BIG LAKETHE WOODS
BIG LAKE
(The woods adjoining the Big Lake, near Verdigree Switch, Indian Territory, 1906. It is Spring. Vines creep on the trees just putting out their green. The ground is soft with dead leaves, among which grow the earliest flowers. A fallen log lies in a tangle of last year’s briars. It is the grayness of morning. Color is beginning to show in the East, where the lake lies, and as the light grows the lake shines through the leaves.LloydandBettycome from the left, softly over the matted earth. They are very young.Lloydis tall, dark; he has black hair; his face is sensitive; he wears rough shoes, dark trousers, and a pale blue shirt.Betty’shair is yellow. She has let it down. It frames her white, delicate face. Her dress is a coarse dark slip.)
Lloyd
It’s been s’ gray.
Betty
It’s gettin’ lighter.
Lloyd
It’s been s’ gray. But now it’s gettin’ lighter and lighter—even to clear back here in the woods.
Betty(softly)
I c’n feel the dawn.
Lloyd
Ic’n feel the dawn. I c’nseethe dawn! Look! Through the trees! Whur the lake’s at! The Big Lake’s a-shinin’ like a tub full o’ soap-suds! I’m glad we come. Ain’t you, Betty?
Betty
I’m glad we come early.
Lloyd
I’m glad we come. (They stand a moment breathless at the beauty before them.) Le’s set down. (They sit at left.) The horse is tied up. Grub’s safe in the buggy. Miss Meredith ’n’ the rest of ’em won’t be here fer a long time yit.
Betty
They’ll be here, though.
Lloyd
Yeow, but it’ll be a long time. Won’t Miss Meredith be supprised to find us here ahead of everbody? It wasmyidee. She’ll think we’re purty smart.
Betty
How many’s comin’?
Lloyd
The whole class, I guess—’cept the Davis boy. It’ll be a nice day to picnic, won’t it? (He rises and goes away from her and looks out toward the Lake. Softly, then more and more ecstatic, like a prayer—) I alwys liked the Big Lake. I’ve come here many’s thetime with Paw, when we’d went out to git some cattle. Miles and miles through the bilin’ heat, tongue clawin’ at yer mouth—a-eatin’ dust, mebbe we’d go. Dust bilin’ up and blindin’ you—a-gettin’ in yer mouth and eyes till you thought you couldn’t stand it. An’ then the dark woods here—briars a-clawin’ at yer legs and hands, rattlers a-hidin’ under the leaves mebbe, logs t’ make yer horses jump, and branches ye’d have t’ dodge. Then the lake—flowin’ wide out—plum over almost out o’ sight—a-settin’ thar in the sun like sump’n you never hoped t’ see! I’d alwys want t’ git off my horse and go down to the edge of it—and tech it—and look at it—a long time. But Paw ud alwys say, “Set thar a-gawkin’, you kid. We got to git back to the sawmill ’fore 2 o’clock,” or he’d say, “’Tother end o’ the Lake is dried up purty good, son. We could cross over thar ’stid o’ goin’ round by the section line.” (After a moment.) I ain’t never seen it like this, though. It’s purtier’n I ever seen it. And we c’n look at it ’s long’s we want to. And we c’n go out on it—in a boat—if they is a boat—
Betty(timidly)
Why don’t you come over here and set down by me?
Lloyd
Why don’t you come over here and look at the lake?
Betty
I c’n see it good—from here.
Lloyd
Come on over the big log, and you c’n see it better.
Betty
No. I like it here better.
Lloyd(puzzled)
You’re funny. Set over thar then. I like you thar jist as well. You look purty good no matter whur you’re a-settin’. Yousetpurty good. I like you settin’ thar with the vine leaves and the tree leaves behind you. You’ve got purtier and purtier, Betty.
Betty
Have I? You’re sweet to say it.
Lloyd
Why wouldn’t I say it?
Betty
No reason not to. I like to hear it.
Lloyd
Words git in the way some. I cain’t think t’ say much.
Betty
They’s no need t’ say much—
Lloyd
Theyisneed to. Seems t’ me yore comin’ to Verdigree wuz like you’d come from some place besides down the river. It made me think of the Bible—sump’n about the angel that come down to roll away the stone—
Betty
You wuzn’t dead.
Lloyd
I uz asleep, I wuz. I uz young-asleep. I uz boy-asleep. I’m awake now. I’m a man. I’ve come to life.
Betty
You’d think I uz an angel—sproutin’ wings!
Lloyd
You’re better’n an angel—
Betty
I ain’t!
Lloyd
You air, too, to me. Better’n an angel! I’ll put this flower in yer hair—
Betty
No.
Lloyd
’S like a star.
Betty
No, no. Whur’d you git it at?
Lloyd(puzzled)
Why,here.
Betty(strangely)
Under the leaves. It growed up through the dead leaves. I don’t like it—
Lloyd
Why, Betty!
Betty
I cain’t stand them kind of flowers.
Lloyd
’S jist a flower. Growin’ in the woods.
Betty
In the dark woods. Lloyd—
Lloyd(puzzled)
Whut is it?
Betty
Lloyd, le’s go away frum here—
Lloyd
Whur’d you want to go to?
Betty
Out of here, out of these woods! (Pleading for him to understand.) Oh, you think I ain’t right. I cain’t expect you to know how I feel. They’s sump’n—I don’t know what it is— Please! It’s like the woods wuz waitin’—
Lloyd
Like a animal.
Betty
To git us. To git us! I’m afeard. They’s things growin’ here—an’ fightin’. They’s things crawlin’ on the ground, under the ground—in the trees—everwhur! I’m afeard!
Lloyd
I’mafeard!
Betty
Lloyd!
Lloyd
I’m afeard, too! Le’s go—
Betty
Whur’ll we go to?
Lloyd
Out on the lake.
Betty
They’s no boat.
Lloyd
Futher down—they’s a cabin, I know, and a boat—mebbe. Come on—le’s go to it. (They start.Lloydstops, shaking off his fear.) Aw, listen. Whut’s the matter with us? Runnin’ like rabbits. They ain’t nuthin’ to be skeered of. We’re jist cold, that’s all. That’s it. Drivin’ so long ’fore it got light has jist got us chilled to the bone.
Betty
I ain’t cold.
Lloyd
Y’air. Cold as ice. Ye’re tremblin’.
Betty
I’m afeard!
Lloyd
We’ll go the cabin, then. It’s safe thar.
Betty
And git the boat and go out on the lake?
Lloyd
We’ll git warm first.
Betty
No! No! Le’s not go to the cabin. Le’s go on the lake.
Lloyd
Why, Betty! I never seen you like this!
Betty
I never been like this. Come on, to the Lake—
Lloyd(patiently)
Now, Betty, to the cabin first. Why, you’recold! They’ll be a fa’r a-burnin’ thar. I doan know who’s a-livin’ thar, but we’ll go up and knock, and ask t’ git warm. They’ll be up. Country folks git up early. And they’ll have a fa’r—a nice roarin’ warm fa’r in the fa’rplace fer us to git warm at. Won’t you like that?
Betty
Mebbe—
Lloyd
It’s the funniest kind o’ cabin you ever see. It’s a log cabin. I been in it a long time ago with Paw. It’s a nice log cabin. An’ they’ll have a fa’r.
Betty(reluctantly)
Well, I’ll go—if you think—
Lloyd
Frum the outside it looks jist like any log cabin. But when you open the door, and look in—whut do you see? Steps! Three steps a-goin’ down to the dirt floor. It’s part under the ground—
Betty
Oh! Like it growed up out o’ the ground—?
Lloyd
Yes, jist like that! Like it growed out o’ the ground!
Betty(with conviction)
It growed out o’ the ground. It growed out o’ the same ground the big woods growed out of! (She shudders.)
Lloyd
Yeow.
Betty
Le’s don’t go thar!
Lloyd
Jist long enough to git warm.
Betty
No, not that long!
Lloyd
And to ask ’em fer the boat—if they got a boat.
Betty(desperately)
Couldn’t we jist take the boat—’thout asking?
Lloyd
Betty! Course we couldn’t!
Betty
I don’t see why, I don’t see!
Lloyd(laughs)
We ain’t thieves.
Betty
I’dbe one.
Lloyd
No, you wouldn’t. Come on.
Betty
To the Lake?
Lloyd
To the cabin first.
Betty
Lake!
Lloyd(firmly)
No, Betty, cabin! (They go out, right.)
Curtain