FRED
So! So!
GEORGE
Gets sad But gee whiz, Fred, Helen’s off me. She’s sore at me.
Gets an idea Say, Fred, will you do something for me?
FRED
Expansive Sure I will, George.
GEORGE
Well, you go see Helen. You get to talking to her. You tell her I’m stuck on her. You tell her that and see how she takes it and then you come and tell me. Will you, Fred?
FRED
Laughing Ο. K. George... only, say George, don’t show her any of that stuff you been writing.
They are suddenly interrupted by a knock as though from door offstage, right
GEORGE
Come in.
JOE WELLING enters. He has in his arms a bundle of weeds and grasses. He enters with a little rush... stops and looks around. He runs to FRED
JOE
Hello George. Hello Fred.
To FRED... pushing the weeds toward him Here Fred. Hold these.
FRED
Laughing I would, Joe, but I got to go.
He starts to Exit right and then looks back at GEORGE laughing Better lay off the poetry, George. That won’t get you anywhere with Helen or any other girl, but I’ll tell her what you said.
He exits
JOE has run over to GEORGE’S desk. He puts down the weeds and grasses. He rushes back to GEORGE How’s your Ma, George? — Is — she — better? — Is — she — getting — well?
GEORGE
Doubtfully I think so, Joe... I hope so.
JOE
Looking quickly — about the room. His — eyes rest — on the desk That’s good, George. Say, you got a nice place here. That’s your desk, eh! You sit there when you write? You’re a reporter — that’s why I came to see you. I got an idea — I brought you something.
He rushes to the desk and begins to arrange the weeds in several little piles GEORGE
That’s nice, Joe. What you got?
GEORGE is trying to be nonchalant. He crosses to his desk and sits. He motions JOE to the chair in which FRED has been sitting Sit down, Joe.
JOE sits but immediately bounces up and goes to Crowd GEORGE
JOE
George, you got a pencil? I been out for a walk. I’m full of ideas.
GEORGE takes a pencil from his pocket and hands it to JOE
GEORGE
Sure! Here’s one.
JOE Takes the pencil and rushes to the desk, grabbing a sheet of paper. He writes, “FIRE, THE WORLD IS ON FIRE!” He holds the paper in both hands and pushes it mysteriously toward GEORGE until he has the paper almost in GEORGE’S face Look, George, look! Fire! The world’s on fire!
He turns the paper over and sees some of GEORGE’S writing Hello. Hello. Here’s some of your writing, eh? Gee, George, that’s fine. I wish I was a writer. I wish I had time. Keep at it, George. Don’t let ’em laugh you out of it. They’ll try. Writing can set the world on fire too. Don’t forget that.
GEORGE
Pleased Gee, Joe, do you think so?
Sure. That’s the reason I came to you, George. You’re no fool. Turns the paper over again The World’s on Fire! Suppose you had a headline like that for the newspaper next week, eh? Of course, it’s got to be explained. Don’t you know what it is?
GEORGE
No, I’m afraid I don’t, Joe.
JOE
It’s fire! It’s decay! It never stops! Everything in the world is decaying. Yes sirree. Iron is rusting. Copper is corroding. Wood is decaying. It’s all one thing. It’s fire! My God, George, the world’s on fire!
GEORGE
Trying to understand It is? What do you mean, Joe?
JOE Pulling himself up proudly It’s an idea — corrosion. Call it fire. It destroys. Write it up. It’s News. Gee, I ought to have your job. I can’t do it. I ain’t got time. I got to sell my fire insurance.
He again rushes to the table, drops the paper and begins running his fingers nervously through the weeds and grasses picking them up and dropping them Look! I was out in the woods today. I got these. I got an idea. I thought I’d come and tell you, George. Here’s milkweed. Here’s ragweed. Here’s dandelion. Here’s some thistles.
He pulls his hand away and sticks a finger into his mouth Gee, George, these thistles got prickles in ’em.
GEORGE Laughing Too bad, Joe.
JOE
I had an idea. Suppose, George, now suppose all the fruits of the earth were suddenly destroyed. There might be a big fire or a deluge. Once there was an Ice Age. Yes sirree. The world was covered with ice — frozen stiff. I read it in a book. It might happen again any time. In the whole world there are no fruits, no vegetables, no grasses, no nothin’. People are certainly up against it. I’ll say they are!
GEORGE
Absorbed Sure. I guess they would be, Joe.
JOE
Rushing on But they wouldn’t go down, George. No sir. There’d be men with ideas around — men like me. So they begin again. Make new fruits, new vegetables of all kinds. Everything we got now gone. Everything new. Progress! Science! It’s an idea, George. Write it up. You don’t have to give me any credit. I don’t care.
He wheels from GEORGE and starts to Exit, right I gotta go. I got a date.
He runs back to the desk and gathers up his weeds and grasses I gotta go now....
At this moment TOM WILLARD enters from right. He is half intoxicated and rather staggers in. Seeing him enter JOE becomes excited again and drops the weeds and grasses on the desk. He runs and grabs up the paper from GEORGE’S desk and advances on TOM much as he did a moment before on GEORGE and GEORGE crosses to sit at his desk Hello, Tom. Hello. Hello. Look. D’you know what this is?
TOM makes a motion with hand, as though to say— “Go on... go away... don’t bother me.”..
It’s fire. It’s decay. I was just telling George. It’s an idea.
TOM
Gruffly I don’t want any ideas. I want to talk to George.
JOE
Disappointed — running back to desk with paper Too bad. I got a date. I wish I could stay. I’d like to talk to both of you. I can’t. I got to hurry.
JOE drops the paper and again gathers up the weeds and grasses. As he does so TOM goes rather unsteadily across the room and drops into a chair at the desk opposite GEORGE, JOE rushes toward Exit, right I got a date. I go with Sarah King.
GEORGE
Smiling Yes, Joe. I know you do.
JOE
At the Exit She’s swell, George. Gee — she — likes — ideas.
He pops out of the room
GEORGE
So long, Joe.
TOM
Good riddance! — Now, George, that’s one of the things...
JOE He pops back — into — the — room Say, George, there was a rain over in Medina County today.
Want to know how I know? The water’s up in Wine Creek.
Gee, George, here in Winesburg everything was quiet — no rain — not a cloud in the sky — yes, there was a little cloud — I noticed it. A cloud no bigger’n a man’s hand.
He sticks out one hand That had nothin’ to do with it. The water’s up in Wine Creek. Wine Creek comes from over there. Little ol’ Wine Creek brought us the news. Wine Creek’s a reporter, too. Ha! It’s an idea, George. —
He suddenly disappears TOM straightens and hits the table with his fist
TOM
Damn fool! He’s just a crazy fool!
He turns to the desk and picks up one of the sheets upon which GEORGE has been writing — he reads aloud What’s this? “Thy hurting beauty”!
GEORGE Reaching over and snatching the sheet from his father’s hand Aw — it’s nothing, father — it’s nothing —
He quickly takes all the papers off the desk and puts them in a drawer which he hurriedly closes TOM Not wanting his son to know he’s drunk, he sits forward to the edge of the chair. The chair tips and all but throws him to the floor. He grasps the desk wit
h his two hands to steady himself, almost upsetting it. GEORGE grabs the desk to steady it. The two face each other
GEORGE
Yes, father...
TOM
We gotta have a talk. It’s got to be a private talk. There’s something I got to say to you.
GEORGE
Looking at his father a trifled startled. Then looking quickly away Yes, father...
TOM
It’s about you. You’re almost grown up, George. You’re almost a man. George, I want you to be a big man. A successful man. He leans forward I think a father and son should talk — man to man.
GEORGE Puzzled Yes, father, — what is it?
TOM Trying to pull himself together George, I’m a man who goes through life with his eyes open. I look around me. I see what’s going on. I watch the boys of this town. I got a boy of my own — you George. I want to be proud of you. There’s all kinds of boys in this town. Maybe you don’t think I watch you, George, but I do.
GEORGE
But father, what have I done?
TΟΜ
Listen — what do I see? I see you going around with all kinds of crazy, no-account people, like this Joe Welling who was just in here. And you used to hang around with old Windpeter Winters who got killed the other day. You see what happened to him. That’s what booze did to him.
GEORGE
Oh, Windpeter wasn’t so bad... he was all right.
TOM
Interrupting angrily All right, huh? Say, do you know something? When it comes to drinking it gets some and it don’t get others. It don’t get me — and don’t you go thinking it does. George, I’m a man who can take or let it alone.
GEORGE
Ashamed and hurt by his father s tone, he doesn’t look at his father All right, father...
TOM Loudly I think a father should direct the steps of his son —
He rises and stands with his two hands on the table. He shouts Listen — I guess you don’t think I amount to much, George — but you don’t know — you don’t know what I’ve had to put up with in life. I’ve had plenty of big chances — I could have had the management of one of the biggest hotels in Cleveland. I couldn’t take it. How could I — with a sick wife. A hotel man’s got to have a woman standing back of him. A man with a wife like your mother — sick — she thinks she’s sick — holding him back — your mother, George.
GEORGE Turning suddenly, looks directly at his father. His two hands are lying tense on the table. He makes a little movement as though about to spring Father! You let mother alone!
TOM Realizing he has gone too far, slumps back into his chair and grows sentimental It isn’t myself I’m thinking about, George, — I don’t care anything about myself...
He is still disconcerted and fumbles about. He picks up the rolled-up placard and opens it. It is a campaign portrait of President McKinley GEORGE Checking back — his anger All right, father.
TOM Looking at the — McKinley — portrait McKinley, eh? Well, I’m a Democrat. I’m for William Jennings Bryan. Say, I was a Democrat in Ohio when they hunted ’em with guns. If I’d been in a Democratic state — Virginia or Georgia — I’d a been governor or something...
He rolls up the portrait and throws it on the table GEORGE Impatiently What did you come to see me about, father?
TOM
Well, all right.... I’ll tell you, George — there’s a boy I see you with sometimes — young Seth Richmond. I want you and him to be friends.
GEORGE
Doubtfully We are, I guess, father.
TOM
That’s fine, George. Seth’s a boy that’s got his eye out for the main chance. You don’t see him hanging around the streets with a lot of no-accounts. Doctor Parcival, Joe Welling, Windpeter Winters, Doctor Reefy — not Seth! Say — they all brag on him. And he saves his money, too.
GEORGE A little sarcastically I know he does.
TOM
I’ll tell you what I heard. I heard he’s got five hundred dollars saved up right now. Say — yesterday I saw him walking on Main Street with young Helen White.
GEORGE
Anxiously With who, father?
TOM
Young Helen White. W. R. White’s daughter. W. R.’ll leave her a lot of money. The Whites are good solid people. First class. Say — I never told you much about my own people, did I, George? Good solid, fine people, every one of them. Not a no-account in the whole lot. — But I won’t talk about that now.
GEORGE
Angrily That’s what I asked you, father. What did you come to talk about?
TOM
Growing — stern George — I was in Ed Hanby’s saloon last night.
GEORGE makes an impatient movement with his hands Now don’t think I went in there to get drunk. I didn’t. I’m a man who can take it or let it alone. I had a toothache. It hurt like the devil. I was going to tell you — that’s what I came here for. So I went in there. There was a bunch of men standing at the bar. They didn’t see me come in.
GEORGE Squirming
Well, what about it?
TOM
I’ll tell you what about it. It was about you and Seth Richmond. And George, they weren’t saying any too good things about you.
TOM is leaning forward again and talking earnestly. He is looking at his son who will not, however, look at him. This makes TOM angry Look at me, George. I’m talking to you.
GEORGE He looks at his father a moment and then immediately looks away I’m listening.
TOM
Will Henderson, your boss, was in there. And E. P. Rowe and Will Graves and a lot of others. Will Henderson was talking. I stood back and listened. I was hurt, George — I was hurt to the bone.
GEORGE
Hurt? What about?
TOM
George — all my hope in life is centered in you. There was Will Henderson saying — actually saying, George, that you weren’t much good. By God, that’s what he said. That’s what I had to stand there and listen to. He said you were too mopey and dreamy. He gave you the laugh, George. He said he guessed you thought you were going to be a writer or a poet or something.
GEORGE
White with anger now That’s nobody’s business. That’s nobody’s business but my own.
TOM
Well, listen. He said, “The boy’s got to brace up or I’ll fire him.” And then, George, they began talking about Seth. I never heard better words said about a boy — never. “You don’t see him hanging around with a lot of no-accounts,” they said. Then Will Graves spoke up and talked about the five hundred dollars Seth’s got saved.
GEORGE
Jumping up, walks across the room, then returns and sits at the table Is that all you came here to talk to me about?
TOM
Shouting and banging the table with his fists No! Now you listen to me. Will Graves was talking. He said something about you hanging around Belle Carpenter’s millinery shop. Is that true? Are you getting mixed up with that woman — that, that whore? George, just any one can get her.
GEORGE
Springing to his feet and facing his father That’s a lie! Doctor Reefy told me.... Well, anyway it’s a lie. And she isn’t a whore either.
TOM
Slightly frightened Well, all right. If — it’s — a — lie. — But, George, I’m not gonna stand for any more nonsense. You gotta brace up. Remember you’re a Willard. By God! You gotta brace up.
ELIZABETH WILLARD comes into the room from the left and crosses the stage behind the father and son. They do not notice her. She stands near the coat rack at the back of the stage left listening. In one hand she holds a piece of cloth which she evidently has been sewing and in the other she carries a pair of long scissors, TOM WILLARD keeps on talking George — I want you to be what you can be... a Willard... a big man — a rich man — I want you to be rich — rich — the biggest, richest man in the state. You can do it, George — with the blood you got in you. I don’t want you to have my handicap. George �
� there’s some other blood you’ve got in you — you’ve got to watch out.
GEORGE WILLARD seems about to spring on his father
GEORGE
What — what’s that!
The father and son stand facing each other — the son, now aroused, white and angry. Suddenly TOM loses his nerve. His eyes turn away from his son and, in looking up, he sees ELIZABETH. He loses all his bluster. For a moment he looks into the eyes of his wife, frightened and uncertain. The son is still unaware of the mother s presence, TOM’S voice suddenly goes weak
TOM
Well — er — all right, all right, I’ll talk to you again — good-by, George.
With a queer dog-like movement he exits right, keeping his eyes on ELIZABETH, GEORGE watches him, amazed by the change that has come over him. The father exits and GEORGE drops again into his chair, and lets his face drop into his hand. He sits dejected and frightened, while by the wall the mother is trying to brace herself. When she has gained control of herself she goes softly out right but immediately enters again
ELIZABETH
Good afternoon, George. How are you?
GEORGE Jumping to his feet. He is nervous and excited Why, mother! Come in...
He runs nervously toward his mother and places a chair at his desk under the light facing the audience Come in, mother — I’m glad to see you. Sit down — sit down...
He goes hesitating and uncertain to sit by his desk. ELIZABETH does not sit at the desk but in the chair by the katrack It’s a nice day out, isn’t it, mother? It’s nice and warm after the rain.
ELIZABETH
Yes, George.
She is looking hard at him and he becomes frightened. To relieve the tension he begins walking about the room
GEORGE
Father was just in here. He just left. Did you hear him? Did you hear what he said?
ELIZABETH Smiling to reassure him Why no, George. You see I just came in. What is it? What did he say?
GEORGE Immediately relieved Oh, I guess it was nothing, mother. It was just his talk. It upset me a little.
ELIZABETH
Upset you, George?
GEORGE
Growing more confident Yes, oh, mother — it’s the way he talks.
ELIZABETH
Oh, I see! You and your father have been talking? He’s been advising you no doubt. Don’t you agree with him, George? You know what he wants you to be like. Don’t you think you’d better wake up? I guess I know how he feels. You’re too mopey and dreamy. Is that what you and your father think?
Complete Works of Sherwood Anderson Page 306