ACT I - Page 2

STRANGWAY
Now, yesterday I was telling you what our Lord's coming meant to the world. I want you to understand that before He came there wasn't really love, as we know it. I don't mean to say that there weren't many good people; but there wasn't love for the sake of loving. D'you think you understand what I mean?

MERCY fidgets. GLADYS'S eyes are following a fly.

IVY
Yes, Mr. Strangway.

STRANGWAY
It isn't enough to love people because they're good to you, or because in some way or other you're going to get something by it. We have to love because we love loving. That's the great thing- -without that we're nothing but Pagans.

GLADYS
Please, what is Pagans?

STRANGWAY
That's what the first Christians called the people who lived in the villages and were not yet Christians, Gladys.

MERCY
We live in a village, but we're Christians.

STRANGWAY
[With a smile] Yes, Mercy; and what is a Christian?

MERCY kicks afoot, sideways against her neighbour, frowns over her china-blare eyes, is silent; then, as his question passes on, makes a quick little face, wriggles, and looks behind her.

STRANGWAY
Ivy?

IVY
'Tis a man--whu--whu----

STRANGWAY
Yes?--Connie?

CONNIE
[Who speaks rather thickly, as if she had a permanent slight cold] Please, Mr. Strangway, 'tis a man what goes to church.

GLADYS
He 'as to be baptised--and confirmed; and--and--buried.

IVY
'Tis a man whu--whu's gude and----

GLADYS
He don't drink, an' he don't beat his horses, an' he don't hit back.

MERCY
[Whispering] 'Tisn't your turn. [To STRANGWAY] 'Tis a man like us.

IVY
I know what MRS Strangway said it was, 'cause I asked her once, before she went away.

STRANGWAY
[Startled] Yes?

IVY
She said it was a man whu forgave everything.

STRANGWAY
Ah!

The note of a cuckoo comes travelling. The girls are gazing at STRANGWAY, who seems to have gone of into a dream. They begin to fidget and whisper.

CONNIE
Please, Mr. Strangway, father says if yu hit a man and he don't hit yu back, he's no gude at all.

MERCY
When Tommy Morse wouldn't fight, us pinched him--he did squeal! [She giggles] Made me laugh!

STRANGWAY
Did I ever tell you about St. Francis of Assisi?

IVY
[Clasping her hands] No.

STRANGWAY
Well, he was the best Christian, I think, that ever lived--simply full of love and joy.

IVY
I expect he's dead.

STRANGWAY
About seven hundred years, Ivy.

IVY
[Softly] Oh!

STRANGWAY
Everything to him was brother or sister--the sun and the moon, and all that was poor and weak and sad, and animals and birds, so that they even used to follow him about.

MERCY
I know! He had crumbs in his