80 LOUISE DRISCOLL
(As the Counter speaks the Bearer lays the sack over his arm and helps count.)
The Counter
Put a hundred in each tray — We can tally them best that way. Careful — do you understand You have ten men in your hand ? There's another fallen — there — Under that chair. (The Bearer finds it and restores it.)
That was a man a month ago ; He could see and feel and know. Then, into his throat there sped A bit of lead.
Blood was salt in his mouth ; he fell And lay amid the battle wreck. Nothing was left but this metal check — And a wife and child, perhaps.
(The Bearer finds the bag on his arm troublesome. He holds it up, inspecting it.)
The Bearer
What can one do with a thing like this ?
Neither of life nor death it is !
For the dead serve not, though it served the dead.
The wounds it carried were wide and red,
Yet they stained it not. Can a man put food.
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