r happen? We sit here
all day, and we sing or do our embroidery, and we go to bed, and the
next day we get up and do the same things over again, and so it goes on.
Mother, is that all there is in the world?

MOTHER. It's all there is in our world.

DAUGHTER. Are we so very poor?

MOTHER. We have the house--and very little else.

DAUGHTER. Oh, I wish that we were _really_ poor--

MOTHER. You needn't wish, child.

DAUGHTER. Oh, but I mean so that it wouldn't matter what clothes we
wore; so that we could wander over the hills and down into the valleys,
and sleep perhaps in a barn and bathe ourselves in the brook next
morning, and--

MOTHER. I don't think I should like that very much. Perhaps I'm
peculiar.

DAUGHTER. Oh, if only I were a boy to go out and make my own way in the
world. Would you let me go, Mother, if I were a boy?

MOTHER. I don't suppose you'd ask me, dear.

DAUGHTER (sighing). Oh, well! We must make the best of it, I suppose.
Perhaps one day something will happen. (She goes back to the spinet and
sings again.)

_Lads and lasses, what will you sell,
What will you sell?_

Four stout walls and a roof atop,
Warm fires gleaming brightly,
Well-stored cellar and garnered crop,
Money-bags packed tightly;
An ordered task in an ordered day,
And a sure bed nightly;
Years which peacefully pass away,
Until Death comes lightly.

_Lads and lasses, what will you buy?
What will you buy?_

Here is a cap to cover your head,
A cap with one red feather;
Here is a cloak to make your bed
Warm or winter weather;
Here is a satchel to store your ware,
Strongly lined with leather;
And here is a staff to take you there
When you go forth together.

_Lads and lasses, what will you gain,
What will you gain?_

Chatter of rooks on tall elm-trees
New Spring houses taking;
Daffodils in an April breeze
Golden curtsies making;
Shadows of clouds across the weald
From hill to valley breaking,
The first faint stir which the woodlands yield
When the world is waking.

_Lads and lasses, this is your gain,
This is your gain._

(Towards the end of the song the face and shoulders of the TALKER appear
at the open