ACT I.

CAPTAIN MARY MILLER.

Nathan Gandy’shouse, near the wharf in Annisport. Living-room. Fireplace,R.Doors,R.andL.and back. Table,R. C.,on which is a braided-rag mat, partly done. Chairs, pictures of ships, a mourning piece (weeping willow hanging over a tomb)Mrs. Gandywith a broom. She sweeps carefully away from the middle of the room.

Mrs. G.There! there’s that plaguy money for me to sweep raound agin! I’m tired to death on it, I be; an’ that’s a fac’, I can’t half sweep my floor! But, I snum, I won’t pick it up! I told Nathan I wouldn’t, an’ I won’t!

(EnterCaptain Gandy,L.,singing.)

“On Springfield’s maountins there did dwellA lovelye youth, an’ known full well,Leftenant Carter’s onlie son,A galliant youth, nigh twenty-one.”

“On Springfield’s maountins there did dwell

A lovelye youth, an’ known full well,

Leftenant Carter’s onlie son,

A galliant youth, nigh twenty-one.”

(Sees his wife, who does not look up.)

Capt. G.Hullo, Lorany! didn’t know yer was thar. What makes yer so glum? (Aside) Oh, the caarf, I bet! Say, Lorany, I’m plaguy sorry I sold the caarf. I’d buy her back, but the fellers ’d laf at me. I told some on ’em haow bad yer felt, daown to the store. And old Pete Rosson, he was a-sittin’ on a kintle o’ salt fish; he said: “Wimmin’s rights! I s’pose Mis’ Gandy went ter the meetin’ and heerd the lectur’-woman. I guess Mis’ Rosson wouldn’t dare ter complainef I sold one o’ her caarfs. I’d let her know they wasmine, double quick.” Won’t yer take up yer money, Lorany?

Mrs. G.(dusting). No! Nathan, I won’t! So, there! It ’ill hev to stay there, wher’ it dropped, for all o’ me; for I’ll never pick it up as long as I live. I tho’t all we had was aourn together, and that everything belonged as much ter me as it does ter you. But I see naow that it’s as the lectur’-woman sed. I read it in theTranskip:—“Husband and wife is one, but that one is the husband.” I shouldn’t ’a’ tho’t o’ sellin’ yaour caarf or yaour best caow. You call ’em yaourn, an’ the caarf was allus called mine. An’, then, little Sally, that’s gone, tho’t so much on’t! (Wipes her eyes.)

Capt. G.Hang it! don’t take on so. (Aside) Darn them fellers, flingin’ their wimmin’s right at me! (To her) Who cares what the lectur’-woman says? Some darned old maid, or divorced widder, I s’pose. Didn’t I buy suthin’ for yer with the money! Didn’t I buy yer a gaown, a shawl, an’ a bunnit! An’, when yer didn’t like ’em, didn’t I give yer all the money back, and yer wouldn’t take it! An’ didn’t yer fling it daown on the floor, an’ vaow you wouldn’t pick it up!

Mrs. G.Yes, but yer never as’d me! an’ I didn’t want her sold, nuther! You know haow I took care o’ that caarf. Her mother died, an’ never saw her. I almost feel as if she was mine; for I brought her up like a baby, and she sucked milk from my finger before she could stan’. I’m sure I’m as much her mother as harf the hens are mothers of their chickens: for they never see some o’ the eggs till they are put under ’em to hatch, an’ they don’t know which is which.

Capt. G.Waal! yaou’ve got yer new things, hain’t ye? an’ I’m glad on’t. I’m abaout sick o’ them black clo’es o’ yourn. They look so maugre. For my part, I want ter see yer in suthin’ bright.

Mrs. G.I sh’d think yer did! Yer tho’t I was abaout sixteen, didn’t yer? (Opens the door at the back, and produces a very showy piece of dress goods, a shawl of a very loud pattern, and a bonnet trimmed with green and red and yellow) Look a’ that! What do you think o’ them things!Young enough for Mary, or Leafy Jane, either. I never wore such bright things when I was a gal; an’ I’m sure I ain’t a-gwine ter begin naow.

Capt. G.I don’t see why, Lorany! They ain’t no brighter than the marygoolds, pecuniaries (petunias), and dadyoluses, yer like so well, in the garden, or even the persalter roses.

Mrs. G.That’s a different thing. I ain’t a flower-garden; I do wish the men-folks ’d let their wives buy their own clo’es, or give ’em the money to buy ’em with. (Sits down and braids on her mat.)

Capt. G.Why, Lorany! the wimmen folks ain’t used to layin’ out money. We can make it spend a great deal better ’n they can.

Mrs. G.P’r’aps yer can; but we’d like what we bought ourselves a great deal better; I do wish they’d let us buy our own clo’es, I say, or give us the money to buy ’em with, so’s we could suit ourselves.

Capt. G.Wall, I snum, yer as bad as the lectur’-woman Pete Rosson told on. He said she said wimmen ortter have their own private pusses, same’s the men, and other things tew; and that the Legislater ort to see tew’t, but that they was tew busy,—trying to settle the size of a bar’l o’ cramberries, an’ talkin’ baout sellin’ eggs by weight, and sich things,—to care what becomes o’ wimmin’s rights. Sellin’ eggs by weight! what durned nonsense! Some on ’em would take twenty to make a paound, and some wouldn’t take mor’n eight, an’ where’d yer cookin’ go ter, I’d like ter know?

Mrs. G.Waal, Nathan, I don’t care nuthin’ abaout that! I shall put twelve eggs inter my old-fashioned paound cake, as the recipee sez, whether they’re big or little. But I do care about the caarf. I’d almost rather you’d ’a’ soldme!

Capt. G.Wall, I vum to vummy!

Mrs. G.You knew haow much I allus tho’t on her ’cause little Sally loved her so; an’ ’afore she died she’d be’n a-readin’ some o’ them old pictur’-books, an’ she said the caarf had eyesjust like one on ’em in it, an’ so she named the caarf May Donna, or some sich name. (Wipes her eyes.)

Capt. G.Consarn it all! Lorany, don’t cry! There! There! I’ll pick up the money, Lorany, I’ll pick up the money. (Aside) I wonder if thereisanything in them wimmin’s rights, after all! (Puts the money in his pocket. Sits in chair tipped back against the wall, and eats an apple, cutting it with his jack-knife.)

(EnterLeafy JaneandJohn Quincy Adams,the latter dragging a small log of wood.)

Mrs. G.(looking up). Where yer be’n all the arternoon?

J. Q. A. Ben to the wharf, chippin’.

L. J. (lisping). Yeth, we chipped and got our bathkeths full, and the thkipperth (skipper’s) boy, he thed, ‘There, take a log’—and we took one.

Capt. G.The skipper’s boy!—who’s he?

J. Q. A. He’s the skipper’s son.

Capt. G.What skipper’s son?

J. Q. A. Why! the captain of the Betsey Ludgitt. He’s down there to the wharf, unloadin’ his wood. And his boy, he’s real hunkey! He give me all these butnuts (shows them) and this gum,—see this gum,—real spruce gum!—none o’ your Burgundy pitch and candle-grease, such as you buy to the store.

Mrs. G.Gum! Then I s’pose you’ll go to chawin’ agin!

J. Q. A. I’ll bet I will. Its rippin’ good! (Chews.)

L. J. (lisps). Marm, he sthiks hith cud on the head-board, and it makth a white plathe. I theen it when I make the bed.

Mrs. G.Sticks his cud on the head-board! What on airth do you mean?

L. J. Yeth, hith cud o’ gum. He doth it motht every night, when hehathgum.

Mrs. G.What do you do that for?

J. Q. A. I stick it there when I go to sleep, so when I wake up in the middle of the night I can have a good chaw to pass away the time.

Capt. G.Haw! Haw! Haw!

Mrs. G.John Quincy Adams Gandy! What’ll yer do next!

J. Q. A. Go a-fishin’, I guess, marmy. (Kisses her.)

Capt. G.What’s the skipper’s name?

J. Q. A. Miller—Solomon Miller; and his son’s name’s William.

L. J. And the cook’th name ith Henry Mudgett.

Mrs. G.The cook! What der yer know abaout the cook?

L. J. He’th real nithe. I thaw him lath fall. Hith mother an’ grandfather live down to Nantucket. Hith grandfather thalth (salts) down fith, nam’th (name’s) Zabulon, and they have a big houth an’ a lot of land.

Capt. G.A lot o’ sand, I guess you mean. Haow’d yer come ter know ’em so well?

J. Q. A. Oh! They was up here in the fall when we went a-chippin’ with Mary, and they talked with us a good deal.

L. J. Yeth, an’ the thkipper’th thon kept lookin’ at Mary.

J. Q. A. Yes, and so did Hank at you.

L. J. Hith name ain’t Hank! it’h Henry!

J. Q. A. Oh, Lawks!

Mrs. G.WharisMary?

J. Q. A. We left her down to the wharf, an’ she was a talkin’ to the skipper’s son.

L. J. Yeth, and the thkipper came out, and he talked, an’ they all laughed, and he thed to John Pin, “Run along, Totty, with your log o’ wood. They’ll foller ye, an’ tell yer pa an’ ma all about it.”

J. Q. A. I guess I aint Totty! (Chewing.) I seen ’em an’ after they done it,—

L. J. Oh, John Pin Ad! you muthn’t thay ‘I theen,’Marytheth. You can’t thay ‘theen’ nor ‘done,’ unleth you can thay have’ before it; an’ you can’t thay ‘I theed,’ at all.

J. Q. A. I guess I can too. Mary needn’t feel so big ’cause she’s ben to Bradford ’cademy three months.

L. J. Yeth, you mutht thay ‘I have thawed,’ and ‘I hain’t theen,’ and ‘I have did,’ and ‘I hain’t done it,’ and you’ll be right.

J. Q. A. Poh! you ain’t right at all! Hear me. You must say ‘I have done, I have seen,’ or ‘I saw and I did’; and you must never say ‘I seed, I sawed, I seen,’ nor ‘I done it.’ That’s whatMarysays.

L. J. Father thayth ‘I theen and I done’; and I gueth what father theth ith about right.

Capt. G.O child! Yer mustn’t talk as I do. Mary knows what’s proper to say, better’n yer old dad. He never had no edication. There was no ’cademy for him.

Mrs. G.Nor me, nuther. Gals wa’n’t ’lowed to go to school in my time, daown to Plymouth, when my folks lived there. There was too many boys wanted to go; and the gals had to stay ter hum, to make room for ’em.

(EnterMaryandWilliam.)

Mary.Father, here’s Captain Miller’s son. I made his acquaintance down at the wharf last fall. (Goes toMrs. G.,seats herself on a stool near her, and arranges rags, and hands them to her.)

Capt. G.(rising and shaking hands withWill). Is thatso?

Will.Yes! and, when I went home, I told the folks all about her and the children, and the Captain and Mrs. Gandy; and mother said one of her girl friends, a real intimate, married a Gandy.

Mrs. G.What was her name afore she was married?

Will.Johnson.

Mrs. G.Plumy Johnson, as I’m alive!

Will.Yes, her name was Plumy—Plumy Johnson.

Mrs. G.(shaking his hand) Wal, if ain’t right glad ter see yer. Set right daown an’ tell us all abaout your folks.

Will(sitting). There ain’t much to tell. Father, he’s skipper of the Betsey Ludgitt, and we live in North Pittston, Maine. We’ve got a nice little place there, and there’s ten of us children. I am the oldest.

Capt. G.(sitting). Haow long yer be’n skippin’?

Will.About five years. I’ve got so now I can handle a boat, and one of the other boys is going to take my place.

Capt. G.What are you goin’ ter dew?

Will.There’s a man out West, clear beyond the Ohio, that wants me to run a boat on the Mississippi, up and down. It’s a steamboat. He’s got a good mate for her that knows all about the ingine, and he says I can learn the ropes about that fast enough. But I don’t know. I hate to go so far from home, and almost alone too. (He looks conscious.)

Mrs. G.I should think yer would. Don’t stand gawpin’ raound, Leafy Jane. Go ’long and git yer knittin’-work. (L. J.obeys and seats herself on the log. J. Q. A.bothers her.) And yer marm, what does she say?

Will.Oh! marm, she hates to have me go; but she’s more willing than she would be, ’cause Hank Mudgitt, a likely Nantucket boy, wants to go with me, to be the cook. He’s been cooking for father. His marm was a Folger, and knew my marm when she lived to Nantucket, and she says I’d better not lose the chance.

Capt. G.Folger? Folger? Why! I’ve heerd that name afore. I knew a Captain Folger onct, of the barque Hulda Griggs. He had a lot o’ boys, an’ one on ’em went to college, and turned out a smart lawyer. I guess yer’d better not lose the chance. Lots o’ boys go West, and they do well, or they don’t come back to tell us. Horace Greeley told ’em all to go West, in hisTrybune, you know, when he wrote the whole on’t. “Go West, young man,” he says, though he didn’t go himself. But I s’pose his advice was jest as good, same as the guide-board p’ints the way it never goes.

Will.The man that wants me says it’s a good steamboat, with a nice, clean cabin for a family to live in, if a captain had one.

Capt. G.Is it a side-wheeler or a skre-you?

J. Q. A. Oh! father, all them Mississippi steamboats are side-wheelers, and they have to be made flat-bottomed on account of the snags in the river, and the shallow water, so’sthey can run ’em right up to the shore, where there’s no landing. Oliver Optic says so in one of his books.

Capt. G.Dew tell! I’d ruther have a sailin’ vessel. Give me a good three-masted schaouner, with a spankin’ breeze to make her go, and a bower anchor to cast when she comes inter port.

Will.The man says he’ll pay me so much a year, enough to live on, and give me a certain per cent on the freight, and a chance to buy into the vessel in two years.

Capt. G.A smackin’ good chance, I should say. I advise yer to snap at it. When does he want ye?

Will.Right off, in a month or so, and now, if I could get anybody, besides Hank Mudgitt, to go with me (looks atMary), I shall write right off and accept the offer.

Capt. G.Somebody ter go with ye besides Hank! What do you want anybody else for? Ain’t he a good cook?

Mrs. G.What on airth do you mean?

Will.(toCapt. G.) Yes, but I want somebody, somebody to be—my—wife.

Capt. G.Dew tell! What kind of a wife do yer want? Not one o’ them gals that wears bangs an’ boot-heels, an’ go a-teetering along the road?

Will.No, I don’t want one of that kind. Mary—Mary says she’ll go with me if you are both willing.

Mrs. G.Aour Mary! Mary Gandy!

Capt. G.Wal, I swan to man!

Mrs. G.Why! Mary, where’d he git a chance to ask yer?

Mary.I saw him first, mother, as I told you, last fall, when I went down to the wharf with the children, chipping. You know you didn’t want them to go alone. He said then he should come back in the spring, and hoped he’d see me again.

Will.And I have seen her several times; and the other day I told her about the steamboat, and she ’lowed she was willing to go with me.

Mrs. G.I thought she was ’mazin’ fond o’ chippin’ all to onct.

Mary. I guess you mean that ‘I promised,’ don’t you, William?

Will.Yes, you promised, and I told father; and he said he guessed it was all right. He’d known o’ Captain Gandy quite a spell. The Nancy Paige lay at the wharf alongside the Betsey Ludgitt once, down to Castine.

J. Q. A. (trying to mend a whip-lash). By darn!

L. J. My Thunday-thkool teacher theth you muthn’t thayby darn; but if you mutht thayby anything, you can thayby jollerth(jollers).

J. Q. A. I saw the skipper’s son kiss Mary, and she kissed him just as he give me a log o’ wood. (Singing derisively.) Kissin’ the fellers, kissin’ the fellers!

(Willrises in confusion, and goes to back of stage.)

Mrs. G.Stop! John Quincy Adams Gandy!

Capt. G.(walking about). I snum to pucker. Wal! seein’ it’s all made up between yer, I don’t see as we have anything to do abaout it.

Mrs. G.I don’t know as it would do any good for me to say no, even if I wanted to. (ToWilliam) Haow long you goin’ to be raound here?

Will.Another week. Then I must go home with father to get my things and what money I’ve saved up, then come back and buy the fixings to furnish the cabin with. If Mary’s ready by that time, we will start for the Mississippi about the first of June.

Capt. G.Better come here every day, and let us see something of ye. P’r’aps Mary will conclude not to go, if she sees too much on ye.

Mrs. G.Yes. Come right here and stay. I feel as if Plumy Johnson’s son must be a good boy; an’, if Mary is set on havin’ ye, I want to get some acquainted with my new son-in-law. (Maryrises and crosses toWilliam.)

L. J. I geth he ain’t the only thon-in-law you’ll have, mother.

Mrs. G.I hope he’ll be so good that I shall want another.

J. Q. A. (trying to snapL. J.’sears). I s’pose you want to be a loveress, too. (Makes up a face.)

L. J.Youwon’t be.

J. Q. A. I will, too.

L. J. You won’t, nuther. (Makes up a face.)

Old Phin Gan-dowdy,He’th an’ old rowdy.

Old Phin Gan-dowdy,

He’th an’ old rowdy.

J. Q. A. This is the way you’ll look when you are a loveress. (Imitates a fine young lady.) How are you, Hank! Mrs. Henry Mudgitt!

L. J. Go way—you gump!

Mrs. G.Do, children, stop yer bickerin’! (ToMary) I declare for’t’ I hate to hev yer go so far from hum. But, then (with a sigh), my mother lives e’en a’most to the jumpin’-off place daown East; and I hain’t seen her this five year.

Capt. G.(goes toMrs. G.and puts hand on her shoulder). It’s the way o’ natur’, mother. The Bible says: “A man shall leave his father and mother, an’ shall be united to his wife.”

J. Q. A. Well, father, it don’t saysheshall. It sayshe.

Capt. G.It means the same, any way. The Bible allus means she when it says he. It means ’em both. Genesis says, yer know, chap. V., verse 2, Male and female created he them, an’ blessed them, an’ called their name Adam, in the day when they was created. The Bible said that in the beginning. Even old Pete Rosson allows that.

Mrs. G.I wonder yer hadn’t thought o’ that when yer sold my caarf,aourcaarf, mine as well as yourn.

Capt. G.(walking off). I van! I never did.

Mrs. G.If he did creat’ men an’ wimmin ekal, an’ call their name Adam, just as we call aourn Gandy, one on us has no right to sell the things that belong to both without askin’ each other’s leave.

Capt. G.(returning). I don’t s’pose they have, Lorany. If yer don’t beat ’em all in an argiment. (Aside) Hang that caarf! Come, mother, don’t let’s bicker any moreabaout that. (ToMary) Yer’ll have quite a weddin’ tower, won’t ye, Mary, ’way out onto the Mississippi? Yer’ll have ter work spry ter git yer weddin’ toggery ready. Whar yer goin’ ter be married; ter hum?

Mrs. G.Lucky I saved my old receipee for weddin’ cake.

Will.We think we’d better go to the minister’s, and have it done quiet like, the very morning before we start. We sha’n’t feel like making much of a touse about it, ’cause everybody ’ll be crying to see Mary go off.

Mrs. G.And, then, our relations live so far off, they couldn’t any on’ em come. Lucky yer made them sheets, Mary. Yer wouldn’t ’a’ had half time enough naow to get ’em done.

Capt. G.I van! mother. It reminds me o’ the time when we went to live on the Nancy Paige.

Mrs. G.So it does me.

Capt. G.There’s nothing like the sea to live on, is there, mother? (Sings.)

“I’m on the sea,I am where I would ever be,The deep, the dark, the rolling sea.”

“I’m on the sea,

I am where I would ever be,

The deep, the dark, the rolling sea.”

Mary.You’ll have to sing it “river” for us, father.

J. Q. A. (takes up the refrain, and snaps his whip at the end of each line).

I am where I would ever be-iver,The deep, the dark, the rolling re-iver.

I am where I would ever be-iver,

The deep, the dark, the rolling re-iver.

L. J. Thtop! you thap-head (sap-head), you thilly coot! (WilliamandMarywhisper together.)

Capt. G.I guess I’ll go an’ fodder them caows. (Humming.)

“An’ turnin’ raound he straight did feelA pywison sarpient byite hywis hee-ee-el.”

“An’ turnin’ raound he straight did feel

A pywison sarpient byite hywis hee-ee-el.”

(ExitR.)

Will.(takingMaryby both hands). Be all ready, now Mary, when I come back? If I can, I’ll come on so as to stay a day or two before we’re married. But I’ll be here in season, any way. You fix the day, and let me know. And write often (whispers), dear Mary, won’t you?

Mary.Yes, William.

Will.Good-by!

Mary.Good-by! (ExitWilliam,L.)

J. Q. A. Good-by! Good-by! Smack, smack!

Disposition of characters at end of Act I.Mrs. G.sitting at table braiding mat.Marystanding at left, with her hands clasped before her, looking down. J. Q. A.andL. J.in centre, bickering.

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