Lindblom Fall Play 2017

Dark of the Moon

By Howard Richardson
& William Berney
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CAST OF CHARACTERS

John/Witch Boy-
Barbara Allen-
Witch 1-
Witch 2-
Conjur Woman-
Conjur Man-
Preacher Haggler-
Mr. Allen-
Mrs. Allen-
Marvin Hudgens-
Hank Gudger-
Edna Summey-
Mr. Summey-
Mrs. Summey-
Miss Metcalf-
Josie Atkins-
Uncle Smelicue-
Floyd Allen-
Mr. Bergen-
Mrs. Bergen-
Burt Dinwitty-
Greeny Gorman-

Act One

Scene 1. The Peak of a Ridge in the Smoky Mountains

Scene 2. The Central Square of Buck Creek
Scene 3. Outside the Allen Cabin on Chunky Gal Mountain
Scene 4. The General Store of Buck Creek

Act Two

Scene 1. A Clearing in the Woods

Scene 2. Barbara and John’s Cabin
Scene 3. The Mountain Ridge
Scene 4. The Church in Buck Creek
Scene 5. The Mountain Ridge
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ACT ONE

Act 1, Scene 0

A mountainside. Movement sequence. Barbara Allen is wandering on the mountain in the

moonlight. John appears and watches her. He comes toward her and they move in dance-like
unison, drawn to each other. They embrace in a strange, lovely ritualistic sort of courtship.
Then, just as quickly and mysteriously as he appeared, John retreats and vanishes leaving
Barbara staring into the distance as though in a trance.

Act 1, Scene 1

The scene is at the peak of a ridge in the Smoky Mountains. From the darkness can be seen
the silhouette of a large tree rising gnarled and twisted against a windswept, cloudy sky.
Offstage is heard the voice of a young man calling.

JOHN: Conjur Man? Is you here, Conjur Man? (Over the top of the crag he emerges from the
darkness.) Conjur Man!

CONJUR MAN (from the darkness): Who that?

JOHN: It jes’ me, Conjur Man.

CONJUR MAN: What me?

JOHN: John.

CONJUR MAN (coming into view. He is as old and broken as the tree): What you doin’ here,
witch boy? You ain’t got no cause fer a-strayin’.

JOHN: But I got to see you, Conjur Man. I got to ast you somethin’.

CONJUR MAN: You got nothin’ to ast me that you don’t know the answer.

JOHN: I come a long way to see you and that ain’t no way to treat me.

CONJUR MAN: How fur you come don’t differ. It still no.
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JOHN: Listen to me, Conjur Man. If you do this thing I ast, I swear to pay you anythin’ you want.
Make me into a human!

CONJUR MAN: Whar yer eagle, witch boy, yer eagle you been ridin’?

JOHN: Don’t call me witch boy. My name John.

CONJUR MAN: John er witch don’t make no never mind. You left yer eagle on Old Baldy?

JOHN: I walked here. I kin walk like anybody.

CONJUR MAN: Like anybody not a witch. I reckon’s what you mean.

JOHN: Like anybody, witch er no witch.

CONJUR MAN: Yer eagle must be lonesome up on Old Baldy--alone on Old Baldy. It dark and it
cold.

JOHN: He kin git along without me. He’ll have to larn to anyway.

CONJUR MAN: And kin you larn it too, witch boy, larn to git along without eagles and sech? It
mighty hard a-walkin’, walkin’ all the time, with no way to fly.

JOHN: But it don’t differ, Conjur Man, not to them it don’t. Not to them what’s never flied.

CONJUR MAN: But you ain’t like them, witch boy. You ain’t like the valley people.

JOHN: Thar ain’t so much difference atween us.

CONJUR MAN: Thar more difference than you know. They got souls and go to heaven. They
gits born, and live and die.

JOHN: I was born too, Conjur Man. And I’m gonna die.

CONJUR MAN: No, you ain’t gonna die, witch boy. You jes’ like all the other witches. You git
jes’ three hundred years, and then you nothin’ but mountain fog.

JOHN: I ain’t like the other witches. I done lots a things that’s human.

CONJUR MAN: What things, witch boy?

JOHN: Things like lovin’.

CONJUR MAN: But yer pappy was a buzzard, and yer ma was a witch.

JOHN: It don’t make no never mind. You could change me, Conjur man. You say yerself you
could change me like them others in the valley, with them souls that go to heaven.
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CONJUR MAN: But what fer you want to, witch boy? You don’t know the thing you ast. It ain’t
easy bein’ human. It jes’ workin’ all the time, workin’ in the field with a mule and a plow.

JOHN: I know what it like. I seen ‘em. Workin’ ain’t so hard. And thar’s dancin’, and thar’s
guitars, and thar’s singin’ in the church.

CONJUR MAN: What you doin’ in the church, boy? You a witch, and that one place whar you
ain’t allowed.

JOHN: I jes’ stood thar at the winder lookin’ at the folks inside. Ain’t no harm in standin’
watchin’. ‘Tain’t no harm in that.

CONJUR MAN: You keep away from that church, boy. ‘Tain’t no place fer witches to hang
around. Even if I made you human, that one place you couldn’t never go.

JOHN: I could go thar if I wanted. I could go be sanctified.

CONJUR MAN: Witch boy, listen at me talkin’. Witches can’t be changed completely. Thar’s
allus somethin’ ‘bout the witch they wunst was that’s left inside ‘em. That thar somethin’ can’t be
changed. It lies sleepin’ thar inside ‘em, sleepin’ and a-dreamin’ a the days he was a witch, and
thar jes’ one thing that wake him, and that the Lord Gawd Jesus.

(Witch 1 appears and listens)

JOHN: I ain’t skeerd a no Gawd Jesus. I ain’t got no truck with him.

(Witch 2 appears and the two witches laugh derisively)

JOHN: What you doin’ here?

WITCH 1: Jes’ watchin’.

JOHN: This ain’t got nothin’ to do with you. Listen at me, Conjur Man, if you do thing thing I ast
you, if you make me into jes’ a plain man--

WITCH 2: You want to leave us, witch boy? You tired a the moonlight?

CONJUR MAN: I done said no wunst and I say it again. Now leave me be, and don’t come
messin’ round here more. You a witch and a witch you’ll stay.

CONJUR WOMAN (offstage): What that out thar, Conjur Man? Who that out thar with you
makin’ all that fuss?

CONJUR MAN: It jes’ John the witch boy.

CONJUR WOMAN (coming into view): What he want?

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WITCH 1: He been astin’ Conjur Man to change him.

WITCH 2: He tired a bein’ a witch.

JOHN: I want to be a human. I been astin’ and a-astin’, but he still say no.

CONJUR WOMAN: You ain’t ast me yet.

CONJUR MAN: Old lady, I’m a-tellin’ you. Don’t start no truck with witches.

CONJUR WOMAN: You ain’t ast me yet, witch boy.

JOHN: Would you do it, Conjur Woman?

CONJUR WOMAN: I might could be persuaded, but it mighty hard to do.

CONJUR MAN: Now old lady--

CONJUR WOMAN: Hesh yer talkin’.

CONJUR MAN (starting offstage): Don’t say I didn’t warn you, witch boy. Bein’ human aint so
easy as ridin’ on the night. (exits)

There is a peal of thunder

JOHN: You really mean it, what you said about me bein’ human?

CONJUR WOMAN: Witch boy, tell me somethin’. Have you ever been in love?

WITCH 1: I reckon he has, Conjur Woman.

CONJUR WOMAN: I don’t mean in love with witches. I mean with someone human.

JOHN: Human. Yeah, she’s human.

CONJUR WOMAN: So that the real reason. It’s hard to go a-courtin’ a gal when you a witch.

JOHN: That ain’t the only reason, but I reckon it the main one.

CONJUR WOMAN: And what the gal’s name, witch boy John?

JOHN: Her name Barbara. Barbara Allen. Bright-eyed Barbara Allen, with the sweet smile.

CONJUR WOMAN: (laughing ribaldly) She’s jes’ the gal fer you to be a-courtin’!
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JOHN: But I love her, Conjur Woman. The first time I seed her, she were climbin’ up the
mountain and the sun were in her hair. I were on my eagle, and I sailed low for to see her. I
knowed I hadn’t oughta, but she the purtiest gal I reckon that thar is.

WITCH 1: She ain’t purty. It jes’ you that think so.

JOHN: She purty all right. I ‘low I should know. I kissed her.

(The witches and the Conjur Woman laugh).

CONJUR WOMAN: A witch boy kissin’ a gal what’s human! And that warn’t the only thing you
done.

JOHN: I reckon not. Not a ward we said atween us, but it warn’t no time fer talkin’. The light
shone on her hair and her skin was warm from the sun. But it was starlight afore I let her go.

WITCH 1: You’ll be sorry, witch boy. (exits)

WITCH 2: You’ll be sorry. (exits)

CONJUR WOMAN: Witch boy, I know more ‘about this that you’ll ever know.

JOHN: What you know that I don’t?

CONJUR WOMAN: I know that Barbara Allen gonna birth yer child.

(There is a terrible rumble of thunder.)

JOHN: Then you gotta make me human! I’ll do anything you ast me.

CONJUR WOMAN: What about them witch gals? They might make trouble.

JOHN: It don’t differ with me.

CONJUR WOMAN: I think you need some larnin’, witch boy, you need to larn a lesson. So I’ll
give you yer wish. But you got to promise somethin’.

JOHN: Anythin’ you ast me.

CONJUR WOMAN: You got to make Barbara Allen yer wife.

JOHN: Is that all I gotta promise?

CONJUR WOMAN: That all.

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JOHN: then I’ll be human. No more ridin’ with my eagle in the moonlight. No more diggin’ in the
graveyard, no more yellin’ in the night and a-screamin’ with a long high cry that splashes ‘gainst
the stars!

CONJUR WOMAN: But yer eagle, he’ll still be thar waitin’ fer you--waitin’ and a-longin’ fer the
night when you come back. You’ll miss the moonlight. As long as you’re a human you’ll never
see the moon. You’ll get so sick and tired of earth.

JOHN: That time’ll never come. I kin live without the moon.

CONJUR WOMAN: We’ll see. (begins to leave)

JOHN: But you’ll change me fer allus, won’t you? Wunst you’re a human thar ain’t no turnin’
back.

CONJUR WOMAN: That depend on Barbara Allen. She gotta be true to you, boy, faithful fer a
year. Wunst yer married, if that gal go off with another man, you’ll find yer eagle flyin’ down from
Baldy in the moonlight, fer you’ll be a witch agin!

JOHN: She shore a purty gal--Barbara.

CONJUR WOMAN: Are you ready for the changin’, witch boy?

JOHN: I reckon, Conjur Woman.

CONJUR WOMAN: It ain’t easy changin’ witches. It the hardest thing I know. It takes spider
webs and graveyard dirt, and a ring from the finger of a cold, dead hand.

JOHN: I kin git ‘em. Conjur Woman. I know whar I can find ‘em. I’ll git ‘em and you’ll change
me, and I’ll be a witch no more!

(There is a flash of lightening, accompanied by a crack of thunder, and as the lightening fades,
the stage goes black with it.)
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Act 1, Scene 2

Central square of Buck Creek, prepared for the Saturday night dance. There are several groups
of early arrivals, laughing and exchanging greetings. Uncle Smelicue is tuning his guitar.
Snatches of conversation can be heard.
Song here.

HANK: (as Miss Metcalf enters). Howdy, Miss Metcalf, Glad to see you out.

MISS METCALF: Howdy. (She crosses to shake hands with BURT)

BURT: It the damp weather I reckon that’s been keeping you a’beddin’ it.

MISS METCALF: I reckon, Mr. Dinwitty, and it look like rain tonight. (There is a flash of lighting)

SMELICUE: Well, I decore afore goodness, Miz Summey. Ain’t seed you sinst dogwood
bloomin’ time.

MRS. SUMMEY: Well, ain’t been stirrin’ about much. Feeling kinda puny.

SMELICUE: You lookin’ well.

MRS. SUMMEY: Well, I don’t feel so well. Ain’t felt right smart fer nigh on two year.

GREENY (entering): Howdy, Floyd Allen. Is thar room fer me on the wagon?

FLOYD: I reckon. Ain’t you gonna do no dancin’?

GREENY: No, I’m jes a-settin’ tonight.

(There is a rumble of thunder)

JOSIE: Gawd, listen to that thunder! It’s be a plumb shame iffen we can’t have the dance.

HANK: It’d be a shame alright, and that a fact.

MRS. BERGEN: Howdy, Uncle Smelicue. You lookin spry. Heerd tell as how you was tuckered
up with rheumatism.

SMELICUE: My rheumatism’s kinda calmed down sinst I been totin’ them horse chestnuts
around in my pocket.

MRS. BERGEN: Is that a fact?

SMELICUE: A fact afore Gawd. Hope this here storm don’t start it up again.

(Flash of lighting, followed by thunder)

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EDNA: It ain’t a goin’ to storm. I kin tell it by the sky. That jes’ heat lightin’.

JOSIE: But heat lightin’ don’t thunder. It ain’t no natural night fer a dance.

MRS. BERGEN: You right thar, Josie Atkins. Like I said to my husband, it more like a night for
witches to fly.

MR. BERGEN: Don’t you go startin’ on that, Gabby Bergen. That ain’st no way fer a Christian to
talk.

MRS. BERGEN: That the way I feel about it. Why Greeny Gorman! Whar you been?

GREENY: Been over to Possum Holler for a fortnight.

MR. BERGEN: How’s the young uns over thar?

MR. SUMMEY: How are you, Uncle Smelicue? Heerd yer cousin Emma married a right well-to-
do man.

(BARBARA and MARVIN come in, greeting those they meet).

SMELICUE: Mebbe so; but she still milkin’ cows and totin’ manure in the field.

MARVIN: You shore is purty tonight, Miss Barbara. You shore is purty in that dress.

BARBARA: I’m glad you like it, Marvin Hudgens. It were a gift from a friend I know.

MARVIN: You ain’t tuck no clothes off that Rome Agar?

BARBARA: I might could be.

MARVIN: Don’t you be lettin’ that man mess with you.

BARBARA: But Rome Agar is a friend of mine. ‘Sides, I didn’t say it were him, did I? (She
laughs, teasing him and throws her scarf at him).

FLOYD: It nigh ready for the dancin’.

MR. SUMMEY: Let’s have a song afore we start.

GROUP ADLIB: Yes, let’s have a song. Let’s have a song from Barbara Allen. A song Barbara.
Sing us a song. Etc…

MISS METCALF: Sing us your song, the one about Barbara and the witch boy.

BARBARA: But that’s a sad song. I allus like the gay ones best.
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BURT: But it a purty song, Barbara Allen.

JOSIE: I reckon it about as purty a song as I know.

MISS METCALF: It allus makes me want to cry.

BARBARA: Well, it don’t me. Any gal what can’t take care a herself has it comin’ to her, I say.

EDNA: I reckon you have, Barbara Allen.

BARBARA: But I kin take care of myself, Edna Summey. I kin take care of myself right fine.

EDNA: But you ain’t got a husband, a man fer to marry you. You ain’t got no feller to make you
a bride.

MRS. SUMMEY: Hesh yer mouth, Edna Summey.

EDNA: But Ma, it the truth.

MRS. SUMMEY: Barbara git married when she a-ready.

EDNA: But it better be soon, Ma. It better be soon.

(BARBARA starts towards EDNA, but MARVIN stops her just as HANK and MRS. SUMMEY
pull EDNA back).

BURT: Floyd Allen, you gonna let that gal talk about yore sister like that?

FLOYD: I can’t help it if what she say is true.

EDNA: She better git married quick.

BARBARA: I’ll git married when I got a mind to. I kin name me the man, the time, and the place.
You kin come to the weddin’.

EDNA: I reckon I ain’t got that long fer to live. You kin pleasure yerself every night if you want to,
pleasure yourself on a sweet potato bank, but that ain’t no sign that the man’s fer to marry you.

BARBARA: I reckon it might could be, Edna Summey.

EDNA: Well, it better be quick afore you’re disgraced by beddin’ a bastard.

(BARBARA flies at her and the two start fighting. MARVIN, BURT, HANK and MRS. SUMMEY
separate them).

MRS. SUMMEY: Shet yer face, Edna Summey. (She slaps Edna)
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EDNA: Ma! That hurt!

MRS. SUMMEY: That’s jes’ a start of what you’ll git if you don’t mind yer tongue.

EDNA: But Ma, it the truth. Why, everybody know the truth about Barbara Allen.

MRS. SUMMEY: This here a dance you at, Edna Summey, so you mind yer manners when you
talk.

MISS METCALF: Ain’t you gonna sing us the song, Barbara?

GROUP ADLIB: Yes, sing us the song, Barbara. Go ahead Barbara. Etc…

SMELICUE: You sing fer us and I’ll dance at yer weddin’ in the hog trough.

EDNA: She can’t sing nohow, can’t sing fer sour apples.

BARBARA: Is that so? Well, I guess I kin. Come on, Uncle Smelicue. I’ll sing. (SMELICUE
strums a cord or two and BARBARA sings).

A witch boy from the mountain came,

A-pinin’ to be human,
Fer he had seen the fairest gal--
A gal named Barbara Allen.
O Conjur Man, O Conjur Man,
Please do this thing I’m wantin’--
Please change me to a human man,
Fer Barbara I’d be courtin’.
Now Barbara had a red, red dress,
And she had one of blue,
And many men did Barbara love,
But never was she true.
Oh, you can be a man, a man
If Barbara will not grieve you,
If she be faithful fer a year,
Yer eagle, he will leave you

(JOHN comes onstage, unnoticed by the crowd, and watches her).

O Barbara, will you marry me,

And will you leave me never?

(JOHN moves closer to her, still unnoticed. She suddenly stops signing.)

MR. SUMMEY: What’s the matter, Barbara Allen?

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BARBARA: Nothin’.

(People notice JOHN, whose eyes are glued to BARBARA).

MR. BERGEN: Go on, sing it, Barbara.

BARBARA: I don’t wanta.

SMELICUE: It bad luck not to finish a song.

GROUP: Adlib agreement: That’s right. It’s bad luck. Etc…

BARBARA:I fergit it. I can’t remember the endin’. Let’s dance.

SMELICUE: Git yore partners, everybody. All jine hands and here we go!

(The group falls silent as JOHN walks up to BARBARA whose hands MARVIN is holding).

JOHN: Kin I be yore partner?

MARVIN: Barbara Allen’s dancin’ with me.

JOHN: Kin I be yore partner, Barbara Allen?

MARVIN: You heered what I said.

JOHN: But I didn’t ast you.

MARVIN: I reckon you don’t know who you a-talkin’ to.

JOHN: I reckon I don’t, and I don’t much care.

MARVIN: I’m Marvin Hudgens.

JOHN: (eyes still on Barbara) Glad to meet you.

MARVIN: Ain’t you never heerd of me?

JOHN: Can’t say I have, Mister Hudgens.

MARVIN: I’m the strongest man in this here county. There ain’t a man in this county can rassle
with me.

GROUP: Adlib agreement.

JOHN: But I ain’t from this county, Marvin Hudgens. I ain’t from this county, so that don’t include
me.
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MARVIN: I reckon you astin’ fer trouble.

JOHN: I could be.

MARVIN: Well, you come to the right place to find it. I’m a-telling’ you, Barbara’s my gal and
she dancin’ with me.

MISS METCALF: Now this here a dance, and we don’t want no trouble.

MARVIN: Git on out and leave us be.

JOHN: I’m a stayin’ right here and I’m a-dancin’ with Barbara Allen.

MARVIN: I’ll give you three to git you gone. I’ll give you three and then I’ll whop you so hard you
think the lightnin’ struck you.

(There is a flash of lightning, followed by thunder, and the crowd laughs.)

JOHN: I’m a-waitin fer you, Marvin Hudgens.

MARVIN: ONE!

MR. SUMMEY: You think he’ll stay?

MISS METCALF: He look a powerful man.

MR. SUMMEY: But he don’t know Marvin.

JOHN: I’m a-waitin’.

MARVIN: TWO!

MRS. BERGEN: This here are better’n a country fair.

MISS METCALF: But I feel right sorry for the stranger.

BARBARA: He kin take care a hisself, I reckon.

JOHN: You ain’t fergot what come after two?

MARVIN: You lilly-livered mule mouth! The number is three!

(MARVIN rushes at JOHN. As he raises his arm, JOHN touches it and there is a brilliant flash of
lighting. As it fades, MARVIN has fallen, and starts dazedly to get up.)

JOSIE: Why, he didn’t hardly tetch him!

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BURT: Git up thar, Marvin. Git up and show him who you are.

MR. BERGEN: What the matter, Marvin Hudgens?

EDNA: Stranger jes’ too stout, I reckon.

MISS METCALF: Why, he didn’t whop him at all!

JOHN: I’m a-waitin fer you, Marvin Hudgens. I’m a-waitin’ fer yer promise.

MARVIN: You don’t rassle fair. (He staggers to his feet).

BURT: You ain’t gonna let him take yer gal, are you, Marvin? Why don’t you pop him one in the
haid?

MARVIN: I’m gittin’ out a here.

BURT: But the dance ain’t started yit.

MARVIN: I ain’t figgerin’ on dancin’. (He pushes through the crowd and exits).

MISS METCALF: No need to start dancin’, if it goin’ to rain right off.

MR. BERGEN: It has got real dark. Thar a storm a-comin’ shore.

(JOHN is walking slowly toward BARBARA).

EDNA: The clouds is mean and dark-like. This ain’t no night fer dancin’.

JOSIE: It jes’ like the night Agnes Riddle were kilt.

HANK: It the Gawd’d truth, Miss Atkins. It were plumb like this. The clouds was low on the
mountain, and a hoot owl was a-screechin’.

(JOHN has reached BARBARA and lifts his hand to stroke her hair.)

MRS. BERGEN: It shore a night fer witches to fly.

MISS METCALF: Don’t talk about it. It make me feel quare.

JOSIE:: Let’s start the dancin’.

GROUP ADLIB: Yes, let’s begin. Start the music. Let’s go. Etc…

(The group partners up, BARBARA and JOHN as partners. Music begins and couples dance.
After several moments, there is a big flash of lightning).
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MISS METCALF: It startin’ to rain.

JOSIE: I knowed that warn’t jes’ heat lightin’.

MRS. SUMMEY: It in fer a storm.

MR. SUMMEY: Come on, Ma. Let’s git into the store. Edna, hurry up.

(All of the group stop dancing and depart for shelter except JOHN and BARBARA who are still
dancing, oblivious to everyone else around them. BARBARA finally stops).

BARBARA: Why is all the others goin’?

JOHN: I reckon they think it a-rainin’.

BARBARA: But it ain’t rainin’--not on us. I ain’t even wet a bit.

JOHN: That cause you and me was dancin’.

BARBARA: I reckon I don’t even know yore name.

JOHN: But we met afore, Barbara Allen. The night the wind came up and the moon went dark.
Remember?

BARBARA: I remember. And thar ain’t no moon tonight.

JOHN: And thar a wind. My name John.

BARBARA: John what?

JOHN: Jes’ John.

BARBARA: John, all right. Jes’ like the ballad.

JOHN: I reckon I don’t know that.

BARBARA: It jes’ a song. Song I was singin’.

JOHN: But you stopped.

BARBARA: It a sad song. I like the gay ones best.

JOHN: It don’t have to be sad. You never know the endin’ till it sung plumb through.

BARBARA: Then we’ll make it a gay one, and sing our own endin’. (There is a loud crash of
lightning and BARBARA clings to JOHN). Im skeerd! I’m skeered a lightin’!
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JOHN: You ain’t got no need a fear. Cause I love you, Barbara Allen. I’m a man, and you a
woman, and we got at least a year. (He kisses her as the lightening flashes and the lights go to
black.)
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Act 1, Scene 3

Outside the Allen cabin on Chunky Gal Mountain. There is a table and a few chairs. Floyd Allen,
a boy of 15 is strumming his guitar.

MRS. ALLEN: Floyd Allen! You slopped them hawgs yit?

FLOYD: No, Ma. I’m busy.

MRS. ALLEN: You better git to them hawgs, boy, afore it git dark.

FLOYD: Seem like hawgs git it mighty easy. Be glad when it hawg-killin’ time.

MRS. ALLEN: The signs ain’t right yit, son. Got to slop the hawgs till the signs git right.

FLOYD: But it already frost, Ma.

MRS. ALLEN: That don’t make no never mind. Scorpio ain’t outen his eighth house yit, and the
zodiac don’t lie. (She begins churning milk).

FLOYD: Social worker say the almanac don’t know.

MRS. ALLEN: Social worker say a heap aside her prayers. She edicated. Whar yer pa?

FLOYD: He out in the back house.

MRS. ALLEN: Tell him I wants to see him when he through.

(FLOYD exits).

MRS. ALLEN: You git them hawgs slopped proper now, boy.

MR. ALLEN: (Entering with a shotgun). Seem like jes’ can’t git nobody to marry Barbara.

MRS. ALLEN: Did you git a chanst to see Marvin Hudgens today?

MR. ALLEN: I seed him up at Chunky Gal Gap.

MRS. ALLEN: Didn’t you tell him he ought to marry Barbara?

MR. ALLEN: Shore. We argued some, and then he promised me a mule if I’d let him out of it.

MRS. ALLEN: He say he give you he good mule, Sally?

MR. ALLEN: Yep. He figgered as how that ought to make things square.

MRS. ALLEN: But he wouldn’t marry her.

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MR. ALLEN: He figgered as how a mule ought to be worth about as much as a son-in-law.

MRS. ALLEN: Well, what about Rome Agar?

MR. ALLEN: I seed him at the general store in Buck Creek.

MRS. ALLEN: He ain’t got no mule.

MR. ALLEN: No, but he give me eight dollar. That a lot of money.

MRS. ALLEN: Jes’ seem like it more trouble than it worth to try to keep a reputation.

MR. ALLEN: If Barbara’d jes’ make an effort to git herself a man.

MRS. ALLEN: It seem like somethin’ allus stand in the way. Yep, it look like Barbara’ll have to
bed a bastard. Gawd knows I told her it were bound to happen. You can’t pleasure yerself
ferever without gittin’ caught.

(FLOYD enters)

FLOYD: Preacher Haggler comin’ up the trail.

MRS. ALLEN: He ain’t got no cause to be a-callin’ on us.

MR. ALLEN: He a man a Gawd, Ma. He got his reasons.

FLOYD: I reckon he here fer to see about Barbara. Reckon he wants her to git sanctified.

MRS. ALLEN: She been washed in the blood a the heavenly Lamb.

MR. ALLEN: Seem that ought to last her a spell.

(Preacher Haggler enters)

HAGGLER: Howdy, Sister Allen.

MRS. ALLEN: Howdy, Preacher Haggler, howdy.

HAGGLER: Howdy, Brother Allen.

MR. ALLEN: Howdy, Preacher Haggler. Draw up a chair and set a spell.

HAGGLER: Don’t mind as how I do. (He sits).

MR. ALLEN: Son, get the preacher a nip of moonshine. It fresh out’n the still a week come
Wednesday. Best corn licker I make this year.
 20

(FLOYD gets a jug and passes it to HAGGLER, who drinks.)

HAGGLER: Brother Allen, I always say, there ain’t a man in the church can make moonshine as
good as you. Brother Allen, how about a little drop for you?

MR. ALLEN: I could be persuaded, Preacher. I could be persuaded. (He takes the jug and
drinks).

MRS. ALLEN: It sure do my heart good to see a man enjoy his corn.

MR. ALLEN: Ma, how about you?

MRS. ALLEN: Well, just a little maybe, being it’s so fine. (She drinks)

HAGGLER: Take a long one, Sister. It make the talk flow easy.

FLOYD: Ma, can I have some too?

MRS. ALLEN: You too young, boy.

HAGGLER: A drop now and then won’t hurt the boy, I reckon. It the best thing for a-cleansin’ of
the blood.

FLOYD: Can I, Ma?

MRS. ALLEN: Well, I reckon, bein’s how the preacher don’t make no never mind.

(FLOYD takes the jug and drinks deeply).

MR. ALLEN: That enough son. You’ll burn out your gut.

HAGGLER: Well, now, I’ll tell you what I come fer. I’m a pastor, Sister Allen, and I looks after my
flock.

MR. ALLEN: It the Gawd’s truth, Lawd.

MRS. ALLEN: There ain’t a better preacher in the whole Smoky Mountains. Wunst you git
started on fire and damnation, seem like hell itself jes’ rise right outen the ground. Thar ain’t a
sinner in the vally kin sit and listen to you without gittin’ the spirit and confessin’ thar shame.

HAGGLER: Whenever I hear of a sheep a mine that’s strayed, I make off to bring it right back to
the Lord.

MRS. ALLEN: You ain’t wrong thar, Preacher.

 21
HAGGLER: Well, I couldn’t hep but hear about the dance last Saturday. Edna Summey should
have shame for the things she said.

MRS. ALLEN: But it were the truth, Preacher Haggler. She hadn’t oughter said it, but it were the
Gawd’s truth.

HAGGLER: I figgered how it was, sinst everbody talkin’. And it made me decide to lend a hepin’
hand.

MRS. ALLEN: It mighty good a you, Preacher.

HAGGLER: It my duty and my pleasure. The thing I wants to do is git Barbara married.

FLOYD: You’ll have a hard time a-doin’ it. I kin tell you that right now.

MRS. ALLEN: Floyd, this ain’t none a yer affair, so git outen the house.

FLOYD: But Ma, I wants to listen.

MRS. ALLEN: You heerd what I done tole you.

FLOYD: She a sister of mine. ‘Sides I know all about her. She gonna bed a bastard.

MR. ALLEN: This here talk private, so do what yer ma says.

FLOYD: Be glad when I git old. Allus gittin’ put out when thar’s fun startin’. (He exits).

HAGGLER: It jes’ as well you tole the boy to git outten the house, cause what I got to tell you
ain’t got no truck with young uns.

MR. ALLEN: What is it, Preacher Haggler?

HAGGLER: Well, I thought a somethin’ fer you. A way to git her married. Thar’s a feller who’s
been hangin’ ‘round, don’t nobody know him.

MRS. ALLEN: You mean the stranger who danced with Barbara the other night?

HAGGLER: That him. Well, I seed him agin this afternoon up by Hawg Back Holler. He ain’t
been here very long, and that’s the man you want.

MR. ALLEN: Whar he from?

HAGGLER: Well now, I don’t know. I ast him right enough, but he say he come from over on
Old Baldy Mountain.

MRS. ALLEN: Why, thar ain’t nobody live up thar.

 22
HAGGLER: I know it, and I told him. But it don’t differ, Sister Allen, if he ain’t from these parts
here.

MR. ALLEN: I ain’t got no truck with furriners.

HAGGLER: But he better’n nobody.

MRS. ALLEN: That right, Preacher.

HAGGLER: Asides, he ain’t had a chanst yit to find out about things.

MRS. ALLEN: And you think he marry Barbara?

HAGGLER: Shore, he marry Barbara. He tole me so hisself. He ast me all about her.

MRS. ALLEN: It’d shore save us a heap a trouble if we could git the gal a husband, and if you
say this man want her--

HAGGLER: He want her.

MRS. ALLEN: Why, that good enough fer me.

MR. ALLEN: Well, it ain’t fer me. You don’t know nothin’ ‘bout him.

MRS. ALLEN: He a right smart-looking’ feller, and the way he whopped Marvin Hudgens were
a sight to see.

MR. ALLEN: Aw, he whop him too easy. He didn’t never tetch him. I was a-standin’ right thar
and I seed the whole fight.

HAGGLER: Well, you’ll git a chanst to see him soon and kin ast him how he done it. He say he
comin’ over to see you tonight. And now I reckon I better be gittin’ on home. Brother. Sister. (He
exits).

MRS. ALLEN: Preacher Haggler a mighty fine man.

MR. ALLEN: Shore a fine feller.

FLOYD : (running on) Pa! Pa! Thar an eagle out thar, Pa. It a-flyin’ low and callin’ I reckon it the
biggest eagle I ever see.

MRS. ALLEN: It after the chickens. DId you shet the henhouse?

FLOYD: Shore I shet it, Ma.

MR. ALLEN: Hand me down my hawg rifle son. I’ll see if I kin git him.
 23
FLOYD: Let me try it, Pa. I’m shore I kin git him.

MR. ALLEN: I said I’d git him, and I don’t me you.

(MR. ALLEN takes the gun which FLOYD has picked up. JOHN enters).

JOHN: I’m lookin’ fer Barbara Allen.

MRS. ALLEN: She ain’t here right now.

JOHN: This here her house, ain’t it?

MRS. ALLEN: I reckon. Won’t you come in a set a spell.

JOHN: I reckon.

MR. ALLEN: Draw you up a char thar by the fire. Barbara be comin’ in purty soon.

FLOYD: Pa, let me shoot the eagle. Please give me the gun.

JOHN: Ain’t no eagle out thar.

FLOYD: But I seed him, Mister.

JOHN: Thar ain’t no eagle out thar. Go back and look.

FLOYD: Kin I take the gun, Pa?

MR. ALLEN: I reckon you kin have her.

(FLOYD takes the gun and runs off. JOHN watches, a little anxiously.)

MR. ALLEN : (calling after FLOYD) But don’t go wastin’ shot lest you sight her fair and true.

MRS. ALLEN: Kin I git you some supper?

JOHN: Well, I am right hungry.

(BARBARA appears, looking after FLOYD. She sees JOHN and comes in)

MR. ALLEN: Whar you been, Barbara?

BARBARA : (to John) What you doin’ here?

JOHN: I come here to ast yer ma and pa a question. I want to ast thar leave to make you my
wife.
 24
MR. ALLEN: But we don’t hardly know you, yer name or whar you come from.

MRS. ALLEN: It don’t make no difference. If Barbara a mind to it, I reckon it all right.

MR. ALLEN: But Ma--

MRS. ALLEN: If Preacher Haggler say it the Lord’s will--

MR. ALLEN: But seem like we ought to tell him what Barbara went and done.

JOHN: I aready know that, Mr. Allen. Preacher Haggler done tole me. But it don’t make no
never mind if Barbara be my wife.

MRS. ALLEN: What you say, gal? Will you have him?

BARBARA: You’ll be takin’ quite a chanst if you marry me.

JOHN: Will you, Barbara Allen? I’m a-waitin’ fer yer answer.

BARBARA: My answer is yes, cause I couldn’t tell you no.

MRS. ALLEN: Well now that right fine. I know you both be happy.

(There is the sound of a shot offstage).

MR. ALLEN: Did you git him, Floyd boy? Did you git the eagle?

FLOYD: (offstage) Naw, he got away, Pa.

JOHN: Tole you that weren’t no eagle out thar.

MRS. ALLEN: Well, I reckon you two got things you want to talk about.

BARBARA: I reckon, Ma.

MRS. ALLEN: Well, we be a-goin’. It gittin’ late nohow.

MR. ALLEN: I ain’t a-goin’ till it time fer bed.

MRS. ALLEN: With yer daughter gittin’ married, you’ll do like I say. Now git on up thar and leave
‘em be. (She pushes MR. ALLEN ahead of her and exits).

JOHN: Barbara!

BARBARA: Yes?

JOHN: I don’t care what the Conjur Woman say, you the purtiest gal in all the world.
 25

BARBARA: The Conjur Woman? You been talkin’ to her?

JOHN: I reckon.

BARBARA: What you messin’ ‘round with her fer?

JOHN: I--I had to ast her to do somethin’ fer me?

BARBARA: Thar ain’t nothin’ she can do fer you, nothin’ that ain’t bad. You got stay clear a
them conjur folks if you and me is married. The blood a the Jesus Lamb give us all the power
we need.

JOHN: No Jesus lamb blood gonna hep me out.

BARBARA: Aint’ you a Christian?

JOHN: I reckon not.

BARBARA: I ain’t never knowed no one who weren’t a Christian afore.

JOHN: You mean you won’t marry me lest I’m washed in the blood?

BARBARA: I didn’t say that, did I? Thar time enough later for you to git salvation. Jes’ so you
love me, that all I ast.

JOHN: I love you, Barbara Allen. I promise you that.

(He takes her in his arms. Lights change. BARBARA freezes in that position. WITCH 1
appears).

WITCH 1: Witch boy! What you doin’ in thar? What you doin’ in a house a humans?

JOHN: I reckon I got my reasons.

(WITCH 2 appears)

WITCH 2: Why you want to be human? Don’t you know you’ll be sorry?

WITCH 1: Conjur Woman jes’ change you to plague you with a trick.

WITCH 2: And yer eagle gittin’ lonesome. You can’t ride the sky without him.

WITCH 1: And I git lonesome, witch boy. I git lonesome, too.

JOHN: Tain’t no affair a mine.

 26
WITCH 1: She ain’t purty! It jes’ you that think so.

WITCH 2: Would you leave us, witch boy? Leave us for a human?

JOHN: I done made up my mind, and thar ain’t no turning back.

(WITCHES exit and lights return to normal. BARBARA unfreezes).

BARBARA: What’s the matter, John boy? You look like you been seein’ witches in the night.

JOHN: I was thinkin’ a some friends--some friends I used to know. They’re fur away now.

BARBARA: I love you, John boy. You kin kiss me if you like.

(JOHN moves in to kiss BARBARA but is interrupted by the entrance of MARVIN HUDGENS.
JOHN steps into the shadows, unseen by MARVIN)

MARVIN: Good evenin’, Barbara Allen. Kin I talk to you a minute?

BARBARA: I reckon.

MARVIN: I been thinkin’ over what yer pa say today, and I figgered as how I made my mind up
too quick.

BARBARA: What Pa been a-telling you?

MARVIN: He ‘lowed as how you and me ought to git married. Now, I ain’t never been averse to
the idea, but I like to do my own courtin’ in my own way and in my own time.

BARBARA: Well, it ain’t none a Pa’s affair.

MARVIN: That’s how I figgered. A fella don’t like to be pushed into nothin’ like that, so I kinda
balked at his tellin’ me what to do. I even promised him my ole mule, Sally, if he’d fergit about it.
But sinst then I been a-thinkin’ things out. I figgered as how I need old Sally right smart, so I
come here to ast you to be my wife.

JOHN: (Coming forward) I’m afraid you jes’ a little too late, Marvin Hudgens. Will you be a-goin’
now, or do you want I should count to three?

MARVIN: I--I’ll be a-goin’ now, if that’s how things is a-standin’.

JOHN: That’s how things is standin’.

(MARVIN exits)

BARBARA: You shore manage him proper, John. I’m mighty proud to marry you.
 27
(JOHN and BARBARA begin to walk together, into the night. The sound of an eagle is heard.
JOHN hesitates and looks up toward the eagle as the lights fade to black.)
 28
Act 1, Scene 4

The general store of Buck Creek. MR. SUMMEY, the owner, is behind a counter. JOSIE
ATKINS and MR. BERGEN are playing checkers, and BURT DINWITTY, is taking an apple
from the barrel. SMELICUE is playing his guitar. FLOYD ALLEN is listening.

Song. During Song HANK wanders in.

HANK: You fellas a-settin’ around and a-singin’ shore prove it gittin’ colder weather.

JOSIE: Yep. It hawg-killin’ time fer shore now. Gormans was a-killin’ a sow this mornin’. Finest
chanst a hawg meat as ever I seed.

MR. BERGEN: Frost come early this year.

SMELICUE: It a bad sign. Front in September, a death afore November.

HANK: Aw, folks is a-dyin’ most any time. (He laughs).

SMELICUE: It ain’t no laughin’ matter son. You hear what I’m a-sayin’. Things is a-happenin’
that ain’t the will a Gawd.

MR. BERGEN: Why, ain’t nothin’ happenin’ without Gawd first a-willin’. All He gotta do is make
up He mind.

SMELICUE: But thar still some several that got the jump on Jesus. They got the powers a
darkness, headin’ straight from hell.

JOSIE: You ain’t wrong thar, Uncle Smelicue.

SMELICUE: Why, Mr. Riddle was a-tellin’ me jes’ last night now he wife wanted back the ring
thar daughter Agnes wore.

JOSIE: The ring with the green stone that shined in the darkness?

MR. BERGEN: The ring Jed Higgins give her afore he cut her throat?

MR. SUMMEY: The ring that got caught and they couldn’t git it off her, so they left it on the
finger a her cold dead hand?

SMELICUE: Well, Mr. Riddle was a-sayin’ as how he wife figgered that by now the hand out to
be shrunk enough to pry it loose.

MR. SUMMEY: But Agnes Riddle buried.

BURT: Grounded in the graveyard, under six feet a dirt.

 29
OTHERS: Under six feet a dirt.

SMELICUE: Well, I reckon they knowed it, but it didn’t differ, so they git them a lantern and a
shovel and a spade and they starts a-digging, in the night time they a-diggin’, diggin’ in the
darkness with jes’ a lantern for light.

JOSIE: And they git to the coffin?

MR. BERGIN: And they git the coffin open?

HANK: And they git the ring with the green ad shinin’ stone?

SMELICUE: Well, they git to the coffin, and they git the coffin open, but the ring it gone, and the
hand chopped off!

OTHERS: The hand chopped off!

SMELICUE: And the face all swollen, and they eyes wide open and starin’, and the hair most all
pulled out by the roots.

HANK: Who coulda done it?

SMELICUE: Twarn’t nobody human.

BURT: You mean it were a witch?

SMELICUE: Ain’t no doubt about it. It were a witch, as shore as the Lord.

ALL ADLIB: It here a witch, all right. It were a witch!

BURT: I’m skeered!

MR. SUMMEY: Why, thar ain’t nothin’ to be skeered about. Ain’t you been saved by the grace a
the Lord Jesus Christ?

BURT: Yeah, but witches are different. They kin conjur folks, and a-chase ‘em and a-hound ‘em
and ride ‘em till they’re dead.

MR. SUMMEY: Then you best be mindin’ what I tell you. Jes’ don’t give ‘em no chanst to git a
holt on you. (MISS METCALF enters). Howdy, Miss Metcalf.

MISS METCALF: Howdy. Mr. Summey, I’d like to look at some calico. Thought I’d use the
wedding fer an excuse to make me a new dress.

MR. SUMMEY: Ella Bergen and Harmon Putnam gittin’ married tomorra. You’ll have to work
real fast to get it made in time.
 30
MISS METCALF: It ain’t that wedding I’m a-talkin’ about.

MR. BERGEN: Why, who else is gettin’ married?

MISS METCALF: Ain’t you heered the news yit. Barbara Allen’s the bride.

FLOYD: Yep, Barbara finally gettin’ married.

JOSIE: So Marvin Hudgens gonna do the right thing.

MISS METCALF: Can’t say he’s a-aimin’ to do the right thing a-tall. It that new fella from over
Baldy way.

HANK: So Barbara gittin’ married.

SMELICUE: No reason why she oughtn’t. How come you ain’t never married, Miss Metcalf? A
fetchin’ woman like you! But I s’pose a man’s hard to git.

MISS METCALF: You right thar, Uncle Smelicue. It hard shore enough, and that’s a fact a
Gawd.

(PREACHER HAGGLER enters.)

HAGGLER: The Lord be with you, brothers and sisters.

ALL: Howdy, Preacher Haggler.

HAGGLER: Floyd Allen, yer ma’s been lookin’ all over fer you. She wants you to git the chores
done afore supper.

FLOYD: Now that Barbara gittin’ married I gotta do all the work. (He exits).

MISS METCALF: Oh, Preacher Haggler, I’d like yore opinion. Which a these calicos’d look
purtiest on me?

HAGGLER: That hard to say, it hard to say. It like gildin’ the lily.

MISS METCALF: Oh, Preacher Haggler!

HAGGLER: You always dress real fancy.

SMELICUE: That what I been a-tellin’ her, Preacher.

HAGGLER: Like the good book say, Solomon in all he glory was not arrayed like one a these.

MISS METCALF: (laughing) Well, I jes’ can’t decide atween this red one and the blue flowers.
 31
HAGGLER: The blue flowers is real purty.

MISS METCALF: Yes, ain’t it now? (To SUMMEY) How much is it?

MR. SUMMEY: I’ll take six yard. (To HAGGLER) The other a little tacky.

(MARVIN HUDGENS strolls in)

HANK: Howdy, Marvin Hudgens. You heered about the weddin’?

MARVIN: Yeah, I heered about the weddin’. What it to you?

HANK: Why, nothin’. Nothin’ a-tall, I reckon. Jes’ seem like someone else is a-carryin’ off yore
gal.

MARVIN: I don’t like the way you talkin’. I coulda had her if I wanted.

SMELICUE: Seem like I heered her pappy say durn nigh the same thing.

MARVIN: Anyway, I coulda married her, and don’t you fergit it!

SMELICUE: Take care, take care, take care!

MARVIN: Asides, I play fair. I don’t have to spell folks to git what I want.

HAGGLER: What you mean, spell?

MARVIN: I ain’t a-sayin’. All I know is what I knows.

MR. BERGEN: He still made about the rasslin’.

JOSIE: But he were beaten fair and square.

MARVIN: I don’t call what he done fair and square. He struck at me with the lightin’.

SMELICUE: Yeah. Lightin’ in both fists.

MARVIN: It were real lightin’ that knocked me over. (JOHN and BARBARA enter and hear next
line). But I could beat him if I tried again.

JOHN: You kin try it, if you wanta. Any time, I’ll be waitin’.

BARBARA: It a right stout man I’m a-marryin’. I reckon he the strongest man in all the valley.

MARVIN: He ain’t as strong as I am--when it come to liftin’ weights.

JOHN: Lemme see you, Marvin Hudgens. Lemme see you do some liftin’.
 32

MARVIN: I kin lift that barrel thar plumb offen the floor. I kin lift it up and hold it high, and not spill
nary a apple.

BURT: Shore you kin, Marvin. Show him how you do it.

MR. SUMMEY: It a mighty heavy barrel.

MARVIN: It don’t differ, not with me. You jes’ give me room and watch.

(The crowd makes a space. Marvin grasps the barrel in his arms and finally lifts and carries it a
few feet with difficulty. The group cheers).

ATKINS: I knowed he could do it.

BURT: Strongest man in this here county.

MARVIN: Well, stranger, you kin try it if you wants.

JOHN: I reckon as how I wants to. You jes’ give me room and watch.

(JOHN goes over to the barrel and easily lifts it with one hand.)

MISS METCALF: Look! It the doin’s a the devil.

HAGGLER: Ain’t that somethin’ else!

MARVIN: What I tell you ‘about spell? (runs out)

BURT: It spelled fer shore! (follows MARVIN).

HANK: He got the powers a darkness.

SMELICUE: Who’d a thunk it!

BARBARA: It a real man I’m a-marryin’.

HAGGLER: I ain’t never seen no man who could do nothin’ like that!

BARBARA: Well, the longer you live the more you larn.

HAGGLER: And when was you plannin’ on gittin’ married?

JOHN: It about that we come to see you Preacher. We figgered the sooner we married the
better.
 33
HAGGLER: There aready one weddin’ in the church tomorra. How about yourn a week from
then?

JOHN: I don’t reckon as how we kin wait that long.

SMELICUE: Claims they can’t wait, hey, Miss Metcalf?

MISS METCALF: Look to me they ain’t waited a-tall.

JOHN: What that you a-sayin’?

MISS METCALF: What I means is, thar ain’t no sense in waitin’ when yer mind’s made up.

JOHN: That’s what we done figgered. So, Preacher, we’d like to git married right away.

HAGGLER: You means you wants to git married today?

JOHN: That the ideer exaclty. We wants to git married today and right now. Can you do it?

HAGGLER: I reckon it might could be arranged. You got to git a permit.

JOHN: Can you git it fer us?

HAGGLER: Got one right here. Two dollar and a half. (Takes a paper out of pocket).

JOHN: I ain’t got no two dollar and a half. That one thing I didn’t figger.

BARBARA: I got the money, John, right here in my pocket. (She takes out money) Here one,
two, two dollar and fifty cent.

HANK: That only fifty cent more’n the price a sin.

SMELICUE: Sinnin’ shore gone sky-high sinst my time.

HAGGLER: This ain’t no time to be speakin’ a the flesh. This here’s legal. Now, all you gotta do
is fill in the spaces.

JOHN: I’m sorry, Preacher Haggler, but I can’t read or write.

HAGGLER: I reckon I kin do it fer you. The first question is, what’s yer name?

JOHN: My name John.

HAGGLER: (writing) John what?

JOHN: Jes’ John.

 34
MISS METCALF: You ain’t a bastard, is you?

JOHN: Well, not exactly.

HAGGLER: You got to have a last name to put on the blank.

JOHN: You can put down--Human! That my name, John Human.

HAGGLER: (writing it) Human. I ain’t never heered that name afore. How old are you?

JOHN: I don’t rightly know.

HAGGLER: I’ll say twenty-three. You got to put down somethin’.

JOHN: I’m twenty-three then. But if things work out, I’ll get eternal life.

HAGGLER: Amen, brother. That a fine way fer a Christian to talk...You been baptized, ain’t
you?

JOHN: Nope, I ain’t never been baptized.

HAGGLER: I pray to Gawd fer the Holly Ghost to move you. We be havin’ a revival in another
month.

MR. SUMMEY: Amen, Preacher Haggler. Holy Ghost’ll git him when you start preachin’ hellfire,
sin and damnation.

SMELICUE: He be right thar on the mourners’ bench, shoutin’ hallelujah and a-callin’ to he
Gawd.

ALL ADLIB: Amen. Praise be his holy name. Hallelujah. Etc…

BARBARA: One thing at a time. Let’s git on with the weddin’. My name Barbara Allen and I’m
nineteen year next month.

SMELICUE: She shore done a heap a livin’ in nineteen year.

HAGGLER: Well, if you shore you wants a weddin’ today, let’s go gettin’ on over to the church.

JOHN: This here ain’t no church weddin’, preacher.

HAGGLER: Whar else do you want it?

JOHN: We wants to git married right here.

HAGGLER: I ain’t never heered a no weddin’ in no general store. It ain’t Christian nor proper.
 35
OTHERS ADLIB: That’s the truth. It ain’t right. You tell ‘em, Preacher. Etc...

JOHN: I ain’t ast for no Christian weddin’. I wants to git married, so git started, Preacher.

BARBARA: You better do like he say. He a mighty stout man.

HAGGLER: I reckon I kin do it. Good Book say, wharever you are gathered together in my
name thar I will be also. Let us pray. O my Jesus, look down on this here man and this woman.

(During the prayer, BARBARA stands with bowed head. JOHN looks at her in surprise, and in
growing fury at the others, who are getting into the spirit of salvation).

OTHERS: Amen, Lord.

HAGGLER: Make ‘em turn from the paths of wickedness and derision. Cleanse ‘em by the light
a yer Grace.

OTHERS: Amen, Jesus.

HAGGLER: Show ‘em Gawd, the fruit a thar sin, wash ‘em in the blood a the lamb.

OTHERS: Wash ‘em in the blood a the lamb.

JOHN: (exploding) If this here a weddin’, let’s git the prayin’ done with. We wants to git married,
and git married fast.

BARBARA: That right, Preacher Haggler. You better do like John say. He a powerful man, and
he ain’t aimin’ to be crossed.

HAGGLER: Well, jine yer right hands. Dearly beloved, we are gathered together in the signed a
Gawd and this company to jine this here man and this woman in the holy bonds a matrimony.
Good book say that a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife.
John, do you take this woman to be yer lawful wedded wife, in sickness or in health, fer richer or
fer poorer, fer better or fer worse, to love, honor and cherish, till death do you part?

JOHN: Till death do us part!

HAGGLER: Answer, I do.

JOHN: I do.

HAGGLER: Barbara, do you take this man to be yer lawful wedded husband, in sickness or in
healther, fer richer of fer poorer, fer better or fer worse, to love, honor and obey, till death do you
part?

BARBARA: I do.
 36
HAGGLER: Afore Gawd and this company, what token do you give to signify this act?

JOHN: Token?

HAGGLER: Ain’t you got a ring?

JOHN: I ain’t got no ring.

ALL: Ain’t he got a ring?

SMELICUE: You can’t have a weddin’ without no ring.

JOHN: (suddenly remembering) I got a ring! (He pulls it from a string around his neck.) Here the
ring.

HAGGLER: Place it on her finger and repeat after me. With this ring I do thee wed.

JOHN: With this ring I do thee wed.

HAGGLER: Whom Gawd hath jined together let no man put asunder. And now, kiss the bride.

(BARBARA and JOHN kiss. BARBARA looks admiringly at her hand).

BARBARA: It shore a purty ring, John. It shore a purty ring.

JOHN: It got a green stone, Barbara. A green stone that shine in the dark.

ALL: That shine in the dark!

END OF ACT ONE

ACT TWO

Act 2, Scene 1

A clearing in the woods near JOHN and BARBARA’s cabin. JOHN has been chopping wood. He
is hacking away awkwardly at a large log, and it is evident that this work is something he isn’t
use to. After several clumsy strokes, he sets the axe down and wipes his forehead. He stands a
moment, angry with himself, but his attention is soon diverted by the sounds of music in the
wood. He stretches, then begins to dance, but recalls himself and lies down along the log. THE
WITCHES appear and dance over to him and get his attention, and he begins to dance with
them--a free earthy dance which recalls the life he left to become a human.

BARBARA: (Offstage) John!

(JOHN stops dancing and turns toward the sound, but the WITCHES surround him and stop
him).
 37
Whar are you, John?

(Again he starts toward her, but the witches pull him back with them.)

John!

(He jumps away from the witches and motions them to leave, which they do, slowly.)

Whar are you, John!?

JOHN: I’m over here, Barbara. I’m over here.

BARBARA: (entering and looking at the log.) You didn’t git much wood chopped, did you?

JOHN: I reckon not. But I guess it enough to last till spring.

BARBARA: (setting down the basket she’s carrying) Last till spring! Lord Gawd, boy! You gone
outa yer senes? That ain’t hardly enough to last us one day.

JOHN: I reckon it take more’n I figgered.

BARBARA: I reckon it do. Git real cold in the mountain in the winter. Take a heap o’ wood to
see us through.

JOHN: I git to it agin after awhile. Gotta rest sometime.

BARBARA: I brought you some lunch. Cawn bread and hawg back.

JOHN: Thank you, Barbara. Reckon’s how I couldn’t git on without you.

BARBARA: That ain’t nothin’. Wife allus gits vittles fer her husband.

JOHN: But ain’t all the wives as purty as you. You the purtiest gal in the whole valley.

BARBARA: And you the finest man. And it don’t differ what the others say.

JOHN: What others? What they sayin’, Barbara?

BARBARA: It don’t differ, really it don’t. I don’t pay ‘em no never mind.

JOHN: But who talkin’, Barbara? Who sayin’ things?

BARBARA: Folks in church last Sunday. They was talkin’ ‘bout you.

JOHN: What they say?

BARBARA: They say thar somethin’ wrong, that you ain’t like no other person.
 38

JOHN: Everybody different, I reckon.

BARBARA: But they sayin’ you more different than most. ‘Course that true and I ain’t
complainin’. But several say somethin’ real bad agin’ you.

JOHN: What real bad thing do they say?

BARBARA: You won’t git mad if I tell you?

JOHN: I won’t git mad.

BARBARA: They ‘lowed you a witch.

JOHN: They liars! I ain’t no witch!

BARBARA: I know it, John boy. I tell ‘em. But it bad fer ‘em to think so.

JOHN: It don’t differ what they think.

BARBARA: But I don’t want ‘em to think things that ain’t true.

JOHN: I’m a man like anybody. Conjur Woman tole me so.

BARBARA: Then why not prove it to ‘em. It so easy if you wants. It so easy if you willin’.

JOHN: I tole you wunst, and I’ll say it agin. I can’t never set foot in no house a Gawd.

BARBARA: But if you jes’ do it wunst, John. Jes’ git washed in the blood and saved by the
grace, then they know fer shore you ain’t no witch.

JOHN: I can’t do it, Barbara. That one thing I can’t never do.

BARBARA: Not even fer me? Not even if I ast it?

JOHN: No, Barbara, not even fer you.

BARBARA: I’ll never ast you agin, John.

JOHN: But you believe me, don’t you? You believe me when I say I ain’t no witch?

BARBARA: It don’t differ what nobody else say. What nobody else think. I believe you, John. I
believe what you tell me.

JOHN: I’m a-tellin’ you the truth. I ain’t no witch.

(MARVIN strolls in)

 39

MARVIN: Howdy, Barbara. Howdy John.

JOHN: Howdy, Marvin Hudgens.

MARVIN: (looking at the log) Gettin’ yer wood cut fer winter?

JOHN: I reckon.

MARVIN: Ain’t much good at choppin’, are you?

JOHN: I kin do all right without yer help.

MARVIN: Seem like you need the hep a someone. That ain’t hardly fittin’ wood to burn.

BARBARA: John ain’t had much practice choppin’. He larn how when he has more time.

MARVIN: Choppin’ ain’t no conjur magic. I reckon you done found that out. Ain’t like raisin’
apple barrels, ain’t like winnin’ a rasslin’ match.

JOHN: I kin chop as good as anybody.

MARVIN: You call what you been doin’ choppin’? Yer log ain’t split half even, and all the
branches still on. Here, lemme show you, boy. Lemme show you some real choppin’.

(He goes over and picks up the axe. His strokes are long and even and accent his words).

You got to hit that log with all yer strength,

Long broad strokes of even length,
Jes’ one way to chop wood ‘low.
Marvin Hudgens show you how!

(He sets the axe down and comes back to BARBARA and JOHN with a swagger).

JOHN: I reckon you think you right smart.

MARVIN: I reckon. When you larn to chop like that I’ll show you some more. Pore Barbara
Allen. I’m right sorry fer you.

JOHN: Ain’t no need to be.

MARVIN: I reckon she did the best she could fer herself.

BARBARA: I’m satisfied, Marvin Hudgens, and I ain’t astin’ no hep from you.

MARVIN: Seems to me you’ll need the hep a someone I’m a-thinkin’. How soon yer confinement
come?
 40

BARBARA: Most any day now, Miz Summey say.

MARVIN: Then what you do, John boy? What you do when she take to her bed?

JOHN: I reckon I make out.

MARVIN: And who cook fer you and do all the work while you loafin’ in the field or a layin’ in the
hay?

BARBARA: Don’t fret yerself about us, Marvin Hudgens. We ain’t complainin’. We git along.

JOHN: That right, Marvin. We git along.

BARBARA: I better be gittin’ on back to the barn. I kin git a lot a cawn shucked afore milkin time.

MARVIN: I’m a-goin’ that way myself. I’ll go with you.

JOHN: (as BARBARA exits, with Marvin starting to follow) I reckon she kin make it by herself,
Marvin Hudgens. Reckon she kin walk that fur alone.

MARVIN: But the path a free trail, John boy. I reckon I kin walk it if I wants.

(MARVIN starts to swagger off, and JOHN dives for him. MARVIN throws him to the ground)

MARVIN: Don’t fergit what I showed you ‘bout the choppin’. It the long easy strokes that cut the
most.

(MARVIN strolls off, and JOHN half gets up as if to strike him with lighting again, then stops. He
gets up and goes to the log, picks up the axe and begins chopping again. The WITCHES
appear)

WITCH 1: Witch boy!

WITCH 2: Witch boy!

BOTH WITCHES: (chanting) Witch boy! Witch boy! Witch boy! Witch boy!

(The WITCHES laugh and dance around him, but he refuses to pay an attention to them and
goes on furiously chopping wood as the lights fade.)
 41
Act 2, Scene 2

Inside John and Barbara’s one-room cabin. BARBARA is lying on the bed, asleep. At the foot of
the bed is tied a knotted sheet. MRS. SUMMEY, the midwife, comes across from outside with a
kettle, stopping to rearrange the bedclothes as she passes the bed.

MRS. SUMMEY: (sings)

Up on Old Baldy, all covered with snow,
I lost my true lover fer courtin’ too slow,
Oh, courtin’ is pleasure, put partin’ is grief,
And a falsehearted lover is worse that a thief.

(She cleans up the room. MRS. ALLEN enters).

MRS. ALLEN: How is she?

MRS. SUMMEY: She are asleep.

MRS. ALLEN: How she take it when you tole her?

MRS. SUMMEY: I ain’t tole her yit. Better let her git her sleep out afore she know.

MRS. ALLEN: John been here?

MRS. SUMMEY: Nary a sign. Nary a sign a that rotten-hearted witch.

MRS. ALLEN: He ain’t no witch. Leastways we don’t know for sartin.

MRS. SUMMEY: I got proof enough to make me shore. I been midwifin’ from Hawg Back Holler
to Chunky Gal fer nigh on fifteen year--ain’t nothin’ ever happen like this afore.

MRS. ALLEN: What you talkin’ ‘bout?

MRS. SUMMEY: Why, I’m talkin’ about her young un.

MRS. ALLEN: Lots a babies git born dead.

MRS. SUMMEY: This here weren’t no baby.

MRS. ALLEN: What you mean? Lemme see it.

MRS. SUMMEY: It ain’t here.

MRS. ALLEN: Ain’t here? What you done to it?

MRS. SUMMEY: Miz Bergen done tuck it off.

 42
MRS. ALLEN: Well she hadn’t oughta. It warn’t no kin a hern.

MRS. SUMMEY: I tole her so! It jes’ as well fer you you didn’t git no chanst to see it. Shore am
glad it warn’t no grandchild a mine.

(MRS. BERGEN comes into the house carrying a bucket of water).

MRS. BERGEN: I done what you tole me. It a-burnin’ in the fire.

MRS. ALLEN: You mean you burned the baby?

MRS. BERGEN: It warn’t no baby, Miz Allen. It were a witch.

MRS. ALLEN: A witch?

MRS. BERGEN: Ain’t no baby ever looked like that. It didn’t have no face hardly and it arms
was all twisted like the claws of a bat.

MRS: SUMMEY: John a witch, Miz. Allen. Ain’t no doubt about it. He a witch shore enough, and
he done spelled he own wife.

BARBARA: (starting to wake) John? Whar John?

MRS. ALLEN: See, you done woke her with yer yellin’.

BARBARA: Whar John, Ma? I wants John.

MRS. ALLEN: He be here right off, honey. They gone to git him.

BARBARA: Whar my baby, Ma? They wouldn’t give it to me.

MRS. ALLEN: Don’t you worry ‘bout that, child.

BARBARA: But I wants him, Ma. Whar by baby?

MRS. ALLEN: He dead.

BARBARA: (starting to cry) Dead? My baby dead?

MRS. ALLEN: I’m sorry, honey. The Lord he give, and the Lord he take away.

BARBARA: But Ma, I were real careful. I did jes’ like they tole me. I pulled on the sheet till the
room go black with pain.

MRS. SUMMEY: It warn’t no fault a yourn, child. It were the fruit a yer husband. You couldn’t
help what he done.
 43
MRS. ALLEN: Hesh yore mouth!

MRS. SUMMEY: She got to know sometime.

BARBARA: What you mean, Miz Summey? Ma, what Miz Summey mean?

MRS. SUMMEY: Yore husband, he a witch.

BARBARA: No, he ain’t! I know folks is a-sayin’ so, but it ain’t true.

MRS. SUMMEY: Then how come he give you a witch fer a child?

MRS. ALLEN: A witch fer a child.

MRS. BERGEN: It out thar a-burnin’ now in the yard.

(BARBARA screams and begins sobbing)

MRS. SUMMEY: It the only thing to do when you birth a witch.

MR. ALLEN: (entering) Well, Ma, I hope you satisfied. This marryin’ wasn’t no idea a mine.

MRS. ALLEN: How could I know she was a marryin’ a witch?

BARBARA: He ain’t no witch! He ain’t no witch!

MR. ALLEN: Hesh up, gal. Course he a witch. And you gonna git outen the house afore it too
late.

BARBARA: This here my home, Pa. I ain’t a-goin’ to leave it.

MR. ALLEN: Then whar yer husband, gal?

MRS. BERGEN: I kin tell you whar he be. He out ridin’ with the eagles. He out diggin’ in the
graveyard.

BARBARA: No, he ain’t. He ain’t no witch.

MRS. SUMMEY: Well, don’t you fret too much, child. You jes’ rest and git yer strenth. You had a
hard time in labor, and you done wore yerself plumb out.

(PREACHER HAGGLER comes in).

HAGGER: Howdy, brethren and sisters.

ALL: Howdy, Preacher Haggler.

 44
HAGGLER: Jes’ heard the news, so I thought I’d stop to pray.

MRS. ALLEN: You a man a Gawd, Preacher Hagger.

HAGGLER: Well, Sister Allen, I looks after my flock. When they sick and afflicted, when they’s
sinned, and when they’s strayed.

MRS. SUMMEY: It the Gawd’s truth, Lord.

MRS. ALLEN: Preacher Haggler, what we gonna do? My gal she been witched, been married to
a witch.

BARBARA: No, I ain’t. He ain’t no witch.

HAGGLER: Whenever trouble comes upon us, we got to turn to Jesus. He show us the way.

ALL: Amen. Turn to Jesus.

HAGGLER: O Gawd, look down on this here woman. She a sinner, Gawd, she a sinner.

ALL: Amen.

HAGGLER: She been follerin’ after the lust o the flesh. But in thy infinite mercy fergive her,
Lord.

MRS. BERGEN: Fergive her, Lord, fergive her.

HAGGLER: She tuck herself a witch fer a husband, and Lord he spelled her and he witched her,
and she couldn’t hep herself. But now he gone and left her.

BARBARA: He ain’t left me! He come back.

HAGGLER: The fires a the devil are ragin’ ‘round her, but she ain’t got no sorrer and she can’t
repent.

MRS. ALLEN: She can’t repent.

MRS. SUMMEY: She can’t repent.

HAGGLER: Take her sin away, Lord, take it outen her life. Cut it outen her heart like a cutaway
stone.

ALL: Like a cutaway stone, like a cutaway stone.

(JOHN suddenly appears).

JOHN: What you all doin’ in my house?

 45

BARBARA: John! I knowed you’d come back to me. I knowed it.

HAGGLER: We been prayin’ to Gawd to save this gal, this gal that you done witched.

JOHN: I ain’t witched her! She my wife!

MRS. ALLEN: Whar you at, boy, while the gal’s been in labor?

JOHN: I been walkin’ up by Old Baldy.

MR. ALLEN: That warn’t no place to be while yer wife was beddin’ yer own child. Maybe you’d
like to know what come a yer child. Well, I kin tell you, witch boy. He a-burnin’ in the yard. He a-
burnin’ with fire, fer he was born a witch!

JOHN: Git outen my house! All a you, git out!

MRS. SUMMEY: We a-goin’, witch boy. Don’t you spell us!

JOHN: Git on out thar!

(The group exits leaving JOHN and BARBARA alone)

What fer they burn my baby? What fer they do a thing like that?

BARBARA: They ‘lowed it a witch.

JOHN: They a-lyin’. It were our baby. It warn’t no witch.

BARBARA: I wish you’d been here to tell ‘em so.

JOHN: I were outside. I were walkin’ on the mountain.

BARBARA: Why you leave me, John?

JOHN: I don’t know!...It jes’ that sometimes bein’ human’s more’n I kin stand. I know it what I
wanta be, but sometimes I feel I jes’ got to git away.

BARBARA: Git away from what?

JOHN: I can’t explain, Barbara. You wouldn’t understand. But sometimes after plowin’ all day in
the sun, I jes’ gotta go somewhar alone when it night--somewhar far off, whar it dark and
lonesome. So I go to Old Baldy. Up thar on the mountain. I look at them stars, all them planets
a-twistin’ and changin’ out thar in space. Then I know that this’n I’m standin’ on, it ain’t so much,
it little, it twistin’ and changin’ too. And I wanta be somethin’ more’n jes’ that! So I pretend that
things is different, that I ain’t the same as I am in the day.
 46
BARBARA: What is it you pretend, John?

JOHN: I can’t tell you, Barbara. You wouldn’t love me if I tole you.

BARBARA: No, perhaps you’d better not. Perhaps I know aready. Perhaps what all the others is
sayin’ is true.

JOHN: Sayin’ ‘bout what?

BARBARA: ‘Bout the baby. How could it be a witch with us both humans?

JOHN: We both human now.

BARBARA: What you mean now?

JOHN: I mean the next time we have a baby it’ll be a human fer shore.

BARBARA: Then it true what they been sayin’. It true you a witch that first night we met, that
night the moon went dark.

JOHN: That were afore the Conjur Woman change me. I ain’t a witch no more.

BARBARA: And are you changed for allus?

JOHN: I reckon, if you want me.

BARBARA: You won’t never change back will you?

JOHN: That depend on you.

BARBARA: On me?

JOHN: Conjure Woman tole me I could be a human if you’d be faithful to me fer jes’ one year.

BARBARA: I ain’t never been with no one, not sinst I knowed you.

JOHN: I love you, Barbara Allen.

BARBARA: I love you, John.

(He kisses her, then gently tucks her into bed and she drifts to sleep. He watches her a
moment. Suddenly he leaps from the bedside, stops and turns back to look at BARBARA. Then
he drops his head in his hands and goes out into the yard. WITCH 1 appears.)

WITCH 1: So you had a baby, witch boy.

 47
JOHN: You ain’t got no business here. This here ain’t no place fer witches. What you doin’
here?

WITCH 1: I was flyin by to look at yore wife.

JOHN: Well you seen her now. You better git goin’.

(WITCH 2 appears)

WITCH 2: John Human!

JOHN: What that to you?

WITCH 2: Lonesome ain’t you?

WITCH 1: All humans are. The minute you’re a human you want somethin’ lastin’.

WITCH 1: That’s the reason they git married.

JOHN: Leave me be!

WITCH 2: Miss the moonlight, don’t you?

WITCH 1: Moonlight on the mountain?

WITCH 2: Yer eagle up thar too, boy. He gittin’ lonesome.

WITCH 1: She ain’t fer you, boy.

JOHN: I’m human now!

WITCH 1: She can’t understand you. Humans never know each other.

WITCH 2: Kiss her, but you alone, boy. Kiss her, but you lost.

JOHN: I ast you to leave me be!

WITCH 1: The earth’s a-turnin’ boy, to the night when Barbara leave you. Feel it turnin’? You’ll
be sorry, boy.

WITCH 2: You’ll be sorry, boy!

(WITCHES vanish)

JOHN: Barbara! Barbara Allen! (He runs towards BARBARA) Barbara! Barbara Allen! (He falls
sobbing on the bed, his arms around BARBARA). Barbara! Barbara! Barbara Allen!
 48
(Blackout).
 49
Act 2, Scene 3

The mountain ridge, same as Act 1, Scene 1. WITCHES are sitting atop the rock.

WITCH 1: Conjur Man. Conjur Man.

CONJUR MAN: (Entering) What that?

WITCH 1: I got some news fer you. Heerd about the revival meetin’ at the church tonight?

CONJUR MAN: What you mean?

WITCH 1: Witch boy gonna lose he bargin--bargin he made to be human.

WITCH 2: He gonna lose he bargain and be a witch agin.

CONJUR MAN: I reckon that please you.

WITCH 1: I reckon.

CONJUR MAN: That don’t mean you’ll ever git him back. He’ll still be in love with Barbara Allen.

WITCH 1: Not after she untrue to him. Not after she been faithless with another man.

WITCH 2: He still a human til he turn back to a witch. And humans, they is different. Thar love
can turn to hatin’ when the gal untrue.

CONJUR MAN: I know it ain’t my business, but I do feel right sorry fer the boy.

WITCH 2: He be better off with us.

CONJUR MAN: You ain’t got him yit, witch gals.

WITCH 2: But we git what we goes after.

WITCH 1: We never lose wunst we make up our mind.

CONJUR MAN: You seem mighty sartin’.

WITCH 2: We are. Have you seen him sinst he been changed to a human?

CONJUR MAN: No, I ain’t.

WITCH 2: Well, I reckon you’ll git a chanst to soon enough. After church tonight you’ll see him.

WITCH 1: Shore. He be up here a-beggin’ to git outen he bargin. He be up here to ast to stay
down thar in the valley.
 50

CONJUR MAN: No he won’t neither. He made a bargain and he be true to he word.

WITCH 1: You mighty shore a yer opinion.

WITCH 2: How would you like a little bet that you wrong?

CONJUR MAN: I ain’t averse to it.

WITCH 2: If we lose, we promise to give up the witch boy.

CONJUR MAN: You won’t git him anyway, but it a bet.

WITCH 1: And if we win, you got to promise to do something fer us.

CONJUR MAN: What you want?

WITCH 1: The life a Barbara Allen.

CONJUR MAN: You plenty jealous, ain’t you.

WITCH 2: We ain’t got nothin’ agin her, but we jes’ as soon she dead.

CONJUR MAN: She live a long time, witch gals.

WITCHES: You backin’ outen the bargin?

WITCH 2: Thought you said you was mighty shore what John boy would do.

CONJUR MAN: I am shore.

WITCH 1: Then the bet still on?

CONJUR MAN: It still on.

(Church bells begin ringing in the distance)

WITCH 2: Hear the bells a-ringin’? They startin’ the revival.

WITCH 1: Barbara git redemption, and John’ll be a witch agin tonight!

(Blackout)
 51
Act 2, Scene 4

Interior of the church in Buck Creek. Benches of unfinished pine set up. Apart from other
benches, on the opposite side of the rostrum in the mourner’s bench. A crowd has gathered.
Those present, including HANK GUDGER, on the mourner’s bench, and PREACHER
HAGGLER, are singing a spiritual--possibly “Old Time Religion”

HAGGLER: (welcoming arrivals) Evenin’ Sister Greeny. How are you nohow?

GREENY: Evenin’, Preacher. (She finds a seat). Good evenin’, Sister Summey. Glad to see you
out.

MRS. SUMMEY: Evenin’ Sister Greeny. I shore am heavy with trouble. Revival been goin’ on
high on a week, and spirit ain’t struck Edna yit, not wunst, not nary a time.

MISS METCALF: Keep a-praying, Sister. It might could move her tonight.

MRS. SUMMEY: I shore Gawd hope it do. (To Edna, beside her) Git up thar, Edna Summey. Git
up thar on the mourners’ bench.

EDNA: I ain’t got no sorrer yit. I’m settin’ here.

MRS. SUMMEY: Hank Gudger on the mourners’ bench. He git redemption, I reckon you kin too.

EDNA: I ain’t been moved yit, Ma. I’m a-settin’ here.

HAGGLER: Evenin’ Sister Atkins.

JOSIE: Evenin’, Preacher Haggler. Thar a right smart crowd here tonight.

HAGGLER: It the will of Gawd. Lord he carry He sheep right into the fold.

(MRS. ALLEN enters, pulling BARBARA along with her. BARBARA, looking sullen and defiant,
jerks her hand loose from MRS. ALLEN’S as they get to HAGGLER.)

HAGGLER: Welcome, Sister Allen. It be some time sinst I saw yer daughter Barbara here.

MRS. ALLEN: It tuck a fight, Preacher Haggler, but the Lord won out.

HAGGLER: Praise He holy name!

GROUP: Amen, Lord. Amen.

MRS: BERGEN: Howdy, Miz Allen. So you got Barbara to come after all.

MRS. ALLEN: I drug her here. It the first time she been in the church sinst her confinement.
 52
MRS. BERGEN: Well, it do you good, Barbara. Give you peace and rest to yer troubled soul.

BARBARA: My soul ain’t troubled, Miz Bergen.

MRS. ALLEN: Come on, Barbara. We’s sittin’ on the mourners’ bench.

BARBARA: You kin if you want to, but I ain’t.

MRS. ALLEN: You’ll do like I say.

BARBARA: I won’t git religion. It won’t do no good.

(BARBARA and MRS. ALLEN join HANK on the bench).

HAGGLER: We will start the service with a hymn.

(The group sings a hymn).

HAGGLER: Amen, Lord, Amen. Thar is room fer another sinner on the mourners’ bench. Who
will come up? Who is heavy with trouble tonight?

MARVIN: I’m a sinner, Preacher Haggler, in the eyes of the Lord.

(He comes down and goes over to the bench).

HAGGLER: Let us pray. O Gawd, we come here tonight with sorrer in our heart. They is sinners
in our midst.

MRS. BERGEN: It the Gawd’s truth, Lord.

HAGGLER: But we know Gawd will lead us from the darkness of the night, from the valley of the
shadow.

SMELICUE: From the fire a the devil--

HAGGLER: We ast fer mercy fer the sinners on the mourners bench.

GROUP: O sweet Jesus, show us yer grace.

O sweet Jesus, shine yer holy face.
Hep us, Jesus, see the trouble we in.
Hep us, Jesus, take away our sin.

HAGGLER: Does the spirit move you, Hank Gudger? Does the spirit move you to confess yer
shame?

HANK: I’m convicted! I’m convicted!

 53
GROUP: Hallelujah, he convicted a sin!

HAGGLER: Hank Gudger, confess yer shame.

HAGGLER: I see the fires a hell come at me. I hear ‘em roar. I feel ‘em burn!

(Edna is watching him intently, reacting sympathetically).

HAGGLER: Tell yer sin to Jesus, to him you should turn.

GROUP: To him you should turn, to him you should turn.

HAGGLER: He put out the fire with He own red blood. Lay yer burden down, he wash it with the
Flood.

EDNA: The spirit done tuck hold! I got sorrer and shame!

MRS. SUMMEY: Praise be to Gawd, my daughter repent!

HAGGLER: Come on down, Sister Summey, to the mourners’ bench.

EDNA: (coming to join Hank) I’m a-comin’ Lord, I’m a comin’.

HAGGLER: Continue, Brother Grudger. Tell the Lord yer shame.

EDNA: It my shame too. It my shame too.

MISS METCALF: Praise the Lamb a Gawd, they’s shamed together!

HANK: We was in the barn, a-shuckin’ dry cawn.

EDNA; Cawn shucks soft, cawn shucks warm.

HANK: Her lips were so sweet and soft and warm.

And we pleasured ourselves in the barn.

GROUP: They pleasured tharselves in the barn.

Lord, they pleasured tharselves in the barn.

EDNA: We pleasured ourselves fer an hour and a quarter.

We pleasured ourselves til it milkin’ time.

GROUP: Milkin’ time. Milkin’ time.

HANK: But now we sorry, and we repent.

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MRS. SUMMEY: They repent, Lord, they repent.

EDNA: So please fergive us and save us by grace.

GROUP: Save ‘em by the grace a the heavenly Lamb, by the grace a the heavenly Lamb.

HAGGLER: Saved! Saved! Go and sin no more!

(HANK and EDNA get up, hand in hand, and are congratulated by the congregation. MRS.
SUMMEY pulls their hands apart).

MRS. ALLEN: Oh Gawd, save my child.

HAGGLER: Sister Allen, what is yer sorrer?

MRS. ALLEN: I got a daughter, Lord, who strayed from the path, but she got no shame and she
won’t repent.

HAGGLER: Lay yer burden on the Lord, He understand.

MRS. ALLEN: I brung up Barbara in the ways a Gawd, but a witch boy spelled her, and tuck her
soul away.

MR. ALLEN: That’s the Lord’s truth. She been witched.

MRS. ALLEN: She bedded he child, but she bore him a witch, and we had to burn it with fire in
the yard.

GROUP: They had to burn it with fire in the yard.

MRS. ALLEN: But she won’t leave the witch boy. She live in he house. So take away the spell,
Gawd, and save my child.

HAGGLER: The Lord’ll unspell her in He own way. Jes’ listen fer the voice a the Lord.

BARBARA: He might could have spelled me, but I don’t care!

GROUP: She witched fer shore, she witched fer shore.

BARBARA: He wunst were a witch, but he ain’t no more. Conjur Woman change him to a man.

HAGGLER: Wunst you a witch you can’t git changed. Thar ain’t no changin’ a witch to a man.

GROUP: That right, Lord, thar ain’t no changin’.

BARBARA: Conjur Woman change him, change him fer shore.

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HAGGLER: What he have to do to git changed?

BARBARA: It warn’t jes’ him. I have to be faithful to him fer a year. And the year up tonight!

GROUP: It ain’t up yit. It ain’t up yit.

HAGGLER: And if you ain’t, what happen then?

BARBARA: Then he change back to a witch. But thar ain’t no fear fer that. I’ll keep my promise.
I’ll be true.

HAGGLER: The Lord He speakin’ in a mighty voice. The Lord He tellin’ me what to do!

MRS. ALLEN: What he say, Preacher, Haggler?

HAGGLER: Barbara Allen, you a handmaiden a Gawd. You got to hep this valley and rid us of a
witch.

ALL: A witch!

BARBARA: But he ain’t no witch. He a man!

HAGGLER: He change back to a witch, and then he leave us be. You gotta break the spell and
change him back.

BARBARA: I promised him I’d be true!

HAGGLER: The Lord He talkin’, Barbara Allen. Listen to He voice tell you what to do. You been
walkin’ in the valley a the shadow a darkness.

BARBARA: John! I need John!

MRS. ALLEN: He can’t hep you now, gal.

BARBARA: He hep me if I find him.

(She starts out of the church, but people block her way).

MR. ALLEN: He don’t love you no more, gal.

BARBARA: John still love me!

MRS. BERGEN: Then how come he give you a witch fer a child?

MARVIN: And why ain’t he with you?

HAGGLER: He ain’t here at church.

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GROUP: He ain’t here at church.

BARBARA: He can’t come to church.

GROUP: Cause he a witch! Cause he a witch!

BARBARA: Oh Preacher Haggler, what kin I do?

HAGGLER: You can’t go agin the will a Gawd. The Lord He speakin’ in a mighty voice.

MARVIN: Preacher Haggler! Preacher Haggler! I come here tonight to repent a my sin, but the
Lord He tell me it ain’t no sin.

GROUP: Ain’t no sin. Ain’t no sin.

MARVIN: I come here to repent a sin a lust. I been lustin’ after a married woman, lustin’ fer
Barbara Allen. But the Lord He tell me it ain’t no sin!

GROUP: Ain’t no sin. Ain’t no sin.

BARBARA: John! John!

(BARBARA rushes toward the door, but several people force her back to the center of the
gathering).

HAGGLER: Show her, Gawd, the fruit a her sin!

GROUP: Hep her, Gawd, see the trouble she in!

HAGGLER: Git on yer knees and confess yer shame.

BARBARA: What kin I do? What kin I do?

HAGGLER: Ast the hep a Gawd, He see you through.

GROUP: Tell yer sin to Gawd. He’s shore to hear.

HAGGLER: Wash her in the blood a the Lamb, Lord.

GROUP: Wash her in the blood a the Lamb!

BARBARA: Oh, my Jesus, take my sin away!

GROUP: Hallelujah, Lord, she startin’ to pray!

HAGGLER: Moan it, sister, fer the Lord to year. Marvin’s here to hep you, jes’ turn to him.
 57

MARVIN: (coming to Barbara) That right, Barbara, it the will a Gawd.

GROUP: The will a Gawd! The will a Gawd!

MARVIN: (pulling her to him) Feel my arms around you. They fer comfort and joy.

BARBARA: John!...John!

GROUP: Hallejulah, Lord, she saved by the grace, she saved by the grace a the heavenly
Lamb, by the grace a the heavenly Lamb.

(MARVIN embraces BARBARA as the GROUP forms a circle around them, blocking them from
view. JOHN enters outside the church and calls)

JOHN: Barbara! Barbara Allen!

(Blackout).
 58
Act 2, Scene 5

The mountain ridge. WITCHES reclining on the rock. Offstage BARBARA is heard calling.

BARBARA: John! John! (She comes in and sinks down for a second, exhausted, then staggers
up and keeps going). John!

WITCH 1: What the matter, gal?

BARBARA: (looking around for the invisible speaker) Oh!

WITCH 2: Is you skeerd, gal?

BARBARA: Who you?

WITCH 1: We know you, gal.

WITCH 2: Her name Barbara.

BARBARA: You witches, ain’t you?

WITCH 1: I reckon.

BARBARA: You ain’t seed John? You ain’t seed my husband?

WITCH 1: What the matter, gal? He left you?

BARBARA: He warn’t there when I come home tonight. I gotta find him.

WITCH 2: You’ll never find him. He gone forever.

BARBARA: But I gotta see him. I gotta explain.

WITCH 1: Ain’t no explaining the will a heaven.

WITCH 2: Ain’t no explaining to a witch.

BARBARA: John ain’t no witch. He a human.

WITCH 2: You mighty shore.

BARBARA: He wouldn’t change hisself back to a witch without first tellin’ me goodbye.

WITCH 1: He don’t wanta see you, gal.

WITCH 2: He don’t wanta see you, after tonight.

 59
BARBARA: I couldn’t help it. They made me do it.

WITCH 1: But you broke yer promise, and he lost he bargain. The Conjur Woman gonna make
him pay.

BARBARA: Ain’t thar nothin’ I kin do to stop it?

WITCH 1: Ain’t nothin.

WITCH 2: You better git on back down to the valley.

BARBARA: No, John here somewhar, and I’ll find him. (She exits calling) John! John!

(CONJUR MAN enters)

CONJUR MAN: You still up thar?

WITCH 1: We kin wait ferever to git our way.

CONJUR MAN: Who that gal that jes’ went by?

WITCH 1: That Barbara Allen. She come here lookin’ fer John.

WITCH 2: Pore gal. She be daid afore tomorra.

WITCH 1: She be dead before it light.

CONJUR MAN: You mighty sartin.

WITCH 1: Ain’t never lost a bet.

WITCH 2: Don’t make ‘em lest we sartin.

CONJUR MAN: Well, we’ll see. We’ll wait and see.

(JOHN enters out of breath)

JOHN: Whar the--(He sees WITCHES and stops, then sees the CONJUR MAN). Whar the
Conjur Woman?

CONJUR MAN: What the matter?

JOHN: I got to see the Conjur Woman.

CONJUR MAN: Livin’ in the valley I reckon warn’t so easy, warn’t so easy as ridin’ on an eagle
in the night. I done all I could to tell you, but you wouldn’t listen. And now you sorry.
 60
JOHN: No, I ain’t. I ain’t sorry. But I gotta see the Conjur Woman. I gotta ast her somethin’.

CONJUR MAN: You better not ast her nothin’. You better leave her be.

JOHN: Then she change me back to a witch.

CONJUR MAN: What fer?

JOHN: Cause I lost our bargain.

WITCH 2: So Barbara been off with another man.

(The WITCHES laugh)

JOHN: You keep outin this.

CONJUR MAN: Then I reckon you mad at her.

JOHN: I ain’t mad at her. I couldn’t git mad at Barbara Allen.

CONJUR MAN: Then you still love her?

JOHN: I’ll allus love her.

CONJUR MAN: Even when you change back to a witch?

JOHN: Even then, I reckon.

WITCH 1: Suppose she git married to someone else?

JOHN: What you got to do with this?

WITCH 1: I’m waitin’ fer somethin’ you gonna do.

JOHN: I ain’t doin’ nothing that you got to do with.

CONJUR MAN: Let me warn you, witch boy--

WITCH 2: You can’t tell him, Conjur Man. That breakin’ our bargain.

JOHN: Bargain? What bargain? Tell me, Conjur Man.

CONJUR MAN: Leave here, John, and don’t never come back.

JOHN: But I got to see the Conjur Woman. I got to ast her somethin’.

CONJUR MAN: Don’t do it, witch boy. I’m a warnin’ you.

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CONJUR WOMAN: (Offstage) Is that you, John?

JOHN: Conjur Woman!

CONJUR WOMAN: (Entering) I were expectin’ you here tonight. I’m glad to see you kept yer
promise.

JOHN: It about that I come to see you.

CONJUR MAN: John…

JOHN: I want you to give me another chanst--

CONJUR MAN: No, John, wait!

JOHN: Let me be a human jes’ a little while longer!

WITCH 2: We’ve won!

WITCH 1: See, Conjur Man. We’ve won!

JOHN: What you talkin’ about?

WITCH 1: We’ve won the life a Barbara Allen.

JOHN: How come?

WITCH 1: We knowed you’d want to go back on yer promise. We bet the Conjur Man you
would. We’ve won her life, and we wants to be paid afore it mornin’.

JOHN: What it to you to have Barbara’s life?

WITCH 2: We ain’t jes’ winnin’ her life. We bringin’ you back. Bringin’ you back to the moonlight
and us.

JOHN: No, you ain’t.

WITCH 1: To the moonlight and us.

JOHN: That ain’t fer me.

WITCH 2: John boy, can’t you remember? Remember those nights up thar in the sky, you in my
arms on the screamin’ wind--how free we all was then. Can’t you remember?

JOHN: But it’s over. It’s finished!

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WITCH 1: It’s jes’ the beginnin’. When you a witch agin, you’ll see things different.

JOHN: But I’ll allus remember, and I’ll allus love her.

WITCH 2: You’ll change yore mind.

WITCH 1: We’ll be a-waitin’.

(WITCHES exit).

JOHN: If Barbara die, let me die with her.

CONJUR MAN: You a witch, and you gotta live out yer time.

CONJUR WOMAN: Are you ready, John boy, ready fer the changin’? It time to be turned back
to a witch.

JOHN: Give me jes’ a little longer.

CONJUR WOMAN: The year up tonight. She got to be dead afore the new day.

JOHN: Don’t let her see me wunst I’m a witch.

CONJUR MAN: You turn into a witch the minute she die. (He exits)

BARBARA: (offstage) John!

CONJUR WOMAN: The moon, witch boy! When the moon break through the clouds, you’ll be a
witch agin. (She exits).

BARBARA: (entering) John! (Sees him and stops). John.

JOHN: We met afore, Barbara Allen. The night the wind came up and the moon went dark.
Remember?

BARBARA: I remember.

JOHN: And thar aint’ no moon tonight.

BARBARA: And thar a wind.

JOHN: Remember yer ballad? You said it wouldn’t be sad. You allus like the gay ones best.

BARBARA: I’m sorry. I’m sorry I spiled the ballad.

JOHN: It ain’t spiled. It jes’ ends sad. What matters is the singin’, and it still a good song.
 63
BARBARA: All about a witch boy who tried to be human.

JOHN: And the gal he witched, who was untrue.

BARBARA: I couldn’t hep it. They made me do it. They said it were the will a Gawd.

JOHN: The will a Gawd. I dont’ know that. I ain’t no Christian.

BARBARA: Take me with you, John, take me with you. It don’t matter whar you go. Take me out
a the valley. I want to be with you.

JOHN: It wouldn’t hep none. Not now it won’t.

BARBARA: What you mean, John?

JOHN: You gotta die, Barbara Allen.

BARBARA: I gotta die?

JOHN: Jes’ like the ballad, the song you was singin’. Someone gotta die when the song ends
sad.

BARBARA: Ain’t thar nothin’ I kin do to change it?

JOHN: Ain’t nothin’ now. Song almost sung.

BARBARA: Not yit. It ain’t time yit.

JOHN: We ain’t got much longer. When the moon breaks through I’ll be a witch agin.

BARBARA: Promise you’ll find me. Promise you’ll come.

JOHN: I can’t promise that. A witch got no soul. Three hundred years, then jes’ fog on the
mountain.

BARBARA: Ain’t nothin else?

JOHN: Ain’t nothin’ else.

BARBARA: (taking off her wedding ring) Take my ring, John, the ring you gave me. It got a
green stone that shine in the dark.

JOHN: Our weddin’ ring, from the day we was married. (He takes the ring and puts it on)

BARBARA: Promise you’ll wear it, you’ll wear it always.

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JOHN: Somethin’ from the time when I warn’t no witch, from the days I worked in the burin’ sun,
from the nights I held you in my arms, and we talked of the baby we was gonna have.

BARBARA: Fergive me, John. Fergive me.

JOHN: It the last night I kin look at you jes’ like you are now, the last time I kin hold you in my
arms and feel yer breath warm against my cheek--

(The sound of great flapping wings is heard)

BARBARA: What that I hear, John? High overhead, like the flappin’ a wings?

JOHN: It my eagle! He comin’ with the moonlight. He comin’ down to git me!

BARBARA: It come so quick!

JOHN: The moon! The moon Barbara! I kin almost see it.

BARBARA: I’m skeerd! I’m skeerd a dyin’.

JOHN: Barbara! (He kisses her)

BARBARA: Hold me, John.

(He holds her in his arms and gradually her head and arms relax and hang lifeless. Slowly he
lays her down on the mountainside).

JOHN: It the end a the singin’. Ain’t nothin left.

(Suddenly, as the moonlight brightens all around him, his body stiffens and with a wild alertness
he looks slowly around him. As he sees the moon, he leaps away from BARBARA, unaware of
her).

WITCH 1: Witch boy. (Running in, she grabs his hand).

WITCH 2: (running in and catching his other hand) We come fer you, witch boy.

WITCH 1: Yer eagle waitin’ fer you. He here to take you back.

(The three start offstage. JOHN stops to gaze at the moon. The WITCHES notice the ring.)

WITCH 1: Whar you git that ring, boy?

WITCH 2: It got a green stone, and it shine in the dark.

(JOHN takes off the ring and looks at it)

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JOHN: I got it--I got it from the grave a Agnes Riddle. I cut if off the finger a her cold, dead hand.

(The three laugh).

WITCH 2: Let me wear it, witch boy Let me keep it fer you.

(JOHN holds it a moment as if to refuse, then hands it to her.)

JOHN: Alright, I reckon.

(WITCH 2 runs offstage)

WITCH 1: Come, witch boy. Time to go. (She exits).

JOHN: Look at the moon!

(He turns and sees BARBARA lying on the rocks. He goes to her and touches her hair.)

WITCH 1: (Offstage) John!

WITCH 2: (Offstage) Witch boy!

(The scream of an eagle is heard. John runs toward it. Lights fade so only the moon is visible
hanging bright in the sky.)

THE END
 66
Props List

Lanterns
Butter churn
Jug of moonshine
Guitar (x2 or handoff)
Shotgun
Barrel (of apples)
Other barrels?*
Checker board
Calico--red and blue w/ flowers
Marriage Contract
Pen
$2.50
Ring with green stone
String to go around neck
Log
Axe
Lunch basket
Bed
Pillow
Quilt
Knotted sheet (bloody)
Fire pit ‘burning’ *
Water bucket*
Cloth (to wipe Barbara’s face after birth)*
Rostrum/ Alter with rough wooden cross
Benches
Mourner’s bench
Bible