)_ And does that give the place
to Anne for ever?

MAIRE
It gives it to herself. _(Maire signs the paper with the
slowness of one unaccustomed to writing)_ It will be a great change
for us when we come back to this place.

CONN
_(going to chair at fire)_ It will be a great change for you
and me, no matter what we say.

MAIRE
And now that James's father is putting stock on the land, the
Moynihans will have great call to the place.

CONN
Maire, your father is thinking of taking to the road.

MAIRE
And how long would you be staying on the roads?

CONN
Ah, what is there to bring me back to this country, Maire?

MAIRE
Sure you're not thinking of going on the roads altogether?

CONN
The road for the fiddler.

MAIRE
Would you leave the shelter and the settled life? Would you go
on the road by yourself?

CONN
Anne and yourself will be settled, and I'll have the years before me.

MAIRE
Then you'd go on the roads by yourself?

CONN
Sure I did it before, Maire.

MAIRE
Ah, but do you not remember the prayers that mother used to
say for us to get some shelter? Do you not remember how proud and
glad we were when we come by a place of our own?

CONN
The shelter was for Anne and yourself. What had I to do with it?

MAIRE
The Moynihans are not the sort to make us feel strangers in
the place.

CONN
The place was your own, Maire, and you gave it to your sister
rather than see her waiting years and years.

MAIRE
I came to give it to her after I saw how hard I was on yourself.

CONN
Listen, my jewel, even if the Moynihans had nothing to do with
the place, what would Conn Hourican the fiddler be doing in this
country?

MAIRE
Ah, there are many you might play to; there are lots that know
about music. There's Michael Gilpatrick and John Molloy--

CONN
And that's all, Maire. MAIRE You might go to Flynn's an odd time.

CONN
And what do they know about music in Flynn's? Young Corney
Myles was up there a while ago, and you'd think, from what the men
said, that there was never the like of Corney for playing, and the
boy isn't three years at the fiddle,

MAIRE
Father, stay here where the shelter is.

CONN
Sure, I'd be getting ould, and staying in the chimney-corner,
with no one to talk to me, for you'd be going to a place of your own,
and Anne? after a while, would have too much to mind.

MAIRE
The people here are kinder than you think.

CONN
But what has Conn Hourican to do with them anyhow? T