Читать книгу Children's Classics in Dramatic Form, A Reader for the Fourth Grade - Augusta Stevenson - Страница 7

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TIME: yesterday noon. PLACE: a high tree in a grove.

MADAM CROW.

MISS CROW, her Daughter.

MASTER FOX.

[MADAM CROW sits in the tree. Enter MISS CROW. She carries a large piece of cheese in her mouth.]

MADAM. O joy! O joy! Come, dear daughter, come! We'll dine as if we were queen and princess!

[Miss Crow flies to Madam Crow. Enter MASTER FOX.]

FOX. I bid you good morning, dear madam.

MADAM. Good morning to you, dear sir.

FOX (sitting under tree). With your permission, I'll speak with your daughter.

MADAM. She'll be pleased to listen, that she will—you are so clever.

FOX (modestly). Nay, madam, not so clever, only thoughtful.

[He sighs deeply twice.]

MADAM. You have something on your mind.

FOX (sighing). Yes, dear madam—I am thinking of your daughter.

MADAM. Then speak! Speak now, sir!—at once, sir!

FOX. I speak. O sweet Miss Crow, how beautiful your wings are!

MADAM (pleased). Do you hear that, daughter?

[Miss Crow nods, spreading her wings proudly.]

FOX. I speak again. How bright your eye, dear maid! How graceful your neck!

MADAM. Bend your neck, child! Now bend it well that he may better see your grace.

[Miss Crow bends neck twice.]

FOX. But oh, that such a sweet bird should be dumb!—should be so utterly dumb!

[He weeps gently in his little pocket handkerchief.]

MADAM (indignantly). Do you think, sir, she cannot caw as well as the rest of us?

FOX. I must think so, dear madam. Alas!

[Weeping again in his little pocket handkerchief.]

MADAM. You shall think so, then, no longer! Caw, child, caw, as you have never cawed before!

MISS CROW (opening mouth; dropping cheese). Caw! Caw!

[Fox quickly snaps up the cheese.]

FOX (going). Thank you, Miss Crow. Remember, dear madam, that whatever I said of her beauty, I said nothing of her brains.

[He goes, waving the crows a farewell with his little pocket handkerchief.]