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THEY THAT SIT IN DARKNESS A One-Act Play of Negro Life CHARACTERS MALINDA JASPER, the mother LINDY, MILES, ALOYSIUS, MARY ELLEN, JIMMIE, JOHN HENRY, a week-old infant her children ELIZABETH SHAW, a visiting nurse The action passes in a small country town in the South in our own day. Scene: It is late afternoon of a day in September. The room which does a three-fold duty as kitchen, dining room, and living room for the Jasper family is dingy and disorderly. Great black patches as though from smoke are on the low ceilings and the walls. To the right is a door leading into a bedroom. In the opposite wall another door leads into a somewhat larger room that serves as bedroom for six Jasper children. In the rear wall a door opens into a large yard. A window is placed to the left of the door while against the wall to the right there stands an old, battered cow-hide trunk. The furniture which is poor and dilapidated, consists of a table in the center of the room, a cupboard containing a few broken cups and plates, a rocker, and two or three plain chairs with broken backs and uncertain legs. Against the wall to the left there is a kitchen stove on which sit a teakettle and a wash-boiler. Near the window placed upon stools are two large laundry tubs. Through .open window and door one gets a glimpse of snowy garments waving and glistening in the sun. MALINDA JASPER, a frail, tired-looking woman of thirty-eight, and LINDY, her seventeen year-old daughter, are bending over the tubs swirling their hands in the water to make sure that their task is completed. From the yard come the constant cries of children at play. MRS. JASPER. (Straightening up painfully from the tubs.) Lor', Lindy, how 68 / MARY P. BURRILL my side do hurt! But thank goodnis, dis job's done! (She sinks exhausted into the rocker.) Run git me one them tablits de doctor lef' fo' dis pain! (Lindy hurries into the adjoining room and returns with the medicine.) MRS. JASPER. (Shaking her head mournfully.) Dis ole pain goin' be takin' me 'way f'om heah one 0' dese days! LINDY. (Looking at her in concern.) See, Ma, I tole yuh not to be doin' all this wuk! Whut's Mis 'Liz'beth goin' er say when she comes heah this evenin ' an' fine out you done all this wuk after she tole yuh pertic'lar yestiddy that she wuz'n goin' let yuh out'n bed 'fo' three weeks-an' here 't'ain't been a week sence baby wuz bawn! MRS. JASPER. Ah ain't keerin' 'bout whut Mis' 'Liz'beth say! Easy nuf, Lindy, fo' dese nurses to give dey advice-dey ain't got no seben chillern to clothe an' feed-but when dis washin' git back Ah kin nevah ketch up! LINDY. (Reprovingly.) But I could 'a done it all mys'f. MRS. JASPER. An' been all dayan' night doin' it-an' miss gittin' you'se'f off in de mawnin' tuh Tuskegee-no indeedy! LINDY. (Hesitatingly.) P'rhaps I oughtn' be goin' erway an' leavin' yuh wid all dis washin' to do ever' week, an' de chillern to look after-an' the baby an' all. Daddy he gits home so late he cain't be no help. MRS. JASPER. (Wearily). Nebber you mind, Lindy, Ah'm going be gittin' aw-right bime-by. Ah ain't a-goin' be stan'in' in de way yo' gittin' dis edicashun . Yo' chance don' come, Lindy, an' Ah wants ter see yuh tek it! Yuh been a good chile, Lindy, an' Ah wants ter see yuh git mo'e out'n life dan Ah gits. Dem three yeah at Tuskegee warn't seem long. LINDY. (Her face brightening up.) Yassum, an' ef Mister Huff, the sup- 'inten'ent meks me county teacher lak he sez he'll do when I git back, I kin do lots mo'e fo' you an' the chillern! (The cry of a week-old infant comes from the adjoining room.) MRS. JASPER. Dar now! Ah'm mighty glad he didn' wake up 'tel we git dis washin' done! Ah reckon he's hongry. Ain't Miles come back wid de milk yet? He's been gawn mos' 'en hour-see ef he's took dat guitar wid 'im. LINDY. (Going to the door and looking...

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