A Play by Leonora Thornber
Characters :
The Fiddler (A Vagabond Player)
The Piper (His Friend and Companion) The Old Woman
ON a desolate stretch of coast on the west of Ireland, two men. the Fiddler and the Piper, are crouched together in the lee of a low stone wall. Through a fold in the ground can be seen a stretch of a wind-swept beach and a moonlit sea. At the water's edge, waiting for the tide to float them, lie two or three boats, around which move little groups of black figures. Other groups are dotted about the beach. Behind the men, on the other side of the wall, lies a rough pasture, pierced by a deep creek running far inland. A path leads up from the shore, crosses the creek by a single-plank bridge, and nins on to the dark mass of large farm with closely shuttered windows and heavy doors. There is a cold wind blowing, and the sound of it mingles with the sough of the sea on the shingle.
The Fiddler tries to light his pipe. and the flare of thematch shows him thin-featured and swarthy, with mocking eyes. The Piper is younger, quieter, gentler, a mere boy. It is half-past eleven on All Hallowe'en, a night bright with moonlight and brittle with frost.
RELIGIOUS SERVICE
RELAYED FROM
ROCHESTER CATHEDRAL