Chantecler - BestLightNovel.com
You’re reading novel Chantecler Part 13 online at BestLightNovel.com. Please use the follow button to get notification about the latest chapter next time when you visit BestLightNovel.com. Use F11 button to read novel in full-screen(PC only). Drop by anytime you want to read free – fast – latest novel. It’s great if you could leave a comment, share your opinion about the new chapters, new novel with others on the internet. We’ll do our best to bring you the finest, latest novel everyday. Enjoy
THE BLACKBIRD The showman's on the job!
THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Indicating the_ BLACKBIRD.] And that?
CHANTECLER Our humorist.
THE PHEASANT-HEN What does he do?
CHANTECLER Oh, he keeps busy!
THE PHEASANT-HEN Doing what?
CHANTECLER Trying never to appear a fool, and that's hard work.
THE PHEASANT-HEN Possibly--but most unattractive! [_They move towards the back._]
THE BLACKBIRD [_With a glance at the_ PHEASANT-HEN'S _scarlet breast._] Size up the highfalutin' dame!--Get on to the waistcoat will you?
CHANTECLER [_Continuing the round._] The hay-c.o.c.k. The old wall. The wall, when I sing, is alive with lizards, the hay-c.o.c.k bends to listen. I sing on the spot where you see the earth scratched up, and when I have sung, I drink in the bowl over there.
PHEASANT-HEN Your song then is a matter of importance?
CHANTECLER [_Seriously._] The greatest.
THE PHEASANT-HEN Why?
CHANTECLER That is my secret.
THE PHEASANT-HEN If I should ask you to tell me?
CHANTECLER [_Turning the conversation, and showing a pile of brushwood tied in bundles._] My friends, the f.a.gots.
THE PHEASANT-HEN Stolen from my forest!--So what they say is true?--you have a secret?
CHANTECLER [_Dryly._] Yes, Madam.
THE PHEASANT-HEN I suppose it would be useless to insist--
CHANTECLER [_Climbing on the wall at the back._] And from here you can see the remainder of the estate, to the edge of the kitchen-garden, where they ply at evening a serpent ending like a sprinkling can.
THE PHEASANT-HEN What?--This is all?
CHANTECLER This is all.
THE PHEASANT-HEN And do you imagine the world ends at your vegetable-patch?
CHANTECLER No.
THE PHEASANT-HEN Do you never, as you watch, far overhead, the wedge of the south-flying birds, dream of vaster horizons?
CHANTECLER No.
PHEASANT-HEN But all these things about you are dreary and poor and flat!
CHANTECLER And I can never become used to the richness and wonder of these things!
THE PHEASANT-HEN It is always the same, you must agree!
CHANTECLER Nothing is ever the same,--nothing,--ever,--under the sun! And that because of the sun!--For _She_ changes everything!
THE PHEASANT-HEN She--Who?
CHANTECLER Light, the universal G.o.ddess! That geranium planted by the farmer's wife is never twice the same red! And that old wooden shoe, spurting straw, what a sight, what a beautiful sight! And the wooden comb hanging among the farmer's smocks, with the green hair of the sward caught in its teeth! The pitchfork, stood in the corner, like a misbehaving child, dozing as he stands and dreaming of the hay-fields! And the bowl and skittles there,--the trim-waisted skittles, shapely maids, whose orderly quadrilles Patou in his gambols clumsily upsets! The great worm-eaten bowl whose curved expanse some ant is always crossing, travelling with no less pride than famed explorers,--around her ball in 80 seconds!--Nothing, I tell you, is two instants quite the same!--And I, sweet lady, have been so susceptible ever, that a garden-rake in a corner, a flower in a pot, cast me long since into a helpless ecstasy, and that from gazing at a morning-glory I fell into the startled admiration which has made my eye so round!
THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Thoughtfully._] One feels that you have a soul.--A soul then may find wherewithal to grow, so far from life and its drama, shut in by a farmyard wall with a cat asleep on it?
CHANTECLER With power to see, capacity to suffer, one may come Ito understand all things. In an insect's death are hinted all disasters. Through a knot-hole can be seen the sky and marching stars!
THE OLD HEN [_Appearing._] None knows the heavens like the water in the well!
CHANTECLER [_Presenting her to the _PHEASANT-HEN_ before the basket-lid drops._] My foster-mother!
THE PHEASANT-HEN [_Politely approaching._] Delighted!
THE OLD HEN [_Slyly winking at her._] He's a fine c.o.c.k!
THE PHEASANT-HEN He is a c.o.c.k, moreover, for whom that fact is not the only thing in the world!
CHANTECLER [_Who has gone toward_ PATOU.] There, my dear boy, is a Hen with whom one can have a bit of solid conversation.
SCENE SEVENTH
THE SAME, _the_ GUINEA-HEN, _and the whole_ POULTRY-YARD
_Cries outside, nearer and nearer,_ "Ah!--" _Enter all the_ HENS _in tumult, preceded by the agitated_ GUINEA-HEN.
THE BLACKBIRD [_In his cage._] The next course will be Guinea-hen!
THE GUINEA-HEN [_Running to the_ PHEASANT-HEN.] Ah, my dear, my dear, my dear!--A beauty, a very beauty!--We have come to make your acquaintance, my dear!
[_General admiration,_ "Ah!--" _The_ PHEASANT-HEN _is surrounded.
Conversation, cries, clucking._]
CHANTECLER [_Watching the_ PHEASANT-HEN, _aside._] How well she walks, with free and graceful gait!--[_He looks at the_ HENS.] So differently from my Hens! [_Irritably, to the_ HENS.] Ladies, you walk as if you had blisters! You walk as if you trod on your own eggs!
PATOU No mistaking the symptoms! He is very much in love.
