The Good Earth Page #5

Where can I walk in the evening?

If I had the garden,

if I had the garden all mine;

with singing birds in the pavillion,

the fountain with fish.

But the money...

Then it's money that you love

No no! Little Flower!

But it will not be

easy until the harvest

I must see, I must see,

my younger son keeps the accounts

But these're few little things

If you love me, if I please you

It shall be done! Anything! Anything!

Becareful! My pearls!

I may come in?

Does my music disturb you?

Oh no! No I like it!

I listen sometimes

I play it because I'm Ionely

I have so much to talk and laugh,

but there's no one

I'm sorry, I'm very sorry!

You must excuse me I have some business

with the grain merchants

If you'll please I must go!

Then you'll pass by the shops

Yes?

Would you mind

giving him these for a bottle?

With silver?

Why um yes! Yes!

But you won't misunderstand

Why should I?

When a woman gives her slipper to a man?

But I shouldn't tell you

Oh no please!

Well then it means he's taking her fancy

But you ask me to have it guilded?

But the bottle doesn't need guilding,

it's pure silver!

Here's a letter from your brother,

will you read it to me

Of course mother!

Now then, we'll hear

what our scholar has to say

"First, I am ashamed of my ignorance.

But I am not ashamed

to inquire of my teachers.

Each day I learn

new ways of bring about nature's

facts in case

nature herself should fail us."

What does he say?

He says

he's learning many things to help us.

But is he happy there?

Does he say he need anything?

No mother

"I miss my beloved

father and mother deeply.

And I'm eager to share

the happiness of our new home."

Mother, I want to go away too!

Go away?

To the wars! I'll be a soldier!

Now then what madness is this?

Well I've heard stories

of war and plunder and battle,

and I hate this house!

And I'll go!

I wish she'll stop that music!

Now this house is full of silences

I was reading mother

a letter from the older brother

Would you like to hear it?

If he's well it can wait!

But there's more

in your face than the letter!

He'll be a soldier

A soldier! Now then,

men don't take good iron to make an ail,

nor a good man to make a soldier

It would be a disgrace

to me a man of serving land

to have a son who's a soldier!

But I'm nothing in this house!

If you're lost in this house

go back to the land!

Help Ching until the harvest

Put an alert on yourself!

That's good for any man!

Well if the land

isn't fit for you anymore

it isn't fit for me!

Now all these stuff I don't know

He's come to the age of tempers

and weeping

When I was a lad I had no such tempers!

You worked on the land;

but he's like a young lord!

And he's been alone here

And you worry his age to have a bride

But I was given a sla...

My marriage cost my father nothing!

The boy's our son!

He would be better dead

than here with this woman!

What? You're dreaming!

Even she hears it who has nothing else;

it feels all this house

the woman of cause

she's bored and your son is young...

Enough!

Gossip! Kitchen gossip!

That's where you came from!

Where you wished to live,

live there then!

Eat 'n sleep we will,

but between you and me

there's nothing! Nothing!

The man is loon here

What are you doing in the house?

There's work to be done in the fields

But, what is it?

You're weeping, and you must do it

and man can be sorry

But why do you weep?

There's food for everyday

And fire!

Sometimes a man gets

a longing for his fields

Well, if it pleases you to come up again

and working them, they're yours!

No it's better for my son to come;

in the house he pulls against the yolk

He has all the freedom here he wants!

Where is he today?

He comes and goes!

Sometimes 1 day, sometimes 2

I thought you knew

I knew nothing!

I spend my time in town!

Why don't you tell me

you slow witted ox!

Why should I tell you

what everyone's been saying?

For weeks!

What?

Well...

Well speak!

If you have eyes and ears you'll know

Know? Know what?

That the second wife and your son is...

Liar!

Get off my land.

Well, it's been a long time with us

Take what belongs to you and go

I came to you with nothing,

I'll go with nothing

Good day master! Good day!

Ah! Father!

Get out! Out of my sight!

Good bye mother

Mother! Mother you're ill,

you should have a doctor

It's nothing

Where you go you ought to tell me

They say there's a war in the north

Sometimes in wars

there are those who die

Well if that's best, let it be!

When I'm gone,

you must see to the harvest

we almost did it already,

the clerk will tell you how much

I will see to it

If you must go,

there's a thing to be done

Speak to your father

No no I can't!

You're his youngest son

Father father!

I am going away

I...I only want to tell you that I...

how I... if you could forgive me

But go!

Nephew! We're ruined! Everything's gone!

And I predicted it! I predicted it!

What's happened?

I knew it, I ran miles to tell you

What is it?

I forgive everybody

What is it?

This!

Locusts!

The flying plague!

Well! Let them come!

But the lion, the harvest!

What can we do against the gods?

It's not the gods!

It's a thing of nature! We can fight it!

Have you ever seen a plague of locusts?

No but...

I have! They came in millions

The air is black with them and stinky

And where they come down

there's nothing left!

Not a green of wheat!

Not a blade of grass!

Not a leave nor flower! Nothing!

And can you fight that with your book?

Forgive me!

I mean no disrespect for my elders,

but I speak for what I heard at school!

And I heard this:

"That a man is a slave to the earth,

or its master

and when it turns against him,

he must fight it!"

We can fight these creeping things!

If we save but 1 field,

it would a new thing in all this land,

and the best in a thousand years!

This thing can be done?

Show us how to do it!

If it'd please you,

come on to the fields!

Now look!

The locusts will come down here,

the wind blows between these hills

There! Like a whirlpool,

if it blows the locusts

they'll come down there

and no other place!

I saw it! As a boy!

They came down there!

And they were gone,

with a change of wind

But the crops, were gone with them!

But that's the thing!

We can hold them off

till the wind changes!

We must take a fire break

along these hill tops

Make a wall of fire!

But my wheat

lights on fire in a fire wall!

And mine! And mine! And mine!

I'll pay for

what is eaten and what is burnt!

We'll get kerosene,

bring it in carts!

The fire stuff,

it makes a quick, high flame

We can fight everything

behind this wall!

If they break through,

we'll wind the ditch behind the fire;

a wall of water!

It will fail!

If it fails,

we'll fight them with torches!

With noise! With our hands!

If we can hold them off until

the wind picks them up again,

we can save at least those fields!

It can't be done!

It must be done!

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