By John Galsworthy

THE LITTLE DREAM

An Allegory in six scenes

CHARACTERS

Seelchen, a mountain girl
Lamond, a climber
Felsman, a glide

CHARACTERS IN THE DREAM

The great Horn |
the cow Horn   |          mountains
the wine Horn  |

The edelweiss           |
the ALPENROSE           | flowers
the gentian             |
the mountain dandelion  |

VOICES AND FIGURES IN THE DREAM

Cowbells
mountain air
far View of Italy
distant Flume of steam
things in books
moth children
three dancing youths
three dancing girls
the forms of workers
the forms of what is made by work
death by slumber
death by drowning
flower children
goatherd
goat Boys
goat god
the forms of sleep

SCENE I

It is just after sunset of an August evening.  The scene is a room in a mountain hut, furnished only with a table, benches. and a low broad window seat.  Through this window three rocky peaks are seen by the light of a moon which is slowly whitening the last hues of sunset.  An oil lamp is burning.  Seelchen, a mountain girl, eighteen years old, is humming a folk-song, and putting away in a cupboard freshly washed soup-bowls and glasses.  She is dressed in a tight-fitting black velvet bodice. square-cut at the neck and partly filled in with a gay handkerchief, coloured rose-pink, blue, and golden, like the alpen-rose, the gentian, and the mountain dandelion; alabaster beads, pale as edelweiss, are round her throat; her stiffened. white linen sleeves finish at the elbow; and her full well-worn skirt is of gentian blue.  The two thick plaits of her hair are crossed, and turned round her head.  As she puts away the last bowl, there is a knock; and Lamond opens the outer door.  He is young, tanned, and good-looking, dressed like a climber, and carries a plaid, a ruck-sack, and an ice-axe.

Lamond.  Good evening!

Seelchen.  Good evening, gentle Sir!

Lamond.  My name is Lamond.  I’m very late I fear.

Seelchen.  Do you wish to sleep here?

Lamond.  Please.

Seelchen.  All the beds are full—­it is a pity.  I will call Mother.

Lamond.  I’ve come to go up the Great Horn at sunrise.