MRS. TARPEY.  Is he now?  Well, that was quick work!  It’s not ten minutes since the two of them were here, Bartley going home and Jack going to the Five-Acre Meadow; and I had my apples to settle up, that Jo Muldoon of the police had scattered, and when I looked round again Jack Smith was gone, and Bartley Fallon was gone, and Mrs. Fallon’s basket upset, and all in it strewed upon the ground—­the tea here—­the two pound of sugar there—­the egg-cups there.  Look, now, what a great hardship the deafness puts upon me, that I didn’t hear the commincement of the fight!  Wait till I tell James Ryan that I see below; he is a neighbor of Bartley’s; it would be a pity if he wouldn’t hear the news!

(She goes out.  Enter SHAWN EARLY and MRS. TULLY.)

TIM CASEY.  Listen, Shawn Early!  Listen, Mrs. Tully, to the news!  Jack Smith and Bartley Fallon had a falling out, and Jack knocked Mrs. Fallon’s basket into the road, and Bartley made an attack on him with a hayfork, and away with Jack, and Bartley after him.  Look at the sugar here yet on the road!

SHAWN EARLY.  Do you tell me so?  Well, that’s a queer thing, and Bartley Fallen so quiet a man!

MRS. TULLY.  I wouldn’t wonder at all.  I would never think well of a man that would have that sort of a moldering look.  It’s likely he has overtaken Jack by this.

(Enter JAMES RYAN and MRS. TARPEY.)

JAMES RYAN.  That is great news Mrs. Tarpey was telling me!  I suppose that’s what brought the police and the magistrate up this way.  I was wondering to see them in it a while ago.

SHAWN EARLY.  The police after them?  Bartley Fallen must have injured Jack so.  They wouldn’t meddle in a fight that was only for show!

MRS. TULLY.  Why wouldn’t he injure him?  There was many a man killed with no more of a weapon than a hayfork.

JAMES RYAN.  Wait till I run north as far as Kelly’s bar to spread the news!

(He goes out.)

TIM CASEY.  I’ll go tell Jack Smith’s first cousin that is standing there south of the church after selling his lambs.

(Goes out.)

MRS. TULLY.  I’ll go telling a few of the neighbors I see beyond to the west.

(Goes out.)

SHAWN EARLY.  I’ll give word of it beyond at the east of the green.

(Is going out when MRS. TARPEY seizes hold of him.)

MRS. TARPEY.  Stop a minute, Shawn Early, and tell me did you see red Jack Smith’s wife, Kitty Keary, in any place?

SHAWN EARLY.  I did.  At her own house she was, drying clothes on the hedge as I passed.

MRS. TARPEY.  What did you say she was doing?

SHAWN EARLY (breaking away).  Laying out a sheet on the hedge.

(He goes.)

MRS. TARPEY.  Laying out a sheet for the dead!  The Lord have mercy on us!  Jack Smith dead, and his wife laying out a sheet for his burying! (Calls out) Why didn’t you tell me that before, Shawn Early?  Isn’t the deafness the great hardship?  Half the world might be dead without me knowing of it or getting word of it at all! (She sits down and rocks herself.) O my poor Jack Smith!  To be going to his work so nice and so hearty, and to be left stretched on the ground in the full light of the day!