“Why the Chimes Rang” was again tried out the next year in seven performances by the “Workshop” company in various Boston settlements.  Other groups of amateurs have given it in Arlington, Massachusetts, Los Angeles, California and in Honolulu.  These performances have proved that while its setting may seem to call for the equipment of a theatre, the play can be acceptably given in any hall or Sunday school room.

Suggestions for the simplest possible staging have been added to the present publication in an appendix which contains data on the scenery, music, lighting, costumes and properties for the piece.

Elizabeth Apthorp McFADDEN.

WHY THE CHIMES RANG.

CHARACTERS.

Holger......................._A peasant boy_
Steen........................_His younger brother_
Bertel......................._Their uncle_
an old woman
Lords, ladies, etc.—­

Time:—­Dusk of a day of long ago.

* * * * *

Scene:—­The interior of a wood-chopper’s hut on the edge of a forest.

Why the Chimes Rang.

The scene is laid in a peasant’s hut on the edge of a forest near a cathedral town.  It is a dark low-raftered room lit only by the glowing wood fire in the great fireplace in the wall to the right, and by a faint moonlight that steals in through the little window high in the left wall.  This window commands a view of the cathedral and of the road leading down into the town.  The only entrance into the hut is the front door near the window.

The furnishings are few:  two substantial stools, one near the window, the other before the fire, logs piled up near the hearth, and on the chimney shelf above a few dishes, three little bowls, three spoons and a great iron porridge pot.  A wooden peg to the right of the chimney holds Steen’s cap and cape, one to the left an old shawl.  Near the door Holger’s cap and cape hang from a third peg.

Despite its poverty the room is full of beautiful coloring as it lies half hidden in deep shadow save where the light of the fire falls on the brown of the wood and the warmer shades of the children’s garments, illuminates their faces and gleams on their bright hair.

When the curtain is raised Steen is sitting disconsolately on the stool near the fire.  He is a handsome sturdy little lad of nine or ten, dressed in rough but warm garments of a dark red.  Holger a slender boy some four years older, bends over Steen patting him comfortingly on the shoulder.

There is petulance and revolt in the expression of the younger boy but Holger’s face is full of a blended character and spirituality that makes him beautiful.  He is clad like his brother in comfortable but worn jerkin and hose of a dark leaf green.  His manner to the little boy is full of affection, though occasionally he is superior after the manner of big brothers.  Throughout the play, two moods alternate in Holger, a certain grave, half-mystical dreaminess and bubbling through it, the high spirits of his natural boyish self.