五：改编剧本。

第一幕：起。

（布景：舞台前部偏右置折叠床一张，上附暖色床单并被，床头向观众席，尾向内，指向台左后部，床脚置椅一张，椅左一桌，桌上一镜。

台中床中轴线上置一窗台，大小适度，窗向台后开放，上挂便于更换之暖色窗帘，，下置一画板并笔。

台左后置一白版，上附纸绘斑驳，灰暗墙面及一条枯萎，衰败，腐朽之常青藤，于绘藤处开孔，取叶十二，细线系之，取纸编号于末端，穿孔而悬，设一人于白版后，配合Johnsy扮演者口中数字，依次剪断第12-5条细线，另于风雨之夜Old Behrman画叶之前依次掉落余下四叶。）

幕起，只一束光打在旁白处，若灯光不可控则闭灯，旁白持一手电立于台左前部朗读，字幕打于大幕上。

旁白：In a little district west of Washington Square, the quaint old Greenwich Style of the buildings attracted a lot of young artists. They came prowling, hunting for north windows and eighteenth-century gables and Dutch attics and low rents. Sue and Johnsy are two of them, one from Maine, the other from California. They found their tastes in art and became good friends, then made up their joint studio at the top of a squatty, three-story brick.

But in the cold November, Johnsy fell ill seriously, coughed continually. Sue was very anxious so she sent for a doctor. 旁白毕，灭灯下场。

灯亮，Johnsy躺床上，垫高枕头，Sue立床尾面向观众，医生穿白衣，持听诊器立床旁。

Johnsy取出温度计，医生取过观看。

医生：It’s ok, just some kind of normal cold, take a rest and you’ll get fine soon.

Johnsy闭眼睡去。医生向Sue招手，两人走至舞台左前部。医生边甩温度计，边与Sue交谈。

医生：It’s Pneumonia, so terrible. She has one chance in-let us say, ten. And that chance is for her to want to live. This way people have of lining-up on the side of the undertaker makes the entire pharmacopoeia looks silly. Your little lady has made up her mind that she’s not going to get well. Has she anything on her mind?

Sue：She-she wanted to paint the Bay of Naples some day.

医生：Paint? -bosh! Has she anything on her mind worth about thinking twice-a man for instance?

Sue：A man? Is a man worth- but, no, there is nothing of the kind. （表情不屑）

医生：Well, it is the weakness, then. I will do all that science, so far as it may filter through my efforts, can accomplish. But whenever my patient begins to count the carriages in her funeral procession I subtract 50 percents from the curative power of medicines. If you will get her to ask one question about the new winter styles in cloak sleeves I will promise you a one-in-five chance for her, instead of one in ten.

医生叹气，Sue感谢并与医生握手，医生下。