The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann, Volume I
Chapter 17
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