The Hour Glass - Page 2

drink for
the time when the sun is weak. And I want snares to catch the
rabbits and the squirrels and the bares, and a pot to cook them in.

WISE MAN. Go away. I have other things to think of now than giving
you pennies.

FOOL. Give me a penny and I will bring you luck. Bresal the
Fisherman lets me sleep among the nets in his loft in the
winter-time because he says I bring him luck; and in the
summer-time the wild creatures let me sleep near their nests
and their holes. It is lucky even to look at me or to touch me,
but it is much more lucky to give me a penny. [Holds out his
hand.] If I wasn't lucky, I'd starve.

WISE MAN. What have you got the shears for?

FOOL. I won't tell you. If I told you, you would drive them away.

WISE MAN. Whom would I drive away?

FOOL. I won't tell you.

WISE MAN. Not if I give you a penny?

FOOL. No.

WISE MAN. Not if I give you two pennies.

FOOL. You will be very lucky if you give me two pennies, but I
won't tell you.

WISE MAN. Three pennies?

FOOL. Four, and I will tell you!

WISE MAN. Very well, four. But I will not call you Teigue the Fool
any longer.

FOOL. Let me come close to you where nobody will hear me. But first
you must promise you will not drive them away. [WISE MAN nods.]
Every day men go out dressed in black and spread great black nets
over the hill, great black nets.

WISE MAN. Why do they do that?

FOOL. That they may catch the feet of the angels. But every
morning, just before the dawn, I go out and cut the nets with my
shears, and the angels fly away.

WISE MAN. Ah, now I know that you are Teigue the Fool. You have
told me that I am wise, and I have never seen an angel.

FOOL. I have seen plenty of angels.

WISE MAN. Do you bring luck to the angels too.

FOOL. Oh, no, no! No one could do that. But they are always there
if one looks about one; they are like the blades of grass.

WISE MAN. When do you see them?

FOOL. When one gets quiet; then something wakes up inside one,
something happy and quiet like the stars--not like the seven that
move, but like the fixed stars. [He points upward.]

WISE MAN. And what happens then?

FOOL. Then all in a minute one smells summer flowers, and tall
people go by, happy and laughing, and their clothes are the color
of burning sods.

WISE MAN. Is it long since you have seen them, Teigue the Fool?

FOOL. Not long, glory be to God! I saw one coming behind me just
now. It was not laughing, but it had clothes the color of burning
sods, and there was something shining about its head.

WISE MAN. Well, there are your four pennies. You, a fool, say
"Glory