SCENE II.—_MRS. LELAND’S sitting-room. CALEB, sitting, R. C.,

peeling apples. CARRIE, L. C., dusting furniture. Enter AUNT HANNAH, R._

AUNT HANNAH (_in a complaining tone_). Well, I declare, haint you begun your baking yet, Car’line? It’s nigh onto noon, and you won’t get dinner ready in season.

CAR. Well, you know I can’t make my pies till the apples are ready. You’ll have to talk to Caleb. I’ve been trying to hurry him.

A. H. (_to CAL., severely_). I should be ashamed, if I was a boy, to be so long peeling a few apples.

CAL. Oh, what’s the use in hurrying? There’s plenty of time.

A. H. (_testily_). In my young days things didn’t go on so. Good house-keepers got their bakin’ done by eight o’clock in the morning. They didn’t spend all day in the kitchen, as they do now.

CAR. Don’t be troubled, Aunt Hannah; everything will be finished early, and dinner on the table at the usual time.

A. H. Well, I hope ’twill, but things don’t look much like it now.

(_Exit A. H., L._)

CAL. Aunt Hannah is never happy except when she’s finding fault with somebody. She’s gone off mad, and I’m glad of it. I hope she’ll stay away.

(_Enter ADOLPHUS, L._)

ADOLPHUS. I’ve been looking for you, Miss Carwy. Will you, aw, go out and walk with me this morning?

CAR. I don’t think I could. Mother is away, you know, and I have all the housework to do.

A. Couldn’t I, aw, assist you, so you could go?

CAR. I think not. I’m afraid there’s none of my work that you could do.

CAL. (_shaking his head in a significant way_). You jest make me that offer, Mr. Fitz. I’ll warrant you I won’t refuse. I know you’ll be able to do _my_ work. And I can show you round a great deal better than Carrie can.

(_A. deigns no reply to CAL., but gazes earnestly at CAR._)

CAR. I declare, I’m afraid my bread is burning. I nearly forgot it. (_Goes out, R._)

CAL. Heigho! I don’t feel like peeling apples. I guess I’ll see what girl loves me best. (_Lifts the entire skin of an apple, which he has taken off in one long strip, and swings it slowly three times round his head, then drops it on the floor behind him. He stoops and examines it eagerly, then claps his hands._) Sure’s the world, that’s an L, an’ stands for Lizy Blake. I was most sure ’twould be so. That sign always comes true.

A. (_who had been looking on with interest_). What are you doing, aw, Caleb?

CAL. I’ve been finding out who was my true love. Want to try your hand at it?

A. (_glancing round to see that no one else is present_). Well, aw, I might try.

CAL. That one’s broken, but I’ll soon make you another. (_Takes an apple, peels it, and passes the skin to A. The latter swings it very awkwardly round his head, staggering as he endeavors to do so without breaking it. At last he drops it on the floor behind him._)

CAL. I declare, Mr. Fitz, you’re about as graceful as a cow.

A. (_unheeding his remark, and examining the skin, which lay curled up on the floor_). That’s a C, aw, plain enough.

CAL. (_looking at it closely_). It’s an exact H. Who can that stand for? Oh, I know. It must be that you’re going to marry Aunt Hannah.

A. What do you mean, aw, by such a fawlshood? (_Attempts to strike CAL. with his cane, but CAL. leaps behind a chair, which he lifts, and uses as a protection. Enter CAR._)

CAR. Why, what’s the matter?

CAL. Nothing, only Mr. Fitz has been telling me who his sweetheart is, and he don’t like it ’cause I won’t promise not to tell anybody.

CAR. You’d better go out in the kitchen, and finish your work. I’m in a hurry for the apples.

(_Exit, CAL., R. CAR. sits down, C._)

A. You must be tired, aw, with your labors.

CAR. Oh no, indeed; but I am waiting for that lazy Caleb to finish the apples, so I can be making my pies.

A. (_deliberately spreading his handkerchief upon the floor before her, and kneeling upon it_). Miss Leland—Carwy, I have long sought, aw, this opportunity to confess, aw, my love for you. Do not deny me, aw, and doom me to dwead despair.

(_A sound of approaching footsteps is heard._)

CAR. (_hurriedly_). Mr. Fitz-William, rise, I beseech you.

A. Not until you give me a favorable answer to my suit.

CAR. I cannot—I—(_Enter CAL., R. A. rises._)

CAL. (_laughs quite loud_). Ha! ha! ha! (_Enter MRS. MONTGOMERY and AUNT HANNAH, L._)

MRS. MONTGOMERY. What can be the matter?

A. H. What’s all this noise about? Anybody’d think the house was afire, to hear such a racket.

A. It’s that impertinent young wascal, aw, who’s been scweaming like a locomotive whistle.

CAL. Who wouldn’t ’a’ laughed, if they’d come in, as I did, and seen Mr. Fitz-William on his knees asking Carrie to marry him?

MRS. M. Why, Adolphus, I thought you were engaged to Helen Lindsay, who lives in the city.

CAL. And ’twarn’t more’n ten minutes ago that he spoke about marryin’ Aunt Hannah. (_The spinster smiles benignantly._)

A. I did not, aw. I’d sooner marwy Beelzebub’s daughtaw than such a she-dwagon.

A. H. (_seizing a broom and chasing him around the stage._) You would, would ye? Then, you just git out o’ this house. You shan’t stay in it a minute longer.

CAL. (_waving his hand_). That’s it, Aunt Hannah. Pitch into him lively. Go ahead, an’ I’ll help yer.

(_Exit A., L., followed by A. H. and CALEB._)

(_Curtain falls._)