Page:Five Russian plays and one Ukrainian.pdf/178

156 : Why dost not eat bread? (The man is silent.) Is it bitter? There is nought to be done, poor thing, thou must eat.

(mumbling like an old man): I cannot eat.


 * Misery! Hast no teeth? Where


 * There! (Points to Babylon.)


 * Misery, misery, misery!

(approaches an old woman sitting by the extinguished fire of another hearth, motionless, her head bowed down): Give me supper! (The woman is silent and motionless.) Why hast not prepared it? (The woman is silent.) Why hast ashes on thy hair? (The woman is silent, and bows still lower.) Where is our daughter?


 * There! (Points to Babylon and pours ashes upon her head.)


 * Adonai! (Tears his garments and falls down. At a third fire sit only men, mostly old. A woman approaches timidly; ragged children hang at her garments.)


 * My fathers, pardon that I ask you; have ye not seen my husband?


 * How is he called?


 * Ebenezer of Ossia.