I never handled more than that.

_Guardian_: (_Angrily_.) Well, do as the lady said, tell us something you _do_ know.

_2nd Wrenboy_: (_Standing up, excited_.) I know the way to make bird-lime, steeping willow rods in the stream....

_3rd Wrenboy_: I know how to use my fists; I knocked a tinker bigger than myself.

_4th Wrenboy_: I am the best at wrestling. I knocked _him_self. (_Pointing at 3rd_.)

_5th Wrenboy_: I that can skin a fawn after catching him running!

_2nd Dowager Messenger_. Where now did you get that learning?

_5th Wrenboy_: Here and there, rambling the woods, sleeping out at night. I would never starve in any place where gra.s.s grows!

_1st Dowager Messenger_: This is worse than neglect. The poor old Guardian the Queen put her trust in must be in his dotage.

_Guardian_: (_Hastily_.) Here, there is at least one thing you will not fail in. Take the harp (_hands it to the 1st Wrenboy_) and draw out of it sweet sounds, (_To Dowager Messengers_.) He can play a tune so sweet it has been known to send all the hearers into a sound sleep. Here now, touch the strings with all your skill.

(_1st Wrenboy bangs harp, making a crash_.)

_2nd Dowager Messenger_: (_With hands to ears_.) Mercy! Our poor ears!

_1st Dowager Messenger_: That is the poorest music we have ever heard.

_2nd Dowager Messenger_: That sound would send no one into their sleep. It would be more likely to send them into Bedlam.

_1st Dowager Messenger_: Whatever they knew last year, they have forgotten it all now.

_Guardian_: (_Weeping into his handkerchief_.) I don't know what has come upon them! At noon they were the most charming lads in the whole world. Their memory seems to have left them!

_2nd Dowager Messenger_: It is as if another memory had come to them. They did not learn those wild tricks shut up in the garden.

_Servant: (To Boys_.) Can't ye behave nice and not ugly? _(To Guardian_.) You would not believe me a while ago. I said and I say still there is enchantment on them, and spells.

_Guardian_: Oh, I would be sorry to think such a thing. But they never went on this way in their greenest youth.

_2nd Dowager Messenger_: If there is a spell upon them what way can it be taken off?

_Servant_: It is what I always heard, that to make a rod of iron red in the fire, and to burn the enchantment out of them is the only way.

_Guardian_: Oh, boys, do you hear that! You would not like to be burned with a red hot rod!

Say out now what at all is the matter with you?

What is it you feel within you that is putting you from your gentle ways?

_1st Wrenboy_: The thing that I feel in me is hunger. The thing I would wish to feel inside me is a good fistful of food.

_1st Dowager Messenger_: They have been starved and stinted! It would kill their G.o.dmother on the moment if she was aware of that!

_Guardian_: It is a part of their playgame. They have everything they ask.

_2nd Wrenboy: I_ did not eat a farthing's worth since yesterday.

_3rd Wrenboy_: My teeth are rusty with the want of food!

_4th Wrenboy_: I want some dinner!

_5th Wrenboy_: We want something to eat!

_Guardian_: Give them whatever you have ready for them, Gillie.

_Servant: (Giving the plates.)_ Here is the supper ye gave orders for this morning.

_1st Wrenboy_: What is it at all?

_Servant_: It is your choice thing. Jellies and grapes from Spain.

_2nd Wrenboy: (Pushing away grapes)_ Berries!

I thought to get better than berries from the bush.

_3rd Wrenboy_: There's not much satisfaction in berries!

_4th Wrenboy_: If it was a pig's foot now; or as much as a potato with a bit of dripping.

_5th Wrenboy: (Looking at jelly.)_ What now is this? It has like the appearance of frog sp.a.w.n.

_1st Wrenboy_; Or the leavings of a fallen star.

_5th Wrenboy_: Shivering it is and shaking. It's not natural! (_Drops his plate_.)

_4th Wrenboy_: There is nothing here to satisfy our need.

_2nd. Dowager Messenger:_ I am nearly sorry for them, poor youngsters. When they were but little toddlers they never behaved like that at home.

_3rd Wrenboy_: It's the starvingest place ever I was in!

_1st Dowager Messenger_: There must be something in what they say. They would not ask for food if they were not in need of it. And the Guardian making so much talk about his table and his cooks. We cannot go home and report that they have no learning and no food.

_2nd Dowager Messenger_: As to learning I don't mind. But as to food, I would not wish to leave them without it for the night. They might be as small as cats in the morning.

_Guardian_: They are dreaming when they say they are in want of food.

_1st Dowager Messenger_: It is a dream that will waken up their G.o.dmother.

_Servant_: Look, ma'am, at the table behind you, and you will see is this a scarce house! That is what is set out for yourselves, ma'am, lobsters from Aughanish! A fat turkey from the barley gardens! A spiced and larded sucking pig! Cakes and sweets and all sorts! It is not the want of provision was ever brought against us up to this!

_2nd Dowager Messenger_: If all this is for us, we would sooner give it up to those poor children.

(_To Wrenboys_.) Here, my dears, we will not eat while you are in want of food. We will give it all to you.