The Dramatic Works of Gerhart Hauptmann
Chapter 148 : RAUCHHAUPT I ordered him to go over to the Fielitzes. LANGHEINRICH The Fielitzes have

RAUCHHAUPT

I ordered him to go over to the Fielitzes.

LANGHEINRICH

The Fielitzes have all gone in to town.

RAUCHHAUPT

I don't know, but there's a kind o' burned smell in the air ... Ouch!

[_He distorts his face in pain and grasps his leg._] Ain't Leontine here?

LANGHEINRICH

Naw, she had to go to court to-day. Always the same trouble with the alimony. That confounded feller, he don't pay.

RAUCHHAUPT

[_Calls out._] Gustav! [_He listens and then turns leisurely back to the little gate. The wind worries and drives him._] Gustav!

LANGHEINRICH

Stiff wind coming up, all right! [_RAUCHHAUPT disappears._] Ede!

EDE

All right.

LANGHEINRICH

Let's get to work now! [_He spits into his hands and sets to work vigorously._] Well, Doctor, where've you been runnin' about? Did you get as far as the Chinese? You gotta tell us all about that some day when we got plenty o' time for it.

DR. BOXER

Surely, I've been all over.

LANGHEINRICH

Did you see the sea-serpent too?

Da. BOXER

Surely, Langheinrich, far down in the South Seas.

LANGHEINRICH

An' it's true that it feeds on dill pickles?

DR. BOXER

Several hundred dozen a day.

LANGHEINRICH

[_Laughing._] That's all right then. An' when, you see that serpent again, just give her my best regards.

DR. BOXER

I doubt whether I'll ever get so far again in life.

LANGHEINRICH

I guess you got all you wanted o' that? Now you see. Doctor, you just got to the point where I am exactly an' I didn't have to move from this spot.--Well, I guess your old mother, she'll be glad. She's gettin' along all right. Doin' reel well. I always looked in a bit now an' then, helpin' to see that things was all right.

DR. BOXER

And that was very good in you, Langheinrich.

LANGHEINRICH

Naw! Pshaw! I ain't sayin' it on that account. By the way, though, before I forget. I got a little account standin' with your good mother--for taffeta an' silk an' needles an' thread. Some cloth, too. My wife used 'em sewing. I'll straighten that up very soon.

DR. BOXER

[_Deprecatingly._] Never mind. That matter will be arranged.

LANGHEINRICH

Ede!

EDE

All right?

LANGHEINRICH

Hurry along now! [_He takes up a heavy hammer._] If I don't go right on workin' I'll end by bustin' out o' my skin.

_EDE approaches with a white hot piece of iron in the tongs and holds it on the anvil._

LANGHEINRICH

Now we're goin' to start, Doctor! Down on it! Hit it now! [_He and DR.

BOXER beat the iron, keeping time with each other._] Well, you see! It's got to go evenly. Doctor! Then I tell you the work's smooth as b.u.t.ter.

[_They stop hammering; EDE takes up the iron again, takes it into the smithy and holds it into the flame._

LANGHEINRICH