The ransom of the peasants : a dramatic poem in five acts : act 4

Abstract

On the horizon at the foot of the hills, the morning is beginning to lighten, giving a bluish tinge to the dawn. But the splendour of the light which dispels the darkness is as yet slow in coming forth altogether from the wrappings of night. Beneath the sky, the earth with her tangled verdure of field and valley lies silent and shadowed with broken-hearted grief; it is as though she were mourning even yet for those peasants who had left her desolate and who, in other days, used to appear each day a t dawn, setting forth to cultivate her, happy and contented. A mid all this poverty, beneath the weight of sorrow, Matti's cottage is seen solitary in the silence of the morning. The first rays of the sun break forth and strike upon it. Rozi and Betti appear coming down the field-path with kerchiefs on their heads, each is carrying a basket of fodder, their heads are bent earthwards and they walk slowly towards the farmhouse. Kozzi follows them, her eyes scanning the slopes of the hills. Rozi goes into the field behind the cottage, in a scared way she examines every nook and cranny, comes over to the cattle-pen to peer through the wooden gate, goes up the steps and listens at the door of the upper room. Betti stops to wait for Kozzi.