Mother Gibbs, George and I have made tha...

Mother Gibbs, George and I have made that farm into just the best place you ever saw. We thought of you all the time. We wanted to show you the new barn and a great long cement drinking fountain for the stock. We bought that out of the money you left us. Don't you remember, Mother Gibbs - the legacy you left us? Why, it was over three hundred and fifty dollars. Well, there's a patent device on the drinking fountain so that it never overflows, mother Gibbs, and it never sinks below a certain mark they have there. It's fine. (Her voice trails off and her eyes return to the funeral group) It won't be the same to George without me, but it's a lovely farm. (pause, she looks directly at Mrs. Gibbs) Live people don't understand, do they? They're sort of shut up in little boxes, aren't they? I feel as though I know them. Mother Gibbs, when does this feeling go away? - Of being? one of them? How long does it?? I never realized before how troubled and how? how in the dark live persons are. From morning till night, that's all they are - troubled.

Wilder, Thornton. Our Town Harper Publishing, 1957, pp.88-90