ght that this place should go to Anne. The house wasn't for you,
and it wasn't for me either, I begin to think.

_Anne comes in_.

ANNE
_(with a cry)_ Maire, you are going on the roads!

MAIRE
How do you know that?

ANNE
You bid Brian MacConnell go from you, and where else would you
go but on the roads?

_She goes to the settle and throws herself down, her hands before
her face. Maire puts cloak on. Conn goes to Anne. He takes her hands
from her face and holds them_.

CONN
Don't be grieving that we're going from you, Anne. When you
come back here again, your own care will begin. I know that you
grieve for Maire going from you, and my own heart is unquiet for her.
_(He goes to dresser, takes fiddle and wraps it up. He puts hat on.
Maire goes to settle, and sits beside Anne)_ Well, here's Conn
Hourican the fiddler going on his travels again. No man knows how
his own life will end; but them who have the gift have to follow the
gift. I'm leaving this house behind me; and maybe the time will come
when I'll be climbing the hills and seeing this little house with
the tears in my eyes. I'm leaving the land behind me, too; but
what's land after all against the music that comes from the far,
strange places, when the night is on the ground, and the bird in the
grass is quiet?

_The fiddle is heard again. Conn Hourican goes to door. Maire
embraces Anne again, rises and goes to door. Anne follows slowly.
Conn goes out. Maire turns to Anne_.

MAIRE
Tell Brian MacConnell that when we meet again maybe we can be
kinder to each other.

_Maire Hourican goes out with Conn. Anne is left standing at the
door in the dusk_.

_END OF PLAY_

THE FIDDLER'S HOUSE was first produced on 21st March, 1907, by the
Theatre of Ireland, in the Rotunda, Dublin, with the following cast:
--

CONN HOURICAN Joseph Goggin
MAIRE HOURICAN Maire MacShiubhlaigh
ANNE HOURICAN Eileen O'Doherty
BRIAN MACCONNELL Ed. Keegan
JAMES MOYNIHAN P. MacShiubhlaigh.

_THE LAND:
AN AGRARIAN COMEDY IN THREE ACTS_

CHARACTERS

MURTAGH COSGAR, a farmer
MATT, his son
SALLY, his daughter
MARTIN DOURAS, a farmer
CORNELIUS, his son
ELLEN, his daughter
A group of men,
A group of boys and girls.

The scene is laid in the Irish Midlands, present time.

_ACT I_

_The interior of Murtagh Cosgar's.