_]
FIRST COUNTRYMAN (_waking; shaking Second Countryman_). Wake up! Wake up!
[_Each yawns; stretches; throws off his blanket; arises._]
FIRST COUNTRYMAN (_remembering_). Ah, the gourds!
[_Each looks at his ankle, then at the other's ankle._]
SECOND COUNTRYMAN. How's this!
FIRST COUNTRYMAN. Did we not tie gourds around our ankles?
SECOND COUNTRYMAN (_nodding_). Why, surely we did.
FIRST COUNTRYMAN (_looking about_). Did we not have two baskets of gourds
with us?
SECOND COUNTRYMAN (_nodding_). Surely; there in the corner.
FIRST COUNTRYMAN (_holding up foot to which flag is tied_). Is this a gourd
or is it not a gourd?
SECOND COUNTRYMAN. Of a surety it is a flag.
(_Holding up his foot with flag._)
And if this be not a gourd, keep thy silence.
[_The First Countryman stares at the flag, placing his finger on his closed
lips._]
SECOND COUNTRYMAN. Then it hath indeed happened!
FIRST COUNTRYMAN. What hath happened?
SECOND COUNTRYMAN. The dreadful thing foretold by the citizens. I am not I!
Thou art not thou!
FIRST COUNTRYMAN (_trembling with fear_). How can that be?
SECOND COUNTRYMAN. I know not. I only know that it is.
FIRST COUNTRYMAN (_weeping_).
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