The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann, Volume I

_Langen-Bielau,--OLD WEAVER HILSE'S workroom. On the left a small window, in front of which stands the loom. On the right a bed, with a table pushed close to it. Stove, with stove-bench, in the right-hand corner. Family worship is going on. HILSE, his old, blind, and almost deaf wife, his son GOTTLIEB, and LUISE, GOTTLIEB'S wife, are sitting at the table, on the bed and wooden stools. A winding-wheel and bobbins on the floor between table and loom. Old spinning, weaving, and winding implements are disposed of on the smoky rafters; hanks of yarn are hanging down. There is much useless lumber in the low narrow room. The door, which is in the back wall, and leads into the big outer passage, or entry-room of the house, stands open. Through another open door on the opposite side of the passage, a second, in most respects similar weaver's room is seen. The large passage, or entry-room of the house, is paved with stone, has damaged plaster, and a tumble-down wooden stair-case leading to the attics; a washing-tub on a stool is partly visible; linen of the most miserable description and poor household utensils lie about untidily. The light falls from the left into all three apartments._

_OLD HILSE is a bearded man of strong build, but bent and wasted with age, toil, sickness, and hardship. He is an old soldier, and has lost an arm. His nose is sharp, his complexion ashen-grey, and he shakes; he is nothing but skin and bone, and has the deep-set, sore weaver's eyes._

Old Hilse. [_Stands up, as do his son and daughter-in-law; prays._] O Lord, we know not how to be thankful enough to Thee, for that Thou hast spared us this night again in Thy goodness ... an' hast had pity on us ... an' hast suffered us to take no harm. Thou art the All-merciful, an' we are poor, sinful children of men--that bad that we are not worthy to be trampled under Thy feet. Yet Thou art our loving Father, an' Thou will look upon us an' accept us for the sake of Thy dear Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. "Jesus' blood and righteousness, Our covering is and glorious dress." An' if we're sometimes too sore cast down under Thy chastening--when the fire of Thy purification burns too ragin' hot--oh, lay it not to our charge; forgive us our sin. Give us patience, heavenly Father, that after all these sufferin's we may be made partakers of Thy eternal blessedness. Amen.

Mother Hilse. [_Who has been bending forward, trying hard to hear._] What a beautiful prayer you do say, father!

[_LUISE goes off to the washtub, GOTTLIEB to the room on the other side of the passage._

Old Hilse. Where's the little lass?

Luise. She's gone to Peterswaldau, to Dreissiger's. She finished all she had to wind last night.

Old Hilse. [_Speaking very loud._] You'd like the wheel now, mother, eh?

Mother Hilse. Yes, father, I'm quite ready.

Old Hilse. [_Setting it down before her._] I wish I could do the work for you.

Mother Hilse. An' what would be the good o' that, father? There would I be, sittin' not knowin' what to do.

Old Hilse. I'll give your fingers a wipe, then, so that they'll not grease the yarn.

[_He wipes her hands with a rag._

Luise. [_At her tub._] If there's grease on her hands, it's not from what she's eaten.

Old Hilse. If we've no butter, we can eat dry bread--when we've no bread, we can eat potatoes--when there's no potatoes left, we can eat bran.

Luise. [_Saucily._] An' when that's all eaten, we'll do as the Wenglers did--we'll find out where the skinner's buried some stinking old horse, an' we'll dig it up an' live for a week or two on rotten carrion--how nice that'll be!

Gottlieb. [_From the other room._] There you are, lettin' that tongue of yours run away with you again.

Old Hilse. You should think twice, lass, before you talk that godless way. [_He goes to his loom, calls._] Can you give me a hand, Gottlieb?--there's a few threads to pull through.

Luise. [_From her tub._] Gottlieb, you're wanted to help father.

[_GOTTLIEB comes in, and he and his father set themselves to the troublesome task of "drawing and slaying," that is, pulling the strands of the warp through the "heddles" and "reed" of the loom. They have hardly begun to do this when HORNIG appears in the outer room._

Hornig. [_At the door._] Good luck to your work!

HILSE AND HIS SON

Thank you, Hornig.

Old Hilse. I say, Hornig, when do you take your sleep? You're on your rounds all day, an' on watch all night.

Hornig. Sleep's gone from me nowadays.

Luise. Glad to see you, Hornig!

Old Hilse. An' what's the news?

Hornig. It's queer news this mornin'. The weavers at Peterswaldau has taken the law into their own hands, an' chased Dreissiger an' his whole family out of the place.

Luise. [_Perceptibly agitated._] Hornig's at his lies again.

Hornig. No, missus, not this time, not to-day.--I've some beautiful pinafores in my cart,--No, it's God's truth I'm tellin' you. They've sent him to the right-about. He came down to Reichenbach last night, but, Lord love you! they daren't take him in there, for fear of the weavers--off he had to go again, all the way to Schweidnitz.

Old Hilse. [_Has been carefully lifting threads of the web and approaching them to the holes, through which, from the other side, GOTTLIEB pushes a wire hook, with which he catches them and draws them through._] It's about time you were stoppin' now, Hornig!

Hornig. It's as sure as I'm a livin' man. Every child in the place'll soon tell you the same story.

Old Hilse. Either your wits are a-wool-gatherin' or mine are.

Hornig. Not mine. What I'm tellin' you's as true as the Bible. I wouldn't believe it myself if I hadn't stood there an' seen it with my own eyes--as I see you now, Gottlieb. They've wrecked his house from the cellar to the roof. The good china came flyin' out at the garret windows, rattlin' down the roof. God only knows how many pieces of fustian are lying soakin' in the river! The water can't get away for them--it's running over the banks, the colour of washin'-blue with all the indigo they've poured out at the windows. Clouds of sky-blue dust was flyin' along. Oh, it's a terrible destruction they've worked! And it's not only the house ... it's the dye-works too ... an' the stores! They've broken the stair rails, they've torn up the fine flooring--smashed the lookin'-glasses--cut an' hacked an' torn an' smashed the sofas an' the chairs.--It's awful--it's worse than war.

Old Hilse. An' you would have me believe that my fellow weavers did all that?

[_He shakes his head incredulously._

[_Other tenants of the house have collected at the door and are listening eagerly._

Hornig. Who else, I'd like to know? I could put names to every one of 'em. It was me took the sheriff through the house, an' I spoke to a whole lot of 'em, an' they answered me back--quite friendly like. They did their business with little noise, but my word! they did it well. The sheriff spoke to 'em, and they answered him mannerly, as they always do. But there wasn't no stoppin' of them. They hacked on at the beautiful furniture as if they was workin' for wages.

Old Hilse. _You_ took the sheriff through the house?

Hornig. An' what would I be frightened of? Every one knows me. I'm always turnin' up, like a bad penny. But no one has anything agin' me. They're all glad to see me. Yes, I went the rounds with him, as sure as my name's Hornig. An' you may believe me or not as you like, but my heart's sore yet from the sight--an' I could see by the sheriff's face that he felt queer enough too. For why? Not a livin' word did we hear--they was doin' their work and holdin' their tongues. It was a solemn an' a woeful sight to see the poor starvin' creatures for once in a way takin' their revenge.

Luise. [_With irrepressible excitement, trembling, wiping her eyes with her apron._] An' right they are! It's only what should be!

VOICES AMONG THE CROWD AT THE DOOR

"There's some of the same sort here."--"There's one no farther away than across the river."--"He's got four horses in his stable an' six carriages, an' he starves his weavers to keep 'em."

Old Hilse. [_Still incredulous._] What was it set them off?

Hornig. Who knows? who knows? One says this, another says that.

Old Hilse. What do they say?

Hornig. The story as most of 'em tells is that it began with Dreissiger sayin' that if the weavers was hungry they might eat grass. But I don't rightly know.

[_Excitement at the door, as one person repeats this to the other, with signs of indignation._

Old Hilse. Well now, Hornig--if you was to say to me: Father Hilse, says you, you'll die to-morrow, I would answer back: That may be--an' why not? You might even go to the length of saying: You'll have a visit to-morrow from the King of Prussia. But to tell me that weavers, men like me an' my son, have done such things as that--never! I'll never in this world believe it.

Mielchen. [_A pretty girl of seven, with long, loose flaxen hair, carrying a basket on her arm, comes running in, holding out a silver spoon to her mother._] Mammy, mammy! look what I've got! An' you're to buy me a new frock with it.

Luise. What d'you come tearing in like that for, girl? [_With increased excitement and curiosity._] An' what's that you've got hold of now? You've been runnin' yourself out o' breath, an' there--if the bobbins aren't in her basket yet? What's all this about?

Old Hilse. Mielchen, where did that spoon come from?

Luise. She found it, maybe.

Hornig. It's worth its seven or eight shillin's at least.

Old Hilse. [_In distressed excitement._] Off with you, lass--out of the house this moment--unless you want a lickin'! Take that spoon back where you got it from. Out you go! Do you want to make thieves of us all, eh? I'll soon drive that out o' you.

[_He looks round for something to beat her with._

Mielchen. [_Clinging to her mother's skirts, crying._] No, grandfather, no! don't lick me! We--we _did_ find it. All the other bob--bobbin ... girls has ... has some too.

Luise. [_Half frightened, half excited._] I was right, you see. She found it. Where did you find it, Mielchen?

Mielchen. [_Sobbing._] At--at Peterswal--dau. We--we found them in front of--in front of Drei--Dreissiger's house.

Old Hilse. This is worse an' worse! Get off with you this moment, unless you want me to help you.

Mother Hilse. What's all the to-do about?

Hornig. I'll tell you what, father Hilse. The best way'll be for Gottlieb to put on his coat an' take the spoon to the police-office.

Old Hilse. Gottlieb, put on year coat.

Gottlieb. [_Pulling it on, eagerly._] Yes, an' I'll go right in to the office an' say they're not to blame us for it, for how c'n a child like that understand about it? an' I brought the spoon back at once. Stop your crying now, Mielchen!

[_The crying child is taken into the opposite room by her mother, who shuts her in and comes back._

Hornig. I believe it's worth as much as nine shillin's.

Gottlieb. Give us a cloth to wrap it in, Luise, so that it'll take no harm. To think of the thing bein' worth all that money!

[_Tears come into his eyes while he is wrapping up the spoon._

Luise. If it was only ours, we could live on it for many a day.

Old Hilse. Hurry up, now! Look sharp! As quick as ever you can. A fine state o' matters, this! Get that devil's spoon out o' the house.

[_GOTTLIEB goes off with the spoon._

Hornig. I must be off now too.

[_He goes, is seen talking to the people in the entry-room before he leaves the house._

Surgeon Schmidt. [_A jerky little ball of a man, with a red, knowing face, comes into the entry-room._] Good-morning, all! These are fine goings on! Take care! take care! [_Threatening with his finger._] You're a sly lot--that's what you are. [_At HILSE'S door without coming in._] Morning, father Hilse. [_To a woman in the outer room._] And how are the pains, mother? Better, eh? Well, well. And how's all with you, father Hilse? [_Enters._] Why the deuce! what's the matter with mother?

Luise. It's the eye veins, sir--they've dried up, so as she can't see at all now.

Surgeon Schmidt. 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!

Old Hilse. An' is it true that they're on their way to Bielau?

Surgeon Schmidt. That's just what I'm telling you, I've driven through the middle of the whole crowd. What I'd have liked to do would have been to get down and give each of them a pill there and then. They were following on each other's heels like misery itself, and their singing was more than enough to turn a man's stomach. I was nearly sick, and Frederick was shaking on the box like an old woman. We had to take a stiff glass at the first opportunity. I wouldn't be a manufacturer, not though I could drive my carriage and pair. [_Distant singing._] Listen to that! It's for all the world as if they were beating at some broken old boiler. We'll have them here in five minutes, friends. Good-bye! Don't you be foolish. The troops will be upon them in no time. Keep your wits about you. The Peterswaldau people have lost theirs. [_Bells ring close at hand._] Good gracious! There are our bells ringing too! Every one's going mad.

[_He goes upstairs._

Gottlieb. [_Comes back. In the entry-room, out of breath._] I've seen 'em, I've seen 'em! [_To a woman._] They're here, auntie, they're here! [_At the door._] They're here, father, they're here! They've got bean-poles, an' ox-goads, an' axes. They're standin' outside the upper Dittrich's kickin' up an awful row. I think he's payin' 'em money. O Lord! whatever's goin' to happen? What a crowd! Oh, you never saw such a crowd! Dash it all--if once they makes a rush, our manufacturers'll be hard put to it.

Old Hilse. What have you been runnin' like that for? You'll go racin' till you bring on your old trouble, and then we'll have you on your back again, strugglin' for breath.

Gottlieb. [_Almost joyously excited._] I had to run, or they would ha' caught me an' kept me. They was all roarin' to me to join 'em. Father Baumert was there too, and says he to me: You come an' get your sixpence with the rest--you're a poor starvin' weaver too. An' I was to tell you, father, from him, that you was to come an' help to pay out the manufacturers for their grindin' of us down. [_Passionately._] Other times is comin', he says. There's goin' to be a change of days for us weavers. An' we're all to come an' help to bring it about. We're to have our half-pound o' meat on Sundays, and now and again on a holiday sausage with our cabbage. Yes, things is to be quite different, by what he tells me.

Old Hilse. [_With repressed indignation._] An' that man calls hisself your godfather! and he bids you take part in such works o' wickedness? Have nothing to do with them, Gottlieb. They've let themselves be tempted by Satan, an' it's his works they're doin'.

Luise. [_No longer able to restrain her passionate excitement, vehemently._] Yes, Gottlieb, get into the chimney corner, an' take a spoon in your hand, an' a dish o' skim milk on your knee, an' pat on a petticoat an' say your prayers, and then father'll be pleased with you. And _he_ sets up to be a man!

[_Laughter from the people in the entry-room._

Old Hilse. [_Quivering with suppressed rage._] An' you set up to be a good wife, 'eh? You calls yourself a mother, an' let your evil tongue run away with you like that? You think yourself fit to teach your girl, you that would egg on your husband to crime an' wickedness?

Luise. [_Has lost all control of herself._] You an' your piety an' religion--did they serve to keep the life in my poor children? In rags an' dirt they lay, all the four--it didn't as much as keep 'em dry. Yes! I sets up to be a mother, that's what I do--an' if you'd like to know it, that's why I'd send all the manufacturers to hell--because I'm a mother!--Not one of the four could I keep in life! It was cryin' more than breathin' with me from the time each poor little thing came into the world till death took pity on it. The devil a bit you cared! You sat there prayin' and singin', and let me run about till my feet bled, tryin' to get one little drop o' skim milk. How many hundred nights has I lain an' racked my head to think what I could do to cheat the churchyard of my little one? What harm has a baby like that done that it must come to such a miserable end--eh? An' over there at Dittrich's they're bathed in wine an' washed in milk. No! you may talk as you like, but if they begins here, ten horses won't hold me back. An' what's more--if there's a rush on Dittrich's, you'll see me in the forefront of it--an' pity the man as tries to prevent me--I've stood it long enough, so now you know it.

Old Hilse. You're a lost soul--there's no help for you.

Luise. [_Frenzied._] It's you that there's no help for! Tatter-breeched scarecrows--that's what you are--an' not men at all. Whey-faced gutter-scrapers that take to your heels at the sound of a child's rattle. Fellows that says "thank you" to the man as gives you a hidin'. They've not left that much blood in you as that you can turn red in the face. You should have the whip taken to you, an' a little pluck flogged into your rotten bones.

[_She goes out quickly._

[_Embarrassed pause._]

Mother Hilse. What's the matter with Liesl, father?

Old Hilse. Nothin', mother! What should be the matter with her?

Mother Hilse. Father, is it only me that's thinkin' it, or is the bells ringin'?

Old Hilse. It'll be a funeral, mother.

Mother Hilse. An' I've got to sit waitin' here yet. Why must I be so long a-dyin', father? [_Pause._]

Old Hilse. [_Leaves his work, holds himself up straight; solemnly._] Gottlieb!--you heard all your wife said to us. Look here, Gottlieb! [_He bares his breast._] Here they cut out a bullet as big as a thimble. The King knows where I lost my arm. It wasn't the mice as ate it. [_He walks up and down._] Before that wife of yours was ever thought of, I had spilled my blood by the quart for King an' country. So let her call what names she likes--an' welcome! It does me no harm--Frightened? Me frightened? What would I be frightened of, will you tell me that? Of the few soldiers, maybe, that'll be comin' after the rioters? Good gracious me! That would be a lot to be frightened at! No, no, lad; I may be a bit stiff in the back, but there's some strength left in the old bones; I've got the stuff in me yet to make a stand against a few rubbishin' bay'nets.--An' if it came to the worst! Willin', willin' would I be to say good-bye to this weary world. Death'd be welcome--welcomer to me to-day than to-morrow. For what is it we leave behind? That old bundle of aches an' pains we call our body, the care an' the oppression we call by the name o' life. We may be glad to get away from it,--But there's something to come after, Gottlieb!--an' if we've done ourselves out o' that too--why, then it's all over with us!

Gottlieb. Who knows what's to come after? Nobody's seen it.

Old Hilse. Gottlieb! don't you be throwin' doubts on the one comfort us poor people have. Why has I sat here an' worked my treadle like a slave this forty year an' more?--sat still an' looked on at him over yonder livin' in pride an' wastefulness--why? Because I have a better hope, something as supports me in all my troubles. [_Points out at the window._] You have your good things in this world--I'll have mine in the next. That's been my thought. An' I'm that certain of it--I'd let myself be torn to pieces. Have we not His promise? There's a Day of Judgment comin'; but it's not us as are the judges--no: Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.

[_A cry of_ "Weavers, come out!" _is heard outside the window._

Old Hilse. Do what you will for me. [_He seats himself at his loom._] I stay here.

Gottlieb. [_After a short struggle._] I'm going to work too--come what may.

[_Goes out._

[_The Weavers' Song is heard, sung by hundreds of voices quite close at hand; it sounds like a dull, monotonous wail._

INMATES OF THE HOUSE

[_In the entry-room._] "Oh, mercy on us! there they come swarmin' like ants!"--"Where can all these weavers be from?"--"Don't shove like that, I want to see too."--"Look at that great maypole of a woman leadin' on in front!"--"Gracious! they're comin' thicker an' thicker."

Hornig. [_Comes into the entry-room from outside._] There's a theayter play for you now! That's what you don't see every day. But you should go up to the other Dittrich's an' look what they've done there. It's been no half work. He's got no house now, nor no factory, nor no wine-cellar, nor nothin'. They're drinkin' out o' the bottles--not so much as takin' the time to get out the corks. One, two, three, an' off with the neck, an' no matter whether they cuts their mouths or not. There's some of 'em runnin' about bleedin' like stuck pigs.--Now they're goin' to do for Dittrich here.

[_The singing has stopped._

INMATES OF THE HOUSE

There's nothin' so very wicked like about them.

Hornig. You wait a bit! you'll soon see! All they're doin' just now is makin' up their minds where they'll begin. Look, they're inspectin' the palace from every side. Do you see that little stout man there, him with the stable pail? That's the smith from Peterswaldau--an' a dangerous little chap he is. He batters in the thickest doors as if they were made o' pie-crust. If a manufacturer was to fall into his hands it would be all over with him!

HOUSE INMATES

"That was a crack!"--"There went a stone through the window!"--"There's old Dittrich, shakin' with fright."--"He's hangin' out a board."--"Hangin' out a board?"--"What's written on it?"--"Can't you read?"--"It'd be a bad job for me if I couldn't read!"--"Well, read it, then!"--"'You--shall have--full--satis-fac-tion! You--you shall have full satisfaction.'"

Hornig. He might ha' spared hisself the trouble--_that_ won't help him. It's something else they've set their minds on here. It's the factories. They're goin' to smash up the power-looms. For it's them that is ruinin' the hand-loom weaver. Even a blind man might see that. No! the good folks knows what they're after, an' no sheriff an' no p'lice superintendent'll bring them to reason--much less a bit of a board. Him as has seen 'em at work already knows what's comin'.

HOUSE INMATES

"Did any one ever see such a crowd!"--"What can _these_ be wantin'?"--[_Hastily._] "They're crossin' the bridge!"--[_Anxiously._] "They're never comin' over on this side, are they?"--[_In excitement and terror._] "It's to us they're comin'! They're comin' to us! They're comin' to fetch the weavers out o' their houses!"

[_General flight. The entry-room is empty. A crowd of dirty, dusty rioters rush in, their faces scarlet with brandy, and excitement; tattered, untidy-looking, as if they had been up all night. With the shout:_ "Weavers, come out!" _they disperse themselves through the house. BECKER and several other young weavers, armed with cudgels and poles, come into OLD HILSE'S room. When they see the old man at his loom they start, and cool down a little._

Becker. Come, father Hilse, stop that. Leave your work to them as wants to work. There's no need now for you to be doin' yourself harm. You'll be well taken care of.

First Young Weaver. You'll never need to go hungry to bed again.

Second Young Weaver. The weaver's goin' to have a roof over his head an' a shirt on his back once more.

Old Hilse. An' what's the devil sendin' you to do now, with your poles an' axes?

Becker. These are what we're goin' to break on Dittrich's back.

Second Young Weaver. We'll heat 'em red hot an' stick 'em down the manufacturers' throats, so as they'll feel for once what burnin' hunger tastes like.

THIRD YOUNG WEAVER

Come along, father Hilse! We'll give no quarter.

Second Young Weaver. No one had mercy on us--neither God nor man. Now we're standin' up for our rights ourselves.

_OLD BAUMERT enters, somewhat shaky on the legs, a newly killed cock under his arm._

Old Baumert. [_Stretching out his arms._] My brothers--we're all brothers! Come to my arms, brothers!

[_Laughter._

Old Hilse. And that's the state you're in, Willem?

Old Baumert. Gustav, is it you? My poor starvin' friend. Come to my arms, Gustav!

Old Hilse. [_Mutters._] Let me alone.

Old Baumert. I'll tell you what, Gustav. It's nothin' but luck that's wanted. You look at me. What do I look like? Luck's what's wanted. Don't I look like a lord? [_Pats his stomach._] Guess what's in there! There's food fit for a prince in that belly. When luck's with him a man gets roast hare to eat an' champagne wine to drink.--I'll tell you all something: We've made a big mistake--we must help ourselves.

ALL

[_Speaking at once._] We must help ourselves, hurrah!

Old Baumert. As soon as we gets the first good bite inside us we're different men. Damn it all! but you feels the power comin' into you till you're like an ox, an' that wild with strength that you hit out right an' left without as much as takin' time to look. Dash it, but it's grand!

Jaeger. [_At the door, armed with an old cavalry sword._] We've made one or two first-rate attacks.

Becker. We knows how to set about it now. One, two, three, an' we're inside the house. Then, at it like lightnin'--bang, crack, shiver! till the sparks are flyin' as if it was a smithy.

First Young Weaver. It wouldn't be half bad to light a bit o' fire.

Second Young Weaver. Let's march to Reichenbach an' burn the rich folks' houses over their heads!

Jaeger. That would be nothin' but butterin' their bread, Think of all the insurance money they'd get.

[_Laughter._

Becker. No, from here we'll go to Freiburg, to Tromtra's.

Jaeger. What would you say to givin' all them as holds Government appointments a lesson? I've read somewhere as how all our troubles come from them birocrats, as they calls them.

Second Young Weaver. Before long we'll go to Breslau, for more an' more'll be joinin' us.

Old Baumert. [_To HILSE._] Won't you take a drop, Gustav?

Old Hilse. I never touches it.

Old Baumert. That was in the old world; we're in a new world to-day, Gustav.

First Young Weaver. Christmas comes but once a year.

[_Laughter._

Old Hilse. [_Impatiently._] What is it you want in my house, you limbs of Satan?

Old Baumert. [_A little intimidated, coaxingly._] I was bringin' you a chicken, Gustav. I thought it would make a drop o' soup for mother.

Old Hilse. [_Embarrassed, almost friendly._] Well, you can tell mother yourself.

Mother Hilse. [_Who has been making efforts to hear, her hand at her ear, motions them off._] Let me alone. I don't want no chicken soup.

Old Hilse. That's right, mother. An' I want none, an' least of all that sort. An' let me say this much to you, Baumert: The devil stands on his head for joy when he hears the old ones jabberin' and talkin' as if they was infants. An' to you all I say--to every one of you: Me and you, we've got nothing to do with each other. It's not with my will that you're here. In law an' justice you've no right to be in my house.

A VOICE

Him that's not with us is against us.

Jaeger. [_Roughly and threateningly._] You're on the wrong track, old chap, I'd have you remember that we're not thieves.

A VOICE

We're hungry men, that's all.

First Young Weaver. We wants to _live_--that's all. An' so we've cut the rope we was hung up with.

Jaeger. And we was in our right! [_Holding his fist in front of the old man's face_.] Say another word, and I'll give you one between the eyes.

Becker. Come, now, Jaeger, be quiet. Let the old man alone.--What we say to ourselves, father Hilse, is this: Better dead than begin the old life again.

Old Hilse. Have I not lived that life for sixty years an' more?

Becker. That doesn't help us--there's _got_ to be a change.

Old Hilse. On the Judgment Day.

Becker. What they'll not give us willingly we're goin' to take by force.

Old Hilse. By force. [_Laughs._] You may as well go an' dig your graves at once. They'll not be long showin' you where the force lies. Wait a bit, lad!

Jaeger. Is it the soldiers you're meanin'? We've been soldiers too. We'll soon do for a company or two of 'em.

Old Hilse. With your tongues, maybe. But supposin' you did--for two that you'd beat off, ten'll come back.

Voices. [_Call through the window._] The soldiers are comin! Look out!

[_General, sudden silence. For a moment a faint sound of fifes and drums is heard; in the ensuing silence a short, involuntary exclamation:_ "The devil! I'm off!" _followed by general laughter._

Becker. Who was that? Who speaks of runnin' away?

Jaeger. Which of you is it that's afraid of a few paltry helmets? You have me to command you, and I've been in the trade. I knows their tricks.

Old Hilse. An' what are you goin' to shoot with? Your sticks, eh?

First Young Weaver. Never mind that old chap; he's wrong in the upper storey.

Second Young Weaver. Yes, he's a bit off his head.

Gottlieb. [_Has made his way unnoticed among the rioters; catches hold of the speaker._] Would you give your impudence to an old man like him?

Second Young Weaver. Let me alone. 'Twasn't anything bad I said.

Old Hilse. [_Interfering._] Let him jaw, Gottlieb. What. would you be meddlin' with him for? He'll soon see who it is that's been off his head to-day, him or me.

Becker. Are you comin', Gottlieb?

Old Hilse. No, he's goin' to do no such thing.

Luise. [_Comes into the entry-room, calls._] What are you puttin' off your time with prayin' hypocrites like them for? Come quick to where you're wanted! Quick! Father Baumert, run all you can! The major's speakin' to the crowd from horseback. They're to go home. If you don't hurry up, it'll be all over.

Jaeger. [_As he goes out._] That's a brave husband o' yours.

Luise. Where is he? I've got no husband!

[_Some of the people in the entry-room sing_:

Once on a time a man so small, Heigh-ho, heigh! Set his heart on a wife so tall, Heigh diddle-di-dum-di!

WITTIG, THE SMITH

[_Comes downstairs, still carrying the stable pail; stops on his way through the entry-room._] Come On! all of you that is not cowardly scoundrels!--hurrah!

[_He dashes out, followed by LUISE, JAEGER, and others, all shouting_ "Hurrah!"

Becker. Good-bye, then, father Hilse; well see each other again.

[_Is going._

Old Hilse. I doubt that. I've not five years to live, and that'll be the soonest you'll get out.

Becker. [_Stops, not understanding._] Out o' what, father Hilse?

Old Hilse. Out o' prison--where else?

Becker. [_Laughs wildly._] Do you think I'd mind that? There's bread to be had there anyhow!

[_Goes out._

Old Baumert. [_Has been cowering on a low stool, painfully beating his brains; he now gets up._] It's true, Gustav, as I've had a drop too much. But for all that I knows what I'm about. You think one way in this here matter; I think another. I say Becker's right: even if it ends in chains an' ropes--we'll be better off in prison than at home. You're cared for there, an' you don't need to starve. I wouldn't have joined 'em, Gustav, if I could ha' let it be; but once in a lifetime a man's got to show what he feels. [_Goes slowly towards the door._] Good-bye, Gustav. If anything happens, mind you put in a word for me in your prayers.

[_Goes out._

[_The rioters are now all gone. The entry-room, gradually fills again with curious onlookers from the different rooms of the house. OLD HILSE knots at his web. GOTTLIEB has taken an axe from behind the stove and is unconsciously feeling its edge. He and the old man are silently agitated. The hum and roar of a great crowd penetrate into the room._

Mother Hilse. The very boards is shakin', father--what's goin' on? What's goin' to happen to us?

[_Pause._]

Old Hilse. Gottlieb!

Gottlieb. What is it?

Old Hilse. Let that axe alone.

Gottlieb. Who's to split the wood, then?

[_He leans the axe against the stove._

[_Pause._]

Mother Hilse. Gottlieb, you listen, to what father says to you.

[_Some one sings outside the window:_

Our little man does all that he can, Heigh-ho, heigh! At home he cleans the pots an' the pan, Heigh-diddle-di-dum-di!

[_Passes on._

Gottlieb. [_Jumps up, shakes his clenched fist at the window._] Beast! Don't drive me crazy!

[_A volley of musketry is heard._

Mother Hilse. [_Starts and trembles._] Good Lord! Is that thunder again?

Old Hilse. [_Instinctively folding his hands._] Oh, our Father in heaven! defend the poor weavers, protect my poor brothers.

[_A short pause ensues._

Old Hilse. [_To himself, painfully agitated._] There's blood flowin' now.

Gottlieb. [_Had started up and grasped the axe when the shooting was heard; deathly pale, almost beside himself with excitement._] An' am I to lie to heel like a dog still?

A GIRL

[_Calls from the entry-room._] Father Hilse, father Hilse! get away from the window. A bullet's just flown in at ours upstairs.

[_Disappears._

Mielchen. [_Puts her head in at the window, laughing._] Gran'father, gran'father, they've shot with their guns. Two or three's been knocked down, an' one of 'em's turnin' round and round like a top, an' one's twistin' hisself like a sparrow when its head's bein' pulled of. An' oh, if you saw all the blood that came pourin'--!

[_Disappears._

A Weaver'S Wife. Yes, there's two or three'll never get up again.

AN OLD WEAVER

[_In the entry-room._] Look out! They're goin' to make a rush on the soldiers.

A SECOND WEAVER

[_Wildly._] Look, look, look at the women! skirts up, an' spittin' in the soldiers' faces already!

A Weaver'S Wife. [_Calls in._] Gottlieb, look at your wife. She's more pluck in her than you. She's jumpin' about in front o' the bay'nets as if she was dancin' to music.

[_Four men carry a wounded rioter through the entry-room. Silence, which is broken by some one saying in a distinct voice,_ "It's weaver Ulbrich." _Once more silence for a few seconds, when the same voice is heard again:_ "It's all over with him; he's got a bullet in his ear." _The men are heard climbing the wooden stair. Sudden shouting outside:_ "Hurrah, hurrah!"

VOICES IN THE ENTRY-ROOM

"Where did they get the stones from?"--"Yes, it's time you were off!"--"From the new road."--"Ta-ta, soldiers!"--"It's rainin' paving-stones."

[_Shrieks of terror and loud roaring outside, taken up by those in the entry-room. There is a cry of fear, and the house door is shut with a bang._

VOICES IN THE ENTRY-ROOM

"They're loadin' again."--"They'll fire another volley this minute."--"Father Hilse, get away from that window."

Gottlieb. [_Clutches the axe._] What! is we mad dogs? Is we to eat powder an' shot now instead o' bread? [_Hesitating an instant to the old man._] Would you have me sit here an' see my wife shot? Never! [_As he rushes out._] Look out! I'm coming!

Old Hilse. Gottlieb, Gottlieb!

Mother Hilse. Where's Gottlieb gone?

Old Hilse. He's gone to the devil.

VOICES FROM THE ENTRY-ROOM

Go away from the window, father Hilse.

Old Hilse. Not I! Not if you all goes crazy together! [_To MOTHER HILSE, with rapt excitement._] My heavenly Father has placed me here. Isn't that so, mother? Here we'll sit, an' do our bounden duty--ay, though the snow was to go on fire.

[_He begins to weave._

[_Rattle of another volley. OLD HILSE, mortally wounded, starts to his feet and then falls forward over the loom. At the same moment loud shouting of_ "Hurrah!" _is heard. The people who till now have been standing in the entry-room dash out, joining in the cry. The old woman repeatedly asks:_ "Father, father, what's wrong with you?" _The continued shouting dies away gradually in the distance. MIELCHEN comes rushing in._

Mielchen. Gran'father, gran'father, they're drivin' the soldiers out o' the village; they've got into Dittrich's house, an' they're doin' what they did at Dreissiger's. Gran'father! [_The child grows frightened, notices that something has happened, puts her finger in her mouth, and goes up cautiously to the dead man._] Gran'father!

Mother Hilse. Come now, father, can't you say something? You're frightenin' me.

THE END

THE BEAVER COAT

A THIEVES' COMEDY

LIST OF CHARACTERS

VON WEHRHAHN, _Justice._

KRUEGER, _Capitalist in a small way._

DR. FLEISCHER.

PHILIP, _his son._

Mrs. Motes. MRS. WOLFF, _Washerwoman._

JULIUS WOLFF, _her husband._

LEONTINE, ADELAIDE, _her daughters._

WULKOW, _Lighterman._

GLASENAPP, _Clerk in the Justice's court._

MITTELDORF, _Constable._

Scene of the action: anywhere in the neighbourhood of Berlin.

The First Act. _A small, blue-tinted kitchen with low ceiling; a window at the left; at the right a door of rough boards leading out into the open; in the rear mall an empty casing from which the door has been lifted.--In the left corner a flat oven, above which hang kitchen utensils in a wooden frame; in the right corner oars and other boating implements. Rough, stubby pieces of hewn wood lie in a heap under the window. An old kitchen bench, several stools, etc.--Through the empty casing in the rear a second room is visible. In it stands a high, neatly, made bed; above it hang cheap photographs in still cheaper frames, small chromolithographs, etc. A chair of soft mood stands with its back against the bed.--It is winter and moonlight. On the oven a tallow-candle is burning in a candle-stick of tin. LEONTINE WOLFF has fallen asleep on a stool by the oven and rests her head and arms on it. She is a pretty, fair girl of seventeen in the working garb of a domestic servant. A woolen shawl is tied over her cotton jacket.--For several seconds there is silence. Then someone is heard trying to unlock the door from without. But the key is in the lock and a knocking follows._

Mrs. Wolff. [_Unseen, from without._] Adelaide! Adelaide! [_There is no answer and a loud knocking is heard at the window._] Are you goin' to open or not?

Leontine. [_Drowsily._] No, no, I'm not goin' to be abused that way!

Mrs. Wolff. Open, girl, or I'll come in through the window!

[_She raps violently at the panes._

Leontine. [_Waking up._] Oh, it's you, mama! I'm coming now!

[_She unlocks the door from within._

Mrs. Wolff. [_Without laying down a sack which she carries over her shoulder._] What are _you_ doin' here?

Leontine. [_Sleepily._] Evenin', mama.

Mrs. Wolff. How did you get in here, eh?

Leontine. Well, wasn't the key lyin' on the goat shed?

Mrs. Wolff. But what do you want here at home?

Leontine. [_Awkwardly affected and aggrieved._] So you don't want me to come no more at all?

Mrs. Wolff. Aw, you just go ahead and put on that way! I'm so fond o' that! [_She lets the sack drop from her shoulder._] You don't know nothin', I s'ppose, about how late it's gettin'? You hurry and go back to your mistress.

Leontine. It matters a whole lot, don't it, if I get back there a little too late?

Mrs. Wolff. You want to be lookin' out, y'understand? You see to it that you go, or you'll catch it!

Leontine. [_Tearfully and defiantly._] I ain't goin' back to them people no more, mama!

Mrs. Wolff. [_Astonished._] Not goin'?... [_Ironically._] Oh, no! That's somethin' quite new!

Leontine. Well, I don't _have_ to let myself be abused that way!

Mrs. Wolff. [_Busy extracting a piece of venison from the sack._] So the Kruegers abuse you, do they? Aw, the poor child that you are!--Don't you come round me with such fool talk! A wench like a dragoon...! Here, lend a hand with this sack, at the bottom. You can't act more like a fool, eh? You won't get no good out o' me that way! You can't learn lazyin' around, here, at all. [_They hang up the venison on the door._] Now I tell you for the last time....

Leontine. I ain't goin' back to them people, I tell you. I'd jump in the river first!

Mrs. Wolff. See that you don't catch a cold doin' it.

Leontine. I'll jump in the river!

Mrs. Wolff. Go ahead. Let me know about it and I'll give you a shove so you don't miss it.

Leontine. [_Screaming._] Do I have to stand for that, that I gotta drag in two loads o' wood at night!

Mrs. Wolff. [_In mock astonishment._] Well, now, that's pretty awful, ain't it? You gotta drag in wood? Such people, I tell you!

Leontine. ... An' I gets twenty crowns for the whole year. I'm to get my hands frost-bitten for that, am I? An' not enough potatoes and herring to go round!

Mrs. Wolff. You needn't go fussin' about that, you silly girl. Here's the key; go, cut yourself some bread. An' when you've had enough, go your way, y'understand? The plum butter's in the top cupboard.

Leontine. [_Takes a large loaf of bread from a drawer and cuts some slices._] An' Juste gets forty crowns a year from the Schulze's an'....

Mrs. Wolff. Don't you try to be goin' too fast.--You ain't goin' to stay with them people always; you ain't hired out to 'em forever.--Leave 'em on the first of April, for all I care.--But up to then, you sticks to your place.--Now that you got your Christmas present in your pocket, you want to run away, do you? That's no way. I have dealin's with them people, an' I ain't goin' to have that kind o' thing held against me.

Leontine. These bits o' rag that I got on here?

Mrs. Wolff. You're forgettin' the cash you got?

Leontine. Yes! Six shillin's. That was a whole lot!

Mrs. Wolff. Cash is cash! You needn't kick.

Leontine. But if I can go an' make more?

Mrs. Wolff. Yes, talkin'!

Leontine. No, sewin'! I can go in to Berlin and sew cloaks. Emily Stechow's been doin' that ever since New Year.

Mrs. Wolff. Don't come tellin' me about that slattern! I'd like to get my hands on her, that's all. I'd give that crittur a piece o' my mind! You'd like to be promoted into her class, would you? To go sportin' all night with the fellows? Just to be thinkin' o' that makes me feel that I'd like to beat you so you can't hardly stand up.--Now papa's comin' an' you'd better look out!

Leontine. If papa thrashes me, I'll run away. I'll see how I can get along!

Mrs. Wolff. Shut up now! Go an' feed the goats. They ain't been milked yet to-night neither. An' give the rabbits a handful o' hay.

_LEONTINE tries to make her escape. In the door, however, she runs into her father, but slips quickly by him with a perfunctory_ Evenin'.

_JULIUS WOLFF, the father, is a shipwright. A tall man, with dull eyes and slothful gestures, about forty-three years old.--He places two long oars, which he has brought in across his shoulder in a corner and silently throws down his shipwright's tools._

Mrs. Wolff. Did you meet Emil?

JULIUS _growls._

Mrs. Wolff. Can't you talk? Yes or no? Is he goin' to come around, eh?

Julius. [_Irritated._] Go right ahead! Scream all you want to!

Mrs. Wolff. You're a fine, brave fellow, ain't you? An' all the while you forget to shut the door.

Julius. [_Closes the door._] What's up again with Leontine?

Mrs. Wolff. Aw, nothin'.--What kind of a load did Emil have?

Julius. Bricks again. What d'you suppose he took in?--But what's up with that girl again?

Mrs. Wolff. Did he have half a load or a whole load?

Julius. [_Flying into a rage._] What's up with the wench, I asks you?

Mrs. Wolff. [_Outdoing him in violence._] An' I want to know how big a load Emil had--a half or a whole boat full?

Julius. That's right! Go on! The whole thing full.

Mrs. Wolff. Sst! Julius!

[_Suddenly frightened she shoots the window latch._

Julius. [_Scared and staring at her, is silent. After a few moments, softly._] It's a young forester from Rixdorf.

Mrs. Wolff. Go an' creep under the bed, Julius. [_After a pause._] If only you wasn't such an awful fool. You don't open your mouth but what you act like a regular tramp. You don't understand nothin' o' such things, if you want to know it. You let me look out for the girls. That ain't no part o' your concern. That's a part of my concern. With boys that'd be a different thing. I wouldn't so much as give you advice. But everybody's got their own concerns.

Julius. Then don't let her come runnin' straight across my way.

Mrs. Wolff. I guess you want to beat her till she can't walk. Don't you take nothin' like that into your head. Don't you think I'm goin' to allow anythin' like that! I let her be beaten black an' blue? We c'n make our fortune with that girl. I wish you had sense about some things!

Julius. Well, then let her go an' see how she gets along!

Mrs. Wolff. Nobody needn't be scared about that, Julius. I ain't sayin' but what you'll live to see things. That girl will be livin' up on the first floor some day and we'll be glad to have her condescend to know us. What is it the doctor said to me? Your daughter, he says, is a handsome girl; she'd make a stir on the stage.

Julius. Then let her see about gettin' there.

Mrs. Wolff. You got no education, Julius. Yon ain't got a trace of it. Lord, if it hadn't been for me! What would ha' become o' those girls! I brought 'em up to be educated, y'understand? Education is the main thing these days. But things don't come off all of a sudden. One thing after another--step by step. Now she's in service an' that'll learn her somethin'. Then maybe, for my part, she can go into Berlin. She's much too young for the stage yet.

[_During MRS. WOLFF'S speech repeated knocking has been heard. Now ADELAIDE'S voice comes in._ Mama! Mama! Please, do open! _MRS. WOLFF opens the door, ADELAIDE comes in. She is a somewhat overgrown schoolgirl of fourteen with a pretty, child-like face. The expression of her eyes, however, betrays premature corruption._

Why didn't you open the door, mama? I nearly got my hands and feet frozen!

Mrs. Wolff. Don't stand there jabberin' nonsense. Light a fire in the oven and you'll soon be warm. Where've you been all this long time, anyhow?

Adelaide. Why, didn't I have to go and fetch the boots for father?

Mrs. Wolff. An' you staid out two hours doin' it!

Adelaide. Well, I didn't start to go till seven.

Mrs. Wolff. Oh, you went at seven, did you? It's half past ten now. You don't know that, eh? So you've been gone three hours an' a half. That ain't much. Oh, no. Well now you just listen good to what I've got to tell you. If you go an' stay that long again, and specially with that lousy cobbler of a Fielitz--then watch out an' see! That's all I says.

Adelaide. Oh, I guess I ain't to do nothin' except just mope around at home.

Mrs. Wolff. Now you keep still an' don't let me hear no more.

Adelaide. An' even if I do go over to Fielitz's sometime....

Mrs. Wolff. Are you goin' to keep still, I'd like to know? You teach me to know Fielitz! He needn't be putting on's far as I know. He's got another trade exceptin' just repairin' shoes. When a man's been twice in the penitentiary....

Adelaide. That ain't true at all.... That's all just a set o' lies. He told me all about it himself, mama!

Mrs. Wolff. As if the whole village didn't know, you fool girl! That man! I know what he is. He's a pi--

Adelaide. Oh, but he's friends even with the justice!

MRS WOLFF

I don't doubt it. He's a spy. And what's more, he's a _dee_nouncer!

Adelaide. What's that--a _dee_nouncer?

Julius. [_From the next room, into which he has gone._] I'm just waitin' to hear two words more.

[_ADELAIDE turns pale and at once and silently she sets about building a fire in the oven._

_LEONTINE comes in._

Mrs. Wolff. [_Has opened the stag. She takes out the heart, liver, etc, and hands them to LEONTINE._] There, hurry, wash that off. An' keep still, or somethin'll happen yet.

[_LEONTINE, obviously intimidated, goes at her task. The girls whisper together._

Mrs. Wolff. Say, Julius. What are you doin' in there? I guess you'll go an' forget again. Didn't I tell you this mornin' about the board that's come loose?

Julius. What kind o' board?

Mrs. Wolff. You don't know, eh? Behind there, by the goat-shed. The wind loosened it las' night. You better get out there an' drive a few nails in, y'understand?

Julius. Aw, to-morrow mornin'll be another day, too.

Mrs. Wolff. Oh, no. Don't take to thinkin' that way. We ain't goin' to make that kind of a start--not we. [_JULIUS comes into the room growling._] There, take, the hammer! Here's your nails! Now hurry an' get it done.

Julius. You're a bit off' your head.

Mrs. Wolff. [_Calling out after him._] When Wulkow comes what d'you want me to ask?

Julius. About twelve shillin's sure.

[_Exit._

Mrs. Wolff. [_Contemptuously._] Aw, twelve shillin's. [_A pause._] Now you just hurry so that papa gets his supper.

[_A brief pause._

Adelaide. [_Looking at the stag._] What's that anyhow, mama?

Mrs. Wolff. A stork.

[_Both girls laugh._

Adelaide. A stork, eh? A stork ain't got horns. I know what that is--that's a stag!

Mrs. Wolff. Well, if you know why d'you go an' ask?

Leontine. Did papa shoot it, mama?

Mrs. Wolff. That's right! Go and scream it through the village: Papa's shot a stag!

Adelaide. I'll take mighty good care not to. That'd mean the cop!

Leontine. Aw, I ain't scared o' policeman Schulz. He chucked me under the chin onct.

Mrs. Wolff. He c'n come anyhow. We ain't doin' nothin' wrong. If a stag's full o' lead and lays there dyin' an' nobody finds it, what happens? The ravens eat it. Well now, if the ravens eat it or we eat it, it's goin' to be eaten anyhow. [_A brief pause._] Well now, tell me: You was axed to carry wood in?

Leontine. Yes, in this frost! Two loads o' regular clumps! An' that when a person is tired as a dog, at half past nine in the evenin'!

Mrs. Wolff. An' now I suppose that wood is lyin' there in the street?

Leontine. It's lyin' in front o' the garden gate. That's all I know.

Mrs. Wolff. Well now, but supposin' somebody goes and steals that wood? What's goin' to happen in the mornin' then?

Leontine. I ain't goin' there no more!

Mrs. Wolff. Are those clumps green or dry?

Leontine. They're fine, dry ones! [_She yawns again and again._] Oh, mama, I'm that tired! I've just had to work myself to pieces.

[_She sits down with every sign of utter exhaustion._

Mrs. Wolff. [_After a brief silence._] You c'n stay at home tonight for all I care. I've thought it all out a bit different. An' to-morrow mornin' we c'n see.

Leontine. I've just got as thin as can be, mama! My clothes is just hangin' on to me.

Mrs. Wolff. You hurry now and go in to bed or papa'll raise a row yet. He ain't got no understandin' for things like that.

Adelaide. Papa always speaks so uneducated!

Mrs. Wolff. Well, he didn't learn to have no education. An' that'd be just the same thing with you if I hadn't brought you up to be educated. [_Holding a saucepan over the oven: to LEONTINE:_] Come now, put it in! [_LEONTINE places the pieces of washed venison into the sauce-pan._] So, now go to bed.

Leontine. [_Goes into the next room. While she is still visible, she says:_] Oh, mama, Motes has moved away from Krueger.

Mrs. Wolff. I guess he didn't pay no rent.

Leontine. It was just like pullin' a tooth every time, Mr. Krueger says, but he paid. Anyhow, he says, he had to kick him out. He's such a lyin' loudmouthed fellow, and always so high and mighty toward Mr. Krueger.

Mrs. Wolff. If I had been in Mr. Krueger's place I wouldn't ha' kept him that long.

Leontine. Because Mr. Krueger used to be a carpenter onct, that's why Motes always acts so contemptuous. And then, too, he quarrelled with Dr. Fleischer.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, anybody that'll quarrel with _him_...! I ain't sayin' anythin', but them people wouldn't harm a fly!

Leontine. They won't let him come to the Fleischers no more.

Mrs. Wolff. If you could get a chanct to work for them people some day!

Leontine. They treat the girls like they was their own children.

Mrs. Wolff. And his brother in Berlin, he's cashier in a theatre.

Wulkow. [_Has knocked at the door repeatedly and now calls out in a hoarse voice._] Ain't you goin' to have the kindness to let me in.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, I should say! Why not! Walk right in!

Wulkow. [_Comes in. He is a lighterman on the Spree river, near sixty years old, bent, with a greyish-yellow beard that frames his head from ear to ear but leaves his weather-beaten face free._] I wish you a very good evenin'.

Mrs. Wolff. Look at him comin' along again to take in a woman a little bit.

Wulkow. I've give up tryin' that this long while!

Mrs. Wolff. Maybe, but that's the way it's goin' to be anyhow.

Wulkow. T'other way roun', you mean.

Mrs. Wolff. What'll it be next?--Here it's hangin'! A grand feller, eh?

Wulkow. I tell you, Julius ought to be lookin' out sharp. They's gettin' to be pretty keen again.

Mrs. Wolff. What are you goin' to give us for it, that's the main thing. What's the use o' jabberin'?

Wulkow. Well, I'm tellin' you. I'm straight from Gruenau. An' there I heard it for certain. They shot Fritz Weber. They just about filled his breeches with lead.

Mrs. Wolff. What are you goin' to give? That's the main thing.

Wulkow. [_Feeling the stag._] The trouble is I got four o' them bucks lyin' at home now.

Mrs. Wolff. That ain't goin' to make your boat sink.

Wulkow. An' I don't want her to do that. That wouldn't be no joke. But what's the good if I get stuck with the things here. I've gotta get 'em in to Berlin. It's been hard enough work on the river all day, an' if it goes on freezin' this way, there'll be no gettin' along to-morrow. Then I c'n sit in the ice with my boat, an' then I've got these things for fun.

Mrs. Wolff. [_Apparently changing her mind._] Girl, you run down to Schulze. Say how-dee-do an' he's to come up a while, cause mother has somethin' to sell.

Wulkow. Did I say as I wasn't goin' to buy it?

Mrs. Wolff. It's all the same to me who buys it.

Wulkow. Well, I'm willin' to.

Mrs. Wolff. Any one that don't want it can let it be.

Wulkow. I'll buy this feller! What's he worth?

Mrs. Wolff. [_Touching the venison._] This here piece weighs a good thirty pounds. Every bit of it, I c'n tell you. Well, Adelaide! You was here. We could hardly lift it up.

Adelaide. [_Who had not been present at all._] I pretty near sprained myself liftin' it.

Wulkow. Thirteen shillin's will pay for it, then. An' I won't be makin' ten pence on that bargain!

Mrs. Wolff. [_Acts amazed. She busies herself at the oven as though she had forgotten WULKOW'S presence. Then, as though suddenly becoming aware of it again, she says:_] I wish you a very pleasant trip.

Wulkow. Well. I can't give more than thirteen!

Mrs. Wolff. That's right. Let it alone.

Wulkow. I'm just buyin' it for the sake o' your custom. God strike me dead, but it's as true as I'm standin' here. I don't make _that_ much with the whole business. An' even if I was wantin' to say: fourteen, I'd be puttin' up money, I'd be out one shillin'. But I ain't goin' to let that stand between us. Just so you see my good intentions, I'll say fourteen....

I can't give no more. I'm tellin' you facts.

Mrs. Wolff. That's all right! That's all right! We c'n get rid o' this stag. We won't have to keep it till morning.

Wulkow. Yes, if only nobody don't see it hangin' here. Money wouldn't do no good then.

Mrs. Wolff. This stag here, we found it dead.

Wulkow. Yes, in a trap. I believe you.

Mrs. Wolff. You needn't try to get around us that way. That ain't goin' to do _no_ good! You want to gobble up everythin' for nothin'! We works till we got no breath. Hours an' hours soakin' in the snow, not to speak o' the risk, there in the pitch dark. That's no joke, I tell you.

Wulkow. The only trouble is that I got four of 'em already. Or I'd say fifteen shillin's quick enough.

Mrs. Wolff. No, Wulkow, we can't do business together today. You c'n be easy an' go a door further. We just dragged ourselves across the lake ... a hairbreadth an' we would've been stuck in the ice. We couldn't get forward an' we couldn't get backward. You can't give away somethin' you got so hard.

Wulkow. Well, what do I get out of it all, I want to know! This here lighter business ain't a natural thing. An' poachin', that's a bad job. If you all get nabbed, I'd be the first one to fly in. I been worryin' along these forty years. What've I got to-day? The rheumatiz--that's what! When I get up o' mornin's early, I gotta whine like a puppy dog. Years an' years I been wantin' to buy myself a fur-coat. That's what all doctors has advised me to do, because I'm that sensitive. But I ain't been able to buy me none. Not to this day. An' that's as true as I'm standin' here.

Adelaide. [_To her mother._] Did you hear what Leontine said?

Wulkow. But anyhow. Let it go. I'll say sixteen.

Mrs. Wolff. No, it's no good. Eighteen! [_To ADELAIDE._] What's that you was talkin' about?

Adelaide. Mrs. Krueger has bought a fur-coat that cost pretty near a hundred crowns. It's a beaver coat.

Wulkow. A beaver coat?

Mrs. Wolff. _Who_ bought it?

Adelaide. Why, Mrs. Krueger, I tell you, as a Christmas present for Mr. Krueger.

Wulkow. Is that girl in service with the Kruegers?

Adelaide. Not me, but my sister, I ain't goin' in service like that at all.

Wulkow. Well now, if I could have somethin' like that! That's the kind o' thing I been tryin' to get hold of all this time. I'd gladly be givin' sixty crowns for it. All this money that goes to doctors and druggists, I'd much rather spend it for furs. I'd get some pleasure out of that at least.

Mrs. Wolff. All you gotta do is to go there, Wulkow. Maybe Kruger'll make you a present of the coat.

Wulkow. I don't suppose he'd do it kindly. But's I said: I'm interested in that sort o' thing.

Mrs. Wolff. I believes you. I wouldn't mind havin' a thing like that myself.

Wulkow. How do we stand now? Sixteen?

Mrs. Wolff. Nothin' less'n eighteen'll do. Not under eighteen--that's what Julius said. I wouldn't dare show up with sixteen. No, sir. When that man takes somethin' like that into his head! [_JULIUS comes in._] Well, Julius, you said eighteen shillin's, didn't you?

Julius. What's that I said?

Mrs. Wolff. Are you hard o' hearin' again for a change? You said yourself: not under eighteen. You told me not to sell the stag for less.

Julius. I said?... Oh, yes, that there piece o' venison! That's right. H-m. An' that ain't a bit too much; either.

Wulkow. [_Taking' out money and counting it._] We'll make an end o' this. Seventeen shillin's. Is it a bargain?

Mrs. Wolff. You're a great feller, you are! That's what I said exactly: he don't hardly have to come in the door but a person is taken in!

Wulkow. [_Has unrolled a sack which had been hidden about his person._] Now help me shoot it right in here. [_MRS. WOLFF helps him place the venison in the sack._] An' if by some chanst you should come to hear o' somethin' like that--what I means is, just f'r instance--a--fur coat like that, f'r instance. Say, sixty or seventy crowns. I could raise that, an' I wouldn't mind investin' it.

Mrs. Wolff. I guess you ain't right in your head...! How should _we_ come by a coat like that?

A Man'S Voice. [_Calls from without._] Mrs. Wolff! Oh, Mrs. Wolff! Are you still up?

Mrs. Wolff. [_Sharing the consternation of the others, rapidly, tensely._] Slip it in! Slip it in! And get in the other room!

[_She crowds them all into the rear room and locks the door._

A Man'S Voice. Mrs. Wolff! Oh, Mrs. Wolff! Have you gone to bed?

_MRS. WOLFF extinguishes the light._

A Man'S Voice. Mrs. Wolff! Mrs. Wolff! Are you still up? [_The voice recedes singing:_]

"Morningre-ed, morningre-ed, Thou wilt shine when I am dea-ead!"

Leontine. Aw, that's only old "Morningred," mama!

Mrs. Wolff. [_Listens for a while, opens the door softly and listens again. When she is satisfied she closes the door and lights the candle. Thereupon she admits the others again._] 'Twas only the constable Mitteldorf.

Wulkow. The devil, you say. That's nice acquaintances for you to have.

Mrs. Wolff. Go on about your way now! Hurry!

Adelaide. Mama, Mino has been barkin'.

Mrs. Wolff. Hurry, hurry, Wulkow! Get out now! An' the back way through the vegetable garden! Julius will open for you. Go on, Julius, an' open the gate.

Wulkow. An's I said, if somethin' like such a beaver coat _was_ to turn up, why--

Mrs. Wolff. Sure. Just make haste now.

Wulkow. If the Spree don't freeze over, I'll be gettin' back in, say, three or four days from Berlin. An' I'll be lyin' with my boat down there.

Mrs. Wolff. By the big bridge?

Wulkow. Where I always lies. Well, Julius, toddle ahead!

[_Exit._

Adelaide. Mama, Mino has been barkin' again.

Mrs. Wolff. [_At the oven._] Oh, let him bark!

[_A long-drawn call is heard in the distance._ "Ferry over!"]

Adelaide. Somebody wants to get across the river, mama!

Mrs. Wolff. Well, go'n tell papa. He's down there by the river.--["Ferry over!"] An' take him his oars. But he ought to let Wulkow get a bit of a start first.

_ADELAIDE goes out with the oars. For a little while MRS. WOLFF is alone. She marks energetically. Then ADELAIDE returns._

Adelaide. Papa's got his oars down in the boat.

Mrs. Wolff. Who wants to get across the river this time o' night?

Adelaide. I believe, mama, it's that stoopid Motes!

Mrs. Wolff. What? Who is't you say?

Adelaide. I think the voice was Motes's voice.

Mrs. Wolff. [_Vehemently._] Go down! Ran! Tell papa to come up! That fool Motes can stay on the other side. He don't need to come sniffin' around in the house here.

_ADELAIDE exits. MRS. WOLFF hides and clears away everything that could in any degree suggest the episode of the stag. She covers the sauce-pan with an apron. ADELAIDE comes back._

Adelaide. Mama, I got down there too late. I hear 'em talkin' a'ready.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, who is it then?

Adelaide. I've been tellin' you: Motes.

_MR. and MRS. MOTES appear in turn in the doorway. Both are of medium height. She is an alert young woman of about thirty, modestly and neatly dressed. He wears a green forester's overcoat; his face is healthy but insignificant; his left eye is concealed by a black bandage._

Mrs. Motes. [_Calls in._] We nearly got our noses frozen, Mrs. Wolff.

Mrs. Wolff. Why do you go walkin' at night. You got time enough when it's bright day.

Motes. It's nice and warm here.--Who's that who has time by day?

Mrs. Wolff. Why, you!

Motes. I suppose you think I live on my fortune.

Mrs. Wolff. I don't know; I ain't sayin' what you live on.

Mrs. Motes. Heavens, you needn't be so cross. We simply wanted to ask about our bill.

Mrs. Wolff. You've asked about that a good deal more'n once.

Mrs. Motes. Very well. So we're asking again. Anything wrong with that? We have to pay sometime, you know?

Mrs. Wolff. [_Astonished._] You wants to pay?

Mrs. Motes. Of course, we do. Naturally.

Motes. You act as if you were quite overwhelmed. Did you think we'd run off without paying?

Mrs. Wolff. I ain't given to thinkin' such things. If you want to be so good then. Here, we can arrange right now. The amount is eleven shillin's, six pence.

Mrs. Motes. Oh, yes. Mrs. Wolff. We're going to get money. The people around here will open their eyes wide.

Motes. There's a smell of roasted hare here.

Mrs. Wolff. Burned hair! That'd be more likely.

Motes. Let's take a look and see.

[_He is about to take the cover from the sauce-pan._

Mrs. Wolff. [_Prevents him._] No sniffin' 'round in my pots.

Mrs. Motes. [_Who has observed everything distrustfully._] Mrs. Wolff, we've found something, too.

Mrs. Wolff. I ain't lost nothin'.

Mrs. Motes. There, look at these.

[_She shows her several wire snares._

Mrs. Wolff. [_Without losing her equanimity in the slightest._] I suppose them are snares?

Mrs. Motes. We found them quite in the neighbourhood here! Scarcely twenty paces from your garden.

Mrs. Wolff. Lord love you! The amount of poachin' that's done here!

Mrs. Motes. If you were to keep a sharp lookout, you might actually catch the poacher some day.

Mrs. Wolff. Aw, such things is no concern o' mine.

Motes. If I could just get hold of a rascal like that. First, I'd give him something to remember me by, and then I'd mercilessly turn him over to the police.

Mrs. Motes. Mrs. Wolff have you got a few fresh eggs?

Mrs. Wolff. Now, in the middle of winter? They're pretty scarce!

Motes. [_To JULIUS, who has just come in._] Forester Seidel has nabbed a poacher again. He'll be taken to the detention prison to-morrow. There's an officer with style about him. If I hadn't had my misfortune, I could have been a head forester to-day. I'd go after those dogs even more energetically.

Mrs. Wolff. There's many a one has had to pay for doin' that!

Motes. Yes, if he's afraid. I'm not! I've denounced quite a few already. [_Fixing his gaze keenly on MRS. WOLFF and her husband in turn._] And there are a few others whose time is coming. They'll run straight into my grip some day. These setters of snares needn't think that I don't know them. I know them very well.

Mrs. Motes. Have you been baking, perhaps, Mrs. Wolff? We're so tired of baker's bread.

Mrs. Wolff. I thought you was goin' to square your account.

Mrs. Motes. On Saturday, as I've told you, Mrs. Wolff. My husband has been appointed editor of the magazine "Chase and Forest."

Mrs. Wolff. Aha, yes. I know what that means.

Mrs. Motes. But if I assure you, Mrs. Wolff! We've moved away from the Kruegers already.

Mrs. Wolff. Yes, you moved because you had to.

Mrs. Motes. We had to? Hubby, listen to this!--[_She gives a forced laugh._]--Mrs. Wolff says that we had to move from Kruegers.

Motes. [_Crimson with rage._] The reason why I moved away from that place? You'll find it out some day. The man is a usurer and a cutthroat!

Mrs. Wolff. I don't know nothin' about that; I can't say nothin' about that.

Motes. I'm just waiting to get hold of positive proof. That, man had better be careful where I'm concerned--he and his bosom friend, Dr. Fleischer. The latter more especially. If I just wanted to say it--one word and that man would be under lock and key.

[_From the beginning of his speech on he has gradually withdrawn and speaks the last words from without._

Mrs. Wolff. I suppose the men got to quarrelin' again?

Mrs. Motes. [_Apparently confidential._] There's no jesting with my husband. If he determines on anything, he doesn't let go till it's done. And he stands very well with the justice.--But how about the eggs and the bread?

Mrs. Wolff. [_Reluctantly._] Well, I happen to have five eggs lyin' here. An' a piece o' bread. [_MRS. MOTES puts the eggs and the half of a loaf into her basket._] Are you satisfied now?

Mrs. Motes. Certainly; of course. I suppose the eggs are fresh?

Mrs. Wolff. As fresh as my chickens can lay 'em.

Mrs. Motes. [_Hastening in order to catch up with her husband._] Well, good-night. You'll get your money next Saturday.

[_Exit._

Mrs. Wolff. All right; that'll be all right enough! [_She closes the door and speaks softly to herself._] Get outta here, you! Got nothin' but debts with everybody around. [_Over her sauce-pan._] What business o' theirs is it what we eat? Let 'em spy into their own affairs. Go to bed, child!

Adelaide. Good night, mama.

[_She kisses her._

Mrs. Wolff. Well, ain't you goin' to kiss papa good-night?

Adelaide. Good night, papa.

[_She kisses him, at which he growls. ADELAIDE, exit._

Mrs. Wolff. You always gotta say that to her special!

[_A pause._

Julius. Why do'you go an' give the eggs to them people?

Mrs. Wolff. I suppose you want me to make an enemy o' that feller? You just go ahead an' get him down on you! I tell you, that's a dangerous feller. He ain't got nothin' to do except spy on people. Come. Sit down. Eat. Here's a fork for you. You don't understand much about such things. You take care o' the things that belongs to you! Did you have to go an' lay the snares right behind the garden? They was yours, wasn't they?

JULIUS [_Annoyed._] Go right ahead!

Mrs. Wolff. An', o' course, that fool of a Motes had to find 'em first thing. Here near the house you ain't goin' to lay no more snares at all! Y'understan'? Next thing'll be that people say we laid 'em.

Julius. Aw, you stop your jawin'.

[_Both eat._

Mrs. Wolff. Look here, Julius, we're out of wood, too.

Julius. An' you want me to go this minute, I suppose?

Mrs. Wolff. It'd be best if we got busy right off.

Julius. I don't feel my own bones no more. Anybody that wants to go c'n go. I ain't.

Mrs. Wolff. You men folks always does a whole lot o' talkin', an' when it comes to the point, you can't do nothin'. I'd work enough to put the crowd of you in a hole and drag you out again too. If you ain't willin' to go to-night by no means, why, you've got to go to-morrow anyhow. So what good is it? How are the climbin' irons? Sharp?

Julius. I loaned 'em to Karl Machnow.

Mrs. Wolff. [_After a pause._] If only you wasn't such a coward!--We might get a few loads o' wood in a hurry, an' we wouldn't have to work ourselves blue in the face neither.--No, nor we wouldn't have to go very far for 'em.

Julius. Aw, let me eat a bite, will you?

Mrs. Wolff. [_Punches his head amicably._] Don't always be so rough, I'm goin' to be good to you now for onct. You watch. [_Fetching a bottle of whiskey and showing it to him._] Here! See? I brought that for you. Now you c'n make a friendly face, all right.

[_She fills a glass for her husband._

Julius. [_Drinks._] That's fine--in this cold weather--fine.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, you see? Don't I take care o' you?

Julius. That was pretty good, pretty good all right.

[_He fills the glass anew and drinks._

Mrs. Wolff. [_After a pause. She is splitting kindling wood and eating a bite now and then._] Wulkow--that feller--he's a regular rascal--. He always--acts--as if he was hard up.

Julius. Aw, he'd better shut up--he with his trade!

Mrs. Wolff. You heard that about the beaver coat, didn't you?

Julius. Naw, I didn't hear nothin'.

Mrs. Wolff. [_With assumed carelessness._] Didn't you hear the girl tell how Mrs. Krueger has given Krueger a fur coat?

Julius. Well, them people has the money.

Mrs. Wolff. That's true. An' then Wulkow was sayin' ... you musta heard ... that if he could get hold of a coat like that some day, he'd give as much as a seventy crowns for it.

Julius. You just let him go and get into trouble his own self.

Mrs. Wolff. [_After a pause, refilling her husband's glass._] Come now, you c'n stand another.

Julius. Well, go ahead, go ahead! What in...!

_MRS. WOLFF gets out a little note book and turns over the leaves._

Julius. How much is it we put aside since July?

Mrs. Wolff. About thirty crowns has been paid off.

Julius. An' that'll leave ... leave ...

Mrs. Wolff. That'll still leave seventy. You don't get along very fast this way. Fifty, sixty crowns--all in a lump; if you could add that onct! Then the lot would be paid for all right. Then maybe we could borrow a couple o' hundred and build up a few pretty rooms. We can't take no summer boarders like this an' it's the summer boarders what brings the money.

Julius. Well, go ahead! What are you ...

Mrs. Wolff. [_Resolutely._] My, but you're a slow crittur, Julius! Would _you've_ gone an' bought that lot? An' if we wanted to go an' sell it now, we could be gettin' twice over what we paid for it! I got a different kind of a nature! Lord, if you had one like it!

Julius. I'm workin' all right. What's the good o' all that?

Mrs. Wolff. You ain't goin' to get very far with all your work.

Julius. Well, I can't steal. I can't go an' get into trouble!

Mrs. Wolff. You're just stoopid, an' that's the way you'll always be. Nobody here ain't been talkin' o' stealin'. But if you don't risk nothin', you don't get nothin'. An' when onct you're rich, Julius, an' c'n go and sit in your own carridge, there ain't nobody what's goin' to ask where you got it! Sure, if we was to take it from poor people! But now suppose really--suppose we went over to the Kruegers and put the two loads o' wood on a sleigh an' took 'em into our shed--them people ain't no poorer on that account!

Julius. Wood? What you startin' after again now with wood?

Mrs. Wolff. Now that shows how you don't take notice o' nothin'! They c'n work your daughter till she drops; they c'n try an' make her drag in wood at ten o'clock in the evenin'. That's why she run away. An' you take that kind o' thing an' say thank you. Maybe you'd give the child a hidin' and send her back to the people.

Julius. Sure!--That's what!--What d'you think ...

Mrs. Wolff. Things like that hadn't ought to go unpunished. If anybody hits me, I'll hit him back. That's what I says.

Julius. Well, did they go an' hit the girl?

Mrs. Wolff. Why should she be runnin' away, Julius? But no, there ain't no use tryin' to do anything with you. Now the wood is lyin' out there in the alley. An' if I was to say: all right, you abuse my children, I'll take your wood--a nice face you'd make.

Julius. I wouldn't do no such thing ... I don't give a--! I c'n do more'n eat, too. I'd like to see! I wouldn't stand for nothin' like that. Beatin'!

Mrs. Wolff. Well, then, don't talk so much. Go an' get your cord. Show them people that you got some cuteness! The whole thing will be over in an hour. Then we c'n go to bed an' it's all right. An' you don't have to go out in the woods to-morrow. We'll have more fuel than we need.

Julius. Well, if it leaks out, it'll be all the same to me.

Mrs. Wolff. There ain't no reason why it should. But don't wake the girls.

Mitteldorf. [_From without._] Mrs. Wolff! Mrs. Wolff! Are you still up?

Mrs. Wolff. Sure, Mitteldorf! Come right in!

[_She opens the door._

Mitteldorf. [_Enters. He has an overcoat over his shabby uniform. His face has a Mephistophelian cast. His nose betrays an alcoholic colouring. His demeanour is gentle, almost timid. His speech is slow and dragging and unaccompanied by any change in expression._] Good evenin', Mrs. Wolff.

Mrs. Wolff. I guess you mean to say: Good night!

Mitteldorf. I was around here once before a while ago. First I thought I saw a light, an' then, all of a sudden, it was dark again. Nobody didn't answer me neither. But this time there was a light an' no mistake; an' so I came back once more.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, what have you got for me now, Mitteldorf?

Mitteldorf. [_Has taken a seat, thinks a while and then says:_] That's what I came here for. I got a message for you from the justice's wife.

Mrs. Wolff. She ain't wantin' me to do washin'?

Mitteldorf. [_Raises his eye-brows thoughtfully._] That she does.

Mrs. Wolff. An' when?

Mitteldorf. To-morrow.--To-morrow mornin'.

Mrs. Wolff. An' you come in tellin' me that twelve o'clock at night?

Mitteldorf. But to-morrow is the missis' wash day.

Mrs. Wolff. But a person ought to know that a few days ahead o' time.

Mitteldorf. That' a fac'. But don't go makin' a noise. I just plumb forgot all about it again. I got so many things to think of with my poor head, that sometimes I just naturally forgets things.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, Mitteldorf, I'll try an' arrange it. We always was good friends. You got enough on your shoulders, I suppose, with them twelve children o' yours at home, eh? You ain't got no call to make yourself out worse'n you are.

Mitteldorf. If you don't come in the mornin', I'll have a pretty tough time of it!

Mrs. Wolff. I'll come. You needn't go worryin'. There, take a drink. I guess you need it this weather. [_She gives him a glass of toddy._] I just happened to have a bit o' hot water. You know, we gotta take a trip yet to-night--for fat geese over to Treptow. You don't get no time in the day. That can't be helped in this kind of a life. Poor people is got to work themselves sick day an' night, an' rich people lies in bed snorin'.

Mitteldorf. I been given notice. Did you know that? The justice has given me notice. I ain't keen enough after the people.

Mrs. Wolff. They wants you to be like an old watch dog, I suppose.

Mitteldorf. I'd rather not go home at all. When I gets there, it'll be nothin' but quarrelin'. She just drives me crazy with her reproaches.

Mrs. Wolff. Put your fingers in your ears!

Mitteldorf. An' then a man goes to the tavern a bit, so that the worries don't down him altogether; an' now he ain't to do that no more neither! He ain't to do nothin'. An' now I just come from a bit of a time there. A feller treated to a little keg.

Mrs. Wolff. You ain't goin' to be scared of a woman? If she scolds, scold harder; an' if she beats you, beat her back. Come here now--you're taller'n me--get me down them things off the shelf. An' Julius, you get the sleigh ready! [_JULIUS exit._] How often have I got to tell you? [_MITTELDORF has taken cords and pulley lines front the high shelf on the wall._] Get ready the big sleigh! You c'n hand them cords right down to him.

Julius. [_From without._] I can't see!

Mrs. Wolff. What can't you do?

Julius. [_Appears in the doorway._] I can't get that sleigh out alone! Everythin' is all mixed up in a heap here. An' there ain't nothin' to be done without a light.

Mrs. Wolff. Now you're helpless again--like always. [_Rapidly she puts shawls about her head and chest._] You must wait, I'll come an' lend a hand. There's the lantern, Mitteldorf. [_MITTELDORF slowly takes a lantern and hands it to MRS. WOLFF.] There! thank you. [_She puts the burning candle into the lantern._] We'll put that in here an' then we c'n go. Now I'll help you drag out the sleigh. [_She goes ahead with the lantern. MITTELDORF follows her. In the door she turns around and hands the lantern to MITTELDORF._] You c'n come an' hold the light for us a bit!

Mitteldorf. [_Holding the light and humming to himself:_]

"Morningre-ed, morningre-ed ..."

The Second Act. _Court room of Justice VON WEHRHAHN. A great, bare, white-washed room with three windows in the rear wall. The main door is in the left wall. Along the wall to the right stands the long official table covered with books, legal documents, etc.; behind it the chair of the justice. Near the centre window are the clerk's chair and table. To the right is a bookcase of white wood, so arranged that it is within reach of the justice when he sits in his chair. The left wall is hidden by cases containing documents. In the foreground, beginning at the wall to the left, six chairs stand in a row. Their occupants would be seen by the spectator from behind.--It is a bright forenoon in Winter. The clerk GLASENAPP sits scribbling at his table. He is a poverty-stricken, spectacled person. Justice VON WEHRHAHN, carrying a roll of documents under his arm, enters rapidly. WEHRHAHN is about forty years old and wears a monocle. He makes the impression of a son of the landed nobility of Prussia. His official garb consists of a buttoned, black walking coat, and very tall boots put on over his trousers. He speaks in what is almost a falsetto voice and carefully cultivates a military brevity of expression._

Wehrhahn. [_By the way, like one crushed by the weight of affairs._] Mornin'.

Glasenapp. Servant, sir.

Wehrhahn. Anything happened, Glasenapp?

Glasenapp. [_Standing and looking through some papers._] I've got to report, your honour--there was first, oh, yes,--the innkeeper Fiebig. He begs for permission, your honour, to have music and dancing at his inn next Sunday.

Wehrhahn. Isn't that ... perhaps you can tell me. Fiebig? There was some one who recently rented his hall...?

Glasenapp. To the liberals. Quite right, your honour.

Wehrhahn. This same Fiebig?

Glasenapp. Yes, my lord.

Wehrhahn. We'll have to put a check-rein on him for a while.

_The constable MITTELDORF enters._

Mitteldorf. Servant, my lord.

Wehrhahn. Listen here: once and for all--officially I am simply the justice.

Mitteldorf. Yes, sir. As you wish, my--your honour, I meant to say.

Wehrhahn. I wish you would try to understand this fact: my being a baron is purely by the way. Is not, at all events, to be considered here. [_To GLASENAPP._] Now I'd like to hear further, please. Wasn't the author Motes here?

Glasenapp. Yes, your honour.

Wehrhahn. Aha! So he _was_ here! I confess that I am very curious. I hope that it was his intention to come back?

Glasenapp. He intended to be back here about half past eleven.

Wehrhahn. Did he by any chance tell you anything?

Glasenapp. He came in the matter of Dr. Fleischer.

Wehrhahn. Well, now, you may as well tell me--are you acquainted with this Dr. Fleischer?

Glasenapp. All I know is that he lives in the Villa Krueger.

Wehrhahn. And how long has he been living in this place?

Glasenapp. Well, I've been here since Michaelmas.

Wehrhahn. To be sure, you came here at the same time with me; about four months ago.

Glasenapp. [_Looking toward MITTELDORF for information._] From what I hear the man has been living here about two years.

Wehrhahn. [_To MITTELDORF._] I don't suppose you can give us any information?

Mitteldorf. Beggin' your pardon, he came Michaelmas a year ago.

Wehrhahn. At that time he moved here?

Mitteldorf. Exactly, your honour--from Berlin.

Wehrhahn. Have you any more intimate information about this individual?

Mitteldorf. All I know is his brother is cashier of a theatre.

Wehrhahn. I didn't ask for information concerning his brother! What is his occupation?--What does he himself do? What is he?

Mitteldorf. I don't know as I can say anythin' particular. People do say that he's sick. I suppose he suffers from diabetes.

Wehrhahn. I'm quite indifferent as to the character of his malady. He can sweat syrup if it amuses him. _What_ is he?

Glasenapp. [_Shrugging his shoulders._] He calls himself a free spear in scholarship.

Wehrhahn. Lance! Lance! Not spear! A free lance.

Glasenapp. The bookbinder Hugk always does work for him; he has some books bound every week.

Wehrhahn. I wouldn't mind seeing what an individual of that kind reads.

Glasenapp. The postman thinks he must take in about twenty newspapers. Democratic ones, too.

Wehrhahn. You may summon Hugk to this court some time.

Glasenapp. Right away?

Wehrhahn. No, at a more convenient time. To-morrow or the next day. Let him bring a few of the books in question with him. [_To MITTELDORF._] You seem to take naps all day. Or perhaps the man has good cigars and knows how to invest them!

Mitteldorf. Your honour...!

Wehrhahn. Never mind! Never mind! I will inspect the necessary persons myself. My honourable predecessor has permitted a state of affairs to obtain that...! We will change all that by degrees--It is simply disgraceful for a police official to permit himself to be deceived by any one. That is, of course, entirely beyond your comprehension. [_To GLASENAPP._] Didn't Motes say anything definite?

Glasenapp. I can't say that he did--nothing definite. He was of the opinion that your honour was informed....

Wehrhahn. In a very general way, I am. I have had my eye on the man in question for some time--on this Dr. Fleischer I mean. Mr. Motes simply confirmed me in my own entirely correct judgment of his peculiar character.--What kind of a reputation has Motes himself? [_GLASENAPP and_ MITTELDORF exchange glances and GLASENAPP shrugs his shoulders._] Lives largely on credit, eh?

Glasenapp. He says he has a pension.

Wehrhahn. Pension?

Glasenapp. Well, you know he got shot in the eye.

Wehrhahn. So his pension is really paid as damages.

Glasenapp. Beggin' your honour's pardon, but if it's a question of damages the man inflicts more than he's ever received. Nobody's ever seen him have a penny for anything.

Wehrhahn. [_Amused._] Is there anything else of importance?

Glasenapp. Nothing but minor matters, your honour--somebody giving notice--

Wehrhahn. That'll do; that'll do. Do you happen ever to have heard any reports to the effect that this Dr. Fleischer does not guard his tongue with particular care?

Glasenapp. Not that I know of at this moment.

Wehrhahn. Because that is the information that has come to me. He is said to have made illegal remarks concerning a number of exalted personages. However, all that will appear in good time. We can set to work now. Mitteldorf, have you anything to report?

Mitteldorf. They tell me that a theft has been committed during the night.

Wehrhahn. A theft? Where?

Mitteldorf. In the Villa Krueger.

Wehrhahn. What has been stolen?

Mitteldorf. Some firewood.

Wehrhahn. Last night, or when?

Mitteldorf. Just last night.

Wehrhahn. From whom does your information come?

Mitteldorf. My information? It come from ... from....

Wehrhahn. Well, from whom? Out with it!

Mitteldorf. I heard it from--I got it from Dr. Fleischer.

Wehrhahn. Aha! You're in the habit then of conversing with him?

Mitteldorf. Mr. Krueger told me about it himself too.

Wehrhahn. The man is a nuisance with his perpetual complaints. He writes me about three letters a week. Either he has been cheated, or some one has broken his fence, or else some one has trespassed on his property. Nothing but one annoyance after another.

Motes. [_Enters. He laughs almost continually in a nervous way._] Beg to bid you a good morning, your honour.

Wehrhahn. Ah, there you are. Very glad you came in. You can help me out with some information at once. A theft is said to have been committed at the Villa Krueger.

Motes. I don't live there any longer.

Wehrhahn. And nothing has come to your ears either?

Motes. Oh, I heard something about it, but nothing definite. As I was just passing by the Villa I saw them both looking for traces in the snow.

Wehrhahn. Is that so? Dr. Fleischer is assisting him. I take it for granted then that they're pretty thick together?

Motes. Inseparable in every sense, your honour.

Wehrhahn. Aha! As far as Fleischer is concerned--he interests me most of all. Take a seat, please. I confess that I didn't sleep more than half the night. This matter simply wouldn't let me sleep. The letter that you wrote me excited me to an extraordinary degree.--That is a matter of temperament, to be sure. The slumbers of my predecessor would scarcely have been disturbed.--As far as I am concerned I have made up my mind, so to speak, to go the whole way.--It is my function here to make careful tests and to exterminate undesirable elements.--Under the protection of my honourable predecessor the sphere of our activity has become a receptacle for refuse of various kinds: lives that cannot bear the light--outlawed individuals, enemies of royalty and of the realm. These people must be made to suffer.--As for yourself, Mr. Motes, you are an author?

Motes. I write on subjects connected with forestry and game.

Wehrhahn. In the appropriate technical journals, I take it. _A propos_: do you manage to make a living that way?

Motes. If one is well known, it can be done. I may gratefully say that I earn an excellent competency.

Wehrhahn. So you are a forester by profession?

Motes. I studied at the academy, your honour, and pursued my studies in Eberswalde. Shortly before the final examinations I met with this misfortune....

Wehrhahn. Ah, yes; I see you wear a bandage.

Motes. I lost an eye while hunting. Some bird shot flew into my right eye. The responsibility for the accident could not, unfortunately, be placed. And so I had to give up my career.

Wehrhahn. Then you do not receive a pension?

Motes. No. But I have fought my way through pretty well now. My name is getting to be known in a good many quarters.

Wehrhahn. H-m.--Are you by any chance acquainted with my brother-in-law?

Motes. Yes, indeed--Chief Forester von Wachsmann. I correspond a good deal with him and furthermore we are fellow members of the society for the breeding of pointers.

Wehrhahn. [_Somewhat relieved._] Ah, so you are really acquainted with him? I'm very glad indeed to hear that. That makes the whole matter easier of adjustment and lays a foundation for mutual confidence. It serves to remove any possible obstacle.--You wrote me in your letter, you recall, that you had had the opportunity of observing this Dr. Fleischer. Now tell me, please, what you know.

Motes. [_Coughs._] When I--about a year ago--took up my residence in the Villa Krueger, I had naturally no suspicion of the character of the people with whom I was to dwell under one roof.

Wehrhahn. Yon were acquainted with neither Krueger nor Fleischer?

Motes. No; but you know how things go. Living in one house with them I couldn't keep to myself entirely.

Wehrhahn. And what kind of people visited the house?

Motes. [_With a significant gesture._] Ah!

Wehrhahn. I understand.

Motes. Tom, Dick and Harry--democrats, of course.

Wehrhahn. Were regular meetings held?

Motes. Every Thursday, so far as I could learn.

Wehrhahn. That will certainly bear watching.--And you no longer associate with those people?

Motes. A point was reached where intercourse with them became impossible, your honour.

Wehrhahn. You were repelled, eh?

Motes. The whole business became utterly repulsive to me.

Wehrhahn. The unlawful atmosphere that obtained there, the impudent jeering at exalted personages--all that, I take it, you could no longer endure?

Motes. I stayed simply because I thought it might serve some good purpose.

Wehrhahn. But finally you gave notice after all?

Motes. I moved out, yes, your honour.

Wehrhahn. And finally you made up your mind to--

Motes. I considered it my duty--

Wehrhahn. To lodge notice with the authorities.--I consider that very worthy in you.--So he used a certain kind of expression--we will make a record of all that later, of course--a certain kind of expression in reference to a personage whose exalted station demands our reverence.

Motes. He certainly did that, your honour.

Wehrhahn. You would be willing, if necessary, to confirm that by oath.

Motes. I would be willing to confirm it.

Wehrhahn. In fact, you will be obliged to make such confirmation.

Motes. Yes, your honour.

Wehrhahn. Of course it would be best if we could procure an additional witness.

Motes. I would have to look about. The trouble is, though, that the man is very prodigal of his money.

Wehrhahn. Ah, just wait a minute. Krueger is coming in now. I will first attend to his business. At all events I am very grateful to you for your active assistance. One is absolutely dependent on such assistance if one desires to accomplish anything nowadays.

Krueger. [_Enters hastily and excitedly._] O Lord, O Lord! Good day, your honour.

Wehrhahn. [_To MOTES._] Pardon me just a moment. [_In an arrogant and inquisitorial tone to KRUEGER._] What is it you want?

_KRUEGER is a small man, somewhat hard of hearing and nearly seventy years old. He is slightly bowed with age; his left shoulder hangs somewhat. Otherwise he is still very vigorous and emphasises his remarks by violent gesticulations. He wears a fur cap which he is now holding in his hand, a brown winter overcoat and a thick woolen shawl around his neck._

Krueger. [_Literally charged with rage, explodes:_] I've been robbed, your honour.

[_Getting his breath, he wipes the perspiration from his forehead with a handkerchief and, after the manner of people with impaired hearing, stares straight at the mouth of the justice._

Wehrhahn. Robbed, eh?

Krueger. [_Already exasperated._] Robbed is what I said. I have been robbed. Two whole loads of wood have been stolen from me.

Wehrhahn. [_Looking around at those present, half-smiling, says lightly:_] Not the least thing of that kind has happened here recently.

Krueger. [_Putting his hand to his ear._] What? Not the slightest thing? Then perhaps I came into this office for fun?

Wehrhahn. You need not become violent. What is your name, by the way?

Krueger. [_Taken aback._] My name?

Wehrhahn. Yes, your name!

Krueger. So my name isn't known to you? I thought we had had the pleasure before.

Wehrhahn. Sorry. Can't say that I have a clear recollection. And that wouldn't matter officially anyhow.

Krueger. [_Resignedly._] My name is Krueger.

Wehrhahn. Capitalist by any chance?

Krueger. [_With extreme and ironic vehemence._] Exactly--capitalist and houseowner here.

Wehrhahn. Identify yourself, please.

Krueger. I--Identify myself! My name is Krueger. I don't think we need go to any further trouble. I've been living here for thirty years. Every child in the place knows me.

Wehrhahn. The length of your residence here doesn't concern me. It is my business merely to ascertain your identity. Is this gentleman known to you--Mr. Motes?

_MOTES half rises with an angry expression._

Wehrhahn. Ah, yes, I understand. Kindly sit down. Well, Glasenapp?

Glasenapp. Yes, at your service. It is Mr. Krueger all right.

Wehrhahn. Very well.--So you have been robbed of wood?

Krueger. Of wood, exactly. Two loads of pine wood.

Wehrhahn. Did you have the wood stored in your shed?

Krueger. [_Growing violent again._] That's quite a separate matter. That's the substance of another complaint I have to make.

Wehrhahn. [_With an ironic laugh and looking at the others._] Still another one?

Krueger. What do you mean?

Wehrhahn. Nothing. You may go ahead with your statement. The wood, it appears, was not in your shed?

Krueger. The wood was in the garden, that is, in front of the garden.

Wehrhahn. In other words: it lay in the street.

Krueger. It lay in front of the garden on my property.

Wehrhahn. So that any one could pick it up without further ado?

Krueger. And that is just the fault of the servant-girl. She was to take the wood in last night.

Wehrhahn. And it dropped out of her mind.

Krueger. She refused to do it. And when I insisted on her doing it, she ended by running away. I intend to bring suit against her parents. I intend to claim full damages.

Wehrhahn. You may do about that as you please. It isn't likely to help you very greatly.--Now is there any one whom you suspect of the theft?

Krueger. No. They're all a set of thieves around here.

Wehrhahn. You will please to avoid such general imputations. You must surely be able to offer me a clue of some kind.

Krueger. Well, you can't expect me to accuse any one at random.

Wehrhahn. Who lives in your house beside yourself?

Krueger. Dr. Fleischer.

Wehrhahn. [_As if trying to recall something._] Dr. Fleischer? Dr. Fleischer? Why, he is a--What is he, anyhow?

Krueger. He is a thoroughly learned man, that's what he is--thoroughly learned.

Wehrhahn. And I suppose that you and he are very intimate with each other.

Krueger. That is my business, with whom I happen to be intimate. That has no bearing on the matter in hand, it seems to me.

Wehrhahn. How is one to discover anything under such circumstances? You must give me a hint, at least!

Krueger. Must I? Goodness, gracious me! Must I? Two loads of wood have been stolen from me! I simply come to give information concerning the theft....

Wehrhahn. But you must have a theory of some kind. The wood must necessarily have been stolen by somebody.

Krueger. Wha.... Yes ... well, I didn't do it! I of all people didn't do it!

Wehrhahn. But my dear man....

Krueger. Wha...? My name is Krueger.

Wehrhahn. [_Interrupting and apparently bored._] M-yes.--Well, Glasenapp, just make a record of the facts.--And now, Mr. Krueger, what's this business about your maid? The girl, you say, ran away?

Krueger. Yes, that's exactly what she did--ran off to her parents.

Wehrhahn. Do her parents live in this place?

Krueger. [_Not having heard correctly._] I'm not concerned with her face.

Wehrhahn. I asked whether the parents of the girl live here?

Glasenapp. She's the daughter of the washerwoman Wolff.

Wehrhahn. Wolff--the same one who's washing for us today, Glasenapp?

Glasenapp. The same, your honour.

Wehrhahn. [_Shaking his head._] Very strange indeed!--She's a very honest and a very industrious woman.--[_To KRUEGER._] Is that a fact? Is she the daughter of the woman in question?

Krueger. She is the daughter of the washerwoman Wolff.

Wehrhahn. And has the girl come back?

Krueger. Up to the present time the girl has not come back.

Wehrhahn. Then suppose we call in Mrs. Wolff herself. Mitteldorf! You act as though you were very tired. Well, go across the yard. Mrs. Wolff is to come to me at once. I beg you to be seated, Mr. Krueger.

Krueger. [_Sitting down and sighing._] O Lord! O Lord! What a life!

Wehrhahn. [_Softly to GLASENAPP and MOTES._] I'm rather curious to see what will develop. There's something more than meets the eye in all this. I think a great deal of Mrs. Wolff. The woman works enough for four men. My wife assures me that if Wolff doesn't come she has to hire two women in her place.--Her opinions aren't half bad either.

Motes. She wants her daughters to go on the operatic stage....

Wehrhahn. Oh, of course, she may have a screw loose in that respect. But that's no fault of character. What have you hanging there, Mr. Motes?

Motes. They're some wire snares. I'm taking them to the forester Seidel.

Wehrhahn. Do let me see one of those things. [_He takes one and looks at it closely._] And in these things the poor beasts are slowly throttled to death.

_MRS. WOLFF enters, followed by MITTELDORF. She is drying her hands, which are still moist from the wash tub._

Mrs. Wolff. [_Unembarrassed, cheerfully, with a swift glance at the snares._] Here I am. What's up now? What'm I bein' wanted for?

Wehrhahn. Mrs. Wolff, is this gentleman known to you?

Mrs. Wolff. Which one of 'em? [_Pointing with her finger at KRUEGER._] This here, this is Mr. Krueger. I guess I know him all right. Good mornin', Mr. Krueger.

Wehrhahn. Your daughter is in Mr. Krueger's service?

Mrs. Wolff. Who? My daughter? That's so--Leontine. [_To KRUEGER._] But then, she run away from you, didn't she?

Krueger. [_Enraged._] She did indeed.

Wehrhahn. [_Interrupting._] Now wait a moment.

Mrs. Wolff. What kind o' trouble did you have together?

Wehrhahn. Mrs. Wolff, you listen to me. Your daughter must return to Mr. Krueger at once.

Mrs. Wolff. Oh, no, we'd rather keep her at home now.

Wehrhahn. That can't be done quite so easily as you think. Mr. Krueger has the right, if he wishes to exert it, of calling in the help, of the police. In that case we would have to take your daughter back by force.

Mrs. Wolff. But my husband just happened to take it into his head. He's just made up his mind not to let the girl go no more. An' when my husband takes a notion like that into his head.... The trouble is: all you men has such awful tempers!

Wehrhahn. Suppose you let that go, for the moment, Mrs. Wolff. How long has your daughter been, at home?

Mrs. Wolff. She came back last night.

Wehrhahn. Last night? Very well. She had been told to carry wood into the shed and she refused.

Mrs. Wolff. Eh, is that so? Refused? That girl o' mine don't refuse to do work. An' I wouldn't advise her to do that kind o' thing neither.

Wehrhahn. You hear what Mrs. Wolff says.

Mrs. Wolff. That girl has always been a willin' girl. If she'd ever refused to lend a hand....

Krueger. She simply refused to carry in the wood!

Mrs. Wolff. Yes, drag in wood! At half past ten at night! People who asks such a thing of a child like that--

Wehrhahn. The essential thing, however, Mrs. Wolff, is this: the wood was left out over night and has been stolen. And so....

Krueger. [_Losing self-control._] You will replace that wood, Mrs. Wolff.

Wehrhahn. All that remains to be seen, if you will wait.

Krueger. You will indemnify me for that wood to the last farthing!

Mrs. Wolff. An' is that so? That'd be a new way o' doin' things! Did I, maybe, go an' steal your wood?

Wehrhahn. You had better let the man calm down, Mrs. Wolff.

Mrs. Wolff. No, when Mr. Krueger comes round me with things like that, payin' for wood and such like, he ain't goin' to have no luck. I always been friendly with them people--that's sure. Nobody can't complain o' nothin' 'sfar 's I'm concerned. But if things gets to this point, then I'd rather up and says my say just exactly how I feel, you know. I do my dooty and that's enough. There ain't nobody in the whole village what c'n say anythin' against me. But I ain't goin' to let _nobody_ walk all over me!

Wehrhahn. You need not wear yourself out, Mrs. Wolff. You have absolutely no cause for it. Just remain calm, quite calm. You're not entirely unknown to me, after all. There isn't a human being who would undertake to deny your industry and honesty. So let us hear what you have to say in answer to the plaintiff.

Krueger. The woman can't possibly have anything to say!

Mrs. Wolff. Hol' on, now, everybody! How's that, I'd like to know? Ain't the girl my daughter? An' I'm not to have anythin' to say! You gotta go an' look for some kind of a fool! You don't know much about me. I don't has to hide what I thinks from no one--no, not from his honour hisself, an' a good deal less from you, you may take your oath on that!

Wehrhahn. I quite understand your excitement, Mrs. Wolff. But if you desire to serve the cause at issue, I would advise you to remain calm.

Mrs. Wolff. That's what a person gets. I been washin' clothes for them people these ten years. All that time we ain't had a fallin' out. An' now, all of a sudden, they treat you this way. I ain't comin' to your house no more, you c'n believe me.

Krueger. You don't need to. There are other washerwomen.

Mrs. Wolff. An' the vegetables an' the fruit out o' your garden--you c'n just go an' get somebody else to sell 'em for you.

Krueger. I can get rid of all that. There's no fear. All you needed to have done was to have taken a stick to that girl of yours and sent her back.

Mrs. Wolff. I won't have no daughter of mine abused.

Krueger. Who has been abusing your daughter, I'd like to know!

Mrs. Wolff. [_To WEHRHAHN._] The girl came back to me no better'n a skeleton.

Krueger. Then let her not spend all her nights dancing.

Mrs. Wolff. She sleeps like the dead all day.

Wehrhahn. [_Past MRS. WOLFF to KRUEGER._] By the way, where did you buy the wood in question?

Mrs. Wolff. Is this thing goin' to last much longer?

Wehrhahn. Why, Mrs. Wolff?

Mrs. Wolff. Why, on account o' the washin'. If I wastes my time standin' round here, I can't get done.

Wehrhahn. We can't take that into consideration here, Mrs. Wolff.

Mrs. Wolff. An' your wife? What's she goin' to say? You c'n go an' settle it with her, your honour.

Wehrhahn. It will only last another minute, anyhow.--You tell us frankly, Mrs. Wolff--you know the whole village. Whom do you consider capable of the crime in question? Who could possibly have stolen the wood?

Mrs. Wolff. I can't tell you nothin' about that, your honour.

Wehrhahn. And nothing suspicious came to your attention?

Mrs. Wolff. I wasn't even at home last night. I had to go over to Treptow to buy geese.

Wehrhahn. At what time was that?

Mrs. Wolff. A little after ten. Mitteldorf, he was there when we started.

Wehrhahn. And no team carrying wood met you?

Mrs. Wolff. No, nothin' like that.

Wehrhahn. How about you, Mitteldorf, did you notice nothing?

Mitteldorf. [_After some thought._] No, I didn't notice nothin' suspicious.

Wehrhahn. Of course not, I might have known that. [_To KRUEGER._] Well, where did you buy the wood?

Krueger. Why do you have to know that?

Wehrhahn. You will kindly leave that to me.

Krueger. I naturally bought the wood from the department of forestry.

Wehrhahn. Why naturally? I don't see that at all. There are, for instance, private wood yards. Personally I buy my wood from Sandberg. Why shouldn't you buy yours from a dealer? One really almost gets a better bargain.

Krueger. [_Impatiently._] I haven't any more time, your honour.

Wehrhahn. What do you mean by that? Time? You have no time? Have you come to me, or do I come to you? Am I taking up your time or are you taking up mine?

Krueger. That's your business. That's what you're here for.

Wehrhahn. Perhaps I'm your bootblack, eh?

Krueger. Perhaps I've stolen silver spoons! I forbid you to use that tone to me. You're not a corporal and I'm not a recruit.

Wehrhahn. Well, that passes.... Don't shout so!

Krueger. It is you who do all the shouting.

Wehrhahn. You are half deaf. It is necessary for me to shout.

Krueger. You shout all the time. You shout at every one who comes in here.

Wehrhahn. I don't shout at any one. Be silent.

Krueger. You carry on as if you were heaven knows what! You annoy the whole place with your chicanery!

Wehrhahn. I'm only making a beginning. I'll make you a good deal more uncomfortable before I get through.

Krueger. That doesn't make the slightest impression on me. You're a pretentious nobody--nothing else. You simply want to cut a big figure. As though you were the king himself, you....

Wehrhahn. I _am_ king in this place.

Krueger. [_Laughs heartily._] You'd better let that be. In my estimation you're nothing at all. You're nothing but an ordinary justice of the peace. In fact, you've got to learn to be one first.

Wehrhahn. Sir, if you don't hold your tongue this minute....

Krueger. Then, I suppose, you'll have me arrested. I wouldn't advise you to go to such lengths after all. You might put yourself into a dangerous position.

Wehrhahn. Dangerous? [_To MOTES._] Did you hear that? [_To KRUEGER._] And however much you intrigue, you and your admirable followers, and however you try to undermine my position--you won't force me to abandon my station.

Krueger. Good heavens! _I_ try to undermine your position? Your whole personality is far too unimportant. But you may take my word for this, that if you don't change your tactics completely, you will cause so much trouble that you will make yourself quite impossible.

Wehrhahn. [_To MOTES._] I suppose, Mr. Motes, that one must consider his age.

Krueger. I beg to have my complaint recorded.

Wehrhahn. [_Turning over the papers on his table._] You will please to send in your complaint in writing. I have no time at this moment.

_KRUEGER looks at him in consternation, turns around vigorously, and leaves the office without a word._

Wehrhahn. [_After a pause of embarrassment._] That's the way people annoy me with trifles.--Ugh!--[_To MRS. WOLFF._] You'd better get back to your washing.--I tell you, my dear Motes, a position like mine is made hard enough. If one were not conscious of what one represents here--one might sometimes be tempted to throw up the whole business. But as it is, one's motto must be to stand one's ground bravely. For, after all, what is it that we are defending? The most sacred goods of the nation!--

The Third Act. _It is about eight o'clock in the morning. The scene is the dwelling of MRS. WOLFF. Water for coffee is boiling on the oven. MRS. WOLFF is sitting on a footstool and counting out money on the seat of a chair. JULIUS enters, carrying a slaughtered rabbit._

Julius. You better go an' hide that there money!

Mrs. Wolff. [_Absorbed in her calculations, gruffly:_] Don't bother me!

[_Silence._

_JULIUS throws the rabbit on a stool. He wanders about irresolutely, picking up one object after another. Finally he sets about blacking a boot. From afar the blowing of a huntsman's horn is heard._

Julius. [_Listens. Anxious and excited._] I axed you to go an' hide that there money!

Mrs. Wolff. An' I'm tellin' you not to bother me, Julius. Just let that fool Motes tootle all he wants. He's out in the woods an' ain't thinkin' o' nothin'.

Julius. You go right ahead and land us in gaol!

Mrs. Wolff. Don't talk that fool talk. The girl's comin'.

Adelaide. [_Comes in, just out of bed._] Good mornin', mama.

Mrs. Wolff. Did you sleep well?

Adelaide. You was out in the night, wasn't you?

Mrs. Wolff. I guess you musta been dreamin'. Hurry now! Bring in some wood, an' be quick about it!

_ADELAIDE, playing ball with an orange, goes toward the door._

Mrs. Wolff. Where did you get that?

Adelaide. Schoebel gave it to me out o' his shop.

[_Exit._

Mrs. Wolff. I don't want you to take no presents from that feller.--Come here, Julius! Listen to me! Here I got ninety-nine crowns! That's always the same old way with Wulkow. He just cheated us out o' one, because he promised to give a hundred.--I'm puttin' the money in this bag, y'understand? Now go an' get a hoe and dig a hole in the goatshed--but right under the manger where it's dry. An' then you c'n put the bag into the hole. D'you hear me? An' take a flat stone an' put it across. But don't be so long doin' it.

Julius. I thought you was goin' to pay an instalment to Fischer!

Mrs. Wolff. Can't you never do what I tell you to? Don't poke round so long, y'understand?

Julius. Don't you go an' rile me or I'll give you somethin' to make you stop. I don't hold with that money stayin' in this here house.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, what's goin' to be done with it?

Julius. You take it an' you carry it over to Fischer. You said we was goin' to use it to make a payment to him.

Mrs. Wolff. You're stoopid enough to make a person sick. If it wasn't for me you'd just go to the dogs.

Julius. Go on with your screamin'! That's right.

Mrs. Wolff. A person can't help screamin', you're such a fool. If you had some sense, I wouldn't have to scream. If we go an' takes that money to Fischer now, you look out an' see what happens!

Julius. That's what I say. Look at the whole dam' business. What's the good of it to me if I gotta go to gaol!

Mrs. Wolff. Now it's about time you was keepin' still.

Julius. You can't scream no louder, can you?

Mrs. Wolff. I ain't goin' to get me a new tongue on your account. You raise a row ... just as hard as you can, all on account o' this bit o' business. You just look out for yourself an' not for me. Did you throw the key in the river?

Julius. Has I had a chanst to get down there yet?

Mrs. Wolff. Then it's about time you was gettin' there! D'you want 'em to find the key on you? [_JULIUS is about to go._] Oh, wait a minute, Julius. Let me have the key!

Julius. What you goin' to do with it?

Mrs. Wolff. [_Hiding the key about her person._] That ain't no business o' yours; that's mine. [_She pours coffee beans into the hand-mill and begins to grind._] Now you go out to the shed; then you c'n come back an' drink your coffee.

Julius. If I'd ha' known all that before. Aw!

[_JULIUS exit. ADELAIDE enters, carrying a large apron full of firewood._

Mrs. Wolff. Where d'you go an' get that wood?

Adelaide. Why, from the new blocks o' pine.

Mrs. Wolff. You wasn't to use that new wood yet.

Adelaide. [_Dropping the wood on the floor in front of the oven._] That don't do no harm, mama, if it's burned up!

Mrs. Wolff. You think you know a lot! What are you foolin' about? You grow up a bit an' then talk!

Adelaide. I know where it comes from!

Mrs. Wolff. What do you mean, girl?

Adelaide. I mean the wood.

Mrs. Wolff. Don't go jabberin' now; we bought that at a auction.

Adelaide. [_Playing ball with her orange._] Oh, Lord, if that was true! But you just went and took it!

Mrs. Wolff. What's that you say?

Adelaide. It's just taken. That's the wood from Krueger's, mama. Leontine told me.

Mrs. Wolff. [_Cuffs her head._] There you got an answer. We ain't no thieves. Now go an' get your lessons. An' do 'em nice! I'll come an' look 'em over later!

Adelaide. [_Exit. From the adjoining room._] I thought I could go skatin'.

Mrs. Wolff. An' your lessons for your confirmation? I guess you forgot them!

Adelaide. That don't come till Tuesday.

Mrs. Wolff. It's to-morrow! You go an' study your verses. I'll come in an' hear you say 'em later.

ADELAIDE'S

[_Loud yawning is heard from the adjoining room. Then she says:_]

"Jesus to his disciples said, Use your fingers to eat your bread."

_JULIUS comes back._

Mrs. Wolff. Well, Julius, did you go an' do what I told you?

Julius. If you don't like my way o' doin', go an' do things yourself.

Mrs. Wolff. God knows that _is_ the best way--always. [_She pours out two cupfuls of coffee, one for him and one for herself, and places the two cups with bread and butter on a wooden chair._] Here, drink your coffee.

Julius. [_Sitting down and cutting himself some bread._] I hope Wulkow's been able to get away!

Mrs. Wolff. In this thaw!

Julius. Even if it is thawin', you can't tell.

Mrs. Wolff. An' you needn't care if it do freeze a bit; he ain't goin' to be stuck. I guess he's a good way up the canal by this time.

Julius. Well, I hope he ain't lyin' under the bridge this minute.

Mrs. Wolff. For my part he can be lyin' where he wants to.

Julius. You c'n take it from me, y'understan'? That there man Wulkow is goin' to get into a hell of a hole some day.

Mrs. Wolff. That's his business; that ain't none o' ours.

Julius. Trouble is we'd all be in the same hole. You just let 'em go an' find that coat on him!

Mrs. Wolff. What coat are you talkin' about?

Julius. Krueger's, o' course!

Mrs. Wolff. Don't you go talkin' rot like that, y'understan'? An' don't go an' give yourself a black eye on account o' other people's affairs!

Julius. I guess them things concerns me!

Mrs. Wolff. Concerns you--rot! That don't concern you at all. That's my business an' not yours. You ain't no man at all; you're nothin' but an old woman!--Here you got some change. Now hurry an' get out o' here. Go over to Fiebig and take a drink. I don't care if you have a good time all day Sunday. [_A knocking is heard._] Come right in! Come right in, any one that wants to!

_DR. FLEISCHER enters, leading his little son of five by the hand. FLEISCHER is twenty-seven years old. He wears one of the Jaeger reform suits. His hair, beard and moustache are all coal-black. His eyes are deep-set; his voice, as a rule, gentle. He displays, at every moment, a touching anxiety for the child._

Mrs. Wolff. [_Jubilantly._] Lord! Is little Philip comin' to see us once more! Now, ain't that fine? Now I really feel proud o' that! [_She gets hold of the child and takes off his overcoat._] Come now an' take off your coat. It's warm back here an' you ain't goin' to be cold.

Fleischer. Mrs. Wolff, there's a draught. I believe there's a draught.

Mrs. Wolff. Oh, he ain't so weak as all that. A bit o' draught, ain't goin' to hurt this little feller!

Fleischer. Oh, but it will, I assure you. You have no idea. He catches cold so easily! Exercise, Philip! Keep moving a little.

_PHILIP jerks his shoulders back with a pettish exclamation._

Fleischer. Come now, Philip. You'll end by being ill. All you have to do is to walk slowly up and down.

Philip. [_Naughtily._] But, I don't want to.

Mrs. Wolff. Let him do like he wants to.

Fleischer. Well, good morning, Mrs. Wolff.

Mrs. Wolff. Good morning, Doctor. I'm glad to see you comin' in onct more.

Fleischer. Good morning, Mr. Wolff.

Julius. Good mornin', Mr. Fleischer.

Mrs. Wolff. You're very welcome. Please sit down.

Fleischer. We have just a few minutes to stay.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, if we has such a fine visit paid us so early in the mornin', we're sure to have a lucky day this day. [_Kneeling down by the child._] Ain't it so, my boy? You'll bring us good luck, won't you?

Philip. [_Excitedly._] I went to ze zological darden; I saw ze storks zere, an' zey bit each ozzer wis zeir dolden bills.

Mrs. Wolff. Well now, you don't mean to say so! You're tellin' me a little fib, ain't you? [_Hugging and kissing the child._] Lord, child, I could just eat you up, eat you right up. Mr. Fleischer, I'm goin' to keep this boy. This is my boy. You're my boy, ain't you? An' how's your mother, eh?

Philip. She's well an' she sends her redards an' you'll please tome in ze morning to wash.

Mrs. Wolff. Well now, just listen to that. A little feller like that an' he can give all that message already! [_To FLEISCHER._] Won't you sit down, just a bit?

Fleischer. The boy bothers me about boating. Is it possible to go?

Mrs. Wolff. Oh, sure. The Spree is open. My girl there c'n row you out a way.

Fleischer. The boy won't stop about it! He's just taken that into his head.

Adelaide. [_Showing herself in the door that leads to the next room, beckons to PHILIP._] Come, Philip, I'll show you somethin' real fine!

_PHILIP gives a stubborn screech._

Fleischer. Now, Philip, you musn't be naughty!

Adelaide. Just look at that fine orange!

_PHILIP'S face is wreathed in smiles. He takes a few steps in ADELAIDE's direction._

Fleischer. Go ahead, but don't beg!

Adelaide. Come on! Come on! We'll eat this orange together now.

[_She walks in the child's direction, takes him by the hand, holds up the orange temptingly, and both go, now quite at one, into the next room._

Mrs. Wolff. [_Following the child with her eyes._] No, that boy, I could just sit an' look at him. I don't know, when I see a boy like that ... [_She takes up a corner of her apron and wipes her eyes._] ... I feel as if I had to howl right out.

Fleischer. Did you have a boy like that once?

Mrs. Wolff. That I had. But what's the use o' all that. You can't make people come back to life. You see--things like that--that's life....

_A pause._

Fleischer. One can't be careful enough with children,

Mrs. Wolff. You can go an' be as careful as you want to be. What is to be, will be. [_A pause.--Shaking her head._] What trouble did you have with Mr. Motes?

Fleischer. I? None at all! What trouble should I have had with him?

Mrs. Wolff. Oh, I was just thinkin'.

Fleischer. How old is your daughter anyhow?

Mrs. Wolff. She'll be out o' school this Easter. Why? Would you like to have her? I wouldn't mind her goin' into service if it's with you.

Fleischer. I don't see why not. That wouldn't be half bad.

Mrs. Wolff. She's grown up to be a strong kind o' body. Even if she is a bit young, she c'n work most as well as any one, I tell you. An' I tell you another thing. She's a scamp now an' then; she don't always do right. But she ain't no fool. That girl's got genius.

Fleischer. That's quite possible, no doubt.

Mrs. Wolff. You just let her go an' recite a single piece for you--just once--a pome, or somethin'. An' I tell you, Doctor, you ain't goin' to be able to get through shiverin'. You c'n possibly call her in some day when you got visitors from Berlin. All kinds o' writers comes to your house, I believe. An' she ain't backward; she'll sail right in. Oh, she does say pieces _that_ beautiful.--[_With a sudden change of manner._] Now I want to give you a bit o' advice; only you musn't be offended.

Fleischer. I'm never offended by good advice.

Mrs. Wolff. First thing, then: Don't give away so much. Nobody ain't goin' to thank you for it. You don't get nothin' but ingratitude.

Fleischer. Why, I don't give away very much, Mrs. Wolff.

Mrs. Wolff. That's all right, I know. An' the more you talk, the more scared people gets. First thing they says: that's a demercrat. Yon can't be too careful talkin'.

Fleischer. In what way am I to take all that, Mrs. Wolff?

Mrs. Wolff. Yon c'n go an' you c'n think what you please. But you gotta be careful when it comes to talkin', or you sit in gaol before you know it.

Fleischer. [_Turns pale._] Well, now, look here, but that's nonsense, Mrs. Wolff.

Mrs. Wolff. No, no. I tell you that's serious. An' be careful o' that feller, whatever you do!

Fleischer. Whom do you mean by that?

Mrs. Wolff. The same man we was talkin' about a while ago.

Fleischer. Motes, you mean?

Mrs. Wolff. I ain't namin' no names. You must ha' had some kind o' trouble with that feller.

Fleischer. I don't even associate with him any longer.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, you see, that's just what I've been think-in'.

Fleischer. Nobody could possibly blame me for that, Mrs. Wolff.

Mrs. Wolff. An' I ain't blamin' you for it.

Fleischer. It would be a fine thing, wouldn't it--to associate with a swindler, a notorious swindler.

Mrs. Wolff. That man is a swindler; you're right there.

Fleischer. Now he moved over to Dreier's. That poor woman will have a hard time getting her rent. And whatever she has, she'll get rid of it. Why, a fellow like that--he's a regular gaol-bird.

Mrs. Wolff. Sometimes, you know, he'll say things ...

Fleischer. Is that so? About me? Well, I _am_ curious.

Mrs. Wolff. I believe you was heard to say somethin' bad about some high person, or somethin' like that.

Fleischer. H-m. You don't know anything definite, I dare say?

Mrs. Wolff. He's mighty thick with Wehrhahn, that's certain. But I tell you what. You go over to old mother Dreier. That old witch is beginnin' to smell a rat. First they was as nice as can be to her; now they're eatin' her outta house and home!

Fleischer. Oh, pshaw! The whole thing is nonsense.

Mrs. Wolff. You c'n go to the Dreier woman. That don't do no harm. She c'n tell you a story ... He wanted to get her into givin' false witness.... That shows the kind o' man you gotta deal with.

Fleischer. Of course, I might go there. It can do no harm. But, in the end, the whole matter is indifferent to me. It would be the deuce of a world, if a fellow like that.... You just let him come!--Here, Philip, Philip! Where are you? We've got to go.

ADELAIDE'S VOICE

Oh, we're lookin' at such pretty pictures.

Fleischer. What do you think of that other business, anyhow?

Mrs. Wolff. What business?

Fleischer. Haven't you heard anything yet?

MRS. WOLFF [_Restlessly._] Well, what was I sayin'?... [_Impatiently._] Hurry, Julius, an' go, so's you c'n get back in time for dinner. [_To FLEISCHER._] We killed' a rabbit for dinner to-day. Ain't you ready yet, Julius?

Julius. Well, give me a chanst to find my cap.

Mrs. Wolff. I can't stand seein' anybody just foolin' round that way, as if it didn't make no difference about to-day or to-morrow, I like to see things move along.

Fleischer. Why, last night, at Krueger's, they ...

Mrs. Wolff. Do me a favour, Doctor, an' don't talk to me about that there man. I'm that angry at him! That man hurt my feelin's too bad. The way we was--him an' me, for so long--an' then he goes and tries to blacken my character with all them people. [_To JULIUS._] Are you goin' or not?

Julius. I'm goin' all right; don't get so huffy. Good mornin' to you, Mr. Fleischer.

Fleischer. Good morning, Mr. Wolff.

[_JULIUS exit._

Mrs. Wolff. Well, as I was sayin' ...

Fleischer. That time when his wood was stolen, I suppose he quarreled with you. But he's repented of that long since.

Mrs. Wolff. That man and repent!

Fleischer. You may believe me all the same, Mrs. Wolff. And especially after this last affair. He has a very high opinion of you indeed. The best thing would be if you were to be reconciled.

Mrs. Wolff. We might ha' talked together like sensible people, but for him to go an' run straight to the police--no, no!

Fleischer. Well, the poor little old couple is having bad luck: only a week ago their wood, and now the fur coat....

Mrs. Wolff. Are you comin' to your great news now? Out with it!

Fleischer. Well, it's a clear case of burglary.

Mrs. Wolff. Some more stealin'? Don't make fun o' me!

Fleischer. Yes, and this time it's a perfectly new fur coat.

Mrs. Wolff. Well now, you know, pretty soon I'll move away from here. That's a crowd round here! Why, a person ain't sare o' their lives. Tst! Tst! Such folks! It ain't hardly to be believed!

Fleischer. You can form an idea of the noise they're making.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, you can't hardly blame the people.

Fleischer. And really, it was, a very expensive garment--of mink, I believe.

Mrs. Wolff. Ain't that somethin' like beaver, Mr. Fleischer?

Fleischer. Perhaps it was beaver, for all I know. Anyhow, they were real proud of it.--I admit, I laughed to myself over the business. When something like that is discovered it always has a comic effect.

Mrs. Wolff. You're a cruel man, really, Doctor. I can't go an' laugh about things like that.

Fleischer. You mustn't think that I'm not sorry for the man, for all that.

Mrs. Wolff. Them must be pretty strange people. I don't know. There ain't no way o' understandin' that. Just to go an' rob other people o' what's theirs--no, then it's better to work till you drop.

Fleischer. You might perhaps make a point of keeping your ears open. I believe the coat is supposed to be in the village.

Mrs. Wolff. Has they got any suspicion o' anybody?

Fleischer. Oh, there was a washerwoman working at the Krueger's....

Mrs. Wolff. By the name o' Miller?

Fleischer. And she has a very large family...?

Mrs. Wolff. The woman's got a large family, that's so, but to steal that way ... no! She might take some little thing, yes.

Fleischer. Of course Krueger put her out.

Mrs. Wolff. Aw, that's bound to come out. My goodness, the devil hisself'd have to be back o' that if it don't. I wish I was justice here. But the man is that stoopid!--well! I c'n see better'n the dark than he can by day with his glass eye.

Fleischer. I almost believe you could.

Mrs. Wolff. I c'n tell you, if I had to, I could steal the chair from under that man's behind.

Fleischer. [_Has arisen and calls, laughingly, into the adjoining room._] Come, Philip, come! We've got to go! Good-bye, Mrs. Wolff.

Mrs. Wolff. You get dressed, Adelaide. You c'n go an' row Mr. Fleischer a ways.

Adelaide. [_Enters, buttoning the last buttons at her throat and leading PHILIP by the hand._] I'm all ready. [_To PHILIP._] You come right here; I'll take you on my arm.

Fleischer. [_Anxiously helping the boy on with his coat._] He's got to be wrapped up well; he's so delicate, and no doubt it's windy out on the river.

Adelaide. I better go ahead an' get the boat ready.

Mrs. Wolff. Is your health better these days?

Fleischer. Much better since I'm living out here.

Adelaide. [_Calls back in from the door._] Mama, Mr. Krueger.

Mrs. Wolff. Who's comin'?

Adelaide. Mr. Krueger.

Mrs. Wolff. It ain't possible!

Fleischer. He meant to come to you during the forenoon.

[_Exit._

Mrs. Wolff. [_Throws a swift glance at the heap of fire wood and vigorously sets about clearing it away._] Come on, now, help me get this wood out o' sight.

Adelaide. Why, mama? Oh, on account o' Mr. Krueger.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, what for d'you suppose? Is this a proper way for a place to look, the way this one is look-in'? Is that decent an' on Sunday mornin', too? What is Mr. Krueger goin' to think of us? [_KRUEGER appears, exhausted by his walk. MRS. WOLFF calls out to him._] Mr. Krueger, please don't look 'round. This place is in a terrible state!

Krueger. [_Impetuously._] Good morning! Good morning! Don't worry about that at all! You go to work every week and your house can't be expected to be perfect on Sunday. You are an excellent woman, Mrs. Wolff, and a very honest one. And I think we might do very well to forget whatever has happened between us.

Mrs. Wolff. [_Is moved, and dries her eyes from time to time with a corner of her apron._] I never had nothin' against you in the world. I always liked to work for you. But you went an' got so rough like, you know, that a person's temper couldn't hardly help gettin' away with 'em. Lord, a person is sorry for that kind o' thing soon enough.

Krueger. You just come back and wash for us. Where is your daughter Leontine?

Mrs. Wolff. She went to take some cabbage to the postmaster.

Krueger. You just let us have that girl again. She can have thirty crowns wages instead of twenty. We were always quite satisfied with her in other respects. Let's forgive and forget the whole affair.

[_He holds out his hand to MRS. WOLFF, who takes it heartily._

Mrs. Wolff. All that hadn't no need to happen. The girl, you see, is still foolish like a child. We old people always did get along together.

Krueger. Well, then, the matter is settled. [_Gradually regaining his breath._]--Well, then, my mind is at rest about that, anyhow.--But now, do tell me! This thing that's happened to me! What do you say to that?

Mrs. Wolff. Oh, well, you know--what _can_ a person say about such things?

Krueger. And there we got that Mr. von Wehrhahn! He's very well when it comes to annoying honest citizens and thinking out all sorts of chicanery and persecution, but--That man, what doesn't he stick his inquisitive nose into!

Mrs. Wolff. Into everything exceptin' what he ought to.

Krueger. I'm going to him now to give formal notice. I won't rest! This thing has got to be discovered.

Mrs. Wolff. You oughtn't by no means to let a thing o' that kind go.

Krueger. And if I've got to turn everything upside down--I'll get back my coat, Mrs. Wolff.

Mrs. Wolff. What this place needs is a good cleanin' out. We won't get no rest in the village till then. They'll end up by stealin' the roof from over a person's head.

Krueger. I ask you to consider, for heaven's sake--two robberies in the course of two weeks! Two loads of wood, just like the wood you have there. [_He takes up a piece that is lying on the floor._] Such good and expensive wood, Mrs. Wolff.

Mrs. Wolff. It's enough to make a person get blue in the face with rage. The kind o' crowd we gotta live with here! Aw, things like that! No, you know! Just leave me alone with it!

Krueger. [_Irately gesticulating with the piece of wood._] And if it costs me a thousand crowns, I'll see to it that those thieves are hunted down. They won't escape the penitentiary this time.

Mrs. Wolff. An' that'd be a blessin' too, as sure's we're alive!

The Fourth Act. _The court room. GLASENAPP is sitting at his table. MRS. WOLFF and ADELAIDE are waiting for the justice. ADELAIDE holds on her lap a small package wrapped in linen._

Mrs. Wolff. He's takin' his time again to-day.

Glasenapp. [_Writing._] Patience! Patience!

Mrs. Wolff. Well, if he's goin' to be so late again to-day, he won't have no more time for us.

Glasenapp. Goodness! You an' your trifles! We got different kinds o' things to deal with here.

Mrs. Wolff. Aw, I guess they're fine things you got to do.

Glasenapp. That's no way to talk. That ain't proper here!

Mrs. Wolff. Aw, act a little more grand, will you? Krueger hisself sent my girl here!

Glasenapp. The same old story about the coat, I suppose.

Mrs. Wolff. An' why not!

Glasenapp. Now the old fellow's got somethin' for sure. Now he can go stirrin' things up--the knock-kneed old nuisance.

Mrs. Wolff. You c'n use your tongue. You better see about findin' out somethin'.

Mitteldorf. [_Appears in the doorway._] You're to come right over, Glasenapp. His honour wants to ax you somethin'.

Glasenapp. Has I got to interrupt myself again?

[_He throws down his pen and goes out._

Mrs. Wolff. Good mornin', Mitteldorf.

Mitteldorf. Good mornin'.

Mrs. Wolff. What's keepin' the justice all this while?

Mitteldorf. He's writin' pages an' pages! An' them must be important things, I c'n tell you that. [_Confidentially._] An' lemme tell you: there's somethin' in the air.--I ain't sayin' I know exactly what. But there's somethin'--I know that as sure 's ... You just look out, that's all, and you'll live to see it. It's goin' to come down--somethin'--and when it do--look out. That's all I say. No, I don't pretend to understand them things. It's all new doin's to me. That's what they calls modern. An' I don't know nothin' about that. But somethin's got to happen. Things can't go on this way. The whole place is got to be cleaned out. I can't say 's I gets the hang of it. I'm too old. But talk about the justice what died. Why, he wan't nothin' but a dam' fool to this one. I could go an' tell you all kinds o' things, but I ain't got no time. The baron'll be missin' me. [_He goes but, having arrived at the door, he turns back._] The lightenin' is goin' to strike, Mrs. Wolff. Take my word for that!

Mrs. Wolff. I guess a screw's come loose somewhere with him.

[_Pause._

Adelaide. What's that I gotta say? I forgot.

Mrs. Wolff. What did you say to Mr. Krueger?

Adelaide. Why, I said that I found this here package.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, you don't need to say nothin' but that here neither. Only say it right out strong an' sure. You ain't such a mouse other times.

Wulkow. [_Comes in._] I wish you a good morning.

Mrs. Wolff. [_Stares at WULKOW. She is speechless for a moment. Then:_] No, Wulkow, I guess you lost _your_ mind! What are you doin' here?

Wulkow. Well, my wife, she has a baby ...

Mrs. Wolff. What's that she's got?

Wulkow. A little girl. So I gotta go to the public registry an' make the announcement.

Mrs. Wolff. I thought you'd be out on the canal by this time.

Wulkow. An' I wouldn't mind it one little bit if I was! An' so I _would_ be, if it depended on me. Didn't I go an' starts out the very minute? But when I come to the locks there wasn't no gettin' farther. I waited an' waited for the Spree to open up. Two days an' nights I lay there till this thing with my wife came along. There wasn't no use howlin' then. I had to come back.

Mrs. Wolff. So your boat is down by the bridge again?

Wulkow. That's where it is. I ain't got no other place, has I?

Mrs. Wolff. Well, don't come to me, if ...

Wulkow. I hope they ain't caught on to nothin', at least.

Mrs. Wolff. Go to the shop an' get three cents' worth o' thread.

Adelaide. I'll go for that when we get home.

Mrs. Wolff. Do's I tell you an' don't answer back.

Adelaide. Aw, I ain't no baby no more.

[_Exit._

Mrs. Wolff. [_Eagerly._] An' so you lay there by the locks?

Wulkow. Two whole days, as I been tellin' you.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, you ain't much good for this kind o' thing. You're a fine feller to go an' put on that coat in bright daylight!

Wulkow. Put it on? Me?

Mrs. Wolff. Yes, you put it on, an' in bright daylight, so's the whole place c'n know straight off what a fine fur coat you got.

Wulkow. Aw, that was 'way out in the middle o' the--

Mrs. Wolff. It was a quarter of a hour from our house. My girl saw you sittin' there. She had to go an' row Dr. Fleischer out an' he went an' had his suspicion that minute.

Wulkow. I don't know nothin' about that. That ain't none o' my business.

[_Some one is heard approaching._

Mrs. Wolff. Sh! You want to be on the lookout now, that's all.

Glasenapp. [_Enters hurriedly with an attempt to imitate the manner of the justice. He asks WULKOW condescendingly:_] What business have you?

Wehrhahn. [_Still without._] What do you want, girl? You're looking for me? Come in, then. [_WEHRHAHN permits ADELAIDE to precede him and then enters._] I have very little time to-day. Ah, yes, aren't you Mrs. Wolff's little girl? Well, then, sit down. What have you there?

Adelaide. I got a package ...

Wehrhahn. Wait a moment first ... [_To WULKOW._] What do you want?

Wulkow. I'd like to report the birth of ...

Wehrhahn. Matter of the public registry. The books, Glasenapp. That is to say, I'll attend to the other affair first. [_To MRS. WOLFF._] What's the trouble about your daughter? Did Mr. Krueger box her ears again?

Mrs. Wolff. Well, he didn't go that far no time.

Wehrhahn. What's the trouble, then?

Mrs. Wolff. It's about this here package ...

Wehrhahn. [_To GLASENAPP._] Hasn't Motes been here yet?

Glasenapp. Not up to this time.

Wehrhahn. That's incomprehensible. Well, girl, what do you want?

Glasenapp. It's in the matter of the stolen fur coat, your honour.

Wehrhahn. Is that so? Can't possibly attend to that today. No one can do everything at once. [_To MRS. WOLFF._] She may come in to-morrow.

Mrs. Wolff. She's tried to talk to you a couple o' times already.

Wehrhahn. Then let her try for a third time to-morrow.

Mrs. Wolff. But Mr. Krueger don't give her no peace no more.

Wehrhahn. What has Mr. Krueger to do with it?

Mrs. Wolff. The girl went to him with the package.

Wehrhahn. What kind of a rag is that? Let me see it.

Mrs. Wolff. It's all connected with the business of the fur coat. Leastways that's what Mr. Krueger thinks.

Wehrhahn. What's wrapped up in those rags, eh?

Mrs. Wolff. There's a green waist-coat what belongs to Mr. Krueger.

Wehrhahn. And you found that?

Adelaide. I found it, your honour.

Wehrhahn. Where did you find it?

Adelaide. That was when I was goin' to the train with mama. I was walkin' along this way and there ...

Wehrhahn. Never mind about that now. [_To MRS. WOLFF._] Make your deposition some time soon. We can come back to this matter to-morrow.

Mrs. Wolff. Oh, _I'm_ willin' enough ...

Wehrhahn. Well, who isn't then?

Mrs. Wolff. Mr. Krueger is so very anxious about it.

Wehrhahn. Mr. Krueger, Mr. Krueger--I care very little about him. The man just simply annoys me. Things like this cannot be adjusted in a day. He has offered a reward and the matter has been published in the official paper.

Mrs. Wolff. You can't never do enough for him, though.

Wehrhahn. What does that mean: we can't do enough for him? We have recorded the facts in the case. His suspicions fell upon his washerwoman and we have searched her house. What more does he want? The man ought to keep quiet. But, as I said, to-morrow I'm at the service of this affair again.

Mrs. Wolff. It's all the same to us. We c'n come back.

Wehrhahn. Very well, then. To-morrow morning.

Mrs. Wolff. Good mornin'.

Adelaide. [_Dropping a courtsey._] Good mornin'.

_MRS. WOLFF and ADELAIDE exeunt._

Wehrhahn. [_Turning over some documents. To GLASENAPP._] I'm curious to see what the result of all this will be. Mr. Motes has finally agreed to offer witnesses. He says the Dreier woman, that old witch of a pastry cook, once stood within earshot when Fleischer expressed himself disrespectfully. How old is the woman, anyhow?

Glasenapp. Somewhere around seventy, your honour.

Wehrhahn. A bit confused in her upper story, eh?

Glasenapp. Depends on how you look at it. She's fairly sensible yet.

Wehrhahn. I can assure you, Glasenapp, that it would be no end of a satisfaction to me to flutter these dove-cotes here pretty thoroughly. These people ought to be made to feel that they're dealing with somebody, after all. Who absented himself from the festivities on the emperor's birthday? Fleischer, of course. The man is simply capable of anything. He can put on all the innocent expressions he pleases. We know these wolves in sheep's clothing. They're too sweet-tempered to harm a fly, but if they think the occasion has come, the hounds can blow up a whole place. Well, here, at least, it will be made too hot for them!

Motes. [_Comes in._] Your servant.

Wehrhahn. Well, how are things going?

Motes. Mrs. Dreier said that she would be here around eleven.

Wehrhahn. This matter will attract quite a little notice. It will, is fact, make a good deal of noise. I know what will be said: "That man Wehrhahn pokes his nose into everything." Well, thank heaven, I'm prepared for that. I'm not standing in this place for my private amusement. I haven't been put here for jest. People think--a justice, why he's nothing but a superior kind of gaoler. In that case they can put some one else here. The gentlemen, to be sure, who appointed me know very well with whom they are dealing. They know to the full the seriousness with which I conceive of my duties. I consider my office in the light of a sacred calling. [_Pause._] I have reduced my report to the public prosecutor to writing. If I send it off at noon to-day, the command of arrest can reach us by day after to-morrow.

Motes. Now everybody will be coming down on me.

Wehrhahn. You know I have an uncle who is a chamberlain. I'll talk to him about you. Confound it all! There comes Fleischer! What does that fellow want? Does he smell a rat by any chance? [_A knocking is heard and WEHRHAHN shouts:_] Come in!

Fleischer. [_Enters, pale and excited._] Good morning! [_He receives no answer._] I should like to lodge information which has reference to the robbery recently committed here.

Wehrhahn. [_With his most penetrating official glance._] You are Dr. Joseph Fleischer?

Fleischer. Quite right. My name is Joseph Fleischer.

Wehrhahn. And you come to give me some information.

Fleischer. If you will permit me, that is what I should like to do. I have made an observation which may, quite possibly, help the authorities to track down the thief in question.

Wehrhahn. [_Drums on the table with his fingers. He looks around at the others with an expression of affected surprise which tempts them to laughter._] What is this important observation which you have made?

Fleischer. Of course, if you have previously made up your mind to attach no importance to my evidence, I should prefer ...

Wehrhahn. [_Quickly and arrogantly._] What would you prefer?

Fleischer. To hold my peace.

Wehrhahn. [_Turns to MOTES with a look expressive of inability to understand FLEISCHER'S motives. Then, in a changed tone, with very superficial interest._] My time is rather fully occupied. I would request you to be as brief as possible.

Fleischer. My time is no less preempted. Nevertheless I considered it my duty ...

Wehrhahn. [_Interrupting._] You considered it your duty. Very well. Now tell us what you know.

Fleischer. [_Conquering himself._] I went boating yesterday. I had taken Mrs. Wolff's boat and her daughter was rowing.

Wehrhahn. Are these details necessarily pertinent to the business in hand?

Fleischer. They certainly are--in my opinion.

Wehrhahn. [_Drumming impatiently on the table._] Very well! Very well! Let's get on!

Fleischer. We rowed to the neighbourhood of the locks. A lighter lay at anchor there. The ice, we were able to observe, was piled up there. The lighter had probably not been able to proceed.

Wehrhahn. H-m. Is that so? That interests us rather less. What is the kernel of this whole story?

Fleischer. [_Keeping his temper by main force._] I must confess that this method of ... I have come here quite voluntarily to offer a voluntary service to the authorities.

Glasenapp. [_Impudently._] His honour is pressed for time. You are to talk less and state what you have to say briefly and compactly.

Wehrhahn. [_Vehemently._] Let's get to business at once. What is it you want?

Fleischer. [_Still mastering himself._] I am concerned that the matter be cleared up. And in the interest of old Mr. Krueger, I will ...

Wehrhahn. [_Yawning and bored._] The light dazzles me; do pull down the shades.

Fleischer. On the lighter was an old boatman--probably the owner of the vessel.

Wehrhahn. [_Yawning as before._] Yes, most probably.

Fleischer. This man sat on his deck in a fur coat which, at a distance, I considered a beaver coat.

Wehrhahn. [_Bored._] I might have taken it to be marten.

Fleischer. I pulled as close up to him as possible and thus gained a very good view. The man was a poverty-stricken, slovenly boatman and the fur coat seemed by no means appropriate. It was, in addition, a perfectly new coat ...

Wehrhahn. [_Apparently recollecting himself._] I am listening, I am listening! Well? What else?

Fleischer. What else? Nothing.

Wehrhahn. [_Waking up thoroughly._] I thought you wanted to lodge some information. You mentioned something important.

Fleischer. I have said all that I had to say.

Wehrhahn. You have told us an anecdote about a boatman who wears a fur coat. Well, boatmen do, no doubt, now and then wear such coats. There is nothing new or interesting about that.

Fleischer. You may think about that as you please. In such circumstances I have no more to say.

[_Exit._

Wehrhahn. Well now, did you ever see anything like that? Moreover, the fellow is a thorough fool. A boatman had on a fur coat! Why, has the man gone mad? I possess a beaver coat myself. Surely that doesn't make me a thief.--Confound it all! What's that again? I suppose I am to get no rest to-day at all! [_To MITTELDORF, who is standing by the door._] Don't let anyone else in now! Mr. Motes, do me the favour of going over to my apartment. We can have our discussion there without interruptions. There's Krueger for the hundred and first time. He acts as though he'd been stung by a tarantula. If that old ass continues to plague me, I'll kick him straight out of this room some day.

_In the open door KRUEGER becomes visible, together with FLEISCHER and MRS. WOLFF._

Mitteldorf. [_To KRUEGER._] His honour can't be seen, Mr. Krueger.

Krueger. Nonsense! Not to be seen! I don't care for such talk at all. [_To the others._] Go right on, right on! I'd like to see!

_All enter, KRUEGER leading the way._

Wehrhahn. I must request that there be somewhat more quiet. As you see, I am having a conference at present.

Krueger. Go right ahead with it. We can wait. Later you can then have a conference with us.

Wehrhahn. [_To MOTES._] Over in my apartment, then, if you please. And if you see Mrs. Dreier, tell her I had rather question her there too. You see for yourself: it isn't possible here.

Krueger. [_Pointing to FLEISCHER._] This gentleman knows something about Mrs. Dreier too. He has some documentary evidence.

Motes. Your honour's servant. I take my leave.

[_Exit._

Krueger. That's a good thing for _that_ man to take.

Wehrhahn. You will kindly omit remarks of that nature.

Krueger. I'll say that again. The man is a swindler.

Wehrhahn. [_As though he had not heard, to WULKOW._] Well, what is it? I'll get rid of you first. The records, Glasenapp!--Wait, though! I'll relieve myself of this business first. [_To KRUEGER._] I will first attend to your affair.

Krueger. Yes, I must ask you very insistently to do so.

Wehrhahn. Suppose we leave that "insistently" quite out of consideration. What request have you to make?

Krueger. None at all. I have no request to make. I am here in order to demand what is my right.

Wehrhahn. Your right? Ah, what is that, exactly?

Krueger. My good right. I have been robbed and it is my right that the local authorities aid me in recovering my stolen possessions.

Wehrhahn. Have you been refused such assistance?

Krueger. Certainly not. And that is not possible. Nevertheless, it is quite clear that nothing is being done. The whole affair is making no progress.

Wehrhahn. You imagine that things like that can be done in a day or two.

Krueger. I don't imagine anything, your honour. I have very definite proofs. You are taking no interest in my affairs.

Wehrhahn. I could interrupt you at this very point. It lies entirely beyond the duties of my office to listen to imputations of that nature. For the present, however, you may continue.

Krueger. You could not interrupt me at all. As a citizen of the Prussian state I have my rights. And even if you interrupt me here, there are other places where I could make my complaint. I repeat that you are not showing any interest in my affair.

Wehrhahn. [_Apparently calm._] Suppose you prove that.

Krueger. [_Pointing to MRS. WOLFF and her daughter._] This woman here came to you. Her daughter made a find. She didn't shirk the way, your honour, although she is a poor woman. You turned her off once before and she came back to-day ...

Mrs. Wolff. But his honour didn't have no time, you know.

Wehrhahn. Go on, please!

Krueger. I will. I'm not through yet by any means. What did you say to the woman? You said to her quite simply that you had no time for the matter in question. You did not even question her daughter. You don't know the slightest circumstance: you don't know anything about the entire occurrence.

Wehrhahn. I will have to ask you to moderate yourself a little.

Krueger. My expressions are moderate; they are extremely moderate. I am far too moderate, your honour. My entire character is far too full of moderation. If it were not, what do you think I would say? What kind of an investigation is this? This gentleman here, Dr. Fleischer, came to you to report an observation which he has made. A boatman wears a beaver coat ...

Wehrhahn. [_Raising his hand._] Just wait a moment. [_To WULKOW._] You are a boatman, aren't you?

Wulkow. I been out on the river for thirty years.

Wehrhahn. Are you nervous? You seem to twitch.

Wulkow. I reely did have a little scare. That's a fac'.

Wehrhahn. Do the boatmen on the Spree frequently wear fur coats?

Wulkow. A good many of 'em has fur coats. That's right enough.

Wehrhahn. This gentleman saw a boatman who stood on his deck wearing a fur coat.

Wulkow. There ain't nothin' suspicious about that, your honour. There's many as has fine coats. I got one myself, in fac'.

Wehrhahn. You observe: the man himself owns a fur coat.

Fleischer. But then he hasn't exactly a beaver coat.

Wehrhahn. You were not in a position to discover that.

Krueger. What? Has this man a beaver coat?

Wulkow. There's many of 'em, I c'n tell you, as has the finest beaver coats. An' why not? We makes enough.

Wehrhahn. [_Filled with a sense of triumph but pretending indifference._] Exactly. [_Lightly._] Now, please go on, Mr. Krueger. That was only a little side-play. I simply wanted to make clear to you the value of that so-called "observation."--You see now that this man himself owns a fur coat. [_More violently._] Would it therefore occur to us in our wildest moments to assert that he has stolen the coat? That would simply be an absurdity.

Krueger. Wha--? I don't understand a word.

Wehrhahn. Then I must talk somewhat louder still. And since I am talking to you now, there's something else I might as well say to you--not in my capacity as justice, but simply man to man, Mr. Krueger. A man who is after all an honourable citizen should be more chary of his confidence--he should not adduce the evidence of people ...

Krueger. Are you talking about my associates? _My_ associates?

Wehrhahn. Exactly that.

Krueger. In that case you had better take care of yourself. People like Motes, with whom you associate, were kicked out of my house.

Fleischer. I was obliged to show the door to this person whom you receive in your private apartment!

Krueger. He cheated me out of my rent.

Mrs. Wolff. There ain't many in this village that that man ain't cheated all ways--cheated out o' pennies an' shillin's, an' crowns an' gold pieces.

Krueger. He has a regular system of exacting tribute.

Fleischer. [_Pulling a document out of his pocket._] More than that, the fellow is ripe for the public prosecutor. [_He places the document on the table._] I would request you to read this through.

Krueger. Mrs. Dreier has signed that paper herself. Motes tried to inveigle her into committing perjury.

Fleischer. She was to give evidence against me.

Krueger. [_Putting his hand on FLEISCHER'S arm._] This gentleman is of unblemished conduct and that scoundrel wanted to get him into trouble. And you lend your assistance to such things!

**All speak at once.**

Wehrhahn. My patience is exhausted now. Whatever dealings you may have with Motes don't concern me and are entirely indifferent to me. [_To FLEISCHER._] You'll be good enough to remove that rag!

Krueger. [_Alternately to MRS. WOLFF and to GLASENAPP._] That man is his honour's friend: that is his source of information. A fine situation. We might better call him a source of defamation!

Fleischer. [_To MITTELDORF._] I'm not accountable to any one. It's my own business what I do; it's my own business with whom I associate; it's my own business what I choose to think and write!

Glasenapp. Why you can't hear your own words in this place no more! Your honour, shall I go an' fetch a policeman? I can run right over and get one. Mitteldorf!...

**End all**

Wehrhahn. Quiet, please! [_Quiet is restored. To FLEISCHER._] You will please remove that rag.

Fleischer. [_Obeys._] That rag, as you call it, will be forwarded to the public prosecutor.

Wehrhahn. You may do about that exactly as you please. [_He arises and takes from a case in the wall the package brought by MRS. WOLFF._] Let us finally dispose of this matter, then. [_To MRS. WOLFF._] Where did you find this thing?

Mrs. Wolff. It ain't me that found it at all.

Wehrhahn. Well, who did find it?

Mrs. Wolff. My youngest daughter.

Wehrhahn. Well, why didn't you bring her with you then?

Mrs. Wolff. She was here, all right, your honour. An' then, I c'n go over an' fetch her in a minute.

Wehrhahn. That would only serve to delay the whole business again. Didn't the girl tell you anything about it?

Krueger. You said it was found on the way to the railway station.

Wehrhahn. In that case the thief is probably in Berlin, That won't make our search any easier.

Krueger. I don't believe that at all, your honour, Mr. Fleischer seems to me to have an entirely correct opinion. The whole business with the package is a trick meant to mislead us.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, well. That's mighty possible.

Wehrhahn. Now, Mrs. Wolff, you're not so stupid as a rule. Things that are stolen here go in to Berlin. That fur coat was sold in Berlin before we even knew that it was stolen.

Mrs. Wolff. No, your honour, I can't help it, but I ain't quite, not quite of the same opinion. If the thief is in Berlin, why, I ax, does he have to go an' lose a package like that?

Wehrhahn. Such things are not always lost intentionally.

Mrs. Wolff. Just look at that there package. It's all packed up so nice--the vest, the key, an' the bit o' paper ...

Krueger. I believe the thief to be in this very place.

Mrs. Wolff. [_Confirming him._] Well, you see, Mr. Krueger.

Krueger. I firmly believe it.

Wehrhahn. Sorry, but I do not incline to that opinion. My experience is far too long ...

Krueger. What? A long experience? H-m!

Certainly. And on the basis of that experience I know that the chance of the coat being here need scarcely be taken into account.

Mrs. Wolff. Well, well, we shouldn't go an' deny things that way, your honour.

Krueger. [_Referring to FLEISCHER._] And then he saw the boatman ...

Wehrhahn. Don't bother me with that story. I'd have to go searching people's houses every day with twenty constables and policemen, I'd have to search every house in the village.

Mrs. Wolff. Then you better go an' start with my house, your honour.

Wehrhahn. Well, isn't that ridiculous? No, no, gentlemen: that's not the way. That method will lead us nowhither, now or later. You must give me entire freedom of action. I have my own suspicions and will continue to make my observations. There are a number of shady characters here on whom I have my eye. Early in the morning they ride in to Berlin with heavy baskets on their backs, and in the evening they bring home the same baskets empty.

Krueger. I suppose you mean the vegetable hucksters. That's what they do.

Wehrhahn. Not only the vegetable hucksters, Mr. Krueger. And I have no doubt but that your coat travelled in the same way.

Mrs. Wolff. That's possible, all right. There ain't nothin' impossible in _this_ world, I tell you.

Wehrhahn. Well, then! Now, what did you want to announce?

Wulkow. A little girl, your honour.

Wehrhahn. I will do all that is possible.

Krueger. I won't let the matter rest until I get back my coat.

Wehrhahn. Well, whatever can be done will be done. Mrs. Wolff can use her ears a little.

Mrs. Wolff. The trouble is I don't know how to act like a spy. But if things like that don't come out--there ain't no sayin' what's safe no more.

Krueger. You are quite right, Mrs. Wolff, quite right. [_To WEHRHAHN._] I must ask you to examine that package carefully. The handwriting on the slip that was found in it may lead to a discovery. And day after to-morrow morning, your honour, I will take the liberty of troubling you again. Good morning!

[_Exit._

Fleischer. Good morning.

[_Exit._

Wehrhahn. [_To WULKOW._] How old are you?--There's something wrong with those two fellows up here. [_He touches his forehead. To WULKOW._] What is your name?

Wulkow. August Philip Wulkow.

Wehrhahn. [_To MITTELDORF._] Go over to my apartment. That Motes is still sitting there and waiting. Tell him I am sorry but I have other things to do this morning.

Mitteldorf. An' you don't want him to wait?

Wehrhahn. [_Harshly._] No, he needn't wait!

[_MITTELDORF, exit._

Wehrhahn. [_To MRS. WOLFF._] Do you know this author Motes?

Mrs. Wolff. When it comes to people like that, your honour, I'd rather go an' hold my tongue. There ain't much good that I could tell you.

Wehrhahn. [_Ironically._] But you could tell me a great deal that's good about Fleischer.

Mrs. Wolff. He ain't no bad sort, an' that's a fac'.

Wehrhahn. I suppose you're trying to be a bit careful in what you say.

Mrs. Wolff. No, I ain't much good at that. I'm right out with things, your honour. If I hadn't always gone an' been right out with what I got to say, I might ha' been a good bit further along in the world.

Wehrhahn. That policy has never done you any harm with me.

Mrs. Wolff. No, not with you, your honour. You c'n stand bein' spoken to honest. Nobody don't need to be sneaky 'round you.

Wehrhahn. In short: Fleischer is a man of honour.

Mrs. Wolff. That he is! That he is!

Wehrhahn. Well, you remember my words of to-day.

Mrs. Wolff. An' you remember mine.

Wehrhahn. Very well. The future will show. [_He stretches himself, gets up, and stamps his feet gently on the floor. To WULKOW._] This is our excellent washerwoman. She thinks that all people are like herself. [_To MRS. WOLFF._] But unfortunately the world is differently made. You see human beings from the outside; a man like myself has learned to look a little deeper. [_He takes a few paces, then stops before her and lays his hand on her shoulder._] And as surely as it is true when I say: Mrs. Wolff is an honest woman; so surely I tell you: this Dr. Fleischer of yours, of whom we were speaking, is a thoroughly dangerous person!

Mrs. Wolff. [_Shaking her head resignedly._] Well, then I don't know no more what to think ...

The Curtain Falls. THE CONFLAGRATION

PERSONS:

FIELITZ, _Shoemaker and Spy. Near sixty years old._

MRS. FIELITZ, _formerly MRS. WOLFF, his wife. Of the same age._

LEONTINE, _her oldest daughter by her first marriage; unmarried; near thirty._

SCHMAROWSKI, _Architect._

LANGHEINRICH, _Smith. Thirty years old._

RAUCHHAUPT, _retired Prussian Constable._

GUSTAV, _his oldest son, a congenital imbecile._

MIEZE, LOTTE, TRUDE, LENCHEN, LIESCHEN, MARIECHEN, TIENCHEN, HANNCHEN, _his daughters._

DR. BOXER, _a vigorous man of thirty-six. Physician. Of Jewish birth._

VON WEHRHAHN, _Justice._

EDE, _Journeyman at LANGHEINRICH'S._

GLASENAPP, _Clerk in the Justice's Court._

SCHULZE, _Constable._

MRS. SCHULZE, _his aunt._

TSCHACHE, _Constable._

A FIREMAN.

A BOY.

JANITOR OF THE COURT.

VILLAGE PEOPLE.

Scene: Anywhere in the neighbourhood of Berlin.

The First Act. _The work shop of the shoemaker FIELITZ. A low room with blue tinted walls. A window to the right. In each of the other walls a door. Under the window at the right a small platform. Upon it a cobbler's bench and a small table. On the latter a stand upholding three spheres of glass filled with water. Near them stands an unlit coal-oil lamp. In the corner, left, a brown tile oven surrounded by a bench and kitchen utensils of various kinds._

_SHOEMAKER FIELITZ is still crouching over his work. On the platform and around it old shoes and boots of every size are heaped up. FIELITZ is hammering a piece of leather into flexibility._

_MRS. FIELITZ (formerly MRS. WOLFF) is thoughtfully turning over in her hands a little wooden box and a stearin candle. It is toward evening, at the end of September._

Fielitz. You get outta this here shop. Go on now!

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Briefly and contemptuously._] Who d'you think'll come in here now? It's past six.

Fielitz. You get outta the shop with that trash o' yours.

Mrs. Fielitz. I wish you wouldn't act so like a fool. What's wrong about this here little box, eh? A little box like this ain't no harm.

Fielitz. [_Working with enraged violence._] It's somethin' good, ain't it now?

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Still thoughtfully and half in jest._] The sawdust comes up to here ... An' then they go an' put a candle plumb in the middle here ...

Fielitz. Look here, ma, you're too smart for me! If that there smartness o' yours keeps on, I see myself in gaol one o' these days.

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Harshly._] I s'ppose you can't listen a bit when a person talks to you. You might pay some attention when I talks to you. Things like that interest a body.

Fielitz. I takes an interest in my boots, an' I don't take no interest in nothin' else.

Mrs. Fielitz. That's it! O Lordy! That'd be a nice state for us. We'd all go an' starve together. Your cobblin'--there's a lot o' good in that!--They puts the candle in here. Y'understand? This here little box ain't big enough neither. That one over there would be more like. Let's throw them children's shoes out.

[_She turns a box full of children's shoes upside down._

Fielitz. [_Frightened._] Don't you go in for no nonsense, y'understand?

Mrs. Fielitz. An' then when they've lit the candle--... then they stands it up in the middle o' the box, so's it can't burn the top, o' course. Then you puts it, reel still, up in some attic--Grabow didn't do that different neither--right straight in a heap o' old trash--an' then you goes quiet to Berlin, an' when you comes back ...

Fielitz. Ssh! Somebody's comin'! Ssh!

Mrs. Fielitz. An' the devil hisself can't go an' prove nothin' against you.

[_A protracted silence._

Fielitz. If it was as simple as all that! But that ain't noways as easy as you thinks. First of all there's got to be air-holes in here. O' course this here awl--: that'll do for a drill. That thing's got to have a draught, if you want it to catch! If there ain't no draught, it just smothers! Fire's gotta have a draught or it won't burn. Somebody's got to lend a hand here as knows somethin'.

Mrs. Fielitz. Well, that'd be an easy thing for you!

Fielitz. [_Forgetting his point of view in his growing zeal._] There's gotta be a draught here an' another here! An' it's all gotta be done just right! An' then sawdust an' rags here. An' then you go an' pour some kerosene right in.--There ain't nothin' new in all that. I was out in the world for six years.

Mrs. Fielitz. Well, exactly. That's what I been sayin'.

Fielitz. You c'n do that with a sponge an' you c'n do that with a string. All you gotta do is to steep 'em good an' hard in saltpetre. An' you c'n light that with burning glasses. It c'n be done twenty steps away!--All that's been done before now. There ain't nothin' new in all that to me. I know all about it.

Mrs. Fielitz. An' Grabow's built up again. If he hadn't gone an' taken his courage in both hands, he'd ha' been in the street long ago.

Fielitz. That's all right, if a man's in trouble like water up to his neck an' is goin' to be drowned. Maybe then ...

Mrs. Fielitz. An' there's many as lets the time slip till he is drowned.

[_The doorbell rings._

Fielitz. Go an' put the box away an' then open the door.

_JUSTICE VON WEHRHAHN enters, wearing a thick overcoat, tall boots and a fur cap._

Wehrhahn. Evening, Fielitz! How about those boots?

Fielitz. They's all right, your honour.

Mrs. Fielitz. You better go an' get a little light so's Mr. von Wehrhahn can see somethin'.

Wehrhahn. Well, how is everything and what are you doing, Mrs. Wolff?

Mrs. Fielitz. I ain't no Mrs. Wolff no more.

Wehrhahn. She's grown very proud, eh, Fielitz? She carries her head very high? She feels quite set up?

Mrs. Fielitz. Hear that! Marryin's gone to my head? I could ha' lived much better as a widder.

Fielitz. [_Who has drawn the lasts out of WEHRHAHN'S boots._] Then you might ha' gone an' stayed a widder.

Mrs. Fielitz. If I'd ha' known what kind of a feller you are, I wouldn't ha' been in no hurry. I could ha' gotten an old bandy-legged crittur like you any day o' the week.

Wehrhahn. Gently, gently!

Fielitz. Never you mind her. [_With almost creeping servility._] If you'll be so very kind, your honour, an' have the goodness to pull off your right boot. If you'll let me; I c'n do that. So. An' if you'll be so good now an' put your foot on this here box.

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Holding the burning lamp._] An' how is the Missis, Baron?

Wehrhahn. Thank you, she's quite well. But she's still lamenting her Mrs. Wolff ...

Mrs. Fielitz. Well, you see, I couldn't do that no more reely. I washed thirty years an' over for you. You c'n get enough o' anything in that time, I tell you. I c'n show you my legs some day. The veins is standin' out on 'em, thick as your fist. That comes from the everlastin' standin' up at the tub! An' I got frost boils all over me and the rheumatiz in every limb. They ain't no end to the doctorin' I gotta do! I just gotta wrap myself up in cotton, an' anyhow I'm cold all day.

Wehrhahn. Certainly, Mrs. Wolff, I can well believe that.

Mrs. Fielitz. There was a time an' I'd work against anybody. I had a constitootion! You couldn't ha' found one in ten like it. But nowadays ... O Lord! Things is lookin' different.

Fielitz. You c'n holler a little louder if you want to.

Wehrhahn. I can't blame you, of course, Mrs. Fielitz. Any one who has worked as you have may well consider herself entitled to some rest.

Mrs. Fielitz. An' then, you see, things keep goin'. We got our livin' right along. [_She give FIELITZ a friendly nudge on the head._] An' he does his part all right now. We ain't neither of us lazy, so to speak. If only a body could keep reel well! But Saturday I gotta go to the doctor again. He goes and electrilises me with his electrilising machine, you know. I ain't sayin' but what it helps me. But first of all there's the expenses of the trip in to Berlin an' then every time he electrilises me that costs five shillin's. Sometimes, you know, a person, don't know where to get the money.

Fielitz. You go ahead an' ram your money down doctors' throats!

Wehrhahn. [_Treads firmly with his new shoe._] None of us are getting any younger, Mrs. Fielitz. I'm beginning to feel that quite distinctly myself. Perfectly natural. Nothing to be done about it. We've simply got to make up our minds to that.--And, anyhow, you oughtn't to complain. I heard it said a while ago that your son-in-law had passed his examinations very well. In that case everything is going according to your wishes.

Mrs. Fielitz. That's true, of course, an' it did make me reel happy too. In the first place he'll be able to get along much better now that he's somethin' like an architect ... an' then, he deserved it all ways.--The kind o' time he had when he was a child! Well, I ain't had no easy time neither, but a father like that ...

Wehrhahn. Schmarowski is a fellow of solid worth. I never had any fears for him. Your Adelaide was very lucky there.--You remember my telling you so at the time. You came running over to me that time, you recall, when the engagement was almost broken, and I sent you to Pastor Friederici:--that shows you the value of spiritual advice. A young man is a young man and however Christian and upright his life, he's apt to forget himself once in a while. That's where the natural function of the spiritual adviser comes in.

Mrs. Fielitz. Yes, yes, I s'ppose you're right enough there. An' I'll never forget what the pastor did for us that time! If Schmarowski had gone an' left the girl, she'd never have lived through it, that's certain.

Wehrhahn. There we've got an instance of what happens when a church and a pastor are in a place. The house of God that we've built together has brought many a blessing. So, good evening and good luck to you.--Oh, what I was going to say, Fielitz: the celebration takes place on Monday morning. You will be there surely?

Mrs. Fielitz. Naturally he'll come.

Fielitz. Sure an' certain.

Wehrhahn. I would hardly know what to do without you, Fielitz. In the meantime, come in for a moment on Sunday, I'm proposing certain points ... certain very marked points, and we must pull together vigorously. So, good evening! Don't forget--we've got to have a strong parade.

Fielitz. That's right. You can't do them things without one.

[_Exit WEHRHAHN._

Fielitz. You go an' take that candle out! Will you, please?

Mrs. Fielitz. You're as easy scared as a rabbit, Anton! That's what you are--a reg'lar rabbit.

_She takes the candle out of the little box. Almost at the same moment RAUCHHAUPT opens the door and looks in._

Rauchhaupt. Good evenin'. Am I intrudin'?

Fielitz. -- -- -- --

Mrs. Fielitz. Aw, come right into our parlour!

Rauchhaupt. Ain't Langheinrich the smith come in yet?

Mrs. Fielitz. Was he goin' to come? No, he ain't been here.

Rauchhaupt. We made a special engagement.--I brought along the cross too. Here, Gustav! Bring that there cross in! [_GUSTAV brings in a cross of cast iron with an inscription on it._] Go an' put it down on that there box.

Fielitz. [_Quickly._] No, never mind, Edward, that'll break.

Rauchhaupt. Then you c'n just lean it against the wall.

Mrs. Fielitz. So you got through with it at last. [_Calls out through the door._] Leontine! You come down a minute!

Rauchhaupt. Trouble is I had so much to do. I'm buildin' a new hot house, you know.

Mrs. Fielitz. Another one, eh? Ain't that a man for you! You're a reg'lar mole, Rauchhaupt. The way that man keeps diggin' around in the ground.

Rauchhaupt. A man feels best when he's doin' that. That's what we're all made of--earth: an that's what we're all goin' to turn to again. Why shouldn't we be diggin' around in the earth? [_He helps himself from the snuff-box which FIELITZ holds out to him._] That's got a earthy smell, too, Fielitz. That smells like good, fresh earth.

_LEONTINE enters. A pair of scissors hangs by her side; she has a thimble on her finger._

Leontine. Here I am, mama. What's up?

Mrs. Fielitz. He just brought in papa his hephitaph.

_LEONTINE and MRS. FIELITZ regard the cross thoughtfully._

Mrs. Fielitz. Light the candle for me, girl. [_She hands her the tallow-candle with which she has been experimenting._] We wants to study the writin' a bit.

Rauchhaupt. I fooled around with that thing a whole lot. But I got it to please me in the end. You c'n go an' look through the whole cemetery three times over and you'll come away knowin' this is the finest inscription you c'n get. I went an' convinced myself of that.

[_He sits down on the low platform and fills his nose anew with snuff._

_MRS. FIELITZ holds the lighted lamp and puzzles out the inscription._

Mrs. Fielitz. Here rests in ...

Leontine. [_Reading on._] In God.

Rauchhaupt. That's what I said: in God. I was goin' to write first: in the Lord. But that's gettin' to be so common.

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Reads on with trembling voice._] Here rests in God the unforgotten carpenter ... [_Weeping aloud._] Oh, no, I tell you, it's too awful! That man--he was the best man in the world, he was. A man like that, you c'n take my word for it, you ain't likely to find no more these days.

Leontine. [_Reading on._] ... the unforgotten carpenter Mr. Julian Wolff ...

[_She snivels._

Fielitz. --Don't you be takin' on now, y'understand? No corpse ain't goin' to come to life for all your howlin'. [_He hands the whiskey bottle to RAUCHHAUPT._] Here, Edward, that'll do you good. Them goin's on don't.

[_He gets up and brushes off his blue apron with the air of a man who has completed his day's work._

Rauchhaupt. [_Pointing with the bottle._] Them lines there I made up myself. I'll say 'em over for you; listen now:

"The hearts of all to sin confess" ...

'Tain't everybody c'n do that neither!--

"The hearts of all to sin confess, The beggar's and the king's no less. But this man's heart from year to year Was spotless and like water clear."

[_The women weep more copiously. He continues._] I gotta go over that with white paint. An' this part here about God is goin' to be Prussian blue.

[_He drinks._

_The smith LANGHEINRICH enters._

Langheinrich. [_Regarding LEONTINE desirously._] Well now, look here, Rauchhaupt, old man, I been lookin' for you half an hour! I thought I was to come an' fetch you, you chucklehead.--Well, are you pleased with the job?

Mrs. Fielitz. Oh, go an' don't bother me, any of you! If a person loses a man like that one, how's she goin' to get along with you jackasses afterwards!

Fielitz. Come on, man, an' pull up a stool. You just let her get back to her right mind.

Langheinrich. [_With sly merriment._] That's right, I always said so myself: this here dyin' is a invention of the devil.

Mrs. Fielitz. We was married for twenty years an' more. An' there wasn't so much as one angry word between us. An' the way that man was honest. Not a penny, no,--he never cheated any man of a penny in all his days. An' sober! He didn't so much as know what whiskey was like. You could go an' put the bottle before him an' he wouldn't look at it. An' the way he brought up his children! What _d'you_ think about, but playin' cards and swillin' liquor ...

Leontine. Gustav is poking out his tongue at me.

Rauchhaupt. [_Takes hold of a cobbler's last and throws himself enragedly upon GUSTAV, who has been making faces at LEONTINE and has poked out his tongue at her.] You varmint! Ill break your bones!--That rotten crittur is goin' to be the death o' me yet. I just gets so mad sometimes I think it's goin' to be the death o' me.

Langheinrich. The poor crittur ain't got his right senses.

Rauchhaupt. I wish to God the dam' brat was dead. I'll get so dam' wild some day, if he ain't, that I'll go an' kill my own flesh an' blood.

Fielitz. I'd go an' have him locked up in the asylum. Then you don't have the worry of him no more. D'you want me to write out a petition for you?

Rauchhaupt. Don't I know all about petitions? What does they say then: he ain't dangerous bein' at large.--The whole world ain't nothin' but a asylum. It ain't dangerous, o' course, that he fires bricks at me, an' unscrews locks and steals house keys--oh, no, that ain't considered dangerous. No, an' it's all right for him to eat my tulip bulbs. I c'n just go ahead an' do the best I can.

Mrs. Fielitz. How did that happen at Grabow's the other day--I mean when his inn the "Prussian Eagle" burned down?

Langheinrich. Aw, Grabow, he needed just that. It wasn't no Gustav that set that there fire. He wasn't needed there.

Mrs. Fielitz. They say he's always playin' with matches.

Rauchhaupt. Gustav an' matches? Aw, that's all right. If he c'n just go an' hunt up matches some place, trouble ain't very far off. You know I needs coverin's for my hot house plants; so I built a kind of a shed. I stored the straw in there. Well, I tell you, Mrs. Fielitz, that there idjit went an' burned the shed down. It was bright day an' o' course nobody wasn't thinkin', an' I got loose boards all over my lot. The shed crackled right off. It wasn't more'n a puff! But Grabow--he took care o' his fire hisself.

Mrs. Fielitz. I'd give notice about a thing like that, Rauchhaupt--I mean burnin' down the shed.

Rauchhaupt. I don't get along so very well with Constable Schulze. That's often the way with people in your own profession. I was honourably retired. He don't like that. He ain't sooted with that. All right; all that may be so. An' that I own my own lot, an' that my old woman died. Sure, it ain't no use denyin' it! I made a few crowns outta all that. An' that my gardenin' brings in somethin'--well, he don't like to see it. So then it's easy to say: Rauchhaupt? He don't need no help. He c'n take care o' hisself. An' that's the end of it.

Mrs. Fielitz. Fred Grabow, he's all right now!

Langheinrich. [_Eagerly._] An' he's got me to thank for it. Only thing is, I pretty near got into a dam' mess myself that time. You see, I'm captain of the hook an' ladder. Well, I says to my boys, says I:--I don't know but I must ha' had more'n I could carry. The whole crowd was pretty well full!--Well, I says to my boys: Sail right in an' see that there ain't a stone left standin', 'cause if there is, Grabow'll get one reduction of insurance after another an' then the whole thing ain't no good to him. I guess I hollered that out a bit too loud. So when I takes a step or two backward I thinks all hell's broke loose, 'cause there stands Constable Schulze an' stares at me. Your health, says I, your health, captain!--Grabow, you know, was treatin' to beer!--An' then Schulze was real sociable and took a drink with me.

Mrs. Fielitz. It's queer that nothin' don't come out there. That fellow ain't a bit cute. How did he manage to do it?

Langheinrich. Everybody likes Fritz Grabow.

Mrs. Fielitz. He ain't got sense enough to count up to three. An' anyhow he had to go an' take oath.

Rauchhaupt. Takin' oath? Aw, that ain't so much! I'll just tell you how 'tis, 'cause you never can't tell. Who knows about it? Anybody might have to do that some day. All you do is to twist off one o' your breeches buttons while you goes ahead and swears reel quiet. You just try it. That's easy as slidin'.

[_General laughter._

Mrs. Fielitz. He's got one o' his jokin' spells again. I won't have to go an' twist off a button, I c'n tell you. Things can't get that way with me.--But tell me this: whose turn is it goin' to be now? It's about time for somebody, you know. Somethin's got to burn pretty soon now.

Langheinrich. It could be most anybody. Things is lookin' pretty poor over at Strombergers. The rain's comin' right down into his sittin' room,--Well, good evenin'. A man's got to have his joke.

Mrs. Fielitz. But who's goin' to drink my hot toddy now?

Fielitz. You stay right where you are!

Langheinrich. Can't be done. I gotta be goin'. [_He puts an arm around LEONTINE, who frees herself carelessly and with a contemptuous expression._]--If mother don't hear my hammerin' downstairs she'll be swimmin' away in tears an' the bed with her when I gets home.

Leontine. That's nothin' but jealousy, mama.

Mrs. Fielitz. Maybe it is, an' maybe she's got reason. You go on up to your work.--How is the Missis?

Langheinrich. Pretty low. What c'n you expect?

Leontine. You'll be drivin' me to work till I gets consumption.

Mrs. Fielitz. If you get consumption, it won't be your dress-makin' that's the cause of it. You act as much like a ninny as if you was a man.

Langheinrich. [_Putting his arms around MRS. FIELITZ._] Come now, young woman, don't be so cross! Young people wants to have their fling--that's all. An' they'll have it, if it's only with Constable Schulze.

[_Exit._

Mrs. Fielitz. Now what's the meanin' o' that?

Rauchhaupt. Wait there a minute an' I'll join you.

[_He gets up and motions to GUSTAV, who lifts the iron cross again._

Mrs. Fielitz. Why d'you go an' run off all of a sudden?

Rauchhaupt. I gotta go an' get rid o' some work.

[_Exit with GUSTAV.

Mrs. Fielitz. What's the trouble with you an' Langheinrich again? You act like a fool--that's what you do!

Leontine. There ain't no trouble. I want him to leave me alone.

Mrs. Fielitz. He'll be willin' to do that all right! If you're goin' to turn up your nose an' wriggle around that way, you won't have to take much trouble to get rid o' him. He don't need nothin' like that!

Leontine. But he's a married man.

Mrs. Fielitz. So he is. Let him be. You got no sense 'cause you was born a fool. You got a baby and no husband; Adelaide's got a husband an' no baby.

[_LEONTINE goes slowly out._

Mrs. Fielitz. If she'd only go an' take advantage o' her chances. There ain't no tellin' how soon Langheinrich'll be a widower.

Fielitz. I don't know's I like to see the way Constable Schulze runs after that girl.

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Sententiously._] You can't run your head through no stone walls. [_She sits down, takes out a little notebook and turns its leaves._] You got a office. All right. Why shouldn't you have? Things is _as_ they is. But havin' a office you got to look out all around. You just let Constable Schulze alone! Did you read the letter from Schmarowski?

Fielitz. Aw, yes, sure. I got enough o' him all right. I wish somebody'd given me the money--half the money--that feller's had the use of. But no: nobody never paid no attention to me. Nobody sent me to no school o' architecture.

Mrs. Fielitz. I'd like to know what you got against Schmarowski! You're pickin' at him all the time.

Fielitz. Hold on! Not me! He ain't no concern o' mine. But every time you open your mouth I gets ready to bet ten pairs o' boots that you're goin' to talk about Schmarowski.

Mrs. Fielitz. Did he do you any harm, eh? Well?

Fielitz. No, I can't say as he has. Not that I know. An' I wouldn't advise him to try neither. Only when I sees him I gets kind o' sick at my stomick. You oughta have married him yourself.

Mrs. Fielitz. If I had been thirty years younger--sure enough.

Fielitz. Well, why don't you go an' move over to your daughter then! Go right on! Hurry all you can an' go to Adelaide's. Then they got hold of you good and tight an' you c'n get rid o' your savin's.

Mrs. Fielitz. That's an ambitious man. He don't have to wait, for me; that's sure!--there ain't no gettin' ahead with your kind. Instead o' you fellows helpin' each other, you're always hittin' out at each other. Now Schmarowski--he's a wide-awake kind o' man. No money ain't been wasted on him. You needn't be scared: he'll make his way all right.--But if you knew just a speck o' somethin' about life, you'd know what you'd be doin' too.

Fielitz. Me? How's that? Why me exactly?

Mrs. Fielitz. What was it that there bricklayer boss told me? I saw him one day when he was full; they was just raisin' that church. He says: Schmarowski, says he, that's a sly dog. An' he knew why he was sayin' that. Them plans o' his takes 'em all in.

Fielitz. I ain't got no objection to his takin' 'em in.

Mrs. Fielitz. He ain't the kind o' man to sit an' draw till he's blind an' let the bricklayers get all the profit.

Fielitz. Well, I ain't made the world.

Mrs. Fielitz. No, nor you ain't goin' to stop it neither.

Fielitz. An' I don't want to.

Mrs. Fielitz. You ain't goin' to stop it, Fielitz--not the world an' not me. That's settled.--

[_She has said this in a slightly ironical way, yet with a half embarrassed laugh. She now puts away her little book excitedly._

Fielitz. I can't get to understand reel straight. I'm always thinkin' there's somethin' wrong with you.

Mrs. Fielitz. Maybe there was somethin' wrong with Grabow too, eh? I s'ppose that's the reason he's livin' in his new house this day.--I wish there'd be somethin' like that wrong with you onct in a while. But if somebody don't pull an' poke at you, you'd grow fast to the stool you're sittin' on.

Fielitz. [_With decision._] Mother, put that there thing outta your mind. I tell you that in kindness now. I ain't goin' to lend my help to no such thing. Because why? I knows what that means. Is I goin' to jump into that kind of a mess again? No, I ain't young enough for that no more.

Mrs. Fielitz. Just because you're an old feller you oughta be thinkin' about it all the more. How long are you goin' to be able to work along here. You don't get around to much no more now. You cobbled around on Wehrhahn's shoes! It took more'n two weeks.

Fielitz. Well, mother, you needn't lie that way.

Mrs. Fielitz. That cobblin' o' yours--that ain't worth a damn. I ain't much good no more an' you ain't. That's a fact. I don't excep' myself at all. An' if people like us don't go an' get somethin' they c'n fall back on, they got to go beggin' in the end anyhow. You c'n kick against that all you want to.

Fielitz. It's a queer thing about you, mother. It's just like as if the devil hisself got a hold o' you. First it just sort o' peeps up, an' God knows where it comes from. Sometimes it's there an' sometimes it's gone. An' then it'll come back again sudden like an' then it gets hold o' you an' don't let you go no more. I've known some tough customers in my time, mother, but when you gets took that way--then I tell you, you makes the cold shivers run down my back.

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Has taken out her notebook again and become absorbed in it._] What did you think about all this? We're insured here for seven thousand.

Fielitz. What I thought? I didn't think nothin'.

Mrs. Fielitz. Well, there ain't any value to this place excep' what's in the lot itself.

Fielitz. [_Gets up and puts on his coat._] You just leave me alone, y'understand?

Mrs. Fielitz. Well, ain't it true? You just stop your foolin'. I seen that long ago, before we was ever married. Schmarowski told me that ten times over, that this here is the proper place for a big house. An' anybody as has any sense c'n see that it's so. Now just look for yourself: over there, that's the drug shop! An' a bit across the way to the left is the post office. An' then a little ways on is the baker an' he's built hisself a nice new shop. Four noo villas has gone up and if, some day, we gets the tramway out here--we'll be right in the midst o' things.

Fielitz. [_About to go._] Good evenin'.

Mrs. Fielitz. Are you goin' out this time o' day?

Fielitz. Yes, 'cause I can't stand that no more.--If I'd known the kind of a crittur you are ... only I didn't know nothin' about it ... I'd ha' thought this here marryin' over a good bit--yes, a good bit.

Mrs. Fielitz. You? Is that what you'd ha' thought over, eh?

Fielitz. Is I goin' to let myself be put up to things like that?...

Mrs. Fielitz. A whole lot o' thinkin' over you'd ha' done! You ain't done any thinkin' all the days o' your life. A great donkey like you ... an' thinkin'. Well! A fine mess would come of it if you took to thinkin'.

Fielitz. Mother, I axes you to consider that ...

Mrs. Fielitz. Put you up? To what? What is I puttin' you up to?--This here old shed is goin' to burn down sometime. It's goin' to burn down one time or 'nother, if it don't first come topplin' down over our heads. It's squeezed in here between the other houses in a way to make a person feel ashamed, if he looks at it.

Fielitz. Mother, I axes you to consider ...

Mrs. Fielitz. Aw, I wish you'd clear out o' the front door this minute! I'm goin' to pack up my things pretty soon too. An' you c'n go over to the justice for all I care. I been puttin' you up to things, you know!

Fielitz. Mother, I axes you to consider that ... Look out that you don't go an' get a black eye! 'Cause I, if I ...

Mrs. Fielitz. [_With a gesture as though about to push him out._] Get out! Just get out! It'll be good riddance! The sooner the better! What are you dawdlin' for?

Fielitz. [_Beside himself._] Mother, I'll hit you one across the ... You're goin' to put me out, eh? What? Outta my shop? Is this here your shop? I'll learn you! Just wait!

Mrs. Fielitz. Well, I'm waitin'. Why don't you start? You're that kind of a man, are you? Come right on! Come on now! You got the courage! I'll hold my breath or maybe I'd blow you right into Berlin.

Fielitz. [_Hurls a boot against the wall in his impotent rage._] I'll break every stick in this here shop! To hell with the whole business: that's what I says! I must ha' been just ravin' mad! There I goes an' burdens myself with a devil of a woman like that, an' I might ha' lived as comfortable as can be! She killed off one husband an' now I'm dam' idjit enough, to take his place! But you're goin' to find out! It ain't goin' to be so easy this time! I'll first kick you out before I'll let you get the best o' me! Not me! No, sir! You c'n believe that!

Mrs. Fielitz. You needn't exert yourself that much, Fielitz ...

Fielitz. Not me! Not me! You c'n depend on that! You ain't agoin' to down me! You c'n take my word for it.

[_He sits down, exhausted._

Mrs. Fielitz. Maybe you might like throwin' some more boots. There's plenty of 'em around here--I s'ppose you married me for love, eh?

Fielitz. God knows why I did!

Mrs. Fielitz. If you'll go an' study it out, maybe you'll know why. Maybe it was out o' pity? Eh? Maybe not.--Or maybe it was the money I had loaned out?--Well, you see! I s'ppose that was it.--You c'n live a hundred years for my part! But it's always the same thing. 'Twasn't much different with Julius neither. If things had gone his way, I wouldn't have nothin' saved this day neither. The trouble is a person is too good to you fellers.

Fielitz. An' outta goodness you want me to go an' take a match an' set fire to the roof over my head?

Mrs. Fielitz. You knew that you'd have to go an' build. I said that to myself right off, an' buildin' costs money. There ain't no gettin' away from that fact. An' the few pennies we has ain't more'n a beginnin'. If we had what you might call a real house here ... Schmarowski, he'd build us one that'd make all the others look like nothin' ... you could have a fine shop here. We might put a few hundred dollars into it an' sell factory shoes. If you'd want to take in repairing you could get a journeyman an' put him here. An' if you wanted to go an' make some new shoes yourself, you could take the time for all I care.

Fielitz. I don't know! I s'ppose I ain't got sense enough for them things. I thought I'd get hold o' a bit o' money ... I thought I'd be able to lay out a bit o' money! Buildin' a little annex of a shop--that's good fun. I thought it all out to myself like--with nice shelves and things like that ... an' I planned to hang up a big clock an' such. An' now you sit on your money bag like an old watch dog.

Mrs. Fielitz. That money--it ain't to be thrown away so easy. 'Twas earned too bitter hard for that.

Fielitz. ... You forgets that I've been in trouble before. Is I to go an' get locked up again?

Mrs. Fielitz. Never mind, Fielitz, to-morrow is another day. A person mustn't go an' take things that serious! I was more'n half jokin' anyhow.--Go over to Grabow's an' drink a glass o' beer!... We must all be satisfied's best we can. An' even if you can't go an' open a shoe shop, an' even if you gotta worry along cobblin' an' can't buy no clock--well, a good conscience is worth somethin' too.

The Second Act. _The smithy of LANGHEINRICH. The little house protrudes at an angle into the village street. The shed that projects over the smithy is supported by wooden posts. The empty space below the shed is used for the storage of tools and materials. Wheels are leaned against the wood, a plough, wheel-tyres, pieces of pig iron, etc. An anvil stands in the open, too, and several working stools. From behind the house, jutting out diagonally, a wooden wagon is visible. The left front wheel has been taken off and a windlass supports the axle._

_Through the door that leads to the shop one sees smithy fires and bellows._

_Opposite the smithy, on the left side of the village street which, taking a turn, is lost to view in the background, there is a board fence. A small locked gate opens upon the street._

_A cloudy, windy day._

_DR. BOXER, in a slouch hat and light overcoat, stands holding a heavy smith's hammer at arm's length. EDE has a horseshoe in his right hand, a smaller hammer in his left, and is looking on._

Ede. [_Counts._] ... twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four an' one makes twenty-five an' another makes twenty-six.--Great guns, you're ahead o' me now. An' twenty-seven, an' twenty-eight, an' twenty-nine an' thirty. My respects, Doctor. That's all right. Is that the effect o' the sea air?

Dr. Boxer. It may be. You see I haven't quite forgotten the trick.

Ede. No, you haven't. That's pretty good. Now let's try it with weights, though. I c'n hold up a hundred an' fifty pounds, Doctor. How about yourself?

Dr. Boxer. I don't know. It remains to be seen.

Ede. What? You think you c'n lift a hundred weight an' a half? You're a little bit of a giant, ain't you? You didn't learn that on board ship. I thought you travelled as a sawbones an' not as a strong man!--Look at that little man over there goin' into Mrs. Fielitz' house. That's her son-in-law.

Dr. Boxer. He looks very much like a bishop.

Ede. Right enough! That's what he is--Bishop Schmarowski.--You c'n knock! The old woman's out and she took her cobbler with her. There won't be nothin' to get there to-day.--You see, Doctor, when that fellow goes there he wants money. If he weren't hard up he wouldn't come.

Dr. Boxer. The Fielitzes went in to Berlin to-day; I met them this morning at the railway station. Tell me: _he_ isn't quite right in his mind, is he?

Ede. How so? That wasn't never noticed. He's a pretty keen fellow ... No, I couldn't say that _he's_ crazy.

Dr. Boxer. He talked a mixture of idiotic nonsense and looked away from me while he was talking. The fellow looked like an evil conscience personified. But I don't suppose he has a conscience.

Ede. By the way: that time they came down on you an' made a search in your house--that fellow Fielitz had his hand in it. He helped get you into that pickle.

[_MRS. SCHULZE puts her head out at the attic window._

Mrs. Schulze. Ede!

Ede. What?

Mrs. Schulze. Ain't Mr. Langheinrich back yet?

Ede. Well, o' course he is, naturally. [_MRS. SCHULZE disappears and EDE withdraws under the shed._] Quick! Take this hammer, will you, Doctor, an' hammer away a bit. If you kept up your strength the way you have, you ain't forgot about that neither.

Dr. Boxer. I went at locksmith's work like the deuce when there was nothing to do on board ship. That gave me a very good chance.

Ede. You're a doctor an' you're a smith an' ... I guess you're a sausage maker too!

Dr. Boxer. I even made sausages once.

Ede. Nobody didn't want to eat them, I guess.

Dr. Boxer. I wouldn't have advised any one to do so either. The sausages were mainly filled with arsenic. The rats scarcely left us space to turn around in.

Ede. [_About to set to work._] Ugh! That wouldn't be no kind o' sausage for me. Come now, Doctor, go at it! We wants the missis to think that two people is workin' here or she'll never stop axin' questions.

Dr. Boxer. Where did Langheinrich go so early?

Ede. That's a secret all right--the kind o' secret that all the sparrows on the gutters is chirpin'.--Doctor, roll that wheel over here, will you? You got a chance now to deserve well, as they says, o' the Prussian state, 'cause this here waggon belongs to the government forester.--That sort o' thing can't do you no harm.

Dr. Boxer. No. And anyhow I ought to stand in with people.

[_He rolls the wheel slowly along; it escapes him and glides backwards._

Ede. That ain't so easy. Them people has long memories. [_He catches the wheel._] Hold on there! No goin' backward! I'm for progress, I am, Doctor! I'm willin' to fight for that!

Dr. Boxer. But you must be careful of your fingers. [_He puts on a leathern apron._] Is Langheinrich going to be gone long?

Ede. [_Whistles._] That depends on how hard it is!

Dr. Boxer. Why do you whistle so significantly?

Ede. That's a gift o' my family. All my eleven brothers an' sisters is musicians. I'm the only one that's a smith. [_For a space both work at the wheel in silence. Then EDE continues._] 'Twouldn't be a bad stage play, I tell you. You wouldn't have to be scared o' riskin' somethin' on that. You'd make money! That's somethin' fine--specially for young people! You been away here a good long while, that's the reason you don't know what's what. I could tell you a few little things that happen around here in bright daylight.--D'you know that Leontine?

Dr. Boxer. Very sorry indeed, but I don't.

Ede. No? An' then you pretend that this is your home an' don't know that girl. Somethin' wrong with you!

Dr. Boxer. Oh, yes, yes, Leontine! Mrs. Wolff's daughter! I once got the deuce of a flogging on her account.

Ede. Well, I wish you'd ha' been here two hours ago. Well, first of all that same girl slouched by here ... No! First of all her mother an' father went away ...'twasn't more'n dawn yet! Then Leontine at about eight. She looked all around an' waited an' made lovin' eyes in this direction an' then walked by. You should ha' seen Langheinrich. "Sweetheart, where are you goin'?"--Then, after a while comes Constable Schulze and goes after her.--That was too much for Langheinrich. Off with his apron an' there he goes, quick 's a stag. That's the way it was. You could ha' observed that: the rest ain't to be observed.--There's Langheinrich hurryin' back now. [_He at once sets zealously to work and pretends to discover LANGHEINRICH, who is approaching hastily and vigorously at this moment._] Well, at last! Good thing you're here! No end o' askin' after you. Did you catch her?

Langheinrich. [_Brusquely._] Catch what?

Ede. I meant the 'bus.

Langheinrich. Hold your...! I had business to attend to.--Well now, I'll give a dollar if this here ain't Dr. Boxer! Why, how are you? How are things goin'? An' what are you doin' nowadays? Did your ship come in? You been away now--lemme see--that must be three years, eh? Sure. That's ... well, time passes.

Dr. Boxer. I want to settle down here, Langheinrich. That is to say, I have that intention if it's possible. I should like to try my luck at home for a change.

Langheinrich. Things is best at home, that's right. O' course, there's one here now, a doctor I mean, but he ain't good for much. They say somethin' queer happened to him onct--got his ears boxed too hard or somethin'. An' they say that made him kind o' melancholious. That ain't much good for his patients! No sick man can't get well through that. I'll send for you, Doctor, if I need help.

Dr. Boxer. I'll extract my first dozen wisdom teeth free of charge. So you'll be glad if you don't need me soon.

Langheinrich. Well, I ... fact is ... my wife is sick.

_MRS. SCHULZE comes hurriedly from the house._

Mrs. Schulze. It's a mighty good thing that you're here. D'you hear? That whimperin' goes right on.

Langheinrich. Doctor, I'm goin' to ax you somethin' now: d'you know any cure for jealousy? You see, it's this way: We had a baby, an' I'd be lyin' if I said I wasn't mighty well pleased. An' why shouldn't I be? But now my wife is sick. She can't get up an' she don't want me to budge from the side o' her bed. She screams an' she scolds an' she reproaches me. Sometimes I reely don't know what to do no more.

Mrs. Schulze. You better go upstairs a bit first.

Ede. Do give him a chance to get his breath!

Langheinrich. Oh, pshaw! Never you mind! I c'n attend to that right off.

[_After he has taken off his hat and coat and slipped on wooden shoes he hurries into the house._

Ede. Well, what d'you think o' that?

Dr. Boxer. He's a cheerful soul--more so, if possible, than he used to be. It does one good to find a man that way.

Ede. Only that I axed after Leontine, that riled him more'n a little bit all right.

Mrs. Schulze. [_To EDE, watchfully:_] Where was the boss so early this mornin'?

Ede. In Lichtenberg, attendin' a dance.

Mrs. Schulze. The treatment that woman's gettin' is all wrong, Doctor. I don't mix in what don't concern me. But the way she's treated, that ain't no kind o' treatment, I c'n tell you. I told that Majunke man too that the missis was goin' to the dogs this way.

Dr. Boxer. But Dr. Majunke is very capable. I know him to be an excellent physician.

Mrs. Schulze. [_Interrupting._] Sure, sure, an' that's true. 'Course he's capable. That's right, an' so he is. But, you see, he just won't prescribe nothin' ...

Dr. Boxer. What should he prescribe? Let the people save their money.

Mrs. Schulze. But that's just what people don't want to do. It's like this: medicine's got to be. If there ain't none they says: how c'n the doctor help us?

Dr. Boxer. Mrs. Langheinrich never was strong. Even years ago when she used to sew for us ...

Mrs. Schulze. That's the way it is. She's a little bit humpbacked; that's right. That's the way women is, though, Doctor! A seamstress--that's what she was...! She sewed an' she sewed and saved up a little money...! An' what kind of a bargain is it she's got now. A handsome feller an' sickness an' worry an' no rest no more by day or night.

_LANGHEINRICH returns from the house._

Langheinrich. [_Tapping MRS. SCHULZE'S shoulder somewhat roughly._] Hurry now! Go on up! It's all arranged an' settled. To-morrow I'm goin' to take her to the clinic.

Mrs. Schulze. That ain't goin' to be no easy work!

Langheinrich. [_Lifts a great can of water to his mouth._] I can't help that. Things is as they is. [_He takes an enormously long draught from the tin can. Putting it down:_] Ede, drive them ducks away!

Ede. [_Acting as though he were driving away ducks, flaps his leathern apron and rattles his wooden shoes._] Shoo! Shoo! Shoo! Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!

_MRS. SCHULZE retires into the house, shaking her head._

Langheinrich. Them ducks is your regular fire eaters. There don't need nothin' but for some sparks to fly off an', right straight off, they gobbles 'em down. Then we gets what you might call roast duck that never meant to be roasted. An' my old woman she ain't no friend o' that.

_RAUCHHAUPT looks over the fence to the left._

Langheinrich. There's been a big fire again over there behind Landsberg. All the houses on a great estate is ashes.

Rauchhaupt. Did you maybe see Gustav anywhere?

Langheinrich. Mornin', old boy! No, not me! Has he gone an' run off again?

Rauchhaupt. I ordered him to go over to the Fielitzes.

Langheinrich. The Fielitzes have all gone in to town.

Rauchhaupt. I don't know, but there's a kind o' burned smell in the air ... Ouch! [_He distorts his face in pain and grasps his leg._] Ain't Leontine here?

Langheinrich. Naw, she had to go to court to-day. Always the same trouble with the alimony. That confounded feller, he don't pay.

Rauchhaupt. [_Calls out._] Gustav! [_He listens and then turns leisurely back to the little gate. The wind worries and drives him._] Gustav!

Langheinrich. Stiff wind coming up, all right! [_RAUCHHAUPT disappears._] Ede!

Ede. All right.

Langheinrich. Let's get to work now! [_He spits into his hands and sets to work vigorously._] Well, Doctor, where've you been runnin' about? Did you get as far as the Chinese? You gotta tell us all about that some day when we got plenty o' time for it.

Dr. Boxer. Surely, I've been all over.

Langheinrich. Did you see the sea-serpent too?

Da. BOXER

Surely, Langheinrich, far down in the South Seas.

Langheinrich. An' it's true that it feeds on dill pickles?

Dr. Boxer. Several hundred dozen a day.

Langheinrich. [_Laughing._] That's all right then. An' when, you see that serpent again, just give her my best regards.

Dr. Boxer. I doubt whether I'll ever get so far again in life.

Langheinrich. I guess you got all you wanted o' that? Now you see. Doctor, you just got to the point where I am exactly an' I didn't have to move from this spot.--Well, I guess your old mother, she'll be glad. She's gettin' along all right. Doin' reel well. I always looked in a bit now an' then, helpin' to see that things was all right.

Dr. Boxer. And that was very good in you, Langheinrich.

Langheinrich. Naw! Pshaw! I ain't sayin' it on that account. By the way, though, before I forget. I got a little account standin' with your good mother--for taffeta an' silk an' needles an' thread. Some cloth, too. My wife used 'em sewing. I'll straighten that up very soon.

Dr. Boxer. [_Deprecatingly._] Never mind. That matter will be arranged.

Langheinrich. Ede!

Ede. All right?

Langheinrich. Hurry along now! [_He takes up a heavy hammer._] If I don't go right on workin' I'll end by bustin' out o' my skin.

_EDE approaches with a white hot piece of iron in the tongs and holds it on the anvil._

Langheinrich. Now we're goin' to start, Doctor! Down on it! Hit it now! [_He and DR. BOXER beat the iron, keeping time with each other._] Well, you see! It's got to go evenly. Doctor! Then I tell you the work's smooth as butter.

[_They stop hammering; EDE takes up the iron again, takes it into the smithy and holds it into the flame._

Langheinrich. [_Takes up the water can again and sets it to his lips._] There ain't much to this!

[_Drinks._

Ede. Things like that makes you thirsty.

_LANGHEINRICH puts the can down._

Langheinrich. You c'n believe me, Doctor: it was fine anyhow.

Dr. Boxer. What was it that was go very fine?

Langheinrich. Lord! I don't know! I don't know nothin' much. But when I met Constable Schulze I had a devil of a good time--that's what!

Ede. An' now a glass o' beer from Grabow over there. That's what I could stand fine just now.

Langheinrich. Hurry! Get three steins! Dr. Boxer will pay for 'em.

_EDE wipes his hands on his apron and goes._

Langheinrich. An' so you want to settle down here now! That ain't no bad idea neither. Only this: you got to be up to all kinds o' tricks here. An' if you want my advice, Doctor, don't go to people for nothin'.

Dr. Boxer. Do you think that I'll be unmolested in other respects?

Langheinrich. Aw, them old stories! Them's all outlawed by now. An' then, nowadays they can't worry people so much no more as they used to do under the old laws.

Dr. Boxer. Well, at all events I'll make the attempt ... My political ardour has cooled off. If these people annoy me in spite of that, I'll simply trudge off again. I'll go back to sea, or I'll let myself be engaged ...

Langheinrich. Pretty easy drownin' on water!

Dr. Boxer. [_Continuing._] ... Then I'll let myself be engaged to go to Brazil with the Russian Jews.

Langheinrich. What would you get out o' that?

Dr. Boxer. Yellow fever, perhaps.

Langheinrich. Anything else. Doctor? That wouldn't be nothin' for me!

Dr. Boxer. I believe that.

Langheinrich. Me go an' wear myself out for other people? Not me! No, sir! I don't do nothin' like that. An' why should I? Nobody don't give me nothin'. I tell you people in this world is a pretty sly set. I've had time to find that out.

Dr. Boxer. You're a regular heathen: you're not a Christian at all!

Langheinrich. That kind o' talk don't do much good with me. I'm a Christian just like all the rest is! The people that sit in the new church here ... 'cause they built a new church here now!... if them is Christians, the Lord forgive 'em.

Dr. Boxer. That's easily said, Langheinrich. But one ought not to be a Pharisee. Where is your Christian long-suffering?

Langheinrich. No, I ain't goin' in for long-sufferin'. I'm a sinner myself; that's true all right. But now you take this Dalchow here for instance! It'd take the devil to be long-sufferin' where _he's_ concerned! What did he do with that son o' his. He kicked him out, that's what, by night, in winter. Then he tied him up and beat him till he couldn't gasp. An' then he apprenticed the little feller to a butcher so that he had to drive out the sheep! An' all the time jabbin' at him an' overworkin' him till in the end the poor little crittur went an' drowned hisself in the lake. Just shook his head an' kept still an' then dived down an' that was the end.

Dr. Boxer. [_Ironically._] I don't see what you've got against Dalchow, Langheinrich? He's a man who seems to understand his business magnificently.

Langheinrich. Yes, ruinin' girls an' that sort o' thing, that's what. An' then beatin' his hat around their heads an' sayin': Out with the low strumpet! That's what they is all of a sudden when it's he that made 'em--_what_ they is!--Oh, an' then he's a great friend o' Wehrhahn's an' grunts out like a swine in public meetin's: There ain't no more morality these days ... an' there ought to be laws against such doin's ... an' so on, an' so on ... an' if you'd like to go to church, there the old rotten sinner sits an' turns up his eyes. [_A distant ringing of church bells if heard._] Listen to that! The sparrow is singin'.--I always calls that the sparrow, Doctor. I always says: the sparrow sings. I mean when them bells is ringin'. An' ain't I right that it's the sparrow that sings? 'Cause since Wehrhahn got that bird in his buttonhole them bells has begun to ring. An' if the bells didn't go an' ring, why he wouldn't have no decoration neither.

_EDE comes in grinning and carrying three steins of beer._

Ede. Oho, listen there, the sparrow is singin'.

Langheinrich. Well, you see, he don't call it nothin' else no more. [_Each of the three holds a stein. They knock them together._] Your health! An' welcome back to the old country! [_They drink._] That's a fine evenin' this mornin'. I'd like to see this night by day.

Dr. Boxer. Now I'm goin' to blaspheme a bit. I'm not opposed to the building of churches at all.

Langheinrich. An' I ain't neither. People gets work! I didn't get any this time, though. An' even if there's a little trouble now an' then, Pastor Friderici an' a bit o' nonsense with coloured windows an' altar cloths--that don't do no harm. People has to have a little.

Dr. Boxer. Yes, those people are entitled to cultivate their own pleasures. And then, Langheinrich, a higher principle has to be represented somehow.

Langheinrich. Sure, an' it brings people out here too, you c'n believe me. Buildin' lots has gone up considerable.

Ede. That's so. An' there was a man onct that didn't have no roof over his head ... No, that ain't the way to begin what I want to say.--I was onct out on the heath--far out. All of a sudden: what d'you think I heard, Doctor! I heard a dickens of a screechin'.--I goes up to it. Crows! Yes, sir. There was a feller hangin' high up in a pine tree--tailor's journeyman from over in Berkenbruck: he hanged hisself on account o' starvation--hanged hisself high up.--Yes, there's always got to be somethin' higher!

[_While they finish drinking their beer the long-drawn cries of pain of a man's voice are heard from some distance. The wind has risen considerably._

Dr. Boxer. What is that?

Rauchhaupt. Nothin' to worry about.

Langheinrich. Sounds kind o' gruesome, don't it? 'Tain't nothin' very lovely neither. When that feller's pains in his leg gets hold o' him an' he roars out that way o' nights--that goes right through an' through any one. No, before I'd stand pain like that I'd go an' put a bullet through my head.

Ede. Gee-rusalem! That's a wind again. Look out, Doctor, that your hat don't fly away.

_A hat is whirled by the wind along the street. SCHMAROWSKI, hatless, a roll of paper in his hand, runs chasing it._

Ede. Run along, sonny! Right on there! Show us what you c'n do!

Dr. Boxer. That hat is tired of his position: wants a holiday.

Schmarowski. [_Who has recovered his hat, turns angrily to DR. BOXER._] What was that very appropriate remark you made just now?

Dr. Boxer. That you are an excellent runner.

Schmarowski. Schmarowski!

Dr. Boxer. Boxer!

Schmarowski. Much pleased.--Now I'd like to ask you a question. Do you know what a fathead is?

Dr. Boxer. No.

Schmarowski. You don't? Neither do I. But now tell me: you know what a _schlemihl_ is, I suppose.

Langheinrich. Nothin' broke loose here? What's all this about? Easy now, easy! Howdy do, Mr. Schmarowski? How are you? Have you come to visit your mother-in-law?

Schmarowski. I have business here!--And before I forget it, I should like to say: Have the goodness to be more careful.

Dr. Boxer. Who is this amusing gentleman, Langheinrich?

Ede. That's Mrs. Wolff's son-in-law.

Schmarowski. I'll have no dealings with you at all.

Ede. Naw, you better not.

Schmarowski. Not with you--[_Turning to DR. BOXER._] But if you don't know who I am, you can get information from Baron von Wehrhahn, the Right Reverend Bishop, the Baroness Bielschewski and the Countess Strach.

Dr. Boxer. You want me to go around and get information from all those people?

Schmarowski. That's what you're to do--just that an' nothing else. Then maybe you can be more careful in future an' look people over before you talk.

Langheinrich. What's gotten into you to-day? You're so dam' touchy!

Schmarowski. [_To DR. BOXER, who has glanced at EDE and LANGHEINRICH alternately with serene laughter._] You just be so good an' be more careful: we ain't so soft. We don't take jokes so easy, especially not from the race to which you ...

Langheinrich. Hold on, Mr. Schmarowski! That's enough! Nothin' like that here. That's enough an' too much, Mr. Schmarowski. You just see about gettin' along on your way now.

Schmarowski. Do you know where I am going straight from here?

Langheinrich. You c'n go straight ahead to the Lord hisself! You c'n go where you want to, Schmarowski; only, don't be keepin' me from my work. We ain't got no time to lose here!--Ede, put that axle in!

_SCHMAROWSKI exit, enraged._

Ede. Good-bye!

Dr. Boxer. So that was Mr. Schmarowski, the envied pillar of the church? Why, he's a poisonous little devil!

Langheinrich. Yes, you're right there! Pois'nous is what he is. So you didn't, know him, Dr. Boxer? Well, then you've seen him now--nothin' but a little, sly, venomous pup! But you ought to go an' watch him when he gets in with that pious crowd. Then he lets his ears hang, so 'umble his own mother wouldn't hardly know him, like as if he was sayin': I ain't goin' to live more'n two weeks at--most an' then I'm goin' to heaven to be with Jesus. Yes! Likely! There's another place where he's goin'. But that won't be soon. He ain't thinkin' of it much yet. An' in the meantime he rolls his eyes upward 'cause somethin' might be hangin' round that he c'n make a profit on.

Ede. Well, you c'n look out now! Yon ain't goin' to get no work on the new institution.

Langheinrich. I know that. Can't be helped. Things is as they is. Can't hold' my tongue at things like that. I won't learn that in a lifetime.

Dr. Boxer. Have you many of that kind hereabouts now?

Langheinrich. So, so. Enough to last for the winter.

_RAUCHHAUPT has come out of the little gate. He faces the wind, shades his eyes with his hand and peers around._

Rauchhaupt. Lord A'mighty! Well, well! Things is goin' the queerest way to-day! When is they comin' back--them Fielitzes?

Langheinrich. That ain't goin' to be so very soon to-day. They've gone to buy a seven-day clock, a regulator. What are you upset about to-day?

Rauchhaupt. Wha'? Fielitz goin' to buy that kind of a clock? I don't believe's he c'n survive that. [_Calls._] Gustav!

Langheinrich. Ain't he come back yet? I guess he's listenin' to the bells. You know how he sits an' listens when they ring.

Rauchhaupt. I don't know. Things is goin' queer to-day. Mrs. Fielitz sent for him to come over. Horseradish seed is what she said she wanted. An' then she goes an' leaves for the city.

[_Exit, shaking his head._

Ede. They been stalkin' about since four o'clock in the mornin'. Up an' down they went with their bull's-eye lantern. I don't believe they went to bed at all.

Langheinrich. Well, if Fielitz has gone to buy a clock you can't expect him to eat or drink or sleep.

Rauchhaupt. [_Behind the fence._] Gustav!

Dr. Boxer. The boy is coming now, running along.

Langheinrich. That's right. Rauchhaupt! Here's Gustav!

_GUSTAV comes prancing up, highly excited, gesticulating violently. He points in the direction from which he has come._

Ede. Is that there a war dance you're tryin' to perform? Looks like the cannibals' goin's on. I believe that brat feeds on human flesh.

Langheinrich. Hurry now an' run to your father.

Ede. Go on now!

Langheinrich. Get along with your horse-radish.

_GUSTAV gesticulating, puts his hollow hand to his mouth and toots in imitation of a trumpet. Laughter._

Ede. Where's the fire, you little firebrand?

Langheinrich. Ede, catch hold o' him!

Ede. All right. [_He tries to creep up to GUSTAV. The latter observes this, gives a loud toot and, still tooting, hurries away, dropping a box of matches as he does so._] Hallo!

Langheinrich. What's that?

Ede. Just what I need.

Langheinrich. What?

Ede. Safetys! A whole box full.

_MRS. SCHULZE comes rushing down the stairs._

Mrs. Schulze. Mr. Langheinrich!

Langheinrich. Well, what?

Mrs. Schulze. Mr. Langheinrich!

Langheinrich. Here I is!

Mrs. Schulze. It's ... it's ... it's ... over at ...

Langheinrich. Anything about the missis?

Mrs. Schulze. No, at Fielitzes'.

Langheinrich. Is that so? Nothin' about my wife? Well, then,--[_he shakes her_]--just stop to get your breath. Things is as they is. I'm prepared for anythin'--life an' death. I gotta stand it.

Mrs. Schulze. The engine!

Langheinrich. What kind o' talk is that? Anythin' wrong with you?

Mrs. Schulze. No; it's burnin'!

Langheinrich. Go an' blow it out then!--Where is it burnin'!

Mrs. Schulze. At the Fielitzes'!

Langheinrich. Good Lord! That ain't possible!

[_He drops the iron file and some nails which he has been holding._

Ede. Where's the fire?

Mrs. Schulze. At Fielitzes'; the flame is comin' out o' the skylight.

Dr. Boxer. [_Has stepped forward._] Confound it all, but it's smoky! Come here! You can see it well from here.

Ede. [_Also stares in the direction of the fire. His expression shows that a complete understanding of the situation has come to him, which he expresses by a conscious whistling._] There ain't no words for this; I just gotta whistle.

Langheinrich. Ede! Run over to Scheibler's! Run! Get the horses for the engine! That smoke's comin' up thick over the gable.

[_He rushes into the smithy, throws his apron aside, puts on a fireman's helmet, belt, etc._

Mrs. Schulze. An' nobody at home there, goodness gracious!

Dr. Boxer. That's the lucky part of it, after all.

_The roaring of the fire alarm trumpet is heard._

Mrs. Schulze. You hear, Doctor? They're tootin' already!

Langheinrich. [_Reappears in his fireman's uniform._] You get out o' the way here, old lady. Go an' attend to things upstairs. Nothin' to be done here with a syringe. You go up to my wife. Hold on! We gotta have the key to the engine house. The devil!

_MRS. SCHULZE withdraws into the house. RAUCHHAUPT'S head reappears on the other side of the fence._

Rauchhaupt. My, but there's a smell o' burnin' in the air.

Langheinrich. Sure it smells that way. There's a fire at the Fielitzes'.

Rauchhaupt. The devil! I didn't know nothin' about that!

Langheinrich. That's all right, old man. Wasn't you a constable onct?

[_He rushes away._

_A fourteen-year-old boy comes madly hurrying up._

The Boy. [_To DR. BOXER._] Master! The key to the engine house! They can't get in to the engine.

Dr. Boxer. I'm not the fireman! Just keep cool!

The Boy. They wants you to come to the engine right off.

Dr. Boxer. You didn't hear what I told you.

The Boy. There's a fire!

Dr. Boxer. I know that. The engine master has left. He's reached the engine long ago.

The Boy. There's a fire. They wants you to come down to the engine!

[_He runs away._

_RAUCHHAUPT appears at the gate. Two LITTLE GIRLS cling to his rags._

Rauchhaupt. I'm used to that! It don't excite me a bit! Mieze! Lottie! You c'n come an' see somethin'.--I seen hundreds an' hundreds o' fires,

Dr. Boxer. [_Takes off the leathern apron._] It's a very sad thing for those people, though!

Rauchhaupt. Everythin' is sad in this here world. It's all a question o' how you looks at it! The same thing that's sad c'n be mighty cheerin'. Now there's me: I raises pineapples, an' my hothouse wall ... it's right up against Fielitzes' back wall. Now I won't have to keep no fire goin' for three days.

_A somewhat OLDER GIRL also comes out through the gate and nestles close up to the others. MRS. SCHULZE leans out from the window in the gable._

Mrs. Schulze. [_Addressing someone in the room behind her._] Missis, you c'n be reel quiet! The wind's blowin' from the other side.

[_She disappears._

Rauchhaupt. Did you see that there old witch? She always knows where the wind comes from.--I retired from all that, yessir! I didn't want to be a old bloodhound right along. I don't mix in them things no more. But that woman--she could be a keen one. [_A fireman, blowing his horn very excitedly, walks by._] Go it easy, August! Patience! Look out, or your breeches will bust!

THE FIREMAN

[_Enraged._] Aw, shut up! Go an' hide yourself in the holes you're always diggin.

[_Exit._

_A FOURTH and a FIFTH GIRL, aged nine and ten years respectively, join the old man._

Dr. Boxer. [_Laughing._] That's quite a fierce fellow.

Rauchhaupt. Gussie, Nelly, gimme your hand.--That's all nothin' but hurry. That feller don't know what's goin' on in this world. He's blowin' the trumpet of Jericho, I'm thinkin', or maybe even the trump o' Judgment Day!--

Dr. Boxer. I don't think I quite take your meaning, Mr. Rauchhaupt.

Rauchhaupt. Maybe Mrs. Wolff was only tryin' to scorch roaches. All right. Maybe, for all I care, 'twas somethin' else. But if Mrs. Wolff ever puts _her_ hand to somethin'--there ain't very much left.

Dr. Boxer. What do you mean by that?

Rauchhaupt. Oh, I was just thinkin'.

[_He withdraws, together with the children._

The Third Act. _The court-room of JUSTICE VON WEHRHAHN. A large, white-washed room level with the ground. The main door is in the left wall. Along the wall to the right is the large official table covered with books, documents, etc. Behind it stands the chair of the justice. By the middle window, small table and chair for the clerk of the court. In the foreground, right, a book case of soft wood, and on the left wall, shelves for documents and records. A small door in the background. Several chairs._

_GLASENAPP sits at his small table. The JUSTICE'S chair is unoccupied._

_In front of the official table DR. BOXER, LANGHEINRICH in his uniform of a captain of the fire brigade, EDE and THREE FIREMEN are waiting. They are engaged in a rather excited conversation. All are red with heat, stained with mud, wet and sooty._

_MRS. SCHULZE, somewhat pale, is resting in a chair and waiting likewise. She is in a very thoughtful mood. Repeatedly she takes off her headkerchief and puts it on again and arranges her grey hair._

_The action takes place on the same day as that of the first act, five hours later._

_The conversation suddenly ceases._

_JUSTICE VON WEHRHAHN enters betraying a high degree of official zeal. He covers his left eye with his left hand as though in pain, sits down behind the table, takes his hand from his eye, which twitches painfully, and begins._

Wehrhahn. Well, what's the result of this wretched mess?

Langheinrich. [_Noticeably stimulated by exertion, whiskey and beer._] I've come to announce, Baron, that the whole business is burned down.

Wehrhahn. [_Throwing down on the table an object which he has brought with him. It is seen to be a photograph in a frame of deer feet._] That's because you're all only half awake! You're all made that way. Yon drowse around and do nothing. We're not three miles distant from Berlin; our entire activity should have a different air!

Ede. [_Softly to DR. BOXER._] The fire did have air enough, eh?

Langheinrich. Your honour....

Wehrhahn. Never mind. I know all about it.

[_He pulls out his handkerchief, wipes the perspiration from his forehead and taps his eye._

Langheinrich. Your honour, I'd like to lay claim, humbly, to some credit ... We did our part honestly. We was on the spot with the engine.

Wehrhahn. Then get a better engine!

Langheinrich. But if you can't get no water!

Wehrhahn. You managed to get plenty of beer.

Langheinrich. -----------?

Ede. Puttin' out a fire makes you thirsty!

Wehrhahn. That seems undoubtedly to have been the case.--Glasenapp, will you come and look? Something flew into my eye. [_GLASENAPP jumps up and investigates._] I had just examined Mrs. Schulze when the north gable caved in. It must have been a spark or something like that.--By the way, hasn't Mrs. Schulze been here?

Mrs. Schulze. Here I is.

Glasenapp. Yes, Baron.

_WEHRHAHN motions him away. GLASENAPP steps back and goes over to his table._

Wehrhahn. To proceed, then. It has come to my ears ... Mrs. Schulze has informed me, that a certain incident took place in front of your smithy.--It seems that you saw that worthless boy immediately before the flame rose and that he had a box of matches. How is it now with this story of the matches? Tell us what you know!

Langheinrich. He had a box o' matches. That's so.

Wehrhahn. And he let it fall.

Ede. An' I picked it up. Yessir.

Wehrhahn. You?

Ede. Me. Same person you see. Here's the box. All the matches ain't there no more 'cause I smoked several times ...

[_He places the box of matches on the official table._]

Wehrhahn. [_Unpleasantly impressed by EDE'S manner, takes up the box and fixes his eyes upon him._] You helped along vigorously, I suppose?

Ede. You bet! 'Tain't no fun otherwise.

Wehrhahn. I meant especially in the consumption of beer.

Ede. That's what I thought you meant. Yessir!

Wehrhahn. You seem to be in a very playful mood.

Ede. Merry an' larky--that's my motto, your honour!

Wehrhahn. Delighted to hear that, I must say.--Look here, are you Dr. Boxer?

Dr. Boxer. Quite right. Dr. Boxer.

Wehrhahn. So you are he! Aha! I would hardly have recognised you. Your mother still has the little notion shop here.... Your father was a--er--tradesman--?

Dr. Boxer. [_Voluntarily misunderstanding him._] Yes, my father was in the reserve forces and was decorated with the Iron Cross in 1870.

Wehrhahn. Ah, yes. Of course. I recall.--Your mother came running to my office recently and brought along several stones. Her kitchen windows had been broken, I believe. Mischievous boys, no doubt. I investigated, of course. I'm told you want to settle down here?--There's a very good physician here now--formerly of the army staff--very capable.

Dr. Boxer. I don't doubt that for a moment.

Wehrhahn. To be quite frank--as things are now--I wonder whether this is an appropriate territory for you?

Dr. Boxer. I can take some time to discover that.

Wehrhahn. Naturally. So can we. So continue, please.--What was it that you observed, Dr. Boxer?

Dr. Boxer. The incident of the matches certainly.

Wehrhahn. The incident of the horn blowing and of the matches.

Wehrhahn. Where were you when all this took place?

Dr. Boxer. I stood in front of Langheinrich's smithy.

Wehrhahn. Did you have any particular business there?--You needn't get impatient at all. I understand that it doesn't concern me at present. Your sympathetic affinity for the working classes is known to us from of old.--The boy will be arrested now. I imagine that Constable Tschache has captured him. At all events--is on his trail. He was seen, in Rahnsdorf too. Please call in Sadowa!

[_GLASENAPP withdraws by the rear door._

Dr. Boxer. Am I dismissed now, your honour?

Wehrhahn. Extremely sorry; no. Kindly wait.--Mrs. Schulze, where is your nephew keeping himself today? I haven't seen him all day long. Does any one know where Constable Schulze is?

Ede. [_Softly._] He might send out a warrant after him.

Wehrhahn. Doesn't any one know where Constable Schulze is?--Has any one interviewed Mrs. Fielitz? Or hasn't she returned from Berlin yet?--I want somebody to go to Councillor Reinberg.--[_To GLASENAPP, who is just returning._] Mr. Schmarowski, Mrs. Fielitz's son-in-law, is there submitting his building-plans. The news should be broken to him gently.

Ede. [_Softly to BOXER and LANGHEINRICH._] Yes, gently, so he don't stumble over the church steeple.

[_DR. BOXER and LANGHEINRICH restrain their laughter with difficulty._]

Wehrhahn. [_Observing this._] Does that strike you as very amusing?--I don't know what other reason you should have to laugh, Langheinrich. When people are hardworking and ambitious and a fright like this comes to them--a visitation from God--we might properly say: God protect us from such things! I see nothing to laugh at.--Did you have the impression ... did the boy seem to you ... I mean, in reference to this affair--as if things were not quite right with him?

Ede. [_Softly to BOXER and LANGHEINRICH._] We knows where he ain't quite right!

Wehrhahn. Did he arouse your suspicion? Yes or no? Or did the thought actually occur to you that he might have started the fire?

Dr. Boxer. No. I have become too much of a stranger here. The conditions seem to overwhelm me.

Wehrhahn. In what respect?

Dr. Boxer. [_With assumed seriousness._] I have returned from a very narrow life. Out on the ocean one becomes accustomed to a certain narrowness of outlook. And so, as I said, I hardly feel capable of any comment for the present and must ask for the necessary consideration.

Wehrhahn. We're not discussing conditions. The thing that lies before us is a concrete case. For instance: whether the boy tootled or not--what has that to do with narrowness or breadth of outlook?

Dr. Boxer. Quite right. I haven't been able to get a general view yet. I can't so suddenly find my way again. I feel, naturally, the importance, the seriousness of the conditions here at home and that makes me feel hesitant.

Wehrhahn. He did tootle this way, through his hand, didn't he? You heard that too, didn't you, Langheinrich?

Langheinrich. Sure, he did it right out loud.

Ede. When a feller tootles so tootin'ly that you c'n rightly say he's tootlin', then you c'n hear that there tootlin' tootin'ly.

Wehrhahn. [_To LANGHEINRICH._] Did you observe anything else that aroused your suspicions? I mean, while you were extinguishing the fire? Were there any indications that pointed in another direction, or that might, at least, point in another direction? [_LANGHEINRICH thinks for a moment, then shakes his head._] You didn't get inside of the house, did you?

Langheinrich. I just barely glanced into the room. Then the ceiling came crashin' down. A hair's breadth sooner an' I'd ha' been smothered.

Wehrhahn. The fire was started from without. Constable Tschache is quite right in that supposition. Probably from behind where the goatshed is. That would also be in agreement with your evidence, Mrs. Schulze! You saw him creep around the house. Right above the goatshed there is a window from which, as a rule, straw was sticking out. I myself made that observation. And this window gives on Rauchhaupt's garden. This window tempted the boy. It tempted him because he had it daily before his eyes. So he simply climbed on the roof of the shed and from there reached the sky-light. Very pleasant neighbour to have--I must say!--Who's that crossing the street and howling so?

Glasenapp. [_Looks through the window._] Shoemaker Fielitz and his wife.

Wehrhahn. What? Is that Mrs. Fielitz who comes howling so? It's enough to melt the heart of a stone.

_MRS. FIELITZ, whose loud, convulsive weeping has been audible before she appeared, enters, leaning upon the SEXTON and followed by HER HUSBAND, who carries a large, new clock carefully in his arms. FIELITZ and HIS WIFE are both in their Sunday clothes._

Wehrhahn. Well, heavens and earth, Mrs. Fielitz! Trust in the Lord! Our trust in the Lord--that's the main thing! This isn't a killing matter.--Get a drink of brandy, Nickel! Go over and ask my wife for it. Mrs. Fielitz has got to be brought to her senses first.--Do me a favour, Mrs. Fielitz, and stop your outburst of tears. I can feel for you, when it comes to that. Quite a severe blow of fate. Have any valuables been destroyed? [_MRS. FIELITZ weeps more violently._] Mrs. Fielitz! Mrs. Fielitz! Listen to me! Please listen to what I say to you! Kindly don't lose your reason! D'you understand? Don't lose your head! You're generally a sensible woman.--Well, if you won't, you won't.--[_NICKEL, who has been gone for a moment, returns with a brandy bottle and a small glass._]--Give her the brandy; quick,--I'll address myself to you, Fielitz. I see that you're quite collected, at least. That's the way a man ought to be, you understand. In any situation--be that what it may. So, Fielitz, you give me some information! I'll put the same question to you first: Have any valuables been destroyed?

Fielitz. [_He is only partially successful in restraining the convulsive sobs that attack him while he speaks._] Yes. Six bills ... banknotes!

Wehrhahn. Well, I'll be blessed! Is that true? And, of course, you don't even know the numbers! My gracious, but you're careless people! One ought to think of such things! But that does no good now. Fielitz, do you hear me! One ought to take some thought.--Now he's beginning to howl too! Do you understand me? The place for ready money is a bank! And anyhow--the whole business! One doesn't leave one's property alone like that! One shouldn't leave it quite unprotected, especially with such a crowd in the neighbourhood as we have here!

Fielitz. I ... aw ... who'd ha' thought o' such a thing, your honour?

Wehrhahn. Why don't you lay that clock down?

Fielitz. I'm a peaceable man, your honour. I--I--I--I--Oh, Lordy, Lordy! I can't tell you nothin', how that there thing happened.--I'm on good terms with people; I don't quarrel with nobody ... I has made mistakes in my life. That happens when a man ain't got no good companions. But that people should go an' treat me this way! No, I ain't never deserved that.

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Weeping._] Fielitz, what has I always been tellin' you? Who's right now, eh? Tell me that: who's right now? You didn't make no enemies on _our_ account. Them's very different stories--them is. An' I guess Mr. von Wehrhahn knows somethin' about that!

Fielitz. Aw, mother, keep still. That there, that was my dooty.

[_EDE, half seriously, half in jest, makes a threatening gesture behind FIELITZ. WEHRHAHN observes this._

Wehrhahn. Look here, you there! What's that you did? You stood behind Fielitz and shook your fist over his head.

Ede. Maybe I'm weak in the chest, but I don't rightly know.

Wehrhahn. Listen: I'll tell you something. The place for insane people is the asylum. But if you behave with any more impudence, you'll first be taken to gaol!--I didn't understand you quite rightly, Mrs. Fielitz. You insinuated something just now. Have you any suspicions in that direction? I don't care to express myself more clearly. But do you suspect a--how shall I express it--an act of, so to speak, political reprisal? In that case you must be absolutely open. We shall then certainly get to the bottom of it.

Mrs. Fielitz. No, no, no! I ain't got no suspicion. I'd rather go an' beg on the public roads. I don't want to accuse no human being. I don't know. I can't make nothin' of it at all. That's what I says again an' again. I don't know nothin'.--Everythin' was locked up. We went away. The kitchen fire was out; the top o' the oven was cold. Well, how did it happen? I can't understand it, nohow. I don't know. But you see, that a feller like that there feller c'n sit here an' make insinerations--that does hurt a body right to the soul!

Wehrhahn. Don't permit that to make any impression on you! Where would any of us be, if we let such things affect us? Any one who goes to church nowadays has the whole world hooting him. You just stick to me. [_He rummages among the papers on his table._] By the way, I succeeded in saving something here--a picture of your late husband. At least, I believe that that's what it is. It was framed in deer's feet. [_He finds the picture and hands it to MRS. FIELITZ._] Here!

_MRS. FIELITZ takes the picture, grasps WEHRHAHN'S hand with a swift motion and kisses it, weeping._

Ede. [_Audibly._] Has anybody maybe got a bit o' sponge in his pocket, 'cause, you see, stockin's don't absorb so much water.

Wehrhahn. Make a note of that fellow, Glasenapp! Out with him! At once! You are to withdraw!

_EDE withdraws with absurd gestures of his arms and legs. Suppressed laughter._

Wehrhahn. I'm really very much surprised at you, Langheinrich. That fellow has a regular felon's face. One of those knife ruffians; a regular socialist. He's been in gaol several times on account of street brawls. And that's the kind of a man that you take into your shop and home.

Langheinrich. All that don't concern me, your honour. I don't mix in politics.

Wehrhahn. Oh, is that so? We can afford to wait and see.

Langheinrich. If a feller goes an' does his work all right ...

Wehrhahn. Nonsense! Mere twaddle! Let any one tell me with whom he associates and I will tell him who he is.

_The murmuring and chattering of a crowd is heard. Constable SCHULZE enters in full uniform._

Wehrhahn. Where have you been all day?

Schulze. [_Utterly disconcerted for some moments. Then:_] We nabbed the boy, your honour.

Wehrhahn. Is that so? Who did it?

Schulze. Me and Tschache.

Wehrhahn. Where?

Schulze. Right near here; by the church.

Glasenapp. He always sits there and listens to the bells.

Wehrhahn. Why didn't you tell us that before? Did he try to escape? Did he run from you?

Schulze. He sat in the ditch an' didn't notice us. Tschache could ride close up to him. An' then we got him by the scruff an' had him tight.

[_He steps back and grasps GUSTAV, whom_ TSCHACHE is leading in. Members of the crowd press forward._

Wehrhahn. H-m! At all events he is here. I'm rather sorry, I must say. He's the son of a former Prussian constable ... Has any one informed old Rauchhaupt? Somebody had better go for him.

Mrs. Schulze. I'm takin' care of a sick person, your honour. Maybe I might be able to get off now?

Wehrhahn. Prepare the record, Glasenapp. No, Mrs. Schulze, you'll have to remain here for the present. The matter will be finished soon enough.--So let us prepare the record ...

[_He leans back in his chair and stares at the ceiling as if collecting his thoughts for the purpose of dictating._

Langheinrich. [_Softly to DR. BOXER._] Look at Mrs. Fielitz, will you, Doctor? Eh? Ain't she grown yellow as a lemon peel?--If only that thing don't go crooked, I tell you. [_He shows to DR. BOXER, who wards him off with a gesture, something secretly in his hollow hand._] D'you want to see somethin'? Eh? That's a fuse, that's what.

Dr. Boxer. [_Softly._] Where did you get that from?

Langheinrich. It ain't me that knows! That might come from anywhere in the world. It might even come from Fielitz's cellar. Yessir. Maybe you don't believe that? An' if I wanted to be nasty, Doctor ...

Wehrhahn. Private conversation is not permitted here.

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Tugs at LANGHEINRICH'S sleeve and asks softly:_] Didn't you meet Leontine to-day? Where was it?

Langheinrich. [_With a triumphant glance at SCHULZE._] Over in Woltersdorf.

Wehrhahn. Well, then, Glasenapp ... This is a horrible state of affairs--the seventh conflagration this Autumn. And these people pretend to constitute a civilised society! These firebrands pretend to be Christians. One need merely step out on one's balcony to see the reflection of a fire somewhere in the heavens. Now and then in clear nights I have counted the reflections of as many as five. Contempt of judges and laws--that's what it is! And that has taken such hold of these scoundrels that arson has become a kind of diversion.--But they had better go slow. Just a little patience, ladies and gentlemen! We know the tracks! We are on the right scent! And the people in question will have a terrible awakening when, quite suddenly, discovery and retribution come upon them. Any one who is at all versed in the procedure of criminal justice knows that it goes ahead slowly and surely and finally lays hold upon the guilty.--But as Commissioner von Stoeckel quite rightly observed: The whole moral downfall of our time, its actual return to savagery is a consequence of the lack of religion! Educated people do not hesitate to undermine the divine foundations upon which the structure of salvation rests.--But, thank God, we're always to be found at our place! We are, so to speak, always on our watch-tower!--And, I tell you, boy: There is a God! Do you understand? There is a God in Heaven from whom no evil deed remains hidden. Brotherly love! Christian spirit! What your kind needs is to have your breeches drawn tight and your behind flogged! I'd make you sick of playing with fires, you infamous little scamp!--Yes, Dr. Boxer, that is exactly my conviction. You can shrug your shoulders all you please; that doesn't disturb me in the slightest degree. You can even take up your pen and raise the cry of cruelty and unfeelingness in the public prints! Flogging! Christian discipline--that's what is needed, and no sentimental slopping around! You understand!

GUSTAV

[_Has become more and more excited by the rising enthusiasm of the speaker. At the end of WEHRHAHN'S oratorical effort he can restrain himself no longer and breaks out in a loud, deceptively exact imitation of an ass's bray._] I! a! a! a! I! a! a! a!

[_General embarrassment._

Wehrhahn. [_Also embarrassed._] What does that mean?

Glasenapp. I really don't know.

Langheinrich. That's Gustav's art, your honour. He's famous for imitatin' animals' voices.

Wehrhahn. Is that so? And what animal was this supposed to be?

Langheinrich. I guess a lion, all right.--

[_General laughter._

_WEHRHAHN shrugs his shoulders, laughs jeeringly and goes to his seat. Silence. Then renewed laughter._

Wehrhahn. I must request silence. This is no place for laughter! We are not indulging in horse-play for your benefit. We are not trying to amuse any one. The things we are discussing here are of a deadly seriousness. This isn't a circus.

_RAUCHHAUPT enters and stares helplessly about him._

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Tugs at the coat of SCHULZE, who stands near her but with his back turned. He faces her and she asks with a sorrowful expression._] Did you see my girl to-day?

_SCHULZE nods and turns back again._

Mrs. Fielitz. [_As before._] You did see Leontine this morning?

_SCHULZE nods again and turns away._

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Repeating the action._] An' where did you meet her, Constable?

Schulze. [_Almost without moving his lips._] It was over beyond Woltersdorf.

Rauchhaupt. [_To LANGHEINRICH._] What's the matter here? What's all this here about?

Wehrhahn. [_Observes RAUCHHAUPT._] You are a retired Prussian constable?

Rauchhaupt. [_Having failed to hear the question._] Say, Schulze, what's all this for?

Schulze. His honour axed you somethin'. I can't go an' give you no information. That's against orders. If you'd only ha' kept a better watch on that there boy! I preached to you about that often enough.

Rauchhaupt. I don't know what you been preachin'! You ol' mush head! Go on preachin'!

Schulze. I begs to have it recorded that Rauchhaupt insulted me officially.

Rauchhaupt. What? 'Cause you're such a old idjit? That's the reason why I insults you officially....

Wehrhahn. Man alive! Do you know where you are? Or have you just dropped here out of the clouds! Confound it all! Stand still! Obey orders!

Rauchhaupt. Here I is, your honour, an' I humbly announces ...

Wehrhahn. That you are recalcitrant and disorderly! You are trying to get into trouble! How long have you been retired?

Rauchhaupt. Eleven years.

Wehrhahn. In addition your memory is probably injured. And anyhow--your whole appearance! The devil! To think of a former constable looking like that ... I thought I knew all types!

Rauchhaupt. That's 'cause I am ... You'll kindly excuse ...

Wehrhahn. Nothing is excused here! D'you understand? You actually smell! You contaminate the air!

Rauchhaupt. 'Tain't nothin' but the smell o' earth ...

Wehrhahn. Horse dung!

Rauchhaupt. That must be from them pineapples.--

[_Laughter._

Wehrhahn. In short: make haste to get out as soon as possible; otherwise, as I said ... Out! Out! You have probably seen now what is taking place here, and now you have nothing further to do.--Here are the papers. Constable! Take them right over to the court.

[_He hands the papers to SCHULZE. The officers clash their sabres, grasp GUSTAV more firmly and prepare to lead him out. RAUCHHAUPT glares about in helpless and growing terror._

Dr. Boxer. I have the impression, your honour, that this boy is really a patient. You will forgive me for mingling ...

Langheinrich. The boy's a imbecile--clean daft!

Mrs. Schulze. No, no, Doctor! Oh, no, Mr. Langheinrich, that there boy knows what he's doin'. I had a hen onct an' she went an' hatched out eleven little chicks and he goes an' takes bricks an' kills seven of 'em.

Schulze. That's right, aunt. An' how about that other business, about the little purse what he stole?

Mrs. Schulze. The little purse, yes, an' what was in it. An' the way he went about that there thing ... nobody as is well could ha' done it more clever.

Schulze. An' then, aunt, the shawl ...

Mrs. Schulze. Naw, an' then that there pistol. That boy's got all the good sense he needs. I'm a old an' experienced woman.

Rauchhaupt. What's that you is? What? A ole witch with a low, lousy tongue in her head! You go an' sweep in front o' your own door before you go an' accuse other people. If somebody was to go an' watch your trade--takin' care o' babies an' such like an' seein' to it that there ain't no shortage o' angels in heaven--all kinds o' things might come out an' you wouldn't know how to see or hear no more.--What's this? What's the matter with Gustav? I gotta know that--what all this here is!

Wehrhahn. Hold your tongue! [_To the constable._] Right about--march!

Rauchhaupt. Hold on, I says! Hold on, now! That's no way! Things like that ain't mentioned in Scripter! I'm the father o' this here child! What's he done? What do people think he's done? Gustav! What is they accusin' you of? I went through the Schleswig-Holstein campaign; I was under fire in 'sixty-six; I was wounded in 'seventy. Here's my leg an' here is my scars. I served the King of Prussia ...

Wehrhahn. Those are old stories that you're telling us.

Rauchhaupt. ... With God for King and Fatherland! But this thing here, no, sir; I can't allow that. I wants to know what this thing here with Gustav is about!

Wehrhahn. Look here, my man, you had better come to your senses! I have told you that once before. In consideration of your service to the state I have overlooked several things as it is. Well now, I'll do one thing more. Listen to me! This fine little product--this son of yours, has committed arson. At least, he is under the very strongest suspicion. Now step out of the way and don't interfere with the officers in the performance of their duty. Go on, Schulze!

Rauchhaupt. Committed arson? That there boy? Over there? At Fielitz's? Gustav? This here boy? This here little feller? O Lordy! But that makes me laugh! An' that they ain't all laughin'--that's the funny part. Here, Schulze, don't you go in for no foolishness! I wore them brass buttons myself onct!--Howdy-do, Mrs. Fielitz! Well, Fielitz, how are you? Where are you goin' to hang up that clock o' yours?

Mrs. Fielitz. Now he's jeerin' at us atop o' our troubles.

Rauchhaupt. Not a bit. Why should I be jeerin' at you anyhow? It's a misfortune, you think! Lord, Lord, so it is! Cats die around in sheds an' the birds they falls down dead to the earth. No, I ain't jeerin' at you! Anyhow: I ain't scared o' many things. I've gone for some tough customers in my time--fellers that none o' the other constables wanted to tackle! This here finger is bitten through. Yessir! But before I tackles any one like you--I'll go an' hang myself.

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Almost grey in the face, with trembling lips, yet with considerable vehemence and energy._] What's that man goin' for me like that for? What did I ever do to him, I'd like to know! Can I help it that things has turned out this way? I ain't seen nothin'! I wasn't there! I ain't cast no suspicions on no one! An' if they went an' arrested that boy o' yours--I didn't know no more about that than you!

Rauchhaupt. Woman! Woman! Look at me!

Mrs. Fielitz. Rot! Stop botherin' me. Leave me in peace an' don't go showin' off that way! I got enough trouble to go through. The doctor tells a person not to get excited, 'cause you might go just like that! An' a man like you ... We don't know where to lie down! We don't know where we're goin' to sleep to-night! We're lyin' in the street, you might say, half dead an' all broken up ...

Rauchhaupt. Woman! Woman! Can you look at me?

Mrs. Fielitz. Leave me alone an' go where you belongs. I don't let nobody treat me like that! I c'n look at you all right! Why not? I c'n look at you three days an' three nights an' see nothin' but a donkey before me! If this here thing is put off on your boy now, whose fault is it mostly? How did you go an' talk about the boy? You says, says you: he steals, he sets fire to your straw shed--an' now you're surprised that things turns out this way! You beat this here poor boy ... he used to come runnin' over to me with so many blue spots on his body that there wasn't a place on him that wasn't sore. An' now you acts all of a sudden like a crazy man!

_WEHRHAHN has motioned the officers who grasp GUSTAV more firmly and lead him toward the door. RAUCHHAUPT observes this and jumps with lightning-like rapidity in front of GUSTAV, placing his hands on the latter's shoulders and holding him fast._

Rauchhaupt. Can't be done! I can't allow that, your honour. My Gustav ain't no criminal! I lived along reel quiet all to myself an' now I got into this here conspiracy. There's got to be proofs first of all! [_To LANGHEINRICH._] Could it ha' been he, d'you think? [_LANGHEINRICH shrugs his shoulders._] Them's all a crowd o' thieves around here--that's what ... Gustav, don't you cry! They can't, in God's name--they can't do nothin' to you ...

Wehrhahn. Hands off! Or ... Hands off!

Rauchhaupt. Your honour, I'll take my oath o' office, that's what I'll take, that my boy here is innercent!

Wehrhahn. _Tempi passati_. You're getting yourself into trouble. For the last time: Hands off!

Rauchhaupt. Then I'd rather kill him right here on the spot, your honour!

Wehrhahn. [_Steps between and separates RAUCHHAUPT from his son._] Move' on! You're not to touch the boy! If you dare the constable will draw his sabre!

Rauchhaupt. [_White as chalk, half maddened with excitement, has loosened his hold on GUSTAV and plants himself in front of the main door._] Don't do that to me, your honour, for God's sake, for Christ's sake--don't! That's a point o' honour with me--a point o' honour! Anythin' exceptin' that! I'll go instead. I c'n furnish bail. I'll run an' get bail. I c'n get back here right away! Eh? C'n I? Or can't that be done now?

Wehrhahn. Stuff and nonsense. Move out of the way!

Rauchhaupt. I knows who it was that did it!

_WEHRHAHN thrusts RAUCHHAUPT aside and the two officers conduct GUSTAV out. DR. BOXER and LANGHEINRICH support and restrain RAUCHHAUPT at the same time. He falls into a state of dull collapse. Silence ensues. Without saying a word WEHRHAHN returns to his table, blows his nose, glances swiftly at RAUCHHAUPT and MRS. FIELITZ and sits down._

Wehrhahn. Let us have some light, Glasenapp.

_GLASENAPP lights a lamp on the table._

Mrs. Fielitz. No, no, I tell you; it's bad, bad! A man like that! He goes an' accuses everybody in the whole place.

Wehrhahn. You! Mrs. Schulze! You can go your ways!

_MRS. SCHULZE withdraws rapidly._

Mrs. Fielitz. I'd like to ax your honour ... we don't even know where we're goin' to sleep to-night.

Wehrhahn. Are you asleep now, Fielitz?

Fielitz. [_Frightened from the contemplation of his clock._] Not me, your honour!

Wehrhahn. I thought you were because your head drooped so.

Fielitz. [_With childish bashfulness._] I was just lookin' at the hands.

Wehrhahn. [_To MRS. FIELITZ._] You want to go?

Mrs. Fielitz. If it's maybe possible ... I can't hardly stand on them two legs o' mine no more.

Wehrhahn. I believe that. When did you get up this morning?

Mrs. Fielitz. -- -- --?

Fielitz. We both got up around eight o'clock.

Wehrhahn. Do you always get up so late?

Mrs. Fielitz. Sure not! That there man is confused to-day in his mind. We got up at five. We always get up at five!

Wehrhahn. Well, Mrs. Fielitz, you go on home now.--I should be mighty sorry in some respects ... However, justice goes its way. Murder will out. Criminals come to a fearful end! The eternal Judge doesn't forget. And--you [_To RAUCHHAUPT._] might as well go home. Go home and wait to see how things turn out. I'll let things go this time. Your paternal feeling robbed you of your senses.

Rauchhaupt. [_Steps forward._] I should like 'umbly to report, your honour ...

Wehrhahn. Go on! Go on! What else do you want? Let us have no more nonsense, my good man.

Rauchhaupt. [_Goes close up to MRS. FIELITZ._] God is my witness! I'll show you up!

The Fourth Act. _The attic room over LANGHEINRICH'S smithy. To the left, two small, curtained windows. At one of the windows an arm-chair on which MRS. FIELITZ is sitting. She has aged perceptibly and grown thinner.--At the second window stands a sewing-machine with a chair beside it. A skirt at which some one has been working is thrown across the chair. A bodice lies on the machine itself. A door in the rear wall leads to a little sleeping-chamber immediately under the roof. To the left of this door a brown tile-oven; to its right, a yellow wardrobe. In the right wall there is likewise a door which opens upon the hall. Behind this door a neatly made bed and a yellow chest of drawers. Above this chest hangs a seven-day clock. The SHOEMAKER FIELITZ stands in his stocking feet upon the chest of drawers and winds the clock._

_In the middle of the room an extension table. A hanging lamp above it. Four yellow chairs surround the table, a fifth--of the same set stands near the bed. LANGHEINRICH and EDE, _dressed in their working-clothes, are busy at the table. LANGHEINRICH holds an iron weather-vane which EDE is painting red._

_EDE and LANGHEINRICH break out in loud laugh._

Fielitz. [_Who has been minding the clock while the others have been laughing._] Somebody's been pokin' around here again.

Langheinrich. You c'n bet on that. I s'ppose that's what's happened. You'd better watch out more.

[_Renewed laughter._

Fielitz. All I say is: let me catch some one at it! An' I won't care what happens neither!

Langheinrich. That's right! That's the way! Don't you care who it is, neither. I think it was Leontine.

Mrs. Fielitz. The girl ain't been near that there clock!

Langheinrich. Oh, oh!

Fielitz. Somethin's goin' to happen some day. I don't take no jokes o' that kind.

Ede. You gotta save that to put it in the shop.

Langheinrich. That's the truth! That's what I always been sayin'! That corner shop'll soon be built now, an' then maybe he won't have no clock to hang up in it. How could he go an' start a business then!

Fielitz. Firebrands! Pack o' thieves! Laugh if you wants to! You can't never get the better o' me!

Langheinrich. Not a bit, can they! An' that wouldn't do. How many contracts has you been makin'? I mean about furnishin' people with shoes. You got to have somethin' to start with!

Mrs. Fielitz. Can't you leave the man in peace!

Fielitz. You just go in my room; there you c'n see letters an' contracts lyin' around--packages an' heaps o' them!

Ede. [_Looks into the adjoining room._] I don't see nothin'.

Langheinrich. Tear up the floorin': you'll find the docyments hidden there. People has got to have their business secrets!

Fielitz. O' course they has! An' whippersnappers don't know much about that. Go an' learn how to read an' write before you go an' mix in my business.

Mrs. Fielitz. Come, Fielitz, let them be! Don't lose your temper. You know as Langheinrich has got to have his joke! That's the way the man is made.

Langheinrich. I do feel pretty jolly to-day, an' that's a fac'! I got a piece o' work done. An' if I don't go an' fall down from the steeple when I puts it up--I'll go an' christen this here occasion. An' I won't use water.

Mrs. Fielitz. Are you goin' to put it up yourself?

Langheinrich. You c'n take your oath on that! An' why not? Schmarowski, he designed it. But I forged it an' I'll put it up.

_LEONTINE enters._

Leontine. You better let Schmarowski do that himself.

Ede. Schmarowski ain't afraid o' anything shaky.

Langheinrich. No, that's as true as can be, I know. He ain't afraid o' God nor the devil. That little man ... I tell you, Bismarck is just a coward alongside o' him!

Fielitz. I'd like to make a inquiry: who is it that built that there new house?

Langheinrich. Well, who did?

Fielitz. Me! An' not Schmarowski.

Ede. Well, that's certain! We all knows that, Mr. Fielitz.

Fielitz. Right up from the foundation! Me an' nobody but me! That there is my land, my bricks, my money! All the insurance money's been sunk into that. Ax mother here if that ain't the fac'!

[_Laughter._

Mrs. Fielitz. Oh, Lord, Fielitz! Can't you let that be? Has you got to tell them old stories all over again?

Fielitz. That I has! I got to prove that, mother! I got to let them people know who I is! Watch out, I tell you, when I makes my speech to-day!

Mrs. Fielitz. Schmarowski says there ain't goin' to be no speech makin'.

Fielitz. You can't go an' tie up my tongue, an' Schmarowski can't do it neither!

[_He withdraws into the adjoining little room._

Langheinrich. You better look out, ole lady, an' see that there ain't no bloody row raised. There's talk now o' some people wantin' to get ugly. Better be a bit careful!

Mrs. Fielitz. All you gotta do is to keep your eye on him a bit. Treat him to drinks from the beginnin'. I can't keep that man in order to-day. He's bound to go to the festival.

Langheinrich. Schmarowski got a drubbin' yesterday.

Ede. Last night, yes, after the people's meetin'.

Mrs. Fielitz. Maybe he went an' gave it to 'em a bit too hot.

Langheinrich. That's what he did. That little scamp talked, Mrs. Fielitz! The whole meetin' just shouted! An' he didn't mind callin' a spade a spade neither.

Mrs. Fielitz. He oughtn't to be so hot, I think.

Langheinrich. That he ought, just that! An' why not? Do what you can an' go ahead! That's the way! That whole crowd don't deserve no better. Not Wehrhahn an' not Friderici. An' anyhow, it was a good thing, Mrs. Fielitz. It was done just in the nick o' time! Now he's gone an' broken with them fellers, an' everybody knows it. There ain't no goin' back now. Now he belongs to us, Mrs. Fielitz, an' I never would ha' thought it of him!

Mrs. Fielitz. You got reason to be satisfied with him, I'm thinkin'. Look at the noise in your workshop with four journeymen ...

Langheinrich. That's true, too, an' I'm not denyin' it. He put money in circulation. I couldn't make friends with Pastor Friderici's collection plate. Couldn't do it. Now everything's arranged.--Now I want you to keep your eyes open at the window when I gets up to the top o' the steeple. I'll wave an' sing out an'--jump down!

_LANGHEINRICH and EDE exeunt with the weather vane. A brief silence._

Mrs. Fielitz. I wonder if Rauchhaupt will be comin' in to-day?

Leontine. I don't see, mother, why you're so frightened all the time. Rauchhaupt ain't nothin' but an old fool. Let him come all he pleases an' jabber away! Let him, mother. Nobody don't pay no attention to his nonsense!

Mrs. Fielitz. They says as he's been talkin' around a lot.

Leontine. Well, let him! I got letters too. Here's one of 'em again, mother. [_She throws down a letter in its envelope._] But I don't worry about that. An' anyhow it's only that assistant at the railroad.

Mrs. Fielitz. It might ha' been Constable Schulze, too.

Leontine. Or that assistant teacher Lehnert--if you want to go on guessin'!

Mrs. Fielitz. Well, let 'em! Them fellers is jealous--an' envious o' Schmarowski an' his new house! They'd like to go an' lay somethin' at our door. But no! 'Tain't so simple as that!

Leontine. [_Who has been sewing at her machine for a moment._] Look, mama, I found this here!

Mrs. Fielitz. Hurry now, hurry! Don't go an' lose time now. That dress has got to be ready by two. Adelaide has been sendin' over again!--The one thing you ought to do is to go down to the cellar an' get that couple o' bottles o' wine, so's we can drink their health when they come up! You c'n see, they'll soon be through.

Leontine. That thing was the Missis' spine supporter.

Mrs. Fielitz. She was a poor, wretched crittur: strappin' herself an' tyin' herself an' squeezin' herself, an' yet she couldn't get rid o' her hump.

Leontine. Well, why did she have to be so vain!

Mrs. Fielitz. Don't grudge her her rest. She's deserved it.

Leontine. They says that her ghost keeps rappin' up in the top attic where Langheinrich sleeps.

Mrs. Fielitz. Let her be! Let her be! Don't talk no more. Maybe he was a bit rough with her for all she brought money to him. She had to sew an' sew an' earn money.... No wonder she can't find no rest.

Leontine. Why did she have to go an' marry Langheinrich?

Mrs. Fielitz. Let them old stories be! I don't like to hear about 'em. My head's full enough o' trouble without 'em. I don't know what's wrong with me anyhow. A body sees ghosts enough now an' then without thinkin' o' the past.

Leontine. I must say, though, that if he's unfaithful to me that way....

Mrs. Fielitz. Langheinrich? Let him go an' be. When it comes to that, there ain't no man that's any good. If there was to be a single one whom you could go an' depend on when it comes to that--it'd be somethin' new to me.--Main thing is to be at your post. The man ain't bad. He means reel well. Be savin'. You know how careful he is! An' take care o' his bit o' clothes an' be good to his little girl. He don't object to your boy. [_FIELITZ re-enters clad in his long, black Sunday coat._] You can't go to that dinner lookin' like that. Come here an' I'll sew on that there button.

Fielitz. 'Tain't possible you'll do that much! Don't go an' hurt yourself now.

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Holds his garment with her left hand and sews, still seated._] It ain't nobody's fault if a body can't get around so quick no more. You gets well enough taken care of.

Fielitz. Aw, them times is past! You needn't lie atop of it all! I'm like a old bootjack--kicked in a corner.--Has anybody been shovin' my clock?

Leontine. It's likely. He's got a screw loose.

[_Exit._

Fielitz. You just wait!

Mrs. Fielitz. Langheinrich was just jokin'?

Fielitz. I'll show the whole crowd o' you somethin' now that I got on top. I c'n go an' stand up to any man yet!

Mrs. Fielitz. Well, o' course. There ain't nobody doubts that.

Fielitz. I just want you to wait two years an' see who it'll be that has made the most money: Schmarowski, Langheinrich or me!

Mrs. Fielitz. I don't see what grudge you got against Langheinrich? He went an' took us into his house....

Fielitz. He did that 'cause he's got his reason an' 'cause he wants a high rent.

Mrs. Fielitz. You better be glad he is the way he is.

Fielitz. On account o' that bit o' business with the fuse? You go right ahead an' let him trample on you.

Mrs. Fielitz. What was that there about a fuse?

Fielitz. That business? What d'you s'ppose? Dr. Boxer talked about it too.

Mrs. Fielitz. I don't know nothin' about them affairs o' yours.

Fielitz. Mother, I got a good conscience.

Mrs. Fielitz. You c'n go an' put it in a glass case.

Fielitz. Mother, I ain't sayin' nothin' else right now ...

Mrs. Fielitz. That's all foolishness!

Fielitz. All right.

Mrs. Fielitz. Schmarowski was here. How's that now with, the mortgage?

Fielitz. You mean that my mortgage is now the fourth?

Mrs. Fielitz. Anybody knows that a buildin' like that costs money.

Fielitz. Schmarowski is sinkin' all his money in bricks an' mortar.

Mrs. Fielitz. Nonsense!

Fielitz. It's a fac'! That thing has taken hold o' him like a sickness.

Mrs. Fielitz. Main thing is that you agrees. Don't you?

Fielitz. Not a bit! I don't agree to nothin'. I been a agent in my time an' took care o' the most complexcated affairs. Yes, an' Wehrhahn patted me on the back an' was mighty jolly 'cause I'd been so sly ... No, mother, I ain't so green.--I c'n keep accounts! I knows how to use my pen! I'm more'n half a lawyer! That feller ain't goin' to get the better o' me.

_SCHMAROWSKI enters very bustling. He has changed the style of his garments considerably--light Spring overcoat, elegant little hat and cane. He carries a roll of building plans._

Schmarowski. Mornin', Mrs. Fielitz. How are you now? Did you get over that slight cold?

Mrs. Fielitz. Thank you kindly; I gets along. Take a seat.

Schmarowski. Yes, I will. I've reely deserved it. I've been on my feet since four o'clock this morning! Lord only knows how I succeed in staggerin' along.

Fielitz. Mornin'. I'm here too, you know.

Schmarowski. Good mornin'. Didn't notice you at all. I have my head so full these days ...

Fielitz. Me too.

Certainly. Don't doubt it! Have you anything to say to me? If so, go ahead, please!

Fielitz. Not this here moment! I got other things to attend to just now. I gotta go an' meet a gentleman at the station on account o' them Russian rubber shoes. Later. Sure. But not just now.

[_He stalks out excitedly._

Schmarowski. That cobbler makes us all look ridiculous. He plays off in all the public houses. The other day this thing happened out there in the waiting-room where all the best people were sittin': he just made his way to 'em an' talked all kinds of rot about the factories he was goin' to build and such like.

Mrs. Fielitz. The man acts as if he didn't have his right mind no more.

Schmarowski. But you're gettin' along all right.

Mrs. Fielitz. Tolerable. Oh, yes. Only I can't hardly stand the hammerin' no more. I wish we was out o' this here house!

Schmarowski. Patience! For Heaven's sake, have patience now! Things have gone pretty smoothly so far. Don't let's begin to hurry now. Just a little patience. I'm as anxious as any one for us to get settled. But I can't do no wonders. I'm glad the roof is on. I know what that cost me--an' then all these annoyances atop o' that. [_He shows her a number of opened letters._] Anonymous, all of 'em, of course. The meanest accusations of Fielitz, of you, an', of course, of myself.

Mrs. Fielitz. I don't know what them people wants. When you got trouble you needn't go huntin' for insult. That's the way things is, an' different they won't be. They questioned us up an' down. Three times I had to go an' run to court. If there'd been anythin' to find out, they'd ha' found it out long ago.

Schmarowski. I don't want to offer no opinion about that. That's your affair; that don't concern me. 'S far as I'm concerned, I gave the people to understand what I am. When people want to get rid o' me, they got to take the consequences. That's what Pastor Friderici had better remember. I saw through his game.--But to come to the point, as I'm in a hurry, as you see. Everything's goin' very 'well--but cash is needed--cash!

Mrs. Fielitz. But Fielitz ain't willin'.

Schmarowski. Mr. Fielitz will have to be!

Mrs. Fielitz. He's still thinkin' about that corner shop o' his. Can't you keep a bit o' space for it?

Schmarowski. Can't be done! How'd I end if I begin that way? You got sense enough to see that yourself. No. There wasn't no such agreement. We can't be thinkin' o' things like that.--A banker is comin' to this dinner, Mrs. Fielitz, an' I ought to know what to expect exactly. Everything is bein' straightened out now. If I'm left to stick in the mud now...!

Mrs. Fielitz. I'll see to it. Don't bother.

Schmarowski. Very well. An' now there's something else. Have you heard anything from Rauchhaupt again?

Mrs. Fielitz. Yes, I hears that he don't want to hold his tongue an' that he goes about holdin' us up to contempt. That's the same thing like with Wehrhahn. I never did nothin' but kindnesses to Rauchhaupt. An' now he comes here day in an' day out an' makes a body sick an' sore with his old stories that never was nowhere but in his head. Maybe ... my goodness ... a man like that ... he c'n go an' keep on an' on, till, in the end ... well, well ...

Schmarowski. Don't be afraid, Mrs. Fielitz. Things don't go no further now that the noise is quieted down.--By the way, I see that the carpenters are assemblin'. I got to go over there an' rattle off my bit o' speech. It's just this: if Rauchhaupt should come in again, you just question him carefully a little. There's a new affair bein' started. Got a political side to it. Immense piece o' business. 'Course I got my finger in that pie, as I has in all the others now. We'd like to get Rauchhaupt's land ... He bought it for a song in the old days. If we c'n get it--the whole of it an' not parcelled--there'd be a cool million in it.

Mrs. Fielitz. An' here I got two savin's bank books.

Schmarowski. Thank you. Just what I need. There are times when a man can't be sparin' o' money ...

Mrs. Fielitz. The girl is comin'. Hurry an' slip 'em into your pocket.

_SCHMAROWSKI hastily puts the bankbooks into his pocket, nods to MRS. FIELITZ and withdraws rapidly._

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Half rising from her chair and looking anxiously out through the window._] If only they don't go' an' make trouble this day. There's a great crowd o' people standin' around.

_LEONTINE returns with the three bottles of wine and the glasses._

Leontine. Mama! Mama! He's downstairs again. That fool of a Rauchhaupt is down there.

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Frightened._] Who?

Rauchhaupt. He's comin' in right behind me.

[_She places the bottles and glasses on the table._

Mrs. Fielitz. [_With sudden determination._] Let him! He c'n come up for all I cares. I'll tell him the reel truth for onct.

[_RAUCHHAUPT puts his head in at the door._

Rauchhaupt. Is I disturbing you, Mrs. Fielitz?

Mrs. Fielitz. No, you ain't disturbin' me.

Rauchhaupt. Is I disturbin' anybody else then?

Mrs. Fielitz. I don't know about that. It depends.

Rauchhaupt. [_Enters. His appearance is not quite so neglected as formerly._] My congratulations. I'm comin' in to see if things is goin' right again.

Mrs. Fielitz. [_With forced joviality._] You got a fine instinct for them things, Rauchhaupt.

Rauchhaupt. [_Staring at her, emphatically._] That I has, certainly! That I has!--I just met Dr. Boxer, too. He's goin' to come up and see you in a minute, too. An' I axed him about a certain matter, too.

Mrs. Fielitz. What kind o' thing was that?

Rauchhaupt. About that time, you know! They says that he said somethin' to Langheinrich that time an' Langheinrich said somethin' to him, too.

Mrs. Fielitz. I ain't concerned with them affairs o' yours. Leontine! Go an' get a piece o' sausage so that they c'n have a bite o' food when they comes over afterwards.

Rauchhaupt. The world don't stop movin'.

Mrs. Fielitz. No, it don't. That's so.

Leontine. Wouldn't you like for me to stay here now?

Rauchhaupt. Yon better be goin' an' buy some silk stockin's.

Mrs. Fielitz. What's the meanin' o' that?

Rauchhaupt. That don't mean, nothin' much. You might think she was a countess--standin' there at Mrs. Boxer's:--Adelaide, I mean, what's now Mrs. Schmarowski. There she stood in the shop an' chaffered about a yellow petticoat. She's a great lady nowadays an' one as wears red silk stockin's.

Leontine. People like us don't hardly have enough to buy cotton, ones.

[_Exit._

Mrs. Fielitz. I wonder what people will say about Adelaide in the end?

Rauchhaupt. That ain't just talkin'. Them's facts. T'other day the beer waggon unloaded some beer at Mrs. Kehrwieder's--Mrs. Kehrwieder that's a washerwoman hereabouts. Well, my lady comes rustlin' up--that's what she does--an' turns up her nose--she ain't no beastly snob, oh, no!--an' then she asks Mrs. Kehrwieder: is it reely true that the poor drinks beer?

Mrs. Fielitz. You needn't come to me with your rot an' your gossip.

Rauchhaupt. Anyhow, what I was goin' to tell you is this: I'm on a new scent!

Mrs. Fielitz. What kind of a scent is that you're on?

Rauchhaupt. Mum's the word! I gotta be careful. I can't say nothin'; I don't pretend to know nothin'. But I kept my eyes open pretty wide, I tell you. There's detectives workin', too. I been to Wehrhahn, too, an' he told me to go right on!

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Knitting._] O Lordy! Wehrhahn. He's goin' to do you a lot o' good, ain't he? It'll cost some more o' your money--that's what!

Rauchhaupt. Mrs. Fielitz, the things we has found out, I'll show 'em up clear as day, I tell you. You c'n get hold o' the smallest secret. The public prosecutor hisself pricked up his ears. An' the way you does it is this: first you draws big circles, Mrs. Fielitz, an' then you draws littler ones an' littler ones an' then--then somebody is caught! Who? Why, them criminals what set fire to the house. O' course I don't mean you, Mrs. Fielitz.

Mrs. Fielitz. I'd give the matter a rest if I was you. Nothin' ain't goin' to come out.

Rauchhaupt. How much you bet, Missis? I'll take you up.

Mrs. Fielitz. If nothin' didn't come out at first ...

Rauchhaupt. How much you bet, Missis? Come now, an' bet. All a body's gotta be is patient. You ordered Gustav to come over at eleven o'clock with the seeds. An' just then Mrs. Schulze passed by your door. No, I don't take my nose off the scent.

Mrs. Fielitz. Now I'll tell you something Rauchhaupt. I don't care nothin' about your nose. But I tell you, if you don't stop but go on sniffin' around here all the blessed time.... I tell you, some day my patience'll be at an end!

Rauchhaupt. Why don't you go an' sue me, Mrs. Fielitz?

Mrs. Fielitz. For my part you c'n say right out what you has to say. Then a person'll know what to answer you. But don't go plannin' your stinkin' plans with that Schulze woman! I put that there woman outta here! She comes here an' tries to talk me into lettin' Leontine come over to her. The constable, he'd like that pretty well. My girl ain't that kind, though. An' now, o' course, the old witch'd like to give us a dig. Before that she wanted to do the same to you!--I don't know anyhow what you're makin' so much noise about! I don't see as anythin' bad has happened to that boy o' yours! He's taken care of. He's got a good home! He gets nursin' an' good food!

Rauchhaupt. No, no, that don't do me no good inside. I don't let that there rest on me--not on me an' not on Gustav. Can't be done! That keeps bitin' into me. I can't let that go. It cost me ten years o' my life. I knows that! I knows what I went through that time when I tried to hang myself. I ain't never goin' to get over that, 's long's I live! I'll find out who was at the bottom of it all! I made up my mind to that!

Fielitz. Good Lord, an' why not? Go ahead an' do it! Keep peggin' away at it. What business is it o' mine? Has I got to have myself excited this way all the time when, the doctor told me how bad it is for me....

Rauchhaupt. Missis, there ain't a soul as knows what that was. I knows it. I just ran home, blind.... couldn't see nothin'! I didn't know nothin' no more o' God or the world. I just kept pantin' for air! An' then there I lay--like a dead person on the bed. They rubbed me with towels an' they brushed me with brushes, an' sprayed camphor all over me an' such stuff! Then I came back to life.

Mrs. Fielitz. How many hundreds o' times has you been tellin' me that? I knows, Rauchhaupt, that you went off o' your head. Well, what about that? Look at me! My hair didn't get no blacker from that there business; I didn't get no stronger from it neither. Who's worse off right now--you or me? That's what I'd like to know. You got your health; you're lookin' prosperous! An' me? What am I to-day? An' how does I look? Well, then, what more d'you want?--I dreamed o' my own funeral, already!--What do you want more'n that? I ain't goin' to bother nobody much longer. There ain't much good to be got by houndin' me!... An' that's the truth.--An' anyhow, you're a foolish kind o' a man, Rauchhaupt. You're so crazy, nobody wouldn't hardly believe it. First you was always wantin' to get rid o' the boy ...

Rauchhaupt. Oh, you don't know Gustav, that you don't! What that there boy could do when I had him ... an' the way he was kind to children an' such like! An' the way he c'n sing! An' the thoughts he's got in his head! That there time when he ran away from the asylum, he went an' he sat down in front o' the church where he was always listenin' to the bells, an' there he sat reel still, waitin'. You ought to ha' seen the boy then, Mrs. Fielitz, the way all that shows in his face. That's somethin'! Only thing is, he can't get it out the way the likes o' us c'n do it.

Mrs. Fielitz. Rauchhaupt, I had worse things 'n that. Yes. I lost a boy--an' he was the best thing I had in this world. Well, you see? You c'n go an' stare at me now! My life--it ain't been no joke neither.--Go right on starin' at me! Maybe you'll lose your taste for this kind o' thing the way you did onct before.

Rauchhaupt. Mrs. Fielitz, I'm a peaceable man, but that there ... I'm peaceable, Missis. I never liked bein' a constable, but ...

Mrs. Fielitz. Well, then! Everybody knows that! On that very account! An' now there ain't nobody as bad as you! You're actin' like a reg'lar bloodhound! Why? You've always been as good as gold, Rauchhaupt! Every child in the place knows that! An' now, what's all this about?--You c'n go an' open one o' them there bottles. Why shouldn't we go an' drink a bit o' a drop together? [_RAUCHHAUPT wipes his eyes and then walks across to draw the cork of one of the bottles._]--Fightin' c'n begin again afterwards. I s'ppose life ain't no different from that.--An' we can't change it. There ain't nothin' but foolishness around. An' when you want to go an' open people's eyes--you can't do it! Foolishness--that's what rules this world.--What are we: you an' me an' all of us? We has had to go worryin' and workin' all our lives--every one of us has! Well, then! We ought to know how things reely is! If you don't join the scramble--you're lazy: if you do--you're bad.--An' everythin' we does get, we gets out o' the dirt. People like us has to turn their hands to anythin'! An' they, they tells you: be good, be good! How? What chanct has we got? But no, we don't even live in peace with each other.--I wanted to get on--that's true. An' ain't it natural? We all wants to get out o' this here mud in which we all fights an' scratches around ... Out o' it ... away from it ... higher up, if you wants to call it that ... Is it true as you're wantin' to move away from here, Rauchhaupt?

Rauchhaupt. Yes, Mrs. Fielitz, I been havin' that in my mind. An' why? Dr. Boxer an' me, we knows why. [_He groans sorrowfully._] It ain't only on account o' my wantin' to be nearer to Gustav. No, no! I don't feel well in this here neighbourhood no more. Everybody looks at me kind o' queer nowadays.

[_The bottle has now been uncorked and RAUCHHAUPT fills two glasses._

Mrs. Fielitz. That's another thing. Why does we care what people think?

Rauchhaupt. No, no! When a man has done what I has--that's different. When a man's gone that length--an' a former officer at that--that he's gone an' taken a rope an' tried.... I don't understand, Missis, I don't understand how I could ha' done that.--But they cut me down ... that they did.

[_He drinks._

Mrs. Fielitz. Is it reely true what people says about it?

Rauchhaupt. You see, it got out, an' people knows! An' that--me bein' a former officer--when I think o' that! No, no rain an' no wind can't wash that blot off o' me.

[_He drinks._

Mrs. Fielitz. I say: let's drink to our health. I don't care about people nor what they thinks.--But if, maybe, you do want to sell some day--who knows?... I c'n talk to Schmarowski. You two might agree.

_DR. BOXER, EDE and LEONTINE enter._

Dr. Boxer. You're having a very jolly time here, Mrs. Fielitz.

Mrs. Fielitz. Just to-day. It's an exception; that it is!

Ede. Young lady! Hey, there! You want to see somethin'? Langheinrich is dancin' around on the church-steeple!

_MRS. FIELITZ rises with difficulty and looks out._

Leontine. I can't bear to look at things like that even.

Ede. Let him fall! He won't fall nowhere but on his feet; he's just like a cat.

Dr. Boxer. [_Softly and half-humorously threatening RAUCHHAUPT._] Stop exciting my patient all the time. A deuce of a lot of good all my doctoring will do then!

Mrs. Fielitz. You c'n leave the man be, Doctor. People has put him up to things. Otherwise he's the best feller in the world.

Dr. Boxer. Very well, then! And beyond that, Mrs. Fielitz, how do you feel?

Mrs. Fielitz. Well enough. 'Tis true,--[_she points to her breast_]--somethin's cracked inside o' here. But then! Everybody's gotta get out o' the world sometime. I've lived quite a while!

Dr. Boxer. You musn't talk so much! You must keep still longer. [_To RAUCHHAUPT._] I've got an invitation for you. Mr. Schmarowski saw you going in here, and so he stopped me and asked me to say that he'd like to have you come over to the dinner!

Mrs. Fielitz. Rauchhaupt--well, o' course. Why not?

Rauchhaupt. An' I won't go givin' nothin' away yet.

Mrs. Fielitz. And you, Doctor?

Dr. Boxer. [_Quickly._] Heaven forbid! Not I?

Mrs. Fielitz. An' why not? Do you bear him a grudge about anythin'?

Dr. Boxer. I? Bear a grudge? I never do that. But, do you see, I'm a lost man as far as all this is concerned. I don't deny that it amuses me to watch all these doings here, but I can't join in them. I'll never learn to do that.--I will probably go away again, too.

Mrs. Fielitz. An' give up such a good practice?

Dr. Boxer. Sea-faring--that gives a man true health. That is the best practice for one, Mrs. Fielitz, who is in some respects so little practical.

Mrs. Fielitz. You ain't very practical, that's true.

Dr. Boxer. No, I am not.--Listen, listen, how they're letting themselves go! [_Many voices are heard in enthusiastic shouting._] Great enthusiasm again! In a moment they will raise Schmarowski and carry him on their shoulders. They were about to do it a moment ago. [_A great, confused noise of huzzaing voices floats into the room._] Well, do you see? Isn't that truly uplifting?

Leontine. Mother, look, look who the workin'men is raisin' up! The workin'men is raisin' him up!

Mrs. Fielitz. Who?

[_She rises convulsively and stares out._

Leontine. Don't you see who it is?

Ede. That's how it is. I couldn't bear to see that there feller. But now ... well ... he's got some sense an' he's fightin' for sensible ideas--against arbitrary an' police power--now, well, I'll drink to his health, too.

Dr. Boxer. Well, of course, Ede, naturally you will!

_FIELITZ enters highly excited._

Fielitz. Me ... me ... me ... me ... it was me that did it! Go on an' shout, an' shout! It's that there feller that they lifts up! Let 'em. But I don't make no speeches like that! Character, conscience--them's the main things. Yes, it was me as paid an' me as built. But even if Wehrhahn went an' dropped me--I don't let go my sound opinions! There's gotta be order! There's gotta be morality! I'm for the monarchy right down to my marrow! I don't envy him that there triumph!

Dr. Boxer. Look here, Fielitz! Come over here to the light, will you? I'd like to examine your eyes.--Don't your pupils move at all?

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Pants swiftly and convulsively, throws her hands high up as if in joy, and cries out half in rapture, half in terror:_] Julius!

Leontine. Mama! Mama!

Ede. She's gone to sleep.

Leontine. [_Appealing to the DOCTOR._] Mother is swingin' her arms around so!

Dr. Boxer. Who? Where? Mrs. Fielitz?

Leontine. Look! Look!

Ede. [_Laughing._] Is she tryin' to catch sparrows in the air?

_DR. BOXER has turned from FIELITZ to MRS. FIELITZ._

Dr. Boxer. Mrs. Fielitz!

_FIELITZ unconcerned by the events in the room, walks excitedly up and down in the background. RAUCHHAUPT is tensely watching from the window what takes place without._

Leontine. What is it? Mother won't answer at all!

Rauchhaupt. I believe they're goin' to end by comin' over here!

Dr. Boxer. What is it, Mrs. Fielitz? What are you trying to do? Why do you move your hands about in that way?

Mrs. Fielitz. [_Reaching out strangely with both hands._] You reaches ... you reaches ... always this way ...

Dr. Boxer. After what?

Mrs. Fielitz. [_As before._] You always reaches out after ... somethin' ...

[_Her arms drop and she falls silent._

Leontine. [_To DR. BOXER._] Is she sleepin'?

Dr. Boxer. [_Seriously._] Yes, she has fallen asleep. But keep all those people back now.

Rauchhaupt. The whole crowd is comin' over here.

Dr. Boxer. [_Emphatically._] Keep them back! Ede! Turn them back at once!

_EDE runs out._

Leontine. Doctor, what's happened to mother?

Dr. Boxer. Your mother has ...

Leontine. What, what?

Dr. Boxer. [_Significantly._] Has fallen asleep.

LEONTINE'S

[_Face assumes an expression of horror; she is about to shriek. DR. BOXER takes hold of her vigorously and puts his hand over her mouth. She regains a measure of self-control._] But, Doctor, she was talkin' just now...?

Dr. Boxer. [_Gently draws LEONTINE forward with his left hand and places his right upon the forehead of the dead woman._] So she was. And from now on she takes her fill of silence.

_In the background FIELITZ, careless of what has happened, regards his eyes sharply and intently in a hand mirror._