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MAJOR MOLINEUX
CLERGYMAN
ROBIN
Those village
pastors! Once they used to preach
as if the world were everlasting;
each Sunday was longer than a summer!
That's gone now. We have competition:
taverns, papers, politics
and trade. It takes a wolfhound now
to catch a flock!
Why are you waiting
for the wind?
575
CLERGYMAN
(Taking
up
two little flags)
ROBIN
Do you see
these two flags? One's the Union Jack,
the other
is
the Rattlesnake.
The wind will tell me which to fly.
I'm thinking of the absent one.
My kinsman, Major Molineux
is absent. The storms have hurt
his
house
lately. No one will help me find him.
CLERGYMAN
ROBIN
Perhaps the wind will blow him back.
I met a strange man, Colonel Greenough;
Half of his face was red, and half
was pocked. He said, "Wait here, and you
will meet your kinsman on his walk."
CLERGYMAN
You'd better wait here then. That red
and pocked man tends to speak the truth.
ROBIN
Why was
his
face two colors, Father?
•
CLERGYMAN
He
is
an image of the city.
If
his
whole face
turns
red as blood,
We'll have to fly the Rattlesnake.