Читать книгу Children's Classics in Dramatic Form, A Reader for the Fourth Grade - Augusta Stevenson - Страница 14

TIME: two hours later. PLACE: the old farmhouse.

THE GOODMAN.

HIS WIFE.

[Enter the GOODMAN, carrying the sack. The WIFE waits for him in the spare room, because he has been away.]

GOODMAN. Well, Wife, I've made the exchange.

WIFE. Ah, well, you always understand what you're about.

GOODMAN. I got a cow in exchange for the horse.

WIFE. Good! Now we shall have plenty of milk and butter and cheese on the table. That was a fine exchange!

GOODMAN. Yes, but I changed the cow for a sheep.

WIFE. Ah, better still! We have just enough grass for a sheep.—Ewe's milk and cheese! Woolen jackets and stockings! The cow could not give all those. How you think of everything!

GOODMAN. But I changed the sheep for a goose.

WIFE. Then we shall have roast goose to eat this year. You dear Goodman, you are always thinking of something to please me!

GOODMAN. But I gave away the goose for a fowl.

WIFE. A fowl? Well, that was a good exchange. The fowl will lay eggs and hatch them. We shall soon have a poultry-yard. Ah, this is just what I was wishing for!

GOODMAN. Yes, but I exchanged the fowl for a sack of rotten apples.

WIFE. My dear, good husband! Now, I'll tell you something. Do you know, almost as soon as you left me this morning, I began thinking of what I could give you nice for supper. I thought of bacon with eggs and sweet herbs.

GOODMAN. But we have no sweet herbs.

WIFE (nodding). For that reason, I went over to our neighbor's and begged her to lend me a handful.

GOODMAN. That was right; they have plenty.

WIFE (nodding). So I thought, but she said, "Lend? I have nothing to lend, not even a rotten apple." Now I can lend her ten or the whole sackful. It makes me laugh to think of it. I am so glad.

GOODMAN. So you think what I did was right?

WIFE. What the Goodman does is always right.