BRIDGET BRUIN
  The good people go asking milk and fire
  Upon May Eve—­Woe on the house that gives,
  For they have power upon it for a year. 
  I knew you would bring evil on the house.

                        MAURTEEN BRUIN
  Who was she?

MARIE BRUIN
Both the tongue and face were strange.

MAURTEEN BRUIN
Some strangers came last week to Clover Hill;
She must be one of them.

BRIDGET BRUIN
I am afraid.

MAURTEEN BRUIN
The priest will keep all harm out of the house.

FATHER HART
The cross will keep all harm out of the house
While it hangs there.

MAURTEEN BRUIN
Come, sit beside me, colleen,
And put away your dreams of discontent,
For I would have you light up my last days
Like the good glow of the turf, and when I die
I will make you the wealthiest hereabout: 
For hid away where nobody can find
I have a stocking full of yellow guineas.

                      BRIDGET BRUIN

You are the fool of every pretty face,
And I must pinch and pare that my son’s wife
May have all kinds of ribbons for her head.

                        MAURTEEN BRUIN
  Do not be cross; she is a right good girl! 
  The butter is by your elbow, Father Hart. 
  My colleen, have not Fate and Time and Change
  Done well for me and for old Bridget there? 
  We have a hundred acres of good land,
  And sit beside each other at the fire,
  The wise priest of our parish to our right,
  And you and our dear son to left of us. 
  To sit beside the board and drink good wine
  And watch the turf smoke coiling from the fire
  And feel content and wisdom in your heart,
  This is the best of life; when we are young
  We long to tread a way none trod before,
  But find the excellent old way through love
  And through the care of children to the hour
  For bidding Fate and Time and Change good-bye.

    (A knock at the door. MAIRE BRUIN opens it and then
      takes a sod of turf out of the hearth in the tongs and
      goes out through the door. SHAWN follows her and
      meets her coming in.)

                      SHAWN BRUIN

What is it draws you to the chill o’ the wood? 
There is a light among the stems of the trees
That makes one shiver.

MARIE BRUIN
A little queer old man
Made me a sign to show he wanted fire
To light his pipe.

BRIDGET BRUIN
You’ve given milk and fire,
Upon the unluckiest night of the year, and brought,
For all you know, evil upon the house. 
Before you married you were idle and fine,
And went about with ribbons on your head;
And now—­no, father, I will speak my mind,
She is not a fitting wife for any man—­