The Pot of Broth, Yates & Gregory

• TRAMP. What sort are the people of this house. I wonder? Was it a good place for me to come look for my dinner, I wonder? What's in that big pot? [Lifts cover.] Nothing at all!
• TRAMP. Sibby he called her. I wonder is it Sibby Coneely's house I am in? If that's so it's a bad chance I have of going out heavier than I came in. I often heard of her, a regular slave-driver that would starve rats. A niggard with her eyes on kippeens, that would skin a flea for its hide!
• TRAMP. ... My wits used to fill my stomach then, but I am afraid they're going from me now with all the hardship I went through.
• TRAMP. ... Now, Sibby! If I don't do it one way I'll do it another. My wits against the world!
• TRAMP. It's only this minute I came in, tired with the length of the road I am, and fasting since morning.
• SIBBY. Let me alone, I'll show the Kernans what I can do. I have what is better than bacon, a nice bit of ham I am keeping in the chest this good while, thinking we might want it for company. [She catches sight of TRAMP and calls out.] Who is there? A beggarman, is it? Then you may quit this house if you please. We have nothing for you. [She gets up and opens the door.]
• TRAMP [comes forward]. It is a mistake you are making, ma'am, it is not anything asking I am. It is giving I am more used to. I was never in a house yet but there would be a welcome for me in it again.
• TRAMP. Is it me ask anything to eat? [Holds up stone.] I have here what is better than beef and mutton, and currant cakes and sacks of flour.
• TRAMP [mysteriously]. Those that gave it to me wouldn't like me to tell that.
• JOHN. Your mind is always running on the Sidhe since the time they made John Molloy find buried gold on the bridge of Limerick. I see nothing in it but a stone.
• TRAMP. It can do many things, and what it's going to do now is to make me a drop of broth for my dinner.
• TRAMP. No one in the world but myself has one, ma'am, and no other stone in the world has the same power, for it has enchantment on it. All I'll ask you for now, ma'am, is the loan of a pot with a drop of boiling water in it.
• TRAMP. O, don't mind taking so much trouble; those leaves beside me will do well enough. [He takes a couple of good handfuls of the cabbage and onions and puts them in.]
• TRAMP. ... Give me the loan of a kippeen to stir the pot with. ...[He takes the ham-bone and puts it into the pot.]
• TRAMP. Don't look at it for your life, ma'am. It might bring bad luck on any one that would look at it, and it boiling. I must put a cover on the pot, or I must colour the water some way. Give me a handful of that meal.
• TRAMP. And there's another thing it does, ma'am, since it came into Catholic hands. If you put it into a pot of a Friday with a bit of the whitest meat in Ireland in it, it would turn it as black as black.
• TRAMP. But to put a bit of meat with it any other day of the week, it would do it no harm at all, but good. Look here now, ma'am, I'll put that nice little hen you have in your lap in the pot for a minute till you'll see. [Takes it and puts it in.]
• TRAMP. Wait now till you hear the end [sings]:
• TRAMP [taking it out and giving it a good squeeze into the pot]. I did, ma'am. Look at it there. [He takes it and lays it on table.]
• SIBBY. There's a good smell on it anyway. [Tasting.] It's lovely. O, I'd give the world and all to have the stone that made that!
• TRAMP [to JOHN]. I think it likely I'll not be passing this way again. [To SIBBY] Well, now, ma'am, as you were so kind, and for the sake of the good treatment you gave me, I'll ask nothing at all for it. Here it is for you and welcome, and that you may live long to use it! But I'll just take a little bit in my bag that'll do for my supper, for fear I mightn't be in Tubber before night. [He takes up the chicken.] And you won't begrudge me a drop of whisky when you can make plenty for yourself from this out. [Takes the bottle.]
• SIBBY [looking at the stone in her hand]. Broth of the best, stir-about, poteen, wine itself, he said! And the people that will be coming to see the miracle! I'll be as rich as Biddy Early before I die!