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_ SCENE IV
SCENE IV: Interior of a coal-mine, lit only by lamps on the heads of three men and two boys, about twelve and fourteen years, the men busy at work getting the coal down with picks, the boys shovelling coal into a car. They work a few minutes. Distant muffled sound of a steam-whistle. They immediately drop tools and go to corner and pick up each a can, paper bag, or small basket, and sit down to eat.
One Man.
Lunch-time. It feels good to rest half an hour in this bloomin' hole. (Takes a drink from a bottle he brings from his pocket and hands to another.) Have a swig, Jack?
Jack.
Don't care if I do.
(Takes a swallow.)
I'll bring some next time, Joe.
Joe.
(passing bottle to the other)
Here, Bert, it helps. Take some and give a swallow to the boys.
Bert.
I'll take some and thank you,
but I guess the boys are better off without it.
Jack.
How long you worked here, Bert?
Bert.
Nigh on fifteen years, and a devil's job it is.
I wanted to be a sailor, but I got into this, and
it paid pretty good, and then I got tangled up with
a family and just stayed on the job. But it's no
place to spend a life.
(Coughs.)
Joe.
I been here 'bout as long as you, Bert. I ran away from the big woods where my father was a lumberman. Thought I'd see the world, and just got stuck here and never could make up my mind to get away. See the world, eh! All I ever seed was de inside of it. If I had my way to do over again, I think I'd take to the tall timber up dere on top.
(Meantime the two boys, while eating with one hand out of their cans, have been whispering and playing knuckle-bones with pieces of coal, a little way from and behind the men. Suddenly they stop, look around at each other and listen, for they hear the fairy dance music of the first scene, which is not heard by these older men, who go on talking.)
First Boy.
Dey's havin' parade up dere.
Second Boy.
Dat ain't band music, you mutt.
(FIRST BOY begins to sway as if in time with the music.)
Second Boy.
Wot's the matter?
First Boy.
(sheepish)
Nuthin'.
(Tries to keep still. They both listen.)
Did yer ever dance, Buck?
Second Boy.
Naw.
(Listens.)
But I bet I could!
First Boy.
I had a dream onct. I dremp I's in an orchard,
an' they's blooms floatin' round. I could smell 'em!
Second Boy.
You's nutty. You can't smell in a dream.
(They listen, and finally yield to the music,
swaying their bodies, moving their arms, and
beginning to dance as the music goes on.)
Jack.
I've been here fourteen years, since I was a boy. It ain't a place for a man. It's too black. You get black outside and inside. Why, they say your lungs get black from breathing this dust. And your soul gets black. The place for an honest man to work is out in the white light, on your ocean or in your woods, or on the roads and railways, and in the big buildings. This kind of work is work with punishment added to it. A little of it would be all right for men who go wrong, or for some as needs discipline. Then some day they'll get machines to do the rest. Ah--there's the whistle. Come on, boys, to work again!
(A whistle sounds and all start to work as before.)
(CURTAIN FALLS) _
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