The Americans Part 8

HARRY EGERTON.

My father is my father; I am I.

(_The men prepare to leave. Cap Saunders rises and begins to pack up the things_)

HARRY EGERTON.

We do not choose the gates through which we come Into this world, my friends. Nor you nor I Selected who should cradle us nor what home Should give us shelter. 'Tis what we do that counts, Not whence we come. Do not misjudge me, friends.

Because I am a son of Egerton Deny me not the right to be a man.

SILAS MAURY.

You wear our sweat in your fine clothes all right.

HARRY EGERTON.

I wear, my friend, what my own hands have earned.

Where will you go?

SILAS MAURY.

We'll go where we can find----

BILL PATTEN.

Don't tell him, Si. Don't you see through his game?

Keeps askin' where we're goin'. Don't you see?

He's a spy of the Company.

HARRY EGERTON.

Ah, you do not know Why I am here. G.o.d knows I did not come----

WILLIE MAURY.

Thought we wouldn't know him.

SILAS MAURY.

Poor men are fools.

WILLIE MAURY.

He's been d.o.g.g.i.n' our footsteps.

BILL PATTEN.

You've been followin' us To find out where----

CAP SAUNDERS.

Don't quarrel, men.

BILL PATTEN.

It's a good thing Your old man crushed me till I p.a.w.ned my gun, Or, G.o.d, I'd kill you. Do you understand?

HARRY EGERTON.

Hold on there, pard.

BILL PATTEN.

So he could have the mills Blacklist us. Curse you! And curse all your kind!

You've ground us down until we're dogs, d.a.m.n you.

SILAS MAURY.

Come sneakin' round to----

HARRY EGERTON.

Friend, I did not come To spy on any man or seek you out Here on the mountains. For my hope has been----

BILL PATTEN.

We'll blow you up some day, you mark my word.

HARRY EGERTON.

That never one of you would leave the ranks In your great struggle in the valley there, But that you would stand fast, and somehow win In spite of everything, starvation, death.

And I have done all that I could to help you.

But you, my friends, O you must understand, As there are some things that you cannot do, So there are things I cannot.

CAP SAUNDERS.

Get the pot.

(_The boy picks up the coffee pot_)

HARRY EGERTON.

How I came here I do not know myself.

Some Power has led me though I know not why.

I half remember that I could not sleep For voices round me in my father's hall, And rose and wandered forth, fleeing from something That seemed to follow me across the waste, A sighing and a thundering of men.

All day, it seems, I've wandered over the mountains And all last night. Then from afar I spied Your fire here and came to learn my way.

SILAS MAURY.