Hew Morrison Collection > Real Mackay

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Kiprinted /rom " Tlie Duncdin Mai;azinc"
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THE REAL MACKAY
{All Rights Reserved)
one act play
By Donald A. Mackenzie
Characters
WiDOW Mackay, tenant of Balree Croft.
MÀiRi ^ Mackay, her daughter, a domestic servant.
" Sandy " Speedwell, artist and poet, of Edinburgh.
Mrs Speedwell, his mother.
ScENE : The " best room " in a crofter's cottage in the Scottish
Highlands. To the left a small open windmv, round wìiich honey-
suckle clings and blooms, affords a glimpse of a blue loch, sofily
screened by the drooping hranches of a silver birch, and glistening
in bright sunshine. Beside the windoiv Màiri Mackay sits knitting
a white shawl. A folding table, with the leaves down, occupies the
centre of the room and is covered with a Mackay tartan plaid. Upon
it stands a dark blue bowl filled with wild roses. Widow Mackay
sits to the right, at her spinning wheel, between the table and a wide,
open fire-place. Peat smoulders in the grate. To the left of the
fire-place is an " easy chair " (a plain arm-chair with a cushion), and
to the right a nursing chair ivith short legs ; a stool is tilted in front
on a deerskin rug. Against the wall, betiveen the little window and
a bedroom door, is a dark mahogany chest of drawers, on which lies a
bulky family Bible between two gaudy vases. Three chairs are ranged
against the wall to the left, and the floor is covered with flowery wax-
cloth, brilliantly new. The walls are adorned with framed portraits
of John Knox, John Bunyan, William Ewart Gladstone, and a Free
Church ìninister. On the high mantelpiece squat two ivhite porcelain
dogs with black noses, and above it is a set of bagpipes. A " wag-
at-the-wa " clock ticks leisurely to the right of the fireplace.
TiME : Early afternoon : a sunny day in late June.
WiDOW {stops spinning and looks iowards her daughter over her
glasses). You'U be sitting in a draught, Màiri. Shut the
window or you will maybe catch a cheel ^ — you that looks so
delicate.
MÀiRi. Oh ! there's no fear of me, mother. If you won't be
1 pron. Mah'ri. ^^ 2 chill.
ILAIJRISTONCASTLÈ
;'.'■ ^^ARYACCESSION