FRANKLIN (with a burst of candor).  Sometimes I think I’ll fly it in a thunderstorm and gather up the lightning.

THE OLD WOMAN (tapping the ground vigorously with her cane).  Those are bold words, Master Benjamin Franklin.  Are you not feared to speak them? (Looks half-fearfully over her left shoulder.) Folk might think you were in league with—­with strange powers! (There is a touch of the eighteenth-century beldame in her as she speaks these words).

FRANKLIN. 
How is it that you know my name, and yet I do not remember you?

THE OLD WOMAN (mysteriously).  Perhaps there are too many soothsayers passing, or perhaps you have not looked well about you.  Aha, aha! (Nodding and blinking.) There are many things folk do not see.

FRANKLIN (shrewdly and bluntly).  That’s true.  My father says that all the witches were not hanged on Salem Hill.

THE OLD WOMAN(finger upraised).  S-ssh!  Never that word!  Never that word, Master Franklin!  Come, I am for crossing the Common, and for your good-will, and because you are a wise lad, I’ll lend you my crystal.

[Gives it to him.

FRANKLIN (putting book in basket with candles, and turning crystal to the light).  How it shines in the sun!

THE OLD WOMAN (with cane upraised and wand-like for a moment).  Look in it.  Look deep in it.  ’Twill give you dreams, Master Franklin, all good, good dreams.  Dreams o’ the future, Master Franklin!

[Franklin stands still in background, looking at the crystal as the Old Woman goes on her way.  The branches of the trees under which he stands cast wavering shadows about him.  It is cool after the glare of the sun.  He yawns, stretches, and throws himself at foot of tree.

FRANKLIN (musing aloud).  Of all the strange old women! (Looks at crystal again.) A pretty toy, truly!  All--shining--in--the--sun------ (Falls asleep.)

THE OLD WOMAN (stealing back for a moment out of background, and raising cane as before).  Dream!  Dream deep!

[Tosses over him half of her double cloak, then makes her exit into background, with finger on lip, and disappears from view.  There is a pause of some length, during which dream music is played, a soft, swaying rhythm.  Then comes the Dream.

SCENE II
PEOPLE OF THE DREAM

DR. FRANKLIN, the statesman
JOHN ADAMS
MARIE ANTOINETTE, Queen of France
THE DUCHESS OF BOURBON
MADEMOISELLE DE PERNAN
MADEMOISELLE DE TRESSAU
Ladies in Waiting. 
Pages. 
Courtiers. 
Rose Minuet Dancers. 
Shepherdesses and Milkmaids from the Petit Trianon. 
Little Flower Girls. 
Rose Bearers.

The setting is the lawn of Versailles on a Summer afternoon, 1781.

There are trees at right, left, and background.  The entrances of all taking part in the scene are made from middle background.