(The lawn is velvet green, with the Tabby House shining in the late afternoon sun in the background. CLAUDIA and DAVID O'WESLEY enter from opposite sides of the stage. DAVID is wearing smart beach shorts and shirt. He only has one arm and speaks with a thick Irish brogue.)
CLAUDIA: Oh, Pa, I�m so glad you�re home. Did you stay late at the office?
DAVID: No, daughter, I went rafting at the beach.
CLAUDIA: Oh, no, Pa! Not rafting again! It seems to me that after you got your arm bit off by that shark last summer �
DAVID: Now, I�ll not have me own daughter telling me what I can and cannot do!
CLAUDIA: Oh, all right, Pa. You go rafting if you please. Was anybody else at the beach?
DAVID: Funny you should ask. John Oglethorpe was there with his niece Melanie.
CLAUDIA: (Disappointed) Oh, that twit. She�s a pale-faced, mealy-mouthed ninny, and I hate her!
DAVID: You shouldn�t say such things about Melanie. John informed me today that she is engaged to his son Ashley.
CLAUDIA: (Shocked and starting to run way) I don�t believe it!
DAVID: (Catching her) Where are you off to, Missy? The engagement will be announced at the pizza party.
(CLAUDIA pouts.)
DAVID: What�s your interest in Ashley, when you can have your pick of any of the beaux on the Leadership Team?
CLAUDIA: But, Pa. Ashley is the only beau on the team whose name is Mark. And even though it is his middle name, you know I have to marry someone named Mark.
DAVID: What difference does it make who you marry, so long as he�s a Methodist and thinks like you?
CLAUDIA: (Glumly) Oh, Pa! You sound like a Methodist minister.
DAVID: It�s proud I am that I�m a Methodist minister. And don�t you forget you�re a Methodist, too. And when I�m gone I�ll leave the Tabby House to you. Just as sure as my name is David Haygood O�Wesley.
CLAUDIA: I don�t care about the Tabby House. Tabby doesn�t mean anything to me when �
DAVID: Do you mean to tell me, Katie Claudia O�Wesley, that tabby, the shells, don�t mean anything to you?! Why tabby is the only thing in the world worth working for, worth fighting for, worth dying for! Because it�s the only building material known to man that can stand 200 years abuse from the campers! But there, there, Katie Claudia. You�re just a child. It will come to you, this love for tabby. There�s no getting away from it if you live on Saint Simons.
(By now it is sunset, and the Tabby House is silhouetted against a flaming red sky. The Tabby Theme is heard as CLAUDIA takes DAVID's arm and they stroll across the lawn.)
