The Proud Valley Page #2

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I said wash your face.

- Four, five, six, seven.

- Well, that ain't so dusty.

- How was I doing?

- Very nice.

You've got a big future in this game,

my boy, but it don't pay to be shy.

Let 'em have it.

And when your friends

Desert you

In the time of your downfall

Lamentations! Somebody must have

been run over by the sound of it!

Lamentations! I thought something was the matter

when I heard the noise you were making.

Shut up, good boys, and go from here before

you frighten the children out of their senses.

Go, for it's a worse noise

than the wild beast showl

Go! Go, before I send for

John, the policeman.

- Spare a copper, lady?

- Payment you expect for making such a noise?

- That's the only way to get rid of them, Mrs. Owen.

- To encourage them, more like.

Well, we've all got to live.

Oh, thank you, kind lady.

Hear and answer

Hear and answer, Baal

Mark how the scorner derideth us

Derideth us

Derideth us

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

Baal, hear and answer

Hear and answer

- Hear and answer

- No, no, no.

There's your weakness.

You first tenors.

Our kettle sings better.

Open your mouth, will you?

Aye. There is an opening there.

- Very little voice comes out of it.

- There's as much -

Shut up. Or else I'll have a length

of rubber tubing put down your throat...

see if I can get any sound out of that.

Here, Syd. As they come into that place

where they crack, try and cover 'em up.

Give 'em plenty of that.

I've heard better first tenors

singing on trees.

Oh, so you've condescended to come

at last, have you?

- Sorry I'm late, Dad.

- Oh, get to your place, man.

I don't suppose our celebrated bass soloist,

Mr. Ben Jenkins, has turned up yet.

I'm afraid he's met with

a bit of an accident, Dad.

"Accident. "

You had nothing to do with it, huh?

I think he ran his face into something.

Well, we're not gonna wait for him any longer.

Get into your positions, please.

Come on. Hurry up.

This is a choir practice, not a funeral.

Emlyn, come here.

Was it a good scrap, Son?

- Aye. All right, Dad.

- Good boy.

Now listen, everybody.

We'll go straight through.

As Ben isn't here, I'll beat the time

for the solo part myself.

Come on now, lads.

Give me everything you've got.

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

Hear and answer, Baal

Mark how the scorner derideth us

Derideth us

Derideth us

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

Hear and answer, Baal

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

Baal

Baal

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

Hear and answer

- One, two, three, four.

- Hear and answer

One, two, three, four. One.

Lord God of Abraham

Isaac and Israel

This day let it be known

- Here. Steady, mate. Steady.

- That thou art God

And that I am thy servant

Lord God

Of Abraham

Hear

O hear me, Lord

And answer me

O hear me, Lord

and answer me

Lord God of Abraham

Isaac and Israel

O hear me

O hear me

And answer me

And show this people

That thou art Lord God

- And let their hearts again be turned

- And let their hearts again be turned

And let their hearts again

Be turned

Lord God

Of Abraham

- Here. Was that you?

- Yeah.

- Was it all right?

- Oh, come up here. We want to talk to you.

No, come on.

Come on up, friend.

- Come on up, friend.

- No, thanks.

I'll stick to me own line.

But that's where you ought to be.

Well, so long, chum.

So long, and good luck.

And the same to you.

And when your friends desert you

At the time of your downfall

Mam, I tell you,

he's got a bottom bass like an organ.

The finest I ever heard in these valleys.

Oh! It floated in that hall like -

like thunder from a distance.

Here. Steady, mate. Steady.

Oh. It's either all or nothing with him.

Boy, I tell you, with you in the choir

we can't lose at the Eisteddfod.

Maybe. But I gotta find a job.

That's why I'm on my way to Darren Valley.

- Darren Valley?

- Like a red rag to a bull...

since they beat him

at the last Eisteddfod.

No, you can't go there.

I'll - I'll find you work in the pit with me.

- Mam, he'll stay here with us.

- With us?

- Mmml

- What you talking about?

- Where with us? I'd like to know.

- Oh, we'll find room for him somewhere.

- Somewhere? Dick Parry-

- Hmm?

Have you forgot that we have five children

of our own sleeping in this house?

- No.

- Well, well. I don't know what to make of you.

- Oh, come now, Mam.

- Think what'll it mean to the choir.

You and your old choir. Why don't you bring

all the members of your choir to sleep here?

Make a barracks of my house

and have done with it.

- Come now, lovely.

- Don't think you can get over me this time with your old nonsense.

- Oh, come now.

- Let me go!

- Listen now.

- Too much I have listened to you.

Well, I think I'd better be going too.

No, no. You stay where you are now.

Let me have a talk with her.

- The stranger's all alone now.

- Where's Dad then?

Gone after our mam.

She's in her tantrums.

I'm going to talk to the stranger.

- You watch yourself, our Dilys.

- I should be all right.

Hello.

- Hello.

- I'm Dilys. What's your name?

I'm David Goliath.

Ooh, I know. Same as in the story

teacher told us in Sunday school.

There's high up you are.

There. I'm not so high up now.

Our mam's in her tantrums.

But never you mind.

She'll be all right when she's had her bang-out.

Yes. I see.

- I tell you I can't manage it.

- Oh.

Mr. Parry.

I just wanted to thank you for the cup of tea

and the bite to eat, 'cause I'm going along now.

Indeed! I'm not gonna let you go

at this time of night.

We'll find somewhere for you to sleep.

Aye. He can sleep on the sofa

in the front room, can't he?

- Yes. To be sure.

- There.

Here. Here.

Didn't I tell you she'd be all right?

- Yes.

- Dilysl

- Get back to bed this minute!

- Oh, no, Mam. Let her stay.

Oh, I do wish you'd been

down there to hear him tonight.

A bottom bass like an organ.

- He sounded -

- Hello, Mam. Hello, Dad.

- Em, I was telling your mother about our practice tonight.

- Aye. Great.

- But I have something more important to tell Mam.

- Oh?

Mam, we've got that little house

on Mountain Row.

And Gwen's mother is willing for her

to be married a month next Monday.

- Isn't it grand?

- Yes, Emlyn. Of course it is.

Oh, I don't know.

- But there. Perhaps I worry too much.

- What's the matter, our Mam?

There's nothing I wanted so much as to see you

married to Gwen and in a home of your own.

- Well?

- But things have been so slack at the pits lately...

and, well, I don't know

how we're going to manage without your help.

We'll manage, my girl.

We managed afore he started work,

and we'll manage after he gets married.

- Oh, I expect we will.

- I know. We'll have David here as a lodger.

- Yes!

- He can have Emlyn's room and pay his share.

Fine. You get me work,

and I'll do it, all right.

- But you'll find I've got an outsize appetite.

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