_] The Moral Problem.
THE BLACKBIRD
What a pity!
[_The_ GUINEA-HEN _goes to the back, scattering greetings, in ecstasies
of sociability._]
THE PHEASANT-HEN
[_To the_ BLACKBIRD.] Who is the Tortoise?
THE BLACKBIRD
A hard old character, impervious, I fear, to moral problems, who goes in
for walking matches in a loud check suit!
[_Murmur among the hollyhocks._]
THE PHEASANT-HEN
Listen, a Drone!
THE GUINEA-HEN
[_Briskly returning._] The Drone is here! In the bright light overhead,
what a stylish figure of a fly!
THE BLACKBIRD
No "at home" complete without it! Ladies cry for it! Won't be happy
until--
THE GUINEA-HEN
[_Jumping up in the air toward the_ DRONE.] How do you do? How do you
do? [_She follows his flight with excited leaps and hops._]
THE BLACKBIRD
[_Touching his brow with his wing._] She is dotty!
THE GUINEA-HEN
[_At the back, with shrill_ GUINEA-HEN _cries._] It's my last day! How
do you do? My last day until August! Mondays in August, don't forget!
A HEN
[_Seeing cherries dropping around her._] Oh, cherries, look!
THE PHEASANT-HEN
[_Looking upward._] It is the Breeze!
THE GUINEA-HEN
[_Fluttering forward again, excited as ever._] I have the Breeze, who
now and then shakes down a cherry! I never ask her. She comes unasked.
What's-his-name is here! And What's-her-name is here, and--[_To the back
tumultuously._]
THE BLACKBIRD
And Thingumbob, and Stick-in-the-mud! [_He has arrived without
appearance of design beneath the tree where the_ CAT _is lying, and asks
rapidly, under breath.
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