Whom would I drive away?
FOOL
I won’t tell you.
WISE MAN
Not if I give you a penny?
FOOL
No.
WISE MAN
Not if I give you two pennies?
FOOL
You will be very lucky if you give me two pennies, but I won’t tell you!
WISE MAN
Three pennies?
FOOL
Four, and I will tell you!
WISE MAN
Very well, four. But I will not call you Teig the Fool any longer.
FOOL
Let me come close to you where nobody will hear me. But first you must promise you will not drive them away. [WISE MAN nods.] Every day men go out dressed in black and spread great black nets over the hills, great black nets.
WISE MAN
Why do they do that?
FOOL
That they may catch the feet of the angels. But every morning, just before the dawn, I go out and cut the nets with my shears, and the angels fly away.
WISE MAN
Ah, now I know that you are Teig the Fool. You have told me that I am wise, and I have never seen an angel.
FOOL
I have seen plenty of angels.
WISE MAN
Do you bring luck to the angels too?
FOOL
Oh, no, no! No one could do that. But they are always there if one looks about one; they are like the blades of grass.
WISE MAN
When do you see them?
FOOL
When one gets quiet, then something wakes up inside one, something happy and quiet like the stars – not like the seven that move, but like the fixed stars.
[He points upward.
WISE MAN
And what happens then?
FOOL
Then all in a minute one smells summer flowers, and tall people go by, happy and laughing, and their clothes are the colour of burning sods.
WISE MAN
Is it long since you have seen them, Teig the Fool?
FOOL
Not long, glory be to God! I saw one coming behind me just now. It was not laughing, but it had clothes the colour of burning sods, and there was something shining about its head.
WISE MAN
Well, there are your four pennies. You, a fool, say ‘Glory be to God,’ but before I came the wise men said it.
FOOL
Four pennies! That means a great deal of luck. Great teacher, I have brought you plenty of luck!
[He goes out shaking the bag.
WISE MAN