The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume I Part 104

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. n.o.body 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 n.o.body 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. n.o.body 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