f a farmhouse on the borderline between the Southern
and Northern states. TIME: Ten o'clock in the evening, September, 1863.

The back wall is broken at stage left by the projection at right angles
of a partially enclosed staircase, four steps of which, leading to the
landing, are visible to the audience. Underneath the enclosed stairway
is a cubby-hole with a door; in front of the door stands a small table.
To the left of this table is a kitchen chair. A door leading to the yard
is in the centre of the unbroken wall back; to the right of the door,
a cupboard, to the left, a stove. In the wall right are two windows.
Between them is a bench, on which there are a pail and a dipper;
above the bench a towel hanging on a nail, and above the towel a
double-barrelled shot-gun suspended on two pegs.

In the wall left, and well down stage, is a closed door leading to
another room. In the centre of the kitchen stands a large table; to the
right and left of this, two straight-backed chairs.

The walls are roughly plastered. The stage is lighted by the moon, which
shines into the room through the windows, and a candle on table centre.
When the door back is opened, a glimpse of a desolate farmyard is seen
in the moonlight.

When the curtain rises, THADDEUS TRASK, a man of fifty or sixty years
of age, short and thick set, slow in speech and movement, yet in perfect
health, sits lazily smoking his pipe in a chair at the right of the
centre table.

After a moment, MARY TRASK, a tired, emaciated woman, whose years equal
her husband's, enters from the yard, carrying a pail of water and a
lantern. She puts the pail on the bench and hangs the lantern above it;
then crosses to the stove.

MARY. Ain't got wood 'nough fer breakfast, Thad.

THADDEUS. I'm too tired to go out now; wait till mornin'.

[Pause. MARY lays the fire in the stove.]

Did I tell ye that old man Reed saw three Southern troopers pass his
house this mornin'?

MARY [takes coffee pot from stove, crosses to bench, fills pot with
water]. I wish them soldiers would git out o' the neighborhood. Whenever
I see 'em passin', I have t' steady myself 'gainst somethin' or I'd
fall. I couldn't hardly breathe yesterday when the Southerners came
after fodder. I'd die if they spoke t' me.

THADDEUS. Ye needn't be afraid of Northern soldiers.

MARY [puts coffee pot on stove]. I hate 'em all--Union or Southern. I
can't make head or tail t' what all this fightin's 'bout. An' I d