OLD MEN COMPLAINING

FIRST OLD MAN:

He threw his crutched stick down: there came
Into his face the anger flame,

And he spoke viciously of one
Who thwarted him-his son's son.
He turned his head away. "I hate
Absurdity of language, prate

From growing fellows. We'd not stay
About the house the whole of a day
When we were young,

Keeping no job and giving tongue!

66 Not us in troth! We would not come
For bit or sup, but stay from home
If we gave answers, or we'd creep
Back to the house, and in we'd peep
Just like a corncrake.

"My grandson and his comrades take
A piece of coal from you, from me
A log, or sod of turf, maybe.
And in some empty place they'll light
A fire, and stay there all night,
A wisp of lads! Now understand
The blades of grass under my hand
Would be destroyed by company!

Old Men Complaining

There's no good company! We go
With what is lowest to the low!
He stays up late, and how can he
Rise early? Sure he lags in bed
And she is worn to a thread

With calling him—his grandmother—
She's an old woman, and she must make
Stir when the birds are half awake

In dread he'd lose this job like the other!"

SECOND OLD MAN:

"They brought yon fellow over here,
And set him up for an overseer:

51

Though men from work are turned away,
That thick-necked fellow draws full pay,
Three pounds a week. . . . They let burn down
The timber yard behind the town
Where work was good, though firemen stand
In boots and brasses big and grand
The crow of a cock away from the place;
And with the yard they let burn too

The clock in the tower, the clock I knew
As well as I know the look of my face."

THIRD OLD MAN:

"The fellow you spoke of has broken his bounds

He comes to skulk inside of these grounds:

Behind the bushes he lay down

And stretched full hours in the sun.

He rises now, and like a crane

He looks abroad. He's off again.
Three pounds a week, and still he owes
Money in every street he goes,

Hundreds of pounds where we'd not get
The second shilling of a debt."

FIRST OLD MAN:

"Old age has every impediment,
Vexation and discontent;

The rich have more than we for bit
The cut of bread and over it

The scrape of hog's lard, and for sup
Warm water in a cup.

But different sorts of feeding breaks
The body more than fasting does
With pains and aches!

"I'm not too badly off, for I
Have pipe and tobacco, a place to lie,
A nook to myself; but from my hand
Is taken the strength to back command,
I'm broken, and there's gone from me
The privilege of authority."

I heard them speak

The old men heavy on the sod,

Letting their angers come

Between them and the thought of God!

GIRLS SPINNING

Ist Girl

Mallo lero iss im bo nero!

Go where they're thrashing and find me my

lover.

Mallo lero iss im bo baun!

2nd Girl

Mallo lero iss im bo nero!

Who shall I bring you? Rody the Rover?
Mallo lero iss im bo baun!

Ist Girl

Mallo lero iss im bo nero!

Listen and hear what he's singing over.
Mallo lero iss im bo baun!

A man's voice sings:

I went out in the evening, my sweetheart for to find;
I stood by her cottage window, as well I do mind;
I stood by her cottage window and I thought I would
get in,

But instead of pleasures for me my sorrows did begin!

Fine color had my darling though it was not me was

there:

I did not sit beside her, but inside there was a pair!
I stood outside the window like a poor neglected soul,
And I waited till my own name was brought across the
coal!

Here's a health unto the blackbird that sings upon the tree,

And here's to the willy-wagtail that goes the road with

me!

Here's a health unto my darling and to them she makes her own:

She's deserving of good company; for me, I go my lone.

My love she is courteous and handsome and tall;
For wit and for behavior she's foremost of them all!
She says she is in no ways bound, that with me she'll go

free;

But my love had too many lovers to have any love for me!

Ist Girl

Mallo lero iss im bo nero!

Who weds him might cry with the wandering

plover!

Mallo lero iss im bo baun!

Mallo lero iss im bo nero!

Where they're breaking the horses, go find me

my lover!

Mallo lero iss im bo baun!