Surgeon Schmidt monologue (Act 1) — The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann, Volume I

That's from the dust and weaving by candlelight. Will you tell me what it means that all Peterswaldau's on the way here? I set off on my rounds this morning as usual, thinking no harm; but it wasn't long till I had my eyes opened. Strange doings these! What in the devil's name has taken possession of them, Hilse? They're like a pack of raging wolves. Riot--why, it's revolution! they're getting refractory--plundering and laying waste right and left ... Mielchen! where's Mielchen? [_MIELCHEN, her face red with crying, is pushed in by her mother._] Here, Mielchen, put your hand into my coat pocket. [_MIELCHEN does so._] The ginger-bread nuts are for you. Not all at once, though, you baggage! And a song first! The fox jumped up on a ... come, now ... The fox jumped up ... on a moonlight ... Mind, I've heard what you did. You called the sparrows on the churchyard hedge a nasty name, and they're gone and told the pastor. Did any one ever hear the like? Fifteen hundred of them agog--men, women, and children. [_Distant bells are heard._] That's at Reichenbach-- alarm-bells! Fifteen hundred people! Uncomfortably like the world coming to an end!