The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume I Part 92

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 b.u.t.ter'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