The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann Volume I Part 93

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 cla.s.s, 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