a man. She marries the man some other woman has borne. She would give her life for him and wouldn t have a hair of his head hurt. And then he s a right to go and do just as he pleases no matter what she says. STEPHEN SHORT I don t know, Mrs. Clark, how long I can get through the roads tonight. The snow is piling up something terrible, and SYBIL CLARK (looking up at Stephen Short again) Men are that way. You know it, Stephen Short. They keep on traveling. Now Ambrose has that idea about the sun in his head STEPHEN SHORT (his hand on the latch) Well, he s crazy now, Mrs. Clark SYBIL CLARK No more so than many men are, Stephen Short. If men would only stop to look for their happi ness at home. You can t raise a family and keep on traveling away from it the whole time and sun-chasing and going to Harding s for 57 THE SUN CHASER drink. But Ambrose was meant to be a good man. He was headed that way once. STEPHEN SHORT (laconically) Well, I ll find him and take him along with me to the lockup, and give him a chance to think about some of those ideas. SYBIL CLARK (trying to detain him) No, wait! STEPHEN SHORT (opening and closing the door) I hope you will have a quiet Christmas, ma am ! (He is gone.) SYBIL CLARK (motionless) A quiet Christmas! Have a quiet Christmas! Oh, God! God! God! PEARL (pleadingly) Mother, you have me ! SYBIL CLARK (as if awakening) Oh, yes! Yes, Pearl! PEARL And isn t Grandfather good? SYBIL CLARK Yes. PEARL (putting her arm about her mother) Mother, is he going to take care of Father? SYBIL CLARK (uncertainly) Yes, oh, yes ! (She looks about her.) It s grow ing fearfully late. I must be getting things together. (She shakes down the fire and puts on more wood. She begins to find her coat and hood, etc., etc.) PEARL Where are you going, Mother? To do something for Father? 58 THE SUN CHASER SYBIL CLARK (tying her woolen hood under her chin) No, I m going to the Doctor s now with the wash. I m late. PEARL Will you be there long, Mother? SYBIL CLARK (drawing on her coat) I can t tell. There s the wash to deliver and the wash to collect. PEARL Are you going to stay long, Mother? SYBIL CLARK (taking the linen cover off the top of the express cart and then putting it back on) Mrs. Brown is always real kind. They always ask me to set awhile. But tonight I ll get away as quick as I can, for I don t like leaving you alone. (Thinking of Ambrose and Stephen Short.) PEARL Mother, I ll be safe. SYBIL CLARK Yes, you re safe enough now. But if Father should come back you re to lock that door against him. PEARL Oh, Mother, against Father? SYBIL CLARK Do as I say. I won t stop at Grandfather s at all. I ll come straight home. (She pushes the express cart near the door.) PEARL (suddenly) Mother, will Father be hungry? 59 THE SUN CHASER SYBIL CLARK I don t know. Maybe they won t catch him. (Looking around for the lantern.) There, I must have that lantern with me. I ll light a candle for you, Pearl. Fetch it from the clock shelf. PEARL (bringing the candle) Mother, can Father see in the in the lockup? SYBIL CLARK (taking the candle and lighting it) I don t know. (With tenderness.) There, I wish the storm hadn t set in and I didn t have to leave you! But you ll be safe and warm here, Pearl. When I get back I ll tell you all about that Christmas tree. PEARL Oh, Mother! SYBIL CLARK Yes, maybe I can bring you something, too. And with the money the Doctor s wife will pay for this wash, I can buy enough food to see us through most of the week safely, and per haps enough of that canton flannel for one nightgown, anyhow. (Her face brightens and she looks around the kitchen.) I ve left a good fire for you, darling. PEARL (running towards her mother) Mother, can I go with you ? SYBIL CLARK (turning towards the windows) Out in this? No, of course not! I said you couldn t. PEARL (begging) Aren t you going to get Father something? 60 THE SUN CHASER SYBIL CLARK (decisively) No, I am not! PEARL (frightened by the thought of his hunger) But, Mother, Father will be hungry! Can t I take him something to eat? SYBIL CLARK No. They ll look out for him, I guess, where he is going to be. PEARL (pleadingly and seeing the dark place where her father is to be shut up} Couldn t you buy Father something to eat with that quarter Doctor gave me? SYBIL CLARK Unless I m mistaken, your father has that quarter and has spent it at Mr. Harding s be fore this. And they wouldn t allow me to take your father anything to eat. PEARL (frightened) They, Mother? The people who are putting Father there? SYBIL CLARK Yes. (Opening the door a crack through which snow whirls.) It s a terrible storm outside. The wagon ll travel body-deep in the snow that has fallen already. (Patiently.) But I can manage it, I guess. (She closes the door.) PEARL Let me help, Mother. (Her mother cannot hear her, for the door remains closed.) Oh, Mother, Father ll be hungry! (Pearl runs to the window, and her hands on either side of her head, she tries to see out into the whirling 61 THE SUN CHASER storm. She takes the candle and goes over to the ironing board and looks among the broken glass. She finds the quarter.) It is here! It is here! (She clutches it.) He shan t be hungry! Fa ther shan t be hungry! (She runs to the door and pulls it open and shouts out into the roar of the storm.) Mother! Mother! I have found the quarter! Mother, Father is hungry! Can t I buy some bread for him and take it to him? (There is no reply. Only the snow is seen whirling in. Pearl runs for her coat, pulls herself into it, finds her cap, draws that down about her ears, and leaps out into the rush of snow and wind, slamming the door after her. For an instant there is a strange echo of the Sun Chaser y s lame step, then silence, and an empty room in which only a candle flickers.) CURTAIN 62 ACT III. THE INTERIOR OF HARDING S STORE There is an oil lamp in front of either display window. At the rear of Harding s store is an other of these lamps. From east to west runs a long counter. At the east is a short one, be yond which is a big, old-fashioned stove; about it a couple of benches, some chairs, a barrel, a box of sawdust to be used as a spittoon. On an upright not far from the stove hang some axes, big wooden mallets, and some cant dogs. Beyond the stove and benches is the handrail of a stairway leading down into the cellar. To the west of that is a large table on which Christ mas presents are laid out, and on which is a small Christmas tree crudely trimmed with the usual ornaments, candles, stockings filled with popcorn and toys, little shoes stuffed with candy, etc. From the top a gaudy Christ-child dangles glistening in the lamplight. It is a frontier store crowded to the eaves with everything imagi nable groceries, dry goods, coats, suits, fire arms, snowshoes, boots, leggings, candy, Christ mas presents, hardware, etc. It is about seven o clock. Harding comes into the store, looks about him, picking his teeth contemplatively. He throws the toothpick into the box of sawdust 63 THE SUN CHASER and turns up the wick of the lamp by the stove. Then he goes forward and turns up the lamps by either window. HARDING (turning and calling] Missus, bring the broom, will you? (He scuffs around by the doorsill, under which snow has been driven.) (Mrs. Harding comes into the store with a broom.) MRS. HARDING You wouldn t even brush this up yourself, would you? HARDING No, curse ye ! MRS. HARDING (beginning to brush the snow out) What with all the housework and finishing Christmas presents and trimming that tree there (she points to the tree) and making the pies and all, it does seem to me you might leave me just to finish the supper dishes! HARDING What s a woman for? MRS. HARDING (sweeping the snow out with extra energy) You don t have to ask that question, Ranney Harding, for I ve asked it myself more n a mil lion times. And I ve asked what a man s for, too, and there s some of you, like Ambrose Clark, that is a good deal better out of the way than in it. THE SUN CHASER HARDING (changing the subject) See how this storm has driven up against this southeast window. Can t nothing be seen through that, I guess. MRS. HARDING I guess not. (Finishing the sweeping.) There! (She takes the broom and goes to the back of the store and out through the door.) HARDING (under his breath) God damn ye! (He hears a step coming in) What s that? (The door bursts open and the Sun Chaser staggers in.) Hey, there! What you doing letting in all this blizzard I just swept out ! Shut that door, you drunken fool ! ( The Sun Chaser closes the door with difficulty and leans, panting, against the jamb. Harding goes up closer to him and looks at him con temptuously, the lamplight shining down on the Sun Chaser s copper-colored hair, his flaming face, and bloodshot eyes.) HARDING What you want? I told you you don t get no more trust in this store. SUN CHASER (his hand fumbling in his pocket) Here! (Panting, his hand trembling, he holds up the quarter Pearl had given him earlier in the day. ) Was another couldn t find it ! Shy- Shybil s got it! HARDING She has! (Mollified, taking the quarter.) Well, I have it now. You can t get something for nothing in this world, Ambrose. You owe 65 THE SUN CHASER me a dime. That leaves you fifteen. That s not much. But I m honest, strictly honest. It s the best policy. SUN CHASER (apologetically) Hot race, all day, all night ! HARDING (holding the quarter under the lamp) Yes, I guess it must be considerable hot some times. (Reads) "In God we trust" yep, that is real enough! (Bites it) Yep, Uncle Sam s silver and Uncle Sam s motto both good. (He turns on the Sun Chaser.) Well? Whis key, gin, apple-jack what? SUN CHASER (with difficulty) Whiskey. HARDING Have some that beats the gin all to dregs for strength and bite. (Harding puts the quarter in his pocket and, picking up a jug, goes down the cellar stairs.) SUN CHASER (looking after Harding and speak ing wearily) Hot race all day all night forever! HARDING (from cellar) Hey, swing that light around so it ll shine onto these steps! ( The Sun Chaser reaches for the lamp, but his unsteady hand only makes futile passes in at tempting to touch it.) SUN CHASER (mumbling) Silver windows! Dawn coming! (He catches sight of the tree and the Christ-child on the 66 THE SUN CHASER top.) What s that? Sun? (He tries to touch the Christ-child.) HARDING (emerging with the jug) Hey, there, Ambrose, what you doing? Let that tree alone ! SUN CHASER (points to the Christ-child) That s sun shining! HARDING That s nothing, you fool. That s the little Jesus I hung up there for the missus. Why didn t you turn that lamp the way I told you to do? SUN CHASER (mumbling and looking abashed) Bad pain all day all night ! HARDING (setting down the jug and pouring out a glassful, while Ambrose eagerly, wildly watches him) Well, I don t see what s to prevent your having a bad pain the whole time, the way you carry on. (He hands him the glass, which is yellow and murky and from which fumes rise. The Sun Chaser snatches the glass before It brims, tosses it off, and holds It out to be re filed.) HARDING (Interested, watching him) That must feel like hot metal to your insides ! Never could touch the stuff. Don t believe in it I I m strictly temperance, I am. SUN CHASER (still holding the glass) More! HARDING (hesitating) Dunno bout letting you run up any more bills here. Mrs. Clark said THE SUN CHASER SUN CHASER (still holding out the glass) Shybil llpay! Shybil ll pay! More! HARDING (refilling the glass slowly) Well, she ll have to! But it gets me how you can do it! I should think it would bite your very fingers and ears off and seethe in your belly like a red-hot stove lid. (He hands him a sec ond glass, which the Sun Chaser snatches and tosses off, wildly.) SUN CHASER (holding out the glass) More! HARDING Hey? SUN CHASER One more just one more and sun s caught. You you shee. HARDING (takes the glass to refill it) Well, this ll make your third and your last. ( There is stamping on the stoop of the store, the door latch rattles, the door opens. Old Joe Elvey and Mack enter, blowing and brushing snow from themselves.) OLD JOE Phew! Phew! Phew! What a smother of snow! What a smother of snow. (He wheezes.) MACK Aye, man, the worst in twenty years. HARDING Come in! MACK (looking at the Christmas tree) Man, that s gay and fine ! 68 THE SUN CHASER HARDING (not without pride) Yes, Missus wanted it. And it s good for busi ness, too! OLD JOE (looking at the Sun Chaser, who is drain- ing the third glass) So that s it ! (To Harding, who is still looking at the Christmas tree.) You old rascal! (He shakes a trembling fist at Harding.) HARDING Hey, what you calling names for? (Old Joe goes over to Sun Chaser) HARDING Seems as if it might do good to a man now and then. OLD JOE Watch his face glaze ! HARDING Looks steady enough now! OLD JOE (disgusted and in a quavering voice) It s a God-almighty queer sort of steadiness a man gets that way ! ( To the Sun Chaser, gently.) Ambrose! Ambrose! I guess you d better stop, my boy ! (He puts an unsteady hand on him.) There s others to think about, Am brose. SUN CHASER (suddenly) Damn the women! (Old Joe starts back. The two men go over to the benches, where they sit down and extend their snow-wet boots to the big stove. Old Joe THE SUN CHASER sits with his head in his hands > the old shoulders shaking once in a while. The Sun Chaser fol lows them.} MACK (to Ambrose) Nay, nay, man, those are no words to use about the women, God bless em ! Weel, man, what luck today? SUN CHASER (studying the lamp by the stove) None, none today. But tomorrow I shall over take the sun! MACK Weel, that s good news, man. SUN CHASER (seizing Mack by the front of the coat y drawing him towards him, and whispering in his ear) I tell you don t tell him ! (pointing to Old Joe) how I know thish. I saw a piece on Sybil s ironing board for the first time. HARDING Did you get it? SUN CHASER (shaking his head) No! OLD JOE (looking up) What was it a piece of, Ambrose? SUN CHASER (nodding) The sun, of course. But my wife s against me. Damn the women! MACK Hech, man, stop that! OLD JOE (alarmed) He s been up to something. (To Ambrose.) What you been doing? What you been doing? 70 THE SUN CHASE.R HARDING (amiably) Oh, he s harmless! Soothing syrup could do more damage than he can. OLD JOE It s my Sybil he s cursing. (He trembles strangely.) My Sybil! I m her father, but I might as well be nobody to her for all the power I have! MACK (comforting) Tut, man! It s no so bad as that. OLD JOE And she ll stick to him to the end. (Mumbling.) She s a loyal nature; yes, there never was a better girl than Sybil. There wouldn t nothing make her give him up cept something coming to Pearl, and I don t think as that would, either. MACK Things will be better, man, rather than worse. OLD JOE (miserably) I ve no confidence in anything any more none. What kind of a world is it, I d like to know, that lets a man go head-on to a smash-up, dragging his whole family with him? MACK Weel, cee-veel-i-zation is OLD JOE (bitterly) You call this ce-vee-li-za-tion ? (He points to the Sun Chaser.) SUN CHASER (swaying over an empty bench) I want to sit down! HARDING Why don t you? SUN CHASER (laughing) Going to, but the bench keeps moving off like the the sun ! 71 THE SUN CHASER HARDING Rising or going down ? SUN CHASER Ri ri HARDING Down, I guess. (The Sun Chaser sits down, misses the bench, and is tenderly picked up by Mack.) MACK (as if to a child) There, man, there; sit still! SUN CHASER (laughing and crying) Damn the women! Damn the women! All against us! All against us! MACK (severely) Hech, man, I said ye re no to say that again! OLD JOE (suddenly frantic) You stop cursing my Sybil! You say that once more and I ll I ll kill ye! MACK There! There! Man! HARDING See here, Ambrose, you ll have to get out of here if you go on like this! This is a moral store, and we don t stand no cursing the women ! MACK Speak quietly, man, quietly! HARDING (tO Mack) What ails him tonight? He s worse than ever. MACK (steadying the Sun Chaser on the bench) He s reeling drunk, and his wits is maist gone after all these five years of sousing. (Gently to the Sun Chaser.) Come, man, come! 72 THE SUN CHASER OLD JOE (going to (he upright by the cellar stair, where axes and mallets hang, and fingering a mallet. To Harding] What would one of these mallets cost, Ranney? HARDING (turning around) Mallets P Oh, I just sold one of them mallets to two frisky Kanucks for a dollar. I ll let you have this one for ninety cents. OLD JOE Ninety cents. HARDING But what use you got for a mallet? OLD JOE Why, a mallet s handy SUN CHASER (shouts suddenly as he sinks down on the bench and beats on the floor with his wooden- shod foot) As for me, give me the sun the sun for me! HARDING There he goes again! SUN CHASER (the tattoo on the floor growing quieter and his voice gradually becoming inaudible) The sun! The sun! (His feet are quiet.) The sun for me! MACK (looking at Ambrose compassionately) He s senseless enough now, man! The dawn and sun of Christmas Day will come and he will no feel either, I am thinking. There s not a frozen root in the earth will not know more than he does, or a frozen pool won t catch more light than he can. OLD JOE (gloomily) Yes, knowing things is not Ambrose s way. 73 THE SUN CHASER HARDING (beginning) Seeing em (Old Joe glares at him. Harding stops and no one laughs at the attempted joke.) MACK It s sad, man, for the mice in the fields will know the sun is coming, the squirrels in their holes, wing o bird, and tip o tree will know it, but Ambrose will know nothing! (He shakes his head and holds up one finger to Harding.) HARDING Yes. (He goes over to get Mack s whiskey for him .) (Harding gives him the glass and Mack gives him some money. They stand with their backs to Old Joe and the Sun Chaser. Suddenly the Sun Chaser s feet begin to beat a tattoo on the floor, clip-clop, and on; clip-clop, and stop, etc.) OLD JOE He s dreaming he s going somewhere. If he d only go! (He leans over and looks in his face.) MACK Aye, man, but how can he go anywhere? SUN CHASER (in his drunken sleep) The sun! The sun! HARDING You d think he d be warm enough without this continual calling for the sun! (Avoiding the attention of all, Old Joe turns and goes stealthily to the upright where the axes and mallets hang, takes down a big wooden mallet, and tiptoes back.) 74 THE SUN CHASER MACK (taking another glass) Tis a world maist too strange for under standing! (Old Joe lifts the mallet over the Sun Chaser s head and is about to strike. Mack turns suddenly and sees Old Joe with the mallet raised.) Stop, man! (The mallet crashes to the floor and Old Joe sinks back on a chair. Mack covers him as steps are heard on the porch and the stamping of feet. The door opens y the lamps suck and flare in the draught of the storm, and, still shaking himself y Stephen Short enters.) MACK (soberly) Merry Christmas to ye, Stephen Short! STEPHEN SHORT (not seeing the Sun Chaser lying on the bench) I m here on no Christmas errand. MACK (more cheerfully) Hech, man, what ye so sober about? STEPHEN SHORT (shaking out his collar and coming over to the stove) Anyone not in the mood for a fight might perish in the storm tonight. MACK Aye, a bad storm! STEPHEN SHORT On my way down I could not see a thing except the white lines of the birch trees and the dark blotches of the evergreens. (He holds out his hands to the stove, his back to the bench on which the Sun Chaser lies.) 75 THE SUN CHASER HARDING I shall be losing a pile of trade tonight, with the Kanucks not coming in on Christmas Eve for their brandy and tinned meats. OLD JOE (not himself) Some of em will get here. Some of em will get here. There ll be trouble, trouble, trouble! HARDING (turning on him angrily) Hey? OLD JOE Trouble, trouble, trouble! STEPHEN SHORT (tO Mack) What s the matter with the old fellow? MACK He does no feel like himself, man. Twill pass. STEPHEN SHORT It took me three-quarters of an hour getting down hill from Sybil Clark s in this storm. OLD JOE (lifting his head) What were you doing up at my daughter s? STEPHEN SHORT Looking for Ambrose. OLD JOE (surprised) You MACK Weel, man, if you re looking for Ambrose STEPHEN SHORT (nodding to Old Joe, but paying no attention to them otherwise) Yes, I knew you d be relieved. Yes, I thought Northerly would better get things straightened out for Christmas Day, so I went up there MACK (pointing to the Sun Chaser) Weel, ye ve come to the right place! 76 THE SUN CHASER STEPHEN SHORT (not noticing} Just in the nick of time, too. They d been having some sort of a fracas with the lamp, and the lamp lay smashed on the floor, and the child was burned on the forehead. OLD JOE He hadn t killed them? STEPHEN SHORT No, neither was hurt bad. OLD JOE (trembling) But he ll burn them all up some day. You take him away with you. If you wait, don t you see STEPHEN SHORT He was gone. HARDING He came straight here, I guess. STEPHEN SHORT (starting) Here? HARDING ( pointing to the bench behind Stephen Short) There, behind you, where Mack was telling you! OLD JOE (beseechingly) Don t leave him here. Take him right out into this storm, Steve! It won t hurt him! O God, be good to an old man! Take him with you! Take him with you! STEPHEN SHORT Yep, it s what I mean to da HARDING (cynically) And you ain t God, either! STEPHEN SHORT The sooner I take him the better. The lockup s the place for him. (Beginning to shake the Sun Chaser.) Wake up, Ambrose, wake up! 77 THE SUN CHASER (There is heavy, gasping breathing from the Sun Chaser?) MACK Just hear him snore! HARDING (standing over the Sun Chaser to help Stephen Short) Get up! (No answer.) Beat him on the soles of the feet! (Stephen Short shakes his head. Harding fetches the poker.) Well, I will. It s good treatment for sun-chasing. It s all he s fit for. (He beats the soles of the Sun Chaser s feet. The Sun Chaser turns and groans.) He s coming to. If he don t keep on coming, I ll heat the poker. That d stir him up ! (He continues beating.) OLD JOE (flaming into sudden anger and threatening Harding) Here, stop beating his lame foot, you damned skunk of a storekeeper! (He snatches up the mallet from the floor.) STEPHEN SHORT Hi, there, Joe; no fights on Christmas Eve! HARDING (tO Old Joe) You don t think we didn t see what you was going to do with that mallet once before! You don t want to be free with em! MACK Hech, man, hech! STEPHEN SHORT (to Harding) Fetch a glass of water and try that! HARDING (sullenly) He s past finding any glass of water useful. You let me heat that poker. That ll get him up. THE SUN CHASER OLD JOE Don t you dare torture him! MACK. Aye, man, twould be cruel. I can remember when the lad was a good lad. (Harding goes for water.) OLD JOE He was a good lad, a very good lad none better when I let my Sybil marry him. MACK (with a glance for Stephen Short) Aye, weel, one thing s sure. What most people haven t seen with their own eyes is what they will no believe in. STEPHEN SHORT Oh, come, Mack; the Sun Chaser is plain drunk, and you know it. MACK Weel, perhaps he is; I didna say he was not. But he is ill, man. STEPHEN SHORT 111? He s a bad lot, that s what he is! MACK Nay, ill. Ye would no beat an insane man, would ye? Yet they used to do that, Stephen Short, whip them till the welts stood out all over them, and starve them and put them in the storm and cold to be cured. Aye, they did it the world over! (Their eyes meet and there is a pause?) STEPHEN SHORT (decisively) Well, something s got to be done! 79 THE SUN CHASER HARDING (returns and throws water on the Sun Chaser s face) Get up! (JVith a cry, Ambrose jerks upright and puts out his hands to shield himself?) STEPHEN SHORT (putting his hand on Ambrose s shoulder kindly) There, now, come with me, Ambrose! SUN CHASER Oh, Steve! Yes Time to put out lamps, Steve? HARDING Lamps! Get out of here now, you fool! SUN CHASER (quietly) I m Sun Chaser! (Stephen Short helps him to his feet.) STEPHEN SHORT Come, Ambrose! SUN CHASER (with dignity, looking at them all) Plenty of happiness plenty for all! (Held by Stephen Short, the Sun Chaser limps forward: clip-clop and stop; clip-clop and on. Old Joe opens the door, the lamp flares, the door closes. Not a word is said. Old Joe holds onto the door, looking out into the storm.) MACK (after the door is closed) You could make as much racket stamping on twelve thicknesses of blanket as walking in this snow. HARDING Well not hear his step clumping to the lockup. 80 THE SUN CHASER OLD JOE Maybe you ll not hear it, but there ll be a woman and a child, for all that, will hear every step he takes to that lockup. I ll be going over home now. MACK What ye going for? OLD JOE Sybil. But if I don t find Sybil there, I ll go up the hill. HARDING Out in this? MACK Aye, ye re foolish, man. OLD JOE After what s happened tonight Sybil might need me. (He straightens himself.) I always want her to feel she can depend upon me. (Pausing.) Merry Christmas! (He goes out.) MACK (looking after Old Joe) There s no streak of yellow in that old fellow anywhere. HARDING He s like me. He deserves more happiness than has come to him. MACK Weel, tis a world maist too strange for under standing! HARDING Sure, but all the men who drink ain t like Ambrose Clark crazy, reeling drunk the whole time! You take your glass regular. Now I m temperance, strictly Si THE SUN CHASER (Loud stamping of feet is heard on the store porch and several voices speaking a French patois?) MACK There are your Christmas lumberjacks; aye, coming for that Christmas whiskey. HARDING No, it s brandy they drink, to a man! (Three French Canadians Eateese ^ Exxor, and Pierre come in. They stack their snowshoes just inside the door.) BATEESE A good evening messieurs! (He bows.) HARDING (grunting) Glad you find this blizzard good. BATEESE Not good blizzard, m sieu! Blizzard bad. We pass rhomme qui chasse le soleil how you say, Sun Chasseur, and ze shereef. EXXOR (flinging his empty pack down on the counter) They have bad time arrive at preeson. PIERRE De jail tight place! (Pierre and Eateese stand by the stove.) BATEESE Zee snow she skeep lak de bee in sommer; she fly, she bozz. PIERRE Oui, zee snow she jomp lak de sommer bee an seeng! (Catching sight of the Christmas tree on the table) Ah-h-h! (He pulls off his cap and crosses himself. Eateese and Exxor do the same.) 82 THE SUN CHASER BATEESE (in a low voice) Noel! HARDING (following their glance) Yes, we re ready for Christmas! MACK Can you sing that little snowbird song still, Pierre? PIERRE O God, yes! I sing! She grand song. (Points to the tree.) She s tres jolie! Oui! BATEESE (fingers a little shoe stuffed with candy) Leetle shoe, jolie, hein? (He sucks in his mouth as if he wants to eat it up, and laughs) PIERRE (lifting up his huge moccasin) Leetle shoe too beeg, hein? BATEESE God, yes! {The Doctor comes in.) PIERRE AND BATEESE M sieu le Docteur! (They bow.) (The third man, Exxor, has gone over to the counter and is bargaining with Harding. There are many gestures, many bottles, many tins of meat, and many boxes of tobacco displayed, while Pierre and Bateese get ready to sing and play) EXXOR Non, non! Zee lady hen, he zee lady hen, he- HARDING 1 see. Don t be so frantic, man! All you want is canned chicken! There! (He slams one- half dozen tins of chicken down on the counter.) 83 THE SUN CHASER EXXOR Oui, an zee tabac for Christmas for zee Noel DOCTOR Well, Pierre, how s that face of yours? PIERRE She do well, I t ank, M sieu le Docteur. She sam belle visage sam belle face O God, yes ! (He smiles?) DOCTOR Well, see you take better care of it this year! MACK (to Pierre) Come, now, sing your snowbird, man, before Exxor is off again ! BATEESE Dat chanson! O God, yes. (Bateese gets out a mouth organ and accompanies him.) PIERRE We seeng! (Sings.) "O leetle bird dat s come to us w en stormy win* she s blowin , An* ev ry fiel an mountaintop is cover wit de snow; How far from home you re flyin nobody s never knowin , For spen wit us se winter tarn, mon cher petit oiseau ! "We alway know you re comin w en we hear de firs beeg storm A sweepin from de sky above, an screamin as she go THE SUN CHASER Can tell you re safe inside it, w ere you re keepin nice an warm, But no wan s never see you dere, mon cher petit oiseau ! "Was it way behin de mountain, dat de nort win ketch you sleepin Mebbe on your leetle nes , too, an before de wing she grow, LiP you up an bring you dat way, till some morning fin* you peepin Out of new nes on de snow dreef, mon pauv petit oiseau!" MACK Man, that s fine! (He wipes his eyes, then calls to Harding and holds up three fingers.) A minute warm. (Harding fills three glasses with whiskey , hot water from the stove, and sugar. Pierre , Eateese, and Exxor accept their glasses with smiles and polite bows.) EXXOR M sieu Mack, a bon New Year! (He holds up his glass, drinks, and smacks his lips.) Whiskey chaud! Hooraw! BATEESE (tO all) I drink sante! Beeg tarn, Noel! (He drinks and bows.) PIERRE (business-like) It ankyou. I drink. I seeng! (He drinks, wipes his mouth, and nods to Eateese. He sings.) 85 THE SUN CHASER "No wan say you sing lak robin, but you got no tarn for singing So busy it was keepin* you get breakfas* on de snow; But de small note you was geev us, w en it join de sleighbell ringin* Mak* de true Canadian music, mon cher petit oiseau ! "O de long an* lonesome winter, if you re never comin* near us! If we miss you on de roadside, an* on all de place below! But le bon Dieu he will sen* you troo de storm again for cheer us, Wen we mos was need you here, too, mon cher petit oiseau! * (Mack wipes his eyes. The Doctor coughs.) EXXOR We mak voyage now! BATEESE (stowing away his mouth organ and pick ing up the big pack) All right. Stay too moche tarn! PIERRE (bowing, after putting the pack on his back) Bon soir, messieurs! (Then they all turn toward the Christmas tree, crossing themselves reverently. Suddenly there is heard a cry.) PIERRE Wat dat bird s wing strikin de winder? (Instantly the French Canadians are all full of superstitious fear.) 86 THE SUN CHASER BATEESE A log runnin down de rapide? EXXOR Sapre tonnerre, an* ten miles away? Non! PIERRE Ma heart drummin ! C est la chasse gal rie! EXXOR La chasse gal rie beeg canoe? BATEESE Non, wir goose crying! Pass late. Tiens! Dead man canoe non! EXXOR Sapristi, kip your head. We brave Canayen! (He turns.) We go. Allez, bien vite! (They go, all three loudly singing "De Snow Bird" as if for courage. The door is opened; the lamps suck and flare; snow blows in; the door is closed. For a few minutes or so their voices are audible, singing.) MACK They re good-hearted fellows! DOCTOR Yes, they are, as simple-hearted as children, kindly, industrious. HARDING But before morning they will be jumping on one another s faces with those spiked boots of theirs. DOCTOR Yes, last year they brought Pierre to me. His face was shredded in a dozen places where Bateese had stamped his spiked boot into it. 87 THE SUN CHASER MACK (aghast) Man, man, why? DOCTOR (laconically) Drink. (To Harding.} And you sold it to them! HARDING It s a free country, Doctor. (A noise is heard on the porch.) DOCTOR What s that? MACK Was it a rabbit, man? (The door opens a little -, then it bursts open and is flung against the jamb by the violence of the wind; a whirl of wind and snow rushes in; the lamp smokes, flare s, and goes out. Pearl comes in. The Doctor jumps to close the door. Harding lights the lamp again. Pearl shrinks , frightened, against the window. Her little hands are un covered and almost frozen. Her face is strained, terrified, and stained with tears. Her cap is pushed back and the long scar shows on her forehead.) PEARL (blinking in the light) Please, sir DOCTOR (stooping over her) Well, well, well! PEARL (frightened) Please, sir, my fingers are cold and the door slipped. HARDING (not unkindly) Yes, yes, that s all right, all right. 88 THE SUN CHASER DOCTOR (examining the scar on her forehead] Well, here we are! PEARL (her eyes blinking under the light y her little body quivering) Yes, sir. MACK Where s your mither, bairn? PEARL Please, sir, she s gone to the Doctor s house. DOCTOR (smiling) Oh, so that s it, and you ve come to wait here. MACK Your grandfayther went out looking for ye. PEARL (to Harding) Please, sir, I ve come to buy something. DOCTOR (leaning over her and looking at the scar) Come closer. (He tilts her snow-wet face back and studies the deep scar across her temple.) Too bad! PEARL Yes, sir, the lamp did it. (The Doctor thrusts his hand into his pocket.) MACK Nay, man. I ve no bairn of me ain. Let me! (He gives her several bright silver pieces, lifting the frostbitten hands and opening them gently to put in the coins.) There. Christmas is coming. (The Doctor s hand comes out of his pocket, and he y too, puts a silver piece into Pearl s hand.) DOCTOR Here, Harding, give the child the best mittens you have those like my Rose s. THE SUN CHASER MACK (giving Harding some money, whispers) We ll light the tree for the bairn? Aye? (Har ding nods.) (With genial winks for Mack and Old Joe, the Doctor , Old Joe, and Mack go over to the tree and begin to light the candles. They strike many matches, burn their fingers, and are as busy as women.) HARDING (from behind the counter by the door) So it s mittens. (Pearl presses up to the counter, lifts her thin little chin, looks out of her frightened, reddened eyes into the face of the men above her.) PEARL Please, sir, not mittens; something to eat. HARDING (surprised) Hey, you re hungry? (Pearl, thinking he is angry with her, shrinks back, then holds out a coin.) PEARL Please, sir, something to eat with this. HARDING (taking the coin) Didn t you have any dinner? PEARL Please, sir, no; but this is my money. They gave it to me. (Harding turns his back on her and begins to jerk out and thump down on the counter bread, butter, cheese, cookies, etc.) HARDING Eat! You can t eat the worth of all that 90 THE SUN CHASER money. That s a safe proposition. (Growling, he turns his back on Pearl.) PEARL (tremulously) Please, sir, I haven t time to eat. HARDING (turning around) Haven t time to eat? PEARL (pointing to the bread and butter) Please, sir, can I buy this with the money? (She points to the loaves and holds up another piece of money.) HARDING (his face a study of much greed and some pity) Take it all! Take it all ! (He pushes the money away and it clatters onto the floor.) Now the mittens! (Pearl wraps her little arms about the loaves of bread and is gone suddenly and silently , while Harding is looking for the mittens, the door closing quietly. Harding turns, dangling the mittens.) HARDING Here they are! Where s that child? (They all turn from the tree surprised. Pearl is gone. He gazes over the counter to be sure the child has not fallen behind it. Then he runs and jerks open the door.) Hey, you ve forgotten your mittens! (There is no answer. He stands still, as if something had struck him.) O God, damn the children ! MACK (running forward, aghast) She s no gone out into this? HARDING Yes. 91 THE SUN CHASER DOCTOR She s only crossed the street to my house. MACK Aye, man, afraid to wait here, with nothing but men, till her mither came. DOCTOR Can you see the lamp in the window where I told my wife to set it? MACK (looking out) Yes, and the little thing traveling that way. HARDING Well, that s it; that s all right, then. (Some what easier, he closes the door.) MACK Aye, aye, the little things canna do without their mithers! (Uneasily, and still by window?) HARDING Well, there are all them candles burning. Help blow em out, will you? MACK (starting to blow, then stopping) You don t suppose Pearl would try to go to her fayther, do you? DOCTOR No, no! Her mother sent her here to buy something for their Christmas Day. MACK Aye, and the child has run back to her. (He finishes blowing out the candles?) HARDING So much candle wasted! MACK Nay, man, a good intention is no waste. 92 THE SUN CHASER (They all return to stove. Just as they are sitting down the door opens and Stephen Short comes in.) STEPHEN SHORT (pulling ojf his gloves) Well, that s done! MACK Weel, tis one of the things I could do without doing! But the law s the law, and we canna do without that! (Stephen Short sees on the floor the quarter which was pushed off, picks it up and holds it under the lamp.) STEPHEN SHORT Yes, and the law cares whether Pearl has a childhood or not. Harding doesn t. (He reads the lettering on the quarter.) "In God We Trust." HARDING (bursts into cynical laughter) That s good for you to be reading. Here, give that here. You don t trust in no God. What you trust in is the arm of the law, which has got about as little to do with God as- MACK Hech, man, ye re violent! DOCTOR In what shape did you leave Ambrose? STEPHEN SHORT Drunk, of course. It was a struggle to get there. MACK He was a bit soberer for that. DOCTOR How long did it take you? 93 THE SUN CHASER STEPHEN SHORT It took us over twenty minutes to go that quarter of a mile. MACK Oh, God, man, it s an awful hole that lockup set in the hollow in which to put a man on Christmas Eve! (Stephen Short stares at Mack.) DOCTOR (hearing a noise) What s that? STEPHEN SHORT Nothing. (Listening.) Perhaps those Kanucks, who passed me again as I was coming back. (Now is heard a long, hungry, wild cry.) DOCTOR What s that, Stephen? Don t you hear that? STEPHEN SHORT I do. (The cry comes again.) There it is again! MACK (to Stephen Short) God, that s an awful sound! What has hap pened, man? STEPHEN SHORT Nothing. If it isn t those Kanucks whooping it up, it s a dog howling or a Canada lynx lost in the storm. ( The long, wild, hungry cry comes again.) DOCTOR It s no dog and no lynx, but I don t know what it is. Isn t it over there to the south instead of the west? 94 THE SUN CHASER STEPHEN SHORT No, it s there by the lockup. (He (urns and shakes his fist at Harding.) What d you ever sell him that stuff for? If he couldn t have got it, he wouldn t have to be there tonight. What d you sell it for? HARDING That s a fool question to ask. Where s my living to come from, I d like to know? DOCTOR Your grocery business, and HARDING The packers have got it fixed so as an empty tin can is all the profit I ever get out of the grocery business. Why, where I sell two dollars worth of candy and one dollar s worth of tea and coffee and a few cents worth of chewing gum, I can sell twenty dollars worth of booze. STEPHEN SHORT Twenty dollars worth of hell! HARDING (sullenly) Well, a man should have the right to buy or sell hell in this country if he wants to. DOCTOR Who gives the right to him? HARDING (evasively) Well, I m temperance, strictly temperance my self never touch a drop. STEPHEN SHORT Just the same, you re the man should be up there in that lockup! 95 THE SUN CHASER HARDING You mind your own business, Stephen Short. This is a moral store, and I m strictly temper ance myself. STEPHEN SHORT You sn MACK Tut, tut! Harding is a man o purpose and Ambrose Clark has none. DOCTOR Has none! He has a purpose. Look at the way he slaves to succeed in that purpose. He s using up enough energy to run ten first-rate lives ! STEPHEN SHORT (angry and puzzled) Then what did I put him in the lockup for? DOCTOR (paying no attention , and angry ^ too) If you d a horse got the blind staggers, Stephen Short, you d do what you could to cure it. But if it s a man, not one of you would lift a finger to keep him from smashing himself and his whole family to pieces! HARDING Well, that s his business and his family s, ain t it, Doctor? DOCTOR No, it s ours. These lamps shining out there in this blizzard don t belong to themselves; they belong to us all, to the town of Northerly. And I say there isn t a man here belongs to himself. Every bit of him flesh, bone, and MACK Aye, aye, Doctor, that will na work! That s thee-ory thee-ory, man! 96 THE SUN CHASER DOCTOR (shortly) Theory, is it? No, by God, Mack, that s fact, and no theory! HARDING If the men ought to be held back, the women ought to do it! STEPHEN SHORT What power has the law given women? HARDING Well, if anything s wrong in a family, it s the women folk is to blame! DOCTOR Don t you mean it s the women who get blamed? MACK. There! There! (Laughing gravely.) I tell you a woman is so far above a man he canna even see her sometimes! Just look at the way that little thing mithers her own fayther! DOCTOR When she crossed the street with those loaves of bread in her arms, was she thinking more of her father than she was of herself? STEPHEN SHORT Listen! What s that? (They all hear steps running?) MACK Someone coming! DOCTOR On the porch ! (The door bursts open. Pierre y Exxor, and Bateese whirl in. The men close the door.) 97 THE SUN CHASER BATEESE Dat storm she comin bad! PIERRE (stacking snowshoes) We no go beeg storm! EXXOR The storm she scream an HP you up, comme c.a. (He jumps into the air.) PIERRE Leetle girl she go. BATEESE No, dat was some leetle bird. PIERRE (shaking his head) Non, sapre maudit, dat leetle girl by lockup, no leetle bird! DOCTOR What little girl out in this storm? BATEESE Leetle bird snow bird. PIERRE Non, dat leetle girl! She cry lak leetle bird chee-ep, comme c,a! BATEESE (quarrelsome) Non, she no cry, she no answer. PIERRE She cry chee-ee-eep ! EXXOR Non, dat de Nor eas win* drivin de sky canoe. PIERRE Bagosh, dat leetle girl! BATEESE Non, dat leetle bird! THE SUN CHASER EXXOR Non, ba God, phan-tome canoe of dead man c est la chasse gal rie! (They begin to shout angrily at each other.) STEPHEN SHORT Here, you men have been drinking. Go sit down and be quiet. (They go over by the stove and sit down , growling.) MACK What is it they think they ve seen? STEPHEN SHORT I don t know. TheyVe been drinking. Some thing about a canoe in the sky! DOCTOR Or something about a little bird or a little girl. (Heavy, slow steps are heard on the porch.) DOCTOR Someone else is coming. HARDING Yes, sounds like Old Joe. (The door opens and in stagger Old Joe and Sybil dark, exhausted and disheveled.) OLD JOE (brushing her off tenderly) Now, Sybil; now, Sybil; she ll be here some where. DOCTOR Why, Mrs. Clark, what is the matter? SYBIL CLARK (panting) I can t find her! I can t find her! The storm ankle-deep knee-deep blackness I heard Ambrose laughing 99 THE SUN CHASER STEPHEN SHORT No, ma am, you couldn t. He s safe in the lockup. OLD JOE We couldn t find the child, and the storm has frightened her! (To Sybil.) There, dear, there! Depend upon it, Father will make it all right. SYBIL CLARK (wildly) I heard his step clip-clop, clip-clop! Listen! He s taken her away! (The beat of the step is heard.) MACK Aye, weel, it sounds like a step, but tis bough striking on bough out there in the storm. STEPHEN SHORT That s what you heard, Mrs. Clark. Your husband is safe enough. OLD JOE She s beside herself. PIERRE Dat leetle girl by beeg lockup. BATEESE No leetle girl; leetle bird cryin ! O God, yes! DOCTOR Be quiet, boys! (Not understanding.) Did you take her with you, Mrs. Clark? SYBIL CLARK I left her there. When I reached the house, the windows were dark, the candle had burned down to the socket, the fire was out. MACK Aye, but 100 THE SUN OLD JOE ,:,,!: v - I found Sybil working over the stove, and then she went to look for Pearl SYBIL CLARK But she wasn t there not anywhere. I called I told her I had something for her to cat- she wasn t in the kitchen, she wasn t in her bed she wasn t upstairs. SHE WAS GONE! DOCTOR There, there, Mrs. Clark, Pearl was here. We let the child go across to my house. MACK Aye, ma am, the bairn was looking for ye. STEPHEN SHORT She s safe with Mrs. Brown now. OLD JOE (patting her on the back) There, Sybil, there! What did I say? There, there, there! SYBIL CLARK (half reassured) Oh, I thought she might have tried to go to the lockup! Pearl s not strong, and she would perish struggling through this storm. DOCTOR No, Mrs. Clark, Stephen is right. She is safe with Mrs. Brown now. SYBIL CLARK She s safe, thank God! How long ago was it that she went to your house? DOCTOR Just after your father started up the hill to look for you. (Encouragingly^ Depend upon it, Mrs. Clark, Pearl has only missed you, that is all. 101 ;.-;> \ : ;THE SUN CHASER Don t borrow trouble, ma am. We were light ing the Christmas tree for her, but she had to go find you. DOCTOR We saw her crossing the street to you, didn t we, Mack? MACK Aye, we saw her, man. She s safe. PIERRE (obstinately) Non, leetle girl in blizzard. She cry. (The Frenchmen are drinking more and more) EXXOR Non, dat de Nor eas win jomp aroun lak mooshrat! Leetle girl safe. MACK Aye, ma am, she s with Mrs. Brown now, eat ing her bit o supper. DOCTOR I ll go across to fetch her while you rest here. SYBIL CLARK I m going! I m going with you! OLD JOE No, Sybil, no, dear, you stay with Father. MACK No, ma am, twould na be common sense to go out in this again. STEPHEN SHORT Let the Doctor bring the child to you, Mrs. Clark. OLD JOE The storm has been most too much for us. (The Doctor goes out) 1 02 THE SUN CHASER HARDING You will have Pearl in a minute. SYBIL CLARK (sighing with relief, but not yet quite herself) It would have killed me to lose Pearl! OLD JOE There, dear, there! SYBIL CLARK (looks up at the men) You don t quite understand, do you? Men never do even good men. (Childlike to Hard ing.) Mr. Harding, it is Christmas Eve. Could you promise me not to let my husband drink here any more? (Harding says nothing. And she holds out some money.) Make him promise, Father. OLD JOE (to Harding) It s Christmas Eve. Couldn t you promise her? MACK Aye, man, promise! HARDING (snarling) Here, you quit this begging for her or I ll tell what you had in your hands a while ago when you stood over Ambrose. (Old Joe shrinks back.) SYBIL CLARK I was going to buy some canton flannel for nightgowns for Pearl she sleeps so cold but STEPHEN SHORT I wouldn t urge it now, Mrs. Clark. Ambrose is safe enough for a long time. 103 THE SUN CHASER SYBIL CLARK (unheeding) I ll give this to you if you could promise me never to let Ambrose touch a drop of liquor here. HARDING (shaking his head) Well, Mrs. Clark, you see SYBIL CLARK I would bring you everything I earn, Mr. Harding. You needn t give me anything but your promise in return. (Harding shakes his head.) You were so kind to light the tree for Pearl. Would you just OLD JOE There, dear, there. He don t want to do it! MACK Men are different, ma am. SYBIL CLARK (again) You don t quite understand, do you ? We were so happy before this this drinking began. There was never a better man than Ambrose. Sometimes I remember how good he was, and this this seems like a nightmare. Couldn t you promise? HARDING Business is OLD JOE (apologetically) You see, he is her husband and Pearl s father, and and she has loved him. MACK Aye, man, it s hard for anyone to understand it all, but God will comprehend. (He lifts his cap reverently.) 104 THE SUN CHASER OLD JOE It might be Christmas for her again if if only you HARDING And how d you want to celebrate Christmas? Hey? By killing him with a mallet? SYBIL CLARK Father! (The door opens and the Doctor comes in alone.) DOCTOR Pearl was not there! STEPHEN SHORT Not there! Where DOCTOR Quick, Stephen, get a lantern, an axe, a blanket, some rope. The lockup. (Sybil Clark starts forward wildly.) STEPHEN SHORT No, Mrs. Clark, you must stay here! DOCTOR Joe, hold her! (Old Joe Elvey and Mack put their arms about her and forcibly detain her.) SYBIL CLARK (struggles, crying out) My baby! My baby! Let me go! MACK No, ma am, no! SYBIL CLARK Oh! Oh! Don t hold me! You re hurting me! Let me go! (Still struggling, they force her 105 THE SUN CHASER down into a chair. She throws her arms about Old Joe s body and, sobbing and moaning, leans her head against him.) PIERRE (drinking heavily) Sapristi, dat leetle girl! BATEESE (very ugly) Non, bagosh, dat leetle bird cry! EXXOR Non, dat de Nor eas win driving sky canoe! BATEESE Non, leetle bird, snowbird ! (They begin quarreling again.) HARDING (who has been lighting the lantern) Here it is! (He gives it to Stephen Short, together with a coll of rope. The Doctor has the axe and a blanket?) (Sybil Clark cries out. Mack and Old Joe hold Sybil Clark back as the Doctor and Stephen Short go out.) CURTAIN 106 ACT IV THE INTERIOR OF THE LOCKUP // is a room about twelve feet by fourteen feet. There are no windows in it and only one entrance or exit, a big, heavy wooden door, which closes like a shutter from within upon the immense iron- grated door. The base of this is hand-hewn timber and the other two-thirds is gigantic riveted iron bars. The shutter is crossed by a huge iron thumb-latch, but not otherwise locked. The door and latch rattle in the storm. There is no stove in the room, no provision of any kind for human comfort except a straw shakedown and some blankets in the right-hand corner. The walls are rough wooden walls of massive timbers, clumsily matched and chinked; the ceiling is low and heavily timbered. From without the dull boom and thunder of the storm is audible in the pitch-black room. After the wooden shutter door is opened, the room is flooded with snowlight which shows the steep bank-side slope leading on to the lockup, and there is heard the incessant whistle and scream of the wind and the drive of the mighty snowstorm. The Sun Chaser lies on the straw shakedown, the blankets thrown aside in his delirium, his wooden- shod foot beating heavily on the floor. SUN CHASER (mutters slowly) Fight through all to the sun at last that s it- fight a way through. (Crying out.) Aah- 107 THE SUN CHASER yaiah! (Convulsed, he flings himself toward the door.) Door open sun out! (He laughs and shakes his tawny hair.) Door open! (He fingers the thumb-latch and pulls open the inside wooden shutter door. The room is suddenly flooded with snowlight bright like cut steel and filled with the sound of the whistle and scream of the mighty snowstorm. The Sun Chaser shrinks back.) Oh-h! Where s sun? (He runs around the sides of the room as if he were following a path: clip-clop, clippity-clop; clip-clop , clippity-clop; clippity -clip- pity-clop) Here s path out! (He pauses) There s sun ! Go find Pearl. (He stands by the immense iron grating for an instant, lashed by the wind and the snow driving in. He touches some snow on him.) Sun burned to ashes? Oh-h! Cold ashes! (He runs around the sides of the lockup again: clip-clop , clippity-clop^ clip-clop) The sun ! The sun ! Not dead ! (He grasps the bars and looks out steadily) Sun has set. (He falls back on the straw shakedown, his head by the door) Can t get out! (The snow whirls about his head) Ashes cold! Can t get out! (He lies stilly his wooden-shod foot twitching. From without comes a cry.) PEARL Father! Father! (There is no answer, only the twitching of the Sun Chaser s wooden-shod foot) Father, I can t find the way in! Are you there? (There is no answer. Pearl s head be comes visible, pressed to the grating) Father, Father, are you there? (No answer.) Father, I m here! (The silence continuing, she tries to see in, but cannot. The wind is whistling and 1 08 THE SUN CHASER screaming about the bars and the snow is lashing the grating.) SUN CHASER (moaning on the straw shakedown) Aah yaiah! The sun plenty of joy, plenty of joy for all! PEARL (pounding on the door with one little hand) Father, Father, I m here! I ve brought you something to eat! SUN CHASER (not answering, but murmuring heavily, as if what he said went over and over like a cart wheel of words) Plenty of joy plenty of joy for all plenty of joy plenty of joy for all! PEARL Oh, Father, one loaf of bread has fallen in the snow! (Her little head disappears while she searches for the bread. Again she pounds on the door.) It s here, Father; I found it. Can t you let me in ? (No answer.) I ll break it up for you, Father. (She divides the loaf roughly and pushes it through the bars, except some pieces of crust which stick and will not go through.) Father, I feel so cold. And I m hungry, too. Couldn t you let me in? (No answer.) My hands are so cold, Father. Couldn t you let me in to warm them so I could eat? SUN CHASER (the heavy cart wheel of words turning over and over) Plenty of joy plenty of joy for all plenty of joy plenty of joy for all! PEARL Oh, Father, if you re there, why don t you speak to me? (She reaches up, clutches the bars with her stiffening fingers , draws herself up and 109 THE SUN CHASER clings there like some storm-beaten bird, toes thrust between bars and hands clinging to the grating. She is terrified at last, and her words beat wing-like and frantic on the lockup^) Father, I m here! Oh, Father, here is bread for you and me both to eat! My hands are so cold! Can t you please let me in to warm them? I ll feed you, Father. The snow bites and my hands hurt! Father, they hurt! I can t move them any more. Father, don t you see the bread I brought you? You needn t be hungry any more ever any more there s bread and bread (Her voice grows less clear, and she clings there, the little head dropping back helplessly from time to time.) Father, I ll stay here with you! SUN CHASER (moaning) Plenty of joy plenty of joy for all plenty of joy plenty of joy for all! PEARL Father, I won t ever leave you! (Then , from the old ragged shoes that cannot bear the strain, her feet slip, the weight of her body jerks her frozen fingers loose, and she falls back ward and lies whimpering a little in the snow of the steep bank-side. One little shoe remains fast between the bars, but the other tumbles in on the Sun Chasers head, rousing him partially from his stupefied state. His hands twitch. His feet move convulsively as he draws leather-shod up under him and leans forward with his hand on wooden-shod^) no THE SUN CHASER SUN CHASER (vaguely) Sun fell in ! (He feels his head, then looks at the floor and discovers the shoe.) What s that? Bird? Oh! (He picks up a black button which has been jerked off the shoe.) Rat s eye! (He picks up the shoe.) PEARL (in a dreamy voice) Father, you needn t worry any more. It s feeling warmer out here. SUN CHASER (hearing, and surprised) Oh! Where s sun? Pearl, you there? PEARL (dreamily) Father, there s light out here, and it s warm and sunny out here like like being close to to Mother. (The Sun Chaser lifts himself, holding the shoe in his right hand and goes to the grating.) SUN CHASER Pearl, you there? (There is no answer, and he balances the shoe on his hand.) Weighs something. (He looks in it.) Ashes ! (He shakes out the snow.) Not sun! (He holds it up to the snowlight and laughs.) Oho! Little Sun Chasers at work! Oho! (He stands still for a few seconds, playing like a child with the shoe.) Little Sun Chasers! (He runs around the sides of the room: clip-clop, clippity-clop, clip-clop, and comes to a stand still before the iron grating. He stares at the bars, each bar straight and black in the silvery light. He sees the nodules of crust between the bars and his eyes grow large and amazed.) in THE SUN CHASER SUN CHASER (touching pieces of crust with the little shoe) Something there, and there, and there! (He laughs.) Something sun sent! Lots of little Sun Chasers ! (He laughs triumphantly and goes closer to the bars. He touches the pieces of crust with Pearl s shoe.) You, and you, and you! Change! Fly in! (Then he touches a piece of the snow-covered bread with his finger and speaks in the voice of a child and laughs helplessly) Ouch! Little shoe flew in to me! Fly in, wings! Sun wings, storm wings, bird wings, all wings! (Now he gravely matches the shoe with each piece of snow-covered bread, laughing wildly like a child delighted with a new game. He digs the pieces of bread out from between the bars with the toe of Pearl s shoe, repeating as each one falls to the floor) Fly in, wings! Birds out there snowbirds! (He comes to the other shoe and pauses , shaking his tawny hair) Two! Should be only one! Go way! Go way! Can t fool me! I m Sun Chaser! (The other shoe remains between the bars.) Why don t you go way? (The Sun Chaser leans nearer and nearer, under his hot breath the snowflakes melting on the copper toe) Are you are you, little shoe are you there? (With the shoe in his hand, he makes a few passes around his head, laughing loudly and shaking his tawny hair in childish delight over the comicality of the scene. The shoe in his hand glides past the side of his head and strikes the other shoe, knocking the snow from it and laying bare the copper toe) Oho, give it to me, Pearl. (The Sun Chaser stops and stares 112 THE SUN CHASER stupidly. He puts out a hand and touches the copper tip.) Oh! (He looks down at the shoe in his hand and then out through the bars. He sees Pearl lying there on the snowdrift, her little arms held up just as she had fallen, her little fingers still crooked, as they had been when the weight of her body jerked her hands from the bars and she fell backward. He presses up closer to the bars, his feet crunching on the bread, and on the snow which is drifting in, and long and curiously he looks out into the quicksilver snowlight of the whirling storm. He watches the copper tip again.) SUN CHASER Pearl! (He looks about the dark, unlighted room and out into the storm. He drops one shoe that is in his hand and takes hold of the bars and presses his face against them just above where the copper toe is wedged in fast. At last, for an instant, his mind is very clear. He knows where he is and what has happened) Pearl, Pearl, come in out of the storm! (He grasps the bars and rattles them until the whole lockup shakes) Pearl, don t lie there! Come in! (The shoe in his hand he puts between his teeth, and grasping the bars, shakes them until the whole building cracks. He shouts. He cries) Pearl! Pearl! Come in! Aah-yaiah! Come in! Pearl! Aah-yaiah! Don t lie there! Aah-yaiah! THE SUN CHASER (For answer comes the wolfish howl of the tempest and the leaping of the storm upon the lockup and the drifting of the snow over Pearl until she is invisible except for the protruding hands. With a yell the Sun Chaser flings himself again and again crashing against the iron-barred door or races around the walls of the lockup: clip-clop ^ clippity-clippity-clop) clip-clop. The voices of two men shouting to each other are heard.) SUN CHASER Aah yaiah! Aah yaiah! DOCTOR Come, here s the path! Make haste! STEPHEN SHORT He s trying to get out! DOCTOR Hurry! Something has gone wrong in there! SUN CHASER (maddened , frantic) Aah yaiah! Pearl! Pearl! DOCTOR He s calling for something. SUN CHASER Pearl! Aah yaiah! Pearl! Pearl! Aah yaiah! STEPHEN SHORT It s the little girl! DOCTOR She s here somewhere! SUN CHASER Aah yaiah! Pearl! Pearl! Aah yaiah! Little shoe, bring her in! Aah yaiah! 114 THE SUN CHASER DOCTOR Something about a shoe! (Shouting.) Here, be quiet! STEPHEN SHORT We re coming! DOCTOR Be quiet! SUN CHASER (the cry rising wildly and being whirled off into the vastness of the storm) Pearl! Pearl! Pearl! Aah yaiah! ( The men press their faces against the grating.) DOCTOR It s dark inside. Can you see him there? STEPHEN SHORT No. Has he got out? DOCTOR See there! See his face, his eyes! SUN CHASER Aah yaiah! Little shoe, bring her in bring Pearl in! Bring her in can t get out bring her in! Aah yaiah! Pearl, Pearl! (The Doctor holds his lantern high and close to the bars. Its light falls on the tawny hair, the bloodshot eyeSy the distorted face, the clinging hands of the Sun Chaser, and upon the heel of the little shoe stuck fast between the bars.) DOCTOR Here s her shoe! (He takes the lantern and holds it up, stumbling as he does so.) What s this? (He leans over and takes out of the snow a loaf of bread still in its paraffine paper wrapping?) THE SUN CHASER STEPHEN SHORT Bread. (The Doctor holds the lantern higher , his face close to the knotted, clinging fingers of the Sun Chaser, and peers farther into the lockup.) SUN CHASER Aah yaiah! (There is froth upon his lips and snow shining in his hair. He chatters with his teeth and shakes his hair and, clinging to the bars, rattles them.) DOCTOR He s seen her. STEPHEN SHORT She s here somewhere! DOCTOR Pull open the door! (They open the door.) SUN CHASER Waiting for the sun the sun the sun. Sun up and Pearl found little Pearl! DOCTOR (entering) She s not in here! STEPHEN SHORT (frightened) Here ! Here ! (Digging in the snow.) She s out here! (He brushes away the snow from the child 1 s face.) DOCTOR (turning on the Sheriff) See what you ve done! (Then he finishes digging out Pearl.) (Stephen Short stands rigidly looking down at the swift work of the Doctor in uncovering the 116 THE SUN CHASER child) the light of the lantern revealing the face and the white throat. The Doctor drops on his knees, thrusts his arms deep into the snow under the child, and gathering her up gently, rises to his feet again. By the light of the lantern which Stephen Short now holds, Pearl j s arms can be seen pointing stiff and unmoving upwards, the little fingers still crooked. Her eyes are closed, and the snowflakes on her forehead and hair glisten and twinkle. Stephen Short pushes the door farther open. They step into the cell. The Sun Chaser, when he beholds Pearl and the Doctor, smiles happily. He touches the lantern and laughs, childlike.) SUN CHASER Sun found Pearl little Pearl came in little shoe brought Pearl in! STEPHEN SHORT Shall I stand against the door? DOCTOR (growling) No! Somebody s always been standing against any door might have let him out. (The Sun Chaser touches his lips with the shoe he holds in his hand, then touches the child s cheek.) SUN CHASER Little shoe, wake Pearl! Little shoe, wake Pearl! More sun! More sun! (Suddenly he leaps into the air and starts running around the cell, laughing, shaking his hair and clattering with wooden-shod and leather-shod: clip-clop, clip- clop, clip-clop.) Going after it going after it going after more sun for little Pearl! 117 THE SUN CHASER DOCTOR Keep that door open! (The S her if sets his lantern down and turns to push the door open.) STEPHEN SHORT Oh, God, Doctor, don t blame me for all this! DOCTOR (chafing Pearl s hands with snow) See the child s -hands just as they froze cling ing about the bars. SUN CHASER (seizing the lantern) Here s sun. Doctor, here s sun for little Pearl! DOCTOR (quietly) Set it down, Ambrose. I need it just there for Pearl. (The Sun Chaser puts the lantern down and then sits on the floor beside the Doctor.) SUN CHASER Pearl asleep? DOCTOR Yes. SUN CHASER Oh! Sun coming to my Pearl. (Stephen Short drops his head against the upright of the open door. The Sun Chaser pauses in the midst of tossing the child s shoe up into the air and looks at the Sheriff.) Don t cry, boy! Sun s coming! STEPHEN SHORT I never set out to do this! Oh, my God! (The Doctor places his head tenderly near Pearl s heart. The Sun Chaser continues his play, wooden-shod on the knee of leather-shod, kissing the little shoe and tossing it into the air.) 118 THE SUN CHASER SUN CHASER (reassuringly and smiling) Sun s warm! Never mind! DOCTOR (lifting his head from Pearl s breast) Come, we ve got to get out of this. STEPHEN SHORT You can t do anything? DOCTOR {shaking his head) They are waiting back there for us. (The Sun Chaser leaps into the air, tosses the shoe to Stephen Short, and starts running about the cell, laughing and shaking his hair.) SUN CHASER Going after sun for Pearl, after sun for Pearl. DOCTOR (to Stephen Short who stands sobbing and holding out the shoe) Come! SUN CHASER (nodding his head) Sun s warm! Plenty of joy for all! CURTAIN 119 T] THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. MAY 101935 LD 21-100m-8, 34 YB 31889 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY