The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume Ii Part 116

No, Mrs. John, we didn't hear that.

MRS. JOHN

The rain's splashin' down again.

_One hears a shower of rain beginning to fall._

WALBURGA

[_Nervously._] Come, Erich, let's get out into the open anyhow.

MRS. JOHN

[_Speaking louder and louder in her incoherent terror._] An' I tell you another thing: I was talking to the woman what was struck by lightenin'

jus' a short time before. An' she says--now listen to me, Mr. Spitta--if you takes a dead child what's lyin' in its carridge an' pushes it out into the sun ... but it's gotta be summer an' midday ... it'll draw breath, it'll cry, it'll come back to life!--You don't believe that, eh?

But I seen that with my own eyes!

[_She circles about the room in a strange fashion, apparently becoming quite oblivious of the presence of the two young people._

WALBURGA

Look, here, Mrs. John is positively uncanny! Let's go!

MRS. JOHN

[_Speaking still louder._] You don' believe that, that it'll come to life again, eh? I tell you, its mother c'n come an' take it. But it's gotta be nursed right off.

SPITTA

Good-bye, Mrs. John.

MRS. JOHN

[_In strange excitement accompanies the two young people to the door.

Speaking still more loudly._] You don' believe that! But it's the solemn truth, Mr. Spitta!

_SPITTA and WALBURGA leave the room._

MRS. JOHN

[_Still holding the door in her hand calls out after them._] Anybody that don' believe that don' know nothin' o' the whole secret that I discovered.

_The foreman-mason JOHN appears in the door and enters at once._

JOHN

Why, there you are, mother! I'm glad to see you. What's that there secret you're talkin' about?

MRS. JOHN

[_As though awakening, grasps her head._] Me?--Did I say somethin' about a secret?

JOHN

That you did unless I'm hard o' hearin'. An' it's reelly you unless it's a ghost.

MRS. JOHN

[_Surprised and frightened._] Why d'you think I might be a ghost?

JOHN

[_Pats his wife good-naturedly on the back._] Come now, Jette, don't bite me. I'm reel glad, that I am, that you're here again with the little kid!

[_He goes behind the part.i.tion._] But it's lookin' a little measly.

MRS. JOHN

The milk didn't agree with him. An' that's because out there in the country the cows is already gettin' green fodder. I got milk here from the dairy company that comes from dry fed cows.

JOHN

[_Reappears in the main room._] That's what I'm sayin'. Why did you have to go an' take the child on the train an' outa town. The city is healthier. That's my notion.

MRS. JOHN

I'm goin' to stay at home now, Paul.

JOHN

In Hamburg everythin' is settled, too. To-day at noon I'm goin' to meet Karl an' then he'll tell me when I c'n start workin' for the new boss!--Look here: I brought somethin' with me, too.

[_He takes a small child's rattle from his breeches pocket and shakes it._

MRS. JOHN

What's that?

JOHN

That's somethin' to bring a bit o' life into the place, 'cause it's pretty quiet inside in Berlin here! Listen how the kid's crowin'. [_The child is heard making happy little noises._] I tell you, mother, when a little kid goes on that way--there ain't nothin' I'd take for it!

MRS. JOHN

Have you seen anybody yet?

JOHN

No!--Leastways only Quaquaro early this mornin'.