"LAURA:" "It was said of Reverend Marley, that he'd once given a local woman his own shoes, so that she might go to church." "(REVEREND CHATTERING)" "The locals had a saying about our curate, which strange as it may sound, they truly meant." "They said that Benedict Marley was too good for this world." "This might've always remained so." "But when a strange menacing spirit found its way into our little corner of the world, it was as though a shadow fell on a garden." "(THOMAS SINGING)" "A curse coloured the minds of people who lived for good cheer." "Good day." "Here we are." "There's not much." "Alfie!" "Are you well?" "Uh, I have a coat for your Lizzie, for those winter days when she has to walk to school." "And I've spoken to Mrs Mostyn up at Hilltop House, and she's willing to take on Sally in her kitchen." "Sally ain't ready, Reverend." "She might have the years, but she don't have the age." "Well, I'll ask Mrs Mostyn to hold the place if she can." "Mrs Timmins." "Reverend." "I pray that all is well with your children and yourself..." "And your husband." "Robert will be in Oxford for another month or more." "That must put a load onto you, Emma." "Games, your Reverend!" "(PANTING) Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush, Musical Chairs," "I shall volunteer to provide them for the church bazaar." "It's the same every year." "Will he leave the children alone with his games and dances?" "A man too old for Postman's Knock, is a man too old for this world." "Mr Turrill, your games would, of course, be most welcome." "(TWISTER SIGHING)" "Oh, tell him, Reverend, he must at least let me help him this time." "Last year, he frightened all the little 'uns away and there was none but him and two cowmen chasing each other round the church gardens." "Twister, will you allow your wife to assist you?" "If that is a holy command, sir, then I must obey." " Is it?" " It is." "(CHILDREN GIGGLING)" "(THOMAS SINGING)" "Thomas Brown!" "I didn't expect to hear you singing this morning." "Ah, why would a man not be in high spirits?" "So I have been given the honour and accolade of organising the church bazaar, the crown of all my efforts and hopes and, uh, well, Margaret's too, of course." "Uh, the whole community gathered together to advance the charitable cause." "(CLICKING TONGUE) With the rector being so ill." " The rector?" "Ill?" " You haven't heard?" "What?" "That means..." "Why do we come to church?" "Some of us may come to gossip about our neighbours." "Some of us may come to parade in our Sunday best." "Some of us might even be here to worship. (CHUCKLES)" "When I was a boy of 14, I did not want to be considered a child any more." "I was impatient to be known a man." "My family owned a pony." "And I wanted to ride her out into the woods, but I was forbidden from doing so." "I could not accept..." "I could not bear this denial." "So I took the pony and I rode her with such a wildness, that it drove her to her knees." "The pony was crippled... beyond saving." "My shame, for the hurt that I had caused, brought me to my senses." "My selfishness run riot had taken the life of this poor creature." "I knew what I was made of." "And I knew that I must change." "The fall scarred me for life." "But my own wildness taught me the very thing that my father's words could not." "When I think of my own failings, it allows me to look at others with tolerance and with acceptance." "And forgiveness." "(BANGS ON PULPIT)" "It is not for me to tell you who or what God is." "Each of us has a God of our own understanding." "(SIGHS WITH DISGUST)" "(PEOPLE MURMURING)" "(DOOR CLOSING)" "It is an abomination." ""A God of our own understanding"?" "The man is a scandal." "The Book of Common Prayer says, "I believe in God, the Father, Almighty," ""maker of heaven and earth." And that is what we must live by." "But he..." "He is a wonderful preacher." "No listener ever dropped off during one of his sermons." "I have never lost his thread." "His thread, Miss Pratt, seems to be entirely his own creed." "One does wonder how such a preacher came to be only a curate in a remote country parish, when his elegance and eloquence and fervour could fill any city church." "That mystery, Miss Pearl, is what hangs over the man like..." "Like a... mystery." "I do hope the rector will be recovered in time for the church bazaar." "Well, he must!" "Uh, I mean, he..." "We must pray that he will." "Laura, these books, I understand you paid a penny for them." "I shall give them back to you." "Oh!" "Thank you." "I found them lying in the kitchen." "Oh, I wondered what had become of them." "How did you get along with Scott's poetry?" "I've seen you with your books, Laura." "How you devour them instantly." "I have so many books." "I will enjoy these now." "You did not read them?" "Not even a glance beneath their covers?" "I find that a little surprising." " I gave them to Miss Lane." " I see." "Thank you." "(FOOTSTEPS RETREATING)" "Reverend Marley!" "May I enquire how the rector is recovering." "I'm afraid he will be bedridden for some time." "Ah, I see, with the church bazaar, how shall we..." "Well, I will say a prayer of thanks and welcome." "Oh, I see." "I see." "Reverend Marley, may I ask, uh, people round here prefer their service as they like their food, plain and simple." "According to The Book of Common Prayer..." "Faith is not a fixed thing, Thomas." "It is a seeking." "Faith, sir, is a rock." "It is a mast." "It is a tower of strength." "For me, it's an adventure." "I do not see it as permanent." "(LAUGHING) It vanishes and I must find it again daily." "Vanish?" "Faith?" "Doubt is a gift, Thomas." "If we can dare to admit..." "Doubt, sir, is the same as disbelief." "What I'm trying to say, Thomas, is that I see your struggle." " And if I can help..." " There is no struggle, sir." "There is rock." "There is mast." "There is tower." "(LOUD HISSING)" "Help!" "The postman, dances round to the front door." " (ACCORDION PLAYING) - (CHILDREN GIGGLING)" "That is why it is called Postman's Knock." "We were taught this game when we were children." "We used to dance it at every church social." "Are we dancing or recollecting?" "Now, the dancers must select who is to answer the door." "Now, come, you be the door." "Now, you must pay the postman for your letter with a kiss." "(ALL LAUGHING)" "For them who's never been kissed, this is the most exciting game ever there was." " Ma, did you kiss boys?" " As many as I could." "I loved this game." "Frank, you help your ma with them buckets." "And Ethel, a broom is a simple enough thing." "It has a brush and a handle." "You take it to the floor." "Alfie, there ain't no need for you to instruct my children." "Just trying to ease your burden, Emma, while Robert's away." "I shall manage. 'Cause I must." "ALL: # Every morning as true as the clock" "# Somebody hears the postman's knock" "(ACCORDION PLAYING)" "# Every morning as true as the clock" "# Somebody hears the postman's knock #" " THOMAS:" "A snake!" " Oh!" "A snake?" "Perhaps it was no more than a grass snake." "They can be quite disturbing if they catch you unawares." "It was long, big..." " Strange." " Oh, heavens." "What is such a creature doing amongst us?" " It was..." " Perhaps a sailor brought it home." "Walter Arless was always telling tales of wonderful things like monkeys and crocodiles." " THOMAS:" "It was..." " Thomas, you must drink this." "It was... evil" "I..." "I sensed the thing before I saw it." "Which means, does it not, that the creature was more than a creature?" "I had the distinct feeling that it was waiting for me." "Oh, I have never, Miss Lane, you are my witness, never have I unhanded a letter." "It flew to the very spot where the monster lurked, waiting for me." "Oh, I knew that it was about to pounce." "I could see the diabolical glint in its eye..." "Eyes." "I thought that I might die there in the..." "In the..." "Bushes!" "And I knew that I must gather every grain of God-given courage and I must... defy the beast." "I stared into those evil eyes..." " Oh, Thomas!" " And I cried out," ""Get thee hence!"" "Oh, was it the devil, Thomas, was it?" "Oh, really!" "Let us not allow our imaginations to turn a snake in the grass into a serpent from Hell." "If you had seen those eyes, Miss Lane, you would not be so indifferent." "It serves no good to indulge such primitive fears." "There will be a perfectly logical explanation for the arrival of this creature, and doubtless it will be apprehended by the most stout-hearted man." "Hmm?" "(KNOCKING ON DOOR)" "A football, Emma, given to me by the eldest Henderson boy, for Frank." "We're eating." "I'll give it to him." "I cannot invite you in." "Oh, no, I did not expect you too." "I understand." "But you will say if you need anything." "Your perpetual curate is ever here to cure souls, or better still, to fetch coals." "It isn't so simple as that, Benedict." "And we both know it." "Do you fear your neighbours' tongues, Emma?" "Benedict, as you know, you are forbidden from calling here." "I must ask you not to return." "Did it hiss?" "Snakes are such fascinating creatures." "PEARL:" "Not all snakes are poisonous." "Some simply crush the life out of their prey by wrapping themselves around it." "MARGARET:" "Why has it appeared?" "Now." "Why did it choose Thomas?" "What I mean is, what does it mean?" "Before I set out on that fateful bicycle ride," "I had an altercation with Reverend Marley." "He tried to make me doubt my faith." "Oh, Thomas, are you really suggesting that some spat with the curate has conjured up some demon viper from Hell?" "A snake can be just a snake and also a sign." " Oh!" " But to question a man's faith." "A devout shepherd." "A follower such as Thomas." "You must admit, Pearl." "It is all rather bizarre." "Bazaar." "Now I see it." "The church bazaar." "I have worked so hard." "This will be the day of days for our cause and affirmation of all that I believe, and this man will use it to spread his ungodly message." "Perhaps if you were to speak with the rector, tell him about the sermon, the snake." "Yes." "Marley must be stopped." "That is certainly the ugliest and nastiest thing that ever walked the earth." "LAURA:" "I think it's beautiful." "So exotic and beyond compare." "I wouldn't be afraid if I saw one." "That thing is out there, slithering around our fields and our woods and our gardens." "It might be coming this way, Minnie." "Slither, slither, slipping under the door." "It must turn up somewhere." "I wonder who'll be the next one to see it." "(MINNIE EXCLAIMING)" "(HENS CLUCKING)" "(GASPS)" "(BREATHING HEAVILY)" "(EMMA SCREAMING)" " What have you there, my pet?" " It's almost finished." "What do you want with a net on a stick?" "It is to catch the snake in." "Oh!" "I see." "The snake." "Sydney, you don't suppose you can go in search of the thing." "I shall catch it and present it at the church bazaar." "Well, that will certainly make quite a spectacle for such a seemly Sunday afternoon gathering." "Hmm?" "It's gone." " (TWISTER SIGHING)" " Gone where?" "It could be anywhere." "It might be under my bed." "It might be in my bed." "A fine thing to put in the children's minds." "Come on, children, indoors." "Nothing to fear, come on." "Nothing to fear." "It'll be gone by now." "There's all manner of remedies that call for snakes." "They have a rare healing medicine about them." "One old book reckons that a man who eats half a snake will age no more, while a man who eats it all, will grow younger." "(EXCLAIMS)" "May I refill your cup, Gabriel?" "Your concentration is admirable." "Whenever I have paperwork to do, before I am on the second page," "I find that somehow I am making a cake." "I'm grateful for the use of your kitchen, Miss Lane." "Gabriel, Sydney has no father." "What I mean is, his pa is not here and I have a dilemma." "He is intent on going out to look for the snake." "I fear that if he goes, he will be hurt by the thing." "I am at a loss to know what is the right thing to do." "What would your father have done?" "We would have taken the net and set out together to catch the snake." "He would have known it was a hopeless endeavour, but... (SIGHING) He would have given me the thrill of the adventure." "Oh, I see." "Well..." "As rational as I am about such things," "I cannot face the prospect of going out..." "I can." "Sydney would love it if you were willing to do that for him." "And I would be most appreciative." "Just so long as we don't catch the thing, eh?" "Oh!" " Frank, is that a rash on your neck?" " That's always been there, Ma." " (SIGHING) Why are you fussing so, Ma?" " Oh, I ain't fussing." "I ain't..." "Am I?" "Ma'am, did Mr Cochrane speak to you about the books?" "The books?" "Why would he want to speak with me about them?" "He confronted me." "I was in such a panic." "He pressed me to know why I had not looked inside of the books." "He wanted to know how they came to be left in the kitchen." "I did not know what I might say, so I..." "I told him I'd given the books to you." "He knows I read the letter." "Yet I spoke with him last night and he gave me no sign." "I'm so sorry, ma'am." "I felt I had to tell him the truth." "Snake!" "Snake!" "(PANTING) Oh, it weren't a snake." "It were a mistake." "I fear it is going to be a long day." "Where are you off to, Emma?" "I want to see that the children get to school unharmed." "Is that so?" "I ain't never known you to accompany them down the lane before." "We ain't never had a snake before." "Then I bid you a safe journey." "There, you go to Queenie." "That's it." " (BABY WHINING)" " Have you thought, when you leave the children in their classroom, the creature might be there or may arrive there." "Perhaps you should stay with them the day long." "I must do what I can." "Mr Cochrane!" "May I join you?" "It promises to be quite a tale if you catch the snake." "And quite a tale if you don't." "I once met an old snake-hunter and he taught me how to follow a snake trail." "Then it certainly will be a day of adventures." "Oh, my dear, how did you fare with the rector?" "He was too ill to receive me." "Perhaps he will recover in time to..." "There's no time." "The bazaar is imminent." "Perhaps if you wrote to him." "Oh, Margaret, not only will I compose a letter, but I will deliver it to the rectory post-haste." "(BREATHING HEAVILY)" "Emma?" "Emma?" "I took the children to the school and I can't seem to find my way home." "I have such a sick feeling like the earth might open up." "I daren't take another step." "Come with me." "There you are." "Sit in the shade for a while." "(ALL CHEERING)" "(MEN CHATTERING)" "It's this way." "I saw the trail." " So there really are snake trails?" " It seems so." "Oh." "Laura, your pa..." "When he forbade Reverend Marley from coming to your cottage, what happened between them?" "I expect they had some row about politics or religion." "My pa is never far from an argument where those things are concerned." "But I ain't never known him to forbid someone from his door before." "Something must've disturbed him." "I was a child at the time." "My parents never talk about it." "Why do you ask?" "There's something about that man, troubles me." "Alfie, Reverend Marley has been nothing but kind to your family." "Miss Lane, may I enquire, has there been, or is there now a letter, a note or perhaps a message for me?" "For you, Thomas?" "I am expecting an urgent communication, ma'am." "Urgent." "I have seen nothing." "(BELL TINKLING)" "Do you think it's gone to Candleford?" "I don't know, Sydney, we'll have to see." " (GASPING) Oh!" " (GABRIEL LAUGHING)" "Did you catch it?" "No, but we caught two frogs and almost a rabbit." "Almost a rabbit?" "You are the intrepid hunters, hmm?" "I'm sorry it has taken all day, Miss Lane, but when we boys set out on an adventure, we must pursue it to its very end." "MINNIE: (SCREAMING) Snake!" "Snake!" "(GRUNTING) It will be a dish rag or a broom handle." "It has been like this all day." "I feel I would have been safer out in the wilds with you." "Perhaps tomorrow." "Perhaps there will be a message waiting for you." "Perhaps the rector will make a providential recovery." "We cannot rely on fortune, Margaret." "We cannot stand back and hope." " We are compelled to intervene." " But what more can we do?" "Margaret, what is it that steers us, holds us afloat, sustains us and, my dear, delivers us?" "One another?" "Faith." "We shall be delivered." "We have a means." "Thomas, what is it we are praying for?" "The word from the rector." "That our message has been heard, that we are not to be abandoned." "That our faith is justified." "Everything that we believe in will prevail." "(EXCLAIMS SOFTLY)" "(KNOCKING ON DOOR)" "(SIGHS)" "(SNIFFING)" "Emma!" "Oh, come here, let me..." "Let me help to wash your hand." "(EMMA SOBBING)" "What is happening to me?" "Since I saw that thing, it's haunted me." "I can't bear to be still." "Perhaps this is a good thing." "You would not say such a thing if you felt the bottomless fear..." "I have my own torments, Emma." "You know that." "Emma, suppose you saw this as a message, a sort of guidance from your own soul." "The fear was already there in you, and the snake only served to bring it out to give you permission to be terrified." "What good could there possibly be in such feelings?" "How do they help me to feed my children," " tend my baby?" " Write to Robert and tell him that you're struggling." "Are you saying that a woman doesn't have the strength?" "That she needs a man?" "I am saying that you need your husband's comfort, that is all." "I am saying that strength, that willpower, is not the foundation we think it is." "I have always been strong." "When we admit our defects, we look at our darkness, then we come to realise that we cannot rely upon ourselves entirely." "I cannot afford to be afraid." "But the more you deny it, it becomes a greater monster and you're at its mercy." "You talk to me about fear." "Have you ever held a child, your own child, held them close, wiped away their tears and told them it will all be all right, promised them, when you know that it's not true?" "When life is nothing but hunger and worry and toil and loss." "(SOBBING)" "I can't do it." "I cannot be strong enough for my children." "It will all be all right." "I promise you." "I promise you." "(SIGHING) No message." "Nothing." "Not even a choir boy to pass on some word from the rector." "Thomas, you've been through that stack of letters three times." "I was certain that I would hear something." "(BELL TINKLING)" "(DOOR CLOSING)" "RUBY:" "Miss Lane, we have news." "We have heard, on good authority..." " The milkman." " Mmm." "That our curate was seen leaving a Lark Rise cottage..." "After dark." "RUBY:" "The Timmins cottage." "PEARL:" "Yes, and the man of the house is away from home." "RUBY:" "Away from home." "Of course, it may all be entirely innocent." "PEARL:" "But, there is something about that man." "(DOOR OPENING)" "Emma?" " What are you doing?" " I ain't feeling too well." "I shall go back inside." "Why are they all looking at me that way?" "Huh?" "Em..." "Reverend Marley was seen coming from your door after dark last night." "What were you doing, letting him in?" "My own neighbours would think such a thing of a man of the cloth?" "Why did your Robert deny him from ever coming into your cottage?" "I don't know." "They rowed." "Well, what was it that they quarrelled about?" "What's it to you, Alf Arless?" "What's it to any of you?" " ALF:" "Emma, I'm only..." " Let me be." "Let me have some peace, won't you?" "(DOOR CLOSING)" "Reverend Marley!" "Surely you will now have the decency to stand down from the church bazaar?" "Thomas, what can I have done to you to have stirred such bad feeling?" "To me, sir?" "To the whole town." "Any Christian man would leave our parish without delay." "Now we know why you are the perpetual curate." " What do you mean?" " (SCOFFS)" "We all know your scandalous deeds, Benedict Marley." "After dark." "Huh?" "Slithering!" "It is my duty to inform the rector of all of it." "Indeed, I will write to the bishop." "I will expose you for the snake that you are." "Thomas." "So much fury." "Are you sure it is me who you doubt?" "I know that if you go to my ma's house at night it must be for good reasons." "Your ma saw the snake." "It disturbed her greatly." "Then why did you not explain that to Thomas?" "Why did you not defend yourself?" "Because if I stood up to him..." "Thomas Brown would find himself in danger." "This place, Laura, it is a house of truth, or it is nothing." "When I spoke about the incident with the pony," "I did not tell all of it." "I dare not." "I stole that pony." "That was long ago, Reverend Marley." "The life you have lived since then..." "That was not all of it, Laura." "The same day, the reason I took flight..." "I had a row with my father." "He took hold of my arm." "He wanted to reason with me." "He wanted to make me listen to him, to force me to obey him." "I felt constrained." "I was consumed by such a rage, that something in me snapped and I struck him in the face." "My own father." "It knocked him to the ground and I stood over him." "But it was not enough." "I wanted to go on." "He was a great ox of a man, but he saw in me something..." "A force far more powerful than anything he could summon." "My own father was afraid of me." "Do you understand?" "I see." "Why did my pa prevent you from ever coming into our cottage?" "It's not what people think." "We rowed." "Fiercely." "He took hold of me by the arm." "I pushed him to the floor." "He saw in me the same thing that my own father recognised, and he did not want me near his family." "And he is right." "It is what I am." "There is only one thing in this world that I'm afraid of." "Benedict Marley." "You've done such good in this world." " You gave away your own shoes." " I have to." "I have to." "It is a reprieve." "It is a daily reprieve from my own nature." "(BELL TINKLING)" "(DOOR BANGS SHUT)" "MARGARET:" "Thomas." "We happened to hear you had an altercation with our curate in the street." "Thomas, what is the matter?" "What if..." "There is no Holy Spirit?" "The Bible..." "The Church..." "Hundreds of years of worship..." "Every prayer that I have ever uttered." "Supposing..." "It's all an illusion and a folly?" "Heavens." "Thomas, what a thing to say." "What if my whole life has been... wrong?" "RUBY:" "What has brought this on?" "It is the snake." "It must be." "The thing has cursed him." "If we pause to consider..." "In an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-conquering being who has the time" "to be ever-present in my little life." "He follows me from door to door with every letter I deliver." "Looking down on every piffling step of my backwoods life." "(SCOFFS) He is there when I dress, and I undress." "(STUTTERING) When I..." " (SCOFFS)" " RUBY:" "Thomas." "It's..." "It's truly bizarre." "It is possible that we must all at some time face doubt." "In ourselves, in our faith..." "If there is an Almighty, let him strike me down now!" "Ha!" "Whatever it is you are making, Gabriel, it seems to fill you with contentment." "It fills me with purpose." "I told you I was making a machine, Miss Lane, but it is more than that." "I am attempting to invent my own creation." "To imagine and build something that does not exist until I cause it to." "From what I can see, it will be quite fantastical." "Hmm." "Let me offer you sincere encouragement and perhaps some mint cake to keep you going?" "Hmm?" "Miss Lane." "You have taken me on here." "I have found an unexpected friend." "Oh." "I am glad you think of me so." "I know you saw the letter." "Yes, I did." "And you placed it into my possession in the gentlest of ways." "I still do not know if I did the correct thing." "You did." "This machine..." "Without it, I would have to look at, well, the letter and what it means." "I have no one I can speak to about these things." "I thought, if I worked, if I drove myself on..." "But..." "But it gets lonely." "And in the end, we always need another human being." "I have thrown away my inheritance on an infatuation." "On a woman who was not what she appeared to be." "A woman who pretended that she loved me." "I'm sure it was not quite as stark or as cold as that." "Some part of your wife must have..." "She married me, but was she ever truly mine?" "What I see now is..." "I did not know her when we married." "I doubt I ever knew her." "Somehow, it seems to be only lovers who ever say such things." "As if we should, as if we are entitled to know all of one another." "Gabriel, there are days when I do not know myself." "Not so long ago, you adored this woman and held her to be a lodestar of wonder." "Now you consider her to be all shadows and deceit." "Perhaps you might find some peace if you accept she was neither." "She was human." "And so are you." "You may not be ready to forgive her yet, but perhaps you could have a little mercy on yourself." "Just for today." "Twister Turrill called you the fount of wisdom hereabouts." "Oh." "Only hereabouts?" "Perhaps hereabouts will have to be enough." "Just for today." "May I ask, what have you done with the letter?" "If you hold onto it, it will keep its hold on you." "You will return to it every night, let it torment you." "You could..." "Thank you for your kindness, Miss Lane." "That snake might never be found." "He might be gone for good." "Where would he be hiding now?" "Perhaps in the church gardens." "Perhaps under my pillow." "Perhaps sitting in the bar at the Wagon and Horses." "That snake isn't in your washing basket no more." "It's in your mind." "The fear is only in your thinking." "And you can't cure your thinking by your thinking." "The only cure for your thinking is living." "And that means taking your children to the bazaar." "The creature isn't the true reason you want me to go to the bazaar, is it, Queenie?" "Even good Christian neighbours like to wag their tongues." "They're saying I won't go to the bazaar 'cause I've got something to hide, 'cause I am ashamed." "I don't know why folks like to think the worst of other folks, but they do." "Reverend Marley's only wish was to comfort me." "And don't comfort feel good when it is a man holding us up?" "(SOBBING) He wiped away my tears." "I hadn't realised how much I needed it." "I find myself hoping he will return." "There ain't nothing wrong with fear." "And there ain't nothing wrong with comfort." "But too much fear and too much comfort..." "Do you see, Emma?" "I cannot face the bazaar." "(SIGHS)" "And, Dear Lord, if it is in any way my failing, or of my causing, then show me how I might correct my shortcomings." "My dear, what you see before you is a man freed from delusion." "What I see before me is breaking my heart." "It hurts like nothing else to doubt the one you love." "But it will pass." "I have been here before." " You have doubted me?" " Of course." "Doubt is God's gift." "You always renew my faith in you." "Thomas, doubt is only fear." ""Fear knocked at the door." "Faith answered." ""And there was nobody there."" "My dear, your church needs you." "The bazaar needs you." "Think of the heathens in foreign parts." "Reverend Marley, sir." "Alf." "Are Patience's teeth troubling her still?" "It isn't the babe keeping me from my bed, sir, it is you." "I must speak to you, sir, concerning a... a difficult..." "Mrs Timmins." "You shouldn't be going to her cottage this kind of time at night." "I'm your curate." "I have a pastoral duty of care to every parishioner in Lark Rise..." "Her husband is away!" "Robert Timmins will take a tramp from the lane and welcome him into his home." "His door is open to anyone." "But not to you." "There has to be a reason for that." "Hmm." "Even as a boy, you had immense courage, Alfie." "Willing to take on anything or anyone you had to." "Did you hear what I said to you, sir?" "Mr Timmins may have forbidden me from entering his house, but God has told me that I must." "Our conscience will always tell us what is right." "You know that, Alfie." "You live by that." "There may be consequences, of that I have no doubt." "But I am willing to accept them." "The cloth don't make a man respectable." "But perhaps there is a reason you ain't never been more than a curate in a left-behind place." "I hold you in great regard, Alf." "I would appreciate it if you respected me." "But I do not need you to." "I am asking you to stay away." "Stay away!" "(ALF GRUNTING)" "(DOGS BARKING)" "(STUTTERING)" "I don't want to." "I don't want to." "I was afraid I was going to strike you, but I don't want to." "I told you, Benedict." "Your time here has changed you." "Your husband told me once," ""God is other people."" "I didn't know what he meant." "I didn't, but..." "I do now." "Thank you, Emma." "I will write to Robert, tonight, and tell him how I miss the comfort he gives." "And tell him... how I am to take my children to the church bazaar." "(DOOR CLOSING)" "(DISHES CLANKING)" "You're about early this morning, Sydney." "Sydney likes an early breakfast before we all have our late breakfast." "I like an early breakfast and so does Laura." "And Miss Lane likes her early breakfast in bed." "Jams, mostly." "I'm rather fond of an early breakfast myself." "Can I sit with you?" "I have bacon, sir, and sausages, and eggs, and bread and as many cups of tea as a man can bear." "SYDNEY:" "Can we go snake hunting again today?" "MINNIE:" "Oh, it's the church bazaar today, Sydney." " My ma loves you." " MINNIE:" "Sydney!" "It's true." "She looks at you as she looks at me." "Well, then I'd better have two sausages with my early breakfast." "(ACCORDION PLAYING)" "(CHILDREN LAUGHING)" "MINNIE:" "Snake!" "Snake!" " (MUSIC STOPS)" " Snake!" "Snake!" "ALL:" "Snake!" "Snake!" "I think the poor thing is afraid." "It's so beautiful." "THOMAS:" "It looks..." "No more than one of God's creatures, same as you or I." "I never thought I'd hear Thomas Brown compare himself to a snake." "We were here, Sydney." "We found it." "What we going to do with it?" "You put the thing in the sack, Alfie, and I shall step forward and be rid of it." "(MUSIC RESUMES)" "ALL: # Every morning as true as the clock" "# Somebody hears the postman's knock" "QUEENIE: # The best of folk our postgirl be" "# She hurries from door to door" "# Will she bring glad news for me?" "# That's what I been yearning for" "ALL: # Every morning as true as the clock" "# Somebody hears the postman's knock" "THOMAS: # To see the joyful face of a child" "# With my ratatatat at the door" "# Hope in the eyes of a lonely wife" "# That's what I been yearning for" "ALL: # Every morning as true as the clock" "# Somebody hears the postman's knock" "EMMA: # Up at dawn I look to see" "# Don't look for letters no more" "# The postie will bring sweet love to me" "# That's what I've been yearning for" "ALL: # Every morning as true as the clock" "# Somebody hears the postman's knock" "# Every morning as true as the clock" "# Somebody hears the postman's knock #" "(ALL LAUGHING AND CHEERING)" "(PEOPLE CHATTERING)" "Is this the, uh, thing?" "You're certain what the books say?" "A man who eats this will grow younger." "(GAGGING)" "Growing old is a gift, not a curse." "Otherwise we'd all be babies wailing to be fed." " Oh!" " (CHILDREN GASPING)" "Hmm." "Now, I say so myself, there are marvellous things I can do with turnips." " (CHILDREN LAUGHING) - (TWISTER SIGHING)" "LAURA:" "An old sailor had lost his snake, passing through." "Though he did return to claim it." "Reverend Marley made a point of always telling us that no man is too good for this world." "And neither is any man too damned for this world."