The Corn Is Green Page #3

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Just because I told her she was common.

That child's unhappy.

Everyone's unhappy. You have to fight it.

Look at this.

I never wore bloomers in my life.

"Holiday time, that carefree, magic word.

What shall I do this year?

Tobogganing among the eternal snows

or bathing in the sunny south of France."

That's beautiful.

I might think so too if I hadn't read it

in the travel pamphlet...

...that was opened on this desk.

Oh, you mustn't.

Listen to this, listen.

"The mine is dark.

If a light come in the mine,

the rivers in the mine will run fast...

...with the voice of many women.

The walls will fall in

and it will be the end of the world..."

The bell is up, miss.

Thank you, thank you.

"So the mine is dark.

But when I walk through

the tan-something shaft in the dark...

...I can touch with my hands

the leaves on the trees...

...and underneath,

where the corn is green.

There is a wind in the shaft.

Not carbon monoxide they talk about,

it smell like the sea...

...only, like, as..."

I can't read it. "As if... As if..."

As if the sea had fresh flowers

lying about.

"As if the sea had fresh flowers

lying about."

And that is my holiday.

Are you Morgan Evans?

Yes, miss.

Did you write this?

No, miss.

But it's in your book.

- Yes, miss.

- Then who wrote it?

I don't know, miss.

Come inside.

Come in.

Did you write this?

I don't know, miss.

What is the matter with it?

Sit down. Take your cap off.

Spelling was deplorable, of course.

Leaves, "L-A-F-S."

- What was it by rights?

- A V, to start with.

I never heard of no V's, miss.

Don't call me miss.

- Are you not a miss?

- Yes, I am, but it's not polite.

You say, "Yes, Miss Moffat,"

or, "No, Miss Moffat."

M-O-double-F-A-T.

- No V's?

- No V's.

Where do you live?

Llyn-y-Mwyn, Miss Moffat,

four miles from here.

How big is it?

Four houses and a beerhouse.

Have you any hobbies?

- Oh, yes.

- What?

Rum.

Rum?

Do you live with your parents?

No, by me own self.

Me mother is dead,

my father and four big brothers...

...was in the mine-shaft accident

when I was 10.

- Killed?

- Oh, yes, everybody was.

What sort of man was your father?

He was a mongrel.

A what?

He had a dash of English.

He learned it to me.

Do you go to chapel?

No, thank you.

Who taught you to read and write?

- Taught?

- Taught.

The verb, to teach.

Oh, teached?

Who taught you?

- I did.

- Why?

- I don't know.

- What books have you read?

Books? Bit of the Bible

and a book a fella stole for me.

- What?

- The Ladies' Companion.

- Can I go now, please?

- No, no.

Would you like to learn any more?

- No, thank you.

- Why not?

The other men would have a good laugh.

I see.

Have you ever written anything

before this exercise?

- No.

- Why not?

Nobody never asked me to before.

What is the matter with it?

Nothing's the matter with it.

Whether it means anything

is too early for me to say.

But it shows exceptional talent

for a boy in your circumstances.

Terrible long words, Miss Moffat.

This shows that you are very clever.

Has anyone ever said that to you before?

It is news to me.

What effect does the news have on you?

It is a bit sudden. Except it makes me...

Yes?

I want to get more clever still.

I wanna know

what is behind of all them books.

Can you be here tomorrow?

Tomorrow I am working

on the 6 till 4 shift.

I see. Then can you be here at 5?

Five? Not before 6,

there's five miles to walk.

Yes, 7, then. Of course.

In the meantime,

I'll correct this for spelling and grammar.

Yes, Miss Moffat.

Well, that will be all. Good night.

Good night, Miss Moffat.

"When I walk through

the tan-something shaft in the dark...

...I can touch with my hands

the leaves on the trees...

...and underneath,

where the corn is green."

That's right, more cleverness.

Ring that bell.

The hell with the barn.

Now, the history of Syracuse. Morgan?

Founded 734 B.C.

By colonists from Corinth.

Became leading city of Sicily.

Seized by Gelon, the tyrant of Gela,

in 485 B.C.

No, no, no.

Listen carefully.

Be not afeard.

The isle is full of noises...

...sounds and sweet airs

that give delight and hurt not.

Sometimes, a thousand

twangling instruments...

...will hum about mine ears,

and then...

...sometimes, voices...

...that, if I then had waked after long sleep,

will make me sleep again...

...and then in dreaming,

the clouds methought would open...

...and show riches

Ready to drop upon me...

...that when I waked,

I cried to dream again.

Bravo.

Now...

Oh, please, could you help me? It says

in this book that seven eight's a 56.

And eight seven's a 56.

I can't understand that at all.

- Now, look here. Take this number and...

- Listen to this.

"The 18th century was a cauldron.

Vice and elegance boiled to a simmer...

...until the kitchen of society

reeked fulminously...

...and the smell percolated

to the marble halls above."

Signed, Morgan Evans.

So expressive. So...

- Do you know what he means?

- No. Neither does he.

- But he's reaching all those lovely words.

- It's wonderful.

My plans are laid around here.

- What plans?

- Not yet.

And to think that a year ago,

he hardly knew no English.

And now he knows too much.

Stuck-up teacher's pet.

Well done.

Did either of you ever believe that

our school would live to be 2 years old?

- It's wonderful.

- Indeed, it's a miracle.

- Guess what.

- What?

- I'm a sergeant major.

- You're not.

Remember Sergeant Major Hopkins

deserting and marrying a sailor?

- Yes, yes.

- Well, she's dead, poor soul, and I'm in.

But we had a fine service for her.

We saved three sinners.

And the collection.

I ain't seen so much "oof,"

not since the great Liverpool exposition.

But they didn't make a collection

at the Liverpool exhibition.

No, but I did.

- You must be feeling better, Bessie.

- No, Miss Ronberry.

It's all this sitting down.

It's been going on two years now.

I hear tell it ends

in everything rotting away.

- What's rotting away?

- What's the matter, little dear?

I believe all these lessons

is bad for me insides.

I feel quite faint sometimes,

as if me heart had stopped.

It feels like the end of the world.

Oh, come on, Bessie Watty,

what is this dying doubt business?

Everybody's against me!

I'm gonna throw myself off a cliff

and kill myself.

It'll make a nice case in the papers,

me in pieces at the bottom of a cliff!

I'm going mad, mad,

and I'm gonna kill myself...

...and nothing's gonna stop me!

Stone dead at the bottom of a cliff!

Oh, I've made a mess of your rug, ma'am,

but it was worth it.

There's bad blood in this girl,

you mark my word.

Well, she'll catch her death.

There's nothing better than a drop

of cold water, ma'am.

I found that out with her father,

he was foreign.

Better now, eh?

I can't remember nothing.

I'm in a coma.

She's one of my failures, I'm afraid.

- Fish out of water, guttersnipe species.

- Oh, she's young.

She's young.

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