Flibbertygibbet (His Last Chance)

Fantasy by Nora MacAlvay and Charlotte B. Chorpenning

© The Dramatic Publishing Company Flibbertygibbet (His Last Chance) Fantasy. By Nora MacAlvay and Charlotte B. Chorpenning. Cast: 4m., 4w. Flibbertygibbet is a delicate fantasy, adapted from a Scottish folktale about an elfin character from another world who is given one last chance to bring a message of love to humanity. He works himself into the confidence of the Scottish farm folk, brings them joy, and is well on the way to accomplishing his mission when one of them, Adam, tries to bribe him to use his magic for earthly gain. Banished by man’s greed, Flibbertygibbet has nevertheless left his mark, and the guilty Adam, newly touched with understanding, goes to the end of the world in search of him. At last he finds him and leads him back. But Flibbertygibbet cannot enter into their lives again until all hearts are kind; and there is one young girl, Nannie, who will not forgive Adam for his former error. Faced with defeat by this unexpected cruelty, Flibbertygibbet begins to be whirled away forever to a sunless waste when Nannie relents and brings him back. One set. Scottish folk costumes. Approximate running time: 70 minutes. Code: FB5.

ISBN-10 1-58342-831-3 ISBN-13 978-1-58342-831-3 Dramatic Publishing 311 Washington St. Woodstock, IL 60098-3308 ph: 800-448-7469

Flibbertygibbet www.dramaticpublishing.com

Fantasy by NORA MACALVAY and CHARLOTTE B. CHORPENNING

DRAMATIC PUBLISHING WOODSTOCK, ILLINOIS • AUSTRALIA • NEW ZEALAND • SOUTH AFRICA

The amateur and stock acting rights to this work are controlled exclusively by THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY without whose permission in writing no performance of it may be given. Royalty must be paid every time a play is performed whether or not it is presented for profit and whether or not admission is charged. A play is performed any time it is acted before an audience. Current royalty rates, applications and restrictions may be found at our website www.dramaticpublishing.com, or we may be contacted by mail at: DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY, 311 Washington St., Woodstock IL 60098.

COPYRIGHT LAW GIVES THE AUTHOR OR THE AUTHOR’S AGENT THE EXCLUSIVE RIGHT TO MAKE COPIES. This law provides authors with a fair return for their creative efforts. Authors earn their living from the royalties they receive from book sales and from the performance of their work. Conscientious observance of copyright law is not only ethical it encourages authors to continue their creative work. This work is fully protected by copyright. No alterations, deletions or substitutions may be made in the work without the prior written consent of the publisher. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, videotape, film, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. It may not be performed either by professionals or amateurs without payment of royalty. All rights, including, but not limited to, the professional, motion picture, radio, television, videotape, foreign language, tabloid, recitation, lecturing, publication and reading, are reserved. In all programs this notice must appear:

“Produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY of Woodstock, Illinois”

For performance of any songs, music and recordings mentioned in this play which are in copyright, the permission of the copyright owners must be obtained or other songs and recordings in the public domain substituted.

(FLIBBERTYGIBBET) ISBN: 978-1-58342-831-3

(HIS LAST CHANCE)

by CHARLOTTE CHORPENNING

and NoRA TuLLY MAcALVAY

CHARACTERS FLIBBERTY GIBBET GAYIN -owner of the farm ADAM BESS-his wife KATE

PEG-her sister GRANPOP-An old man NANNIE, 8 or 9-his grandaughter

TIME: Once upon a time.

PLACE: An imaginary farm community somewhere in Scotland.

© The Dramatic Publishing Company This play has been trouped successfully by the Grace Price Produc tions of Pittsburgh, Pa. Black light need not be used although it is very effective. A drying-green may be substituted for the barn-loft (granary) interior in Act Two.

Any tune may be composed for Flibbertygibbet's song. Bagpipe music can be found recorded to which the Highland Fling is danced.

Sun ! (He sees the well, the cover already pushed aside and peers down into it, scoops up water and lets it drip.) Water ! (Faint voices off, in various directions, startle him. He stretches out his arms toward the various sounds, eager.) People- People - People ! ECHO: People- FLIBBERTYGIBBET: Ho ! Echo. You're still there ! ECHO : -11 there. FLYIBBERTYGIBBET : (joyful) : I've come to try again ! ECHO: Try again - FLIBBERTYGI�BET (moving from the echo spot) : Whist ! Be quiet, you Flibbertygibbet. (Answering himself as if he were two people.) I can't wait to belong to people. - You must find out if it's the right time. - I can't wait ! - You must. This is your last chance ! (He darts to hide behind a clump of bushes where his eavesdropping face peers out during the following.) GAVIN (as he enters) : What's all this?- What's going on here?! (He has his hands covering his eyes, his thumbs closing his ears. He spreads his fingers to peek through, but shuts them close as a crescendo of lights greets him. He opens his ears with thumbs wide, but shuts them at once as a wail of wind and a strain of music reach him. No! NO!-It isn't true!-1 don't believe it ! (He turns his back on the lights and holds his ears closed with a thumb pressed against each. Nannie darts on from the cottage.) NANN IE: Gavin! See the lights. Turn around ! GAVIN: Don't pull at me! (She pulls a finger from his ear and shouts into it.) NANNIE: It's dancing the dark away. GAVIN (jerking away) : Light doesn't dance. NANNIE: Look and see. GAVIN: Let my hand alone! ! NANNIE: I want you to see the lights! I want you to hear the wind. It's like the story. It's just like the story ! GAVIN: It's ordinary wind. It's just plain daylight. NANNIE: Oh, look ! Listen! Quick ! It's going away. - Oh, It's gone. (Both wind and lights have faded entirely. Gavin uncovers his ears a little at a time and turns cautiously still peeking through his fingers, then drops his hands and looks around with dignify. GAVIN: Your granpop should teach you manners, lass. NANN IE : I wanted to show you. GAVIN: There's nothing to show. Everything's the same as ever. NANN IE: You looked too late. GAVIN (turns to leave, but stops on the stile at the sound of panic stricken voices off, up right, approaching. While his back is turned, Bess enters

running, up left, and Adam, down left. At sight of each other a secret understanding replaces their feat. Adam puts a finger on his lip, nod ding toward Gavin, as he lifts a basket and sickle, and as Bess crosses to him eagerly, Adam backs to the bush which conceals gibbet, and drops them out of sight, his eyes still on Gavin. Flibberty gibbet dodges and takes refuge behind the wall where he peers out to see what happens now and then up on the wall. Peg and Kate, up right, and Granpop, from the cottage door, enter in quick succession. They stare around at the quiet scene, terror giving way to relief. They all turn to Gavin, as if' for reassurance, as he turns back to them.) GAVIN (superior) : What's got into you all ? GRANPOP: Didn't you see the sky, Gavin? KATE : And the darkness of it? GAVIN (amused) : Ju st the edge of a cloud over the sun. KATE : And the fearsome lights ? And the sudden wind, with the crying in it? GAVIN: There was no crying. PEG ("yessing" him) : Gavin is right. It was music. GAVIN: There was no music. (Kate's triumphant toss of her head as Peg irks the latter very much.) ADAM : It was no common wind. BESS: It had a strange wail to it. GAVIN: Such a fuss, over a bit of weather. KATE : There was a voice cried out. It had a call in it. GRANPOP : Aye, I heard it. GA VII\;: Now, wait a minute. Let's have done with all this nonsense. Which of you cried out? A voice doesn't come out of no one or nothing. -Whose voice was it? PEG ("Yessing" Gavin again) : The queer turn of the weather set off your imagnation, Kate.

KATE : Aye. I was wrong-as usual. · GRANPOP : There was a voice, for all that. GAVIN (laughing) : Whose voice was it, Gr

BESS: Aye. She's getting to be a big lass. GAYI N: It's high time to set her straight as to what's real and what's story. And there's no time like the now to begin. Nannie. You know perfectly well that Flibbertygibbet is just story.-Don't you? GRANDPOP : Answer Gavin, Nannie. NANNIE : I don't want to. GRANPOP : Lassie. NANN IE : I play with him. ( Flibberty gibbet's surprise almost carries him from hiding.) GA YIN : You mean you pretend to play with him. KATE : Gavin means you couldn't really touch him. PEG: So he couldn't really come back. Could he? BESS: You were just imagining. GRANPOP : There's no need to hang your head, lass. We all had a touch of imagining for a wee bit, just now. PEG: Until Gavin brought us to our senses. NANNIE: The story says he'll come back. GAVIN {severe) : Now, now, Nannie. NANNIE: It does ! KATE : We've all heard that story from the cradle up. GAVIN: It's an old, old tale. It came down from long ago. No one ever changes it. GRANPOP: Aye, lass. Gran pop tells it to you exactly as my granny told it to me. GA YIN :· Nannie. Tell us the story.- Tell it exactly as Granpop tells it to you. GRANPOP (sitting on step) : Come, on, lass, (drawing her to his knee). Once upon a time - long, long, ago - in this very place - NANNIE: - the people were sad. They couldn't get their crops in - just like us. GAVIN: Wrong. "Just like us" isn't in the story. NANNIE : It is like us .. CHORUS {from the grownups) : Don't answer back. GA YIN: It has nothing to do with us. Stick to the story. NANNIE: One day they heard a strange wind-with a dying in it- . But it didn't blow the leaves. The people just heard it. It went up and down - 0-o-o-o-o like that. It was dark, too. Then there came a light- uh - uh - GRANPOP: - not of this earth. NANNIE: -a light, not of this earth. It danced the dark away GAVIN (checking a tendency to cover his eyes) : Light doesn't dance! PEG: She made that up. GAVIN: Stick to the story. NANN IE (quite carried away by the story) : Well - it was flashing here and there. The people were afraid. There was a strange man coming over the stile. They didn't like him because they didn't know him.

You see, he ha d on a kilt made of rushe s (and they ha d never seen anyone dressed like that) and hi s hai r was as red as a poppy, and hi s name was Flibbertygibbet, and they'd never heard a name like that before. He wanted to work for them. He didn't want any pay bu t a bowl of porridge every day and a pl ace to at night. They'd never seen anybody who didn't want to be paid and they were afraid of hi m because he was di fferent. They wouldn't let hi m stay with them. But he begged so ha rd that an o ld granny took pity on hi m. She said, "He can sleep in my shed." Flibbertygibbet was so glad, he danced and shouted (imitating): Out of a sunless and waterless waste Blowing and whirling and dancing I haste, To- SEVERAL : What? -Eh? etc. GA VI N: Very wrong. GRAKPOP : Gran pop's old bones never showed you that, lassie. KATE: Those words aren't part of the GAVIN: The old. stories must never be changed, Nannie. They mu st always stay the same. NA NN IE : I forgot. Anyway, he wa s glad. All day he played with the children and sang the babies to sleep in their cradles. At night he worked in the fields, and everything - uh - GRAJ'\POP : - prospered beyond belief. NANN IE: -b eyond belief, and they were happy. Then, one day, a woman ha d a secret with herself. She said to he rself, "He fair works wonders for us in the fields" and she made hi m some new clothes with- · out telling anybody - GAVIN: -so that - NANN IE: So he wouldn't be different anymore. GA VIr\: Good. NANNIE: Before he had a chance to put on he went away, to a sunless and waterless waste, (she walks up to Gavin, nods trium phantly) till it was the right time to come again- GRANPOP : Aye. That's in the story, Gavin. That's where she got the notion. GAVI N: That isn't to say he can really come he re now. The like of that doesn't happen these days ! - Finish the story. NANNIE: And he's never been seen or he ard of from that day to this. GAVIN: Aye! GRANPOP : Before he went - NANN IE (with sudden enthusiasm): - Before he went he put dances in the sunshi ne and lu llabies in the wind so the children and babies wou ld be happy, without hi m. (She runs to the spot Flibberty heard the echo.) If you say one, the wind will say it after you . Listen. It's my voice you he ar in the wind - the wind It's the light of my magic you see-you see

On the shimmering leaves of the tree- the tree And the flashes of color that play- that play While I'm dancing the darkness away- away Are my- (T hey are too astonished to interrupt at first.) GAVIN (shouting} : Stop it ! KAKTE : Where did she get that? PEG: She made it up. ADAM : She doesn't know when she's making things up and when she isn't. BESS: The first thing you knQw we can't believe a word she says. KATE (mumuring to herself) : The queer turn of the weather set her fan- c1es running. GAVIN: Nannie ! You know perfectly well that what you heard then was just an echo. It was your own voice thrown back at you from the hill over there. Listen. Who are you ? - ECHO: You ! GAVIN: I explained it to you when you were a wee thing. It's like a wave on the seashore, yonder. If a wave hits the cliff it is thrown back into the sea. If the sound of your voice hits the hill yonder, it is thrown back to your ears. If you stand over here, it is thrown back three times-from the hill ac ross, and then the ones at the ends of the glen. You know all that, don't you ? NANN IE: Yes. GAVIN: Why are you pulling a long face about it, then? NANNIE: I don't like it to be so. GAVIN: Granpop, you shouldn't let this go on. The child should learn to see things as they are. GRANPOP : The lass just mixes her own fancies with the story. I never thought of any harm in it. GAVIN: You're too soft with her. The two of you are supposed to pay me for the roof over your heads by work in the fields. I was glad to help you out. But what do I get out of it? You haven't the muscle to lift a sheaf of wheat. And when I set her to gleaning after the reapers, she talks to the flowers and the beasties, or goes off by herself to make believe about winds not of this earth and a crazy creature out of a story, - one I wouldn't let set foot on my land if he were real. (This is a blow to listening Flibbertygibbet} - a creature that wears rushes for clothes and doesn't want to be paid. Now, Nannie. You are not to waste any more time pretending about Flibbertygibbet and strange lights in the wind. Do you understand? GRANPOP : Nannie NANNIE : Yes. GAVIN; Now, my good people, back to the fields. - We've no time to lose. The day of the harvest festival is at our heels. PEG: And Gavin must be crowned Lord of the Festival by the whole

countryside - as he has been these ten years past. KATE : It' s a fair wonder to see it - the folk in holiday dress dancing and si nging aro und him and he with a wreath of wheat on his brow. PE G: There's hardly need for the judges to make their rou nds any more. KATE : Every one hereabouts knows that Gavin is first. (Adam and Bess exchange glances. Gavin swells with satisfaction.) GAVIN: All that's needed to be sure of the crown, this year, is to get my fields reaped in perfect fashion. Pile the bags of grain in the big barn in the way to make the biggest show. PEG: We'll set bowls of the best kernels in plain si ght for the ju dges to test their si ze and hardness. GA VIN: I'm offto the great market for a fortnight, to sell my crop s. I '11 come home two days before the judges make their round s. KATE : We'll have everything ready. (Flibbertygibbet is greatly excited over this.) GAVIN: Off to the fields. You waste daylight. - you wait he re till it's time to take the tea-basket to the elds. And mind. No pre tendi ng. Give me your word. GRANPOP: Speak up , lass. - I promise. NANNIE: I promise. (Exit all but N annie and Grandpop, who seem to start, but linger. Nan nie holds his blouse to hold him.) NA NN IE : I don't want to go. It makes me lonesome not to pretend any . more. I haven't anybody to talk to. GRANPOP : Whist, la ssie. - I' ve a buzzi ng here-(he whirls a finger near his brow and bends his head as if It is an old game between the two.) NA NNIE : What does it say this time? GRANPOP (chuckling): It sa y s "Talk to the echo. That's pretend ing." (He hurries off. Flibbertygibbet is having a hard time to keep himself from coming out. N annie goes to the spot of the single echo.) NANNIE : Hell-o-o. ECHO: - ello-o-o. NANNIE (softly): Say- Who-o-o ECHO : Who-o-o - NANN IE : Are-re- ECHO: Are-re - NANN IE : You-ou-ou -? ECHO : ou-ou-ou - ? NANN IE (running to the spot for the triple echo): (softly) Say (calling) Flibbertygibbet! ECHO : Flibbertygibbet! - Flibberty-gibbet! - Flibbertygibbet! (As she runs down laughing Flibbertygibbet can no longer resist. He leaps onto the echo spot and calls.) FLIBBERTYGIBBET: Flibbertygibbet. (Echo, following N annie's as if part of but of course in a different voice.) FLIBB E RTYGIBB E T

- FLIBBERTYGIBBET-Flibbertygibbet. NANN IE (stares around and gets up onto the well to investigate better As she turns her back will be to him, he leaps down soundlessly, but as he crouches he cannot keep from giggling - she turns to see him. He circles her, touching his skirt of reeds and his red hair. The strain of the "magic look" begins as they look into each other's eyes. At the end of it their growing laugh rises to a climax, in unison. He swings her off the well and they dance, improvising together as if one person. At the end he leaps up onto the well. As the music dies away, she looks up at him in wonder.) NANN IE: How did you get out of the story? FLIBBERTYGIBBET: Ho ! I didn't. This is the rest of the story. (She walks around him, exploring, finally touching him.). NANNIE: You're real. (He nods, prancing a little.) Is all the story real? FLIBBERTYGIBBET: Once upon a time it was. The people in it change. The story goes on. Lately it had to wait and wait and wait because I got banished again. NANNIE: Banished? I don't know what banished means. FLIBBERTYGIBBET: Sent away. To punish me. NANN IE: To a sunless and waterless waste ! FLIBBERTYGIBBET: Yes. - Br-r- - NANNIE: Until it was the right time to come again ! FLIBBERTYGIBB ET: Yes. NANNIE: Why were you banished? FLIBBERTY: Because that woman tried to pay me for my help. That's the law where I come from. If any one finds o.ut I have magic and tries to get me to use it just for himself I get banished. I want to belong to men, but every time I try, I get banished because I always can't wait for the right time, and some one tries to pay me. Now I've come to try again. NANNIE (rushes toward exit) : Granpop ! Gavin ! Come here ! (Flib- berty gets in front of her, and puts his hand over her mouth.) FLIBBERTY: No ! Not yet ! No ! No! NANNIE: I want to show Gavin you're real. FLIBBERTY: That would spoil everything. He doesn't like me. He wouldn't let me set foot on his ground. I was hiding. I heard how he talked. It almost made me go away. But you see, I can't go away this time, because this is my last chance. If the people don't let me belong this time, I'll be banished forever ! NANN IE: To that awful place? FLIBBERTY (shivering, holding on to himself) : Yes. Yes ! Unless they search the world over and find me themselves. And that Gavin would never do that. NANN IE: Gavin won't even let you stay now. You're too different. He'll say there isn't any such person. FLIBBERTY: Ho ! I'll fool him ! It's the inside of me that's really dif-

ferent. I'll get myself the sort of outside me he's used to, and fool him! NANNIE: How can you do that? FLIBBERTY: I'll use my magic. NANNIE: Ca n you do magic ? Do some� Show me some. FLIBBERTY: You must promise not to tell anybody. This time no on e must know I can do magic until everyone lets me belong, or someone will pa y me to do it ju st for him - and I'll be banished again. NANNI£: I won't tell. FLIBBERTY: This well is a good place. - (Pushes the cover away.) First, I must make sure they're listening. - Now watch. Don't move or make a sound. (Lights dim as he moves his hands over the well.) Secret powers, unknown to men Show your magic li ght again To tell me that you hear. (Light glows from the well. He nods at N who manages not to move. He looks up at her as the lights jade.) Now, I must make this place nowhere and never. (He open.r arms V)ide and looks up chant ing. The stage is dark, only Flibberty s hoccing.) There is here and here is there And everywhere is everywhere. Then is now and now is then And everywhen is (il1usic grows in volume. Flibberty nods toward N holds up a hand. The music fade.r.) ::.Jo w I'll tell them what I need. Ma gic garments now appear (Here is there and there is here) Never seen or touched by men

(Then is now and now is then) · Make me look , from head to feet Li ke those who cut and bind the wheat. (A kaleidoscopic whirl of lights sends his kilt of rushes flying through the air, and his scarlet hair and cap of lea�'es with it. He wheel.r around to look after them sees a _jacket and trousers shining the tree trunk. He is now clad in undertrunks decorated with gleaming patter.r. he nods toward Nannie, who is invisible.) :t\ow I must ch ange back to here and now. Secret powers, unknown to men Make it here and now again. (The lights and music slowly fade, and ordinary light returns. The garments on the are now invisible, and Flibberty's is of a uniform, dull color.) It's over. You can talk. (He looks down at his own body.) Ho! I meEt put on my new clothes. NANNI£: Th ey're gone! What wi ll you do? FLIBBERTY: Hobo! Th is is only here and now. Come here. (He leads

her to the tree and puts her hand on the bark of it.) Peel them off. (Nannie feels, not seeing the clothes at first. Then peels them off, breathless with They are to look like the bark of the tree.) NANNI£: I almost th em because I didn't knew. FLIBBERTY: Ho! People miss a lot of things that way. NANNI£: You can do ma gic to get the harvest in qu ick and it big. FLIBBERTY : I'll use my ma gic to ma ke my self strong - so I can lift great bags of wh eat -like that ! (Pantomiming hefting them) -as if they we re feathers. NANNI£ (at sound of voices) : People! - (giving him the Put them on. You look funny. PEG (off, approaching) : I told you there wa s no strange light, this time . · KATE : I'm going to ma ke sure. NANN IE: Hurry - e scampers behind corner of the house to finish.) KATE (off, calling) : Nannie ! NANN IE (on the stile, looking o /]) : - PEG: Did you see a strange light, ju st now? NANNI£ (gaining time, as Flibberty's pantomime warns her) : A wh at? KATE : A dancing light. NANNI£: Uh - Why - Ga vin says lights don't dance. PE G (entering, triumphant) : Then there wa sn't any. NAI\1\]E : I don't see any. PEG: Kate, you've got to tell Ga vin I wa s right. KATE : Y cu 're a fine sort of a sister. You care mo re for Gavin than do for me . PEG: It's the other wa y around! KATE : It wa s you called out to Ga vin as we passed the barn. You knew he'd be vexed with me for saying I saw a light again. You me ant to please him by saying it wa sn't so. PEG: You'd have come cffhe re without me if let you. You fo rg et I'm anywhere around. - And now you're off without a wo rd. KATE : It's you that's always talking to some one else. (Their vaices fade as they exit. Flibberty goes onto the stile to them go. PE G (off and fading) : You ma de friends that ma n at the booth the fa ir, la st week, ju st to leave me out. KATE (also fading) : I wa s to him first and you came to take him away from me . PEG: I ju st didn't wa nt to be left out. KATE: Then wh y did you stop with the wo rrian on the other side, and leave me out? (Their voices go on though their words are no !anger distinguishable, and presently the voices die. Flibberty sits down, dis consolate.) FLIBBERTY : How can I be friends with such sisters ? :t\ANNI E : a lways like that . Peg h u ffs and p cffs if anyone Is

friends with Kate, and Kate huffs and puffs, if anyone is friends with Peg. FLIBBER TY: I'll have to make them friends with each other before they'll let me belong here.- How can I do that? NANNIE: Use your magic on them! FLIBBERTY: It wouldn't work. People's magic is different. It takes two. I've learned my part, but it's no use unless somebody else does the other part at the same time. NANNIE: Teach me the words. FLIBBERTY: There aren't any words. It just begins m one and the other one finishes it -the way you did with me. NANNI£: I:! FLIBBERTY: Don't you remember? When we first saw each other. NANNIE: I didn't know it. FLIBBERTY: You never know what you do. One of you begins it, and the other finishes it and then you both do what comes next. NANNIE: The way you showed me how to do that dance? FLIBBERTY: Hoho! I didn't show you. We made it up together. When I belong here we'll all of us make up things together. It isn't always dancing. NANNIE: What fun it will be! FLIBBERTY: I can't wait to begin! (He smooths out his straight ens his clothes and highsteps it to Na nnie.) How do you like the new outside me: NANT\IE: You lock as if you worked in the fields but you don't walk right. FLIBBERTY: How shall I walk? NANNI£: You saw them. Walk like them. FLIBBERTY: Which one? NANN IE: Any one. See if I can tell. ( Flibberty falls into the posture and walk of Granpop. He comes to Nannie and pats her head.) NANNIE: Granpop! How did you know how he pats my head? You never saw him do it. FLIBBERTY: He felt like it. He likes you. NANNI£: Of course. He's my Granpop. I'm his lassie.- Do another. FLIBBERTY: This one walks two ways. (Copies Gavin's superior ease, then suddenly clips his thumbs to his ears, shuts his eyes, covers them with his fingers, and turns his back with an angry swing. Nannie laughs delightedly. He stops short, staring at her.) Ho-o-o-o-! NANNIE: What's the matter? FLIBBERTY: That Gavin's afraid! NANNIE: Gavin's never afraid. He makes everyone do as he says. He's the most important one in the whole countryside. FLIBBERTY (repeating bits of the Gavin business): He's afraid you'll make him see those lights. He's afraid he'll hear that wind. - It

makes him very mad to feel afraid. He has to shout at you so he won't be afraid. - (Business of copying Gavin's actions at opening.) Aye! afraid there's something new, and different. He wap.ts everything the same as ever. NAN='JIE: Gavin never looked. He never listened. He doesn't know there really was a wind. FLIBBERTY: Somewhere in him something knows. NANN IE: Gavin never tells lies. FLIBBERTY: He tells them to himself. Then he believes them.-Ho oh-oh-oh -What if he shouts at me because I'm different, and sends me away? -I can't go. I can't. It's my last chance. NANNIE: He won't know you're different, in your new clothes and hair. FLIBBERTY (prancing): Ho!! He'll only see this outside me. He won't have to tell himself lies about me. NANI\IE: You mustn't walk like that. And don't keep saying "Ho !" Nobody does that here. FLIBBERTY: Here's another walk. ( They have their backs to the stile and do not see Kate is coming from the field. It is Kate he imitates this time, exaggerating crushed sense of inferiority. Nannie laughs, at first, then sobers. The three make identical movements, he going to sit on the steps, Na,nnie to sit on the well, Kate to stop, watching. NAt\NIE (laughing, sadly) : Yes, that's Kate. FLIBBERTY: Poor thing. NANNIE: Kate always makes me want to cry. KATE (glaring) : You've no call to cry over me! whirls away.) FLIBBERTY (springs to her) : Don't go! KATE (turning back) : Go away! Who are you? What right have you make her laugh at me and stand there looking down on me? FLIBBERTY: I'm not. KAKTE: I saw you. I heard her laugh. I heard you call me - names. NANNIE: We were just playing. KATE: Just because I'm homely and ordinary and no-count, you've no call to make a laughing stock of - and pity me! I have to take it from the village folk. I have no other to go. But I don't have to take it from a stranger. (Flibberty seizes her hand and looks up at her eagerly, with his "mag ic" smile. His eyes hold Kate's an instant. A faint strain of the music begins. Nannie draws a step nearer, waiting, breathless. Kate jerks away her hand.) FLIBBERTY: I don't wapt to be a stranger. I want to belong here. KATE: Don't try to fool me.-I know you're really thinking. I'm homely and ordinary and I it! - Don't there grinning at me! Go away. Clear away. I never want to see you again. (She storms off.) FLIBBERTY: See. It takes two. NA::\'NIE (watching Kate from stile) : At I thought she was