PEHR. So this is the forest, whither my thoughts have so often flown through the clear air, and this is the snow! Now I want to throw snowballs, as I've seen school boys do. It is supposed to be something uncommonly amusing. H-m! That's not so wonderful! Once again—I think it almost stupid.

But what is it that plays up in the tree tops? The wind—Ah, it sounds rather well. Zoo, zoo, zoo! But one grows sleepy if one listens to that long. Zoo, zoo, zoo! Now it sounds like the gnats on a summer's evening. Strange how short everything is out here in Nature! The dullness in the tower—that was long! Now it's not at all pretty or amusing. Why, what is this? Ice! What pleasure can one get from that? Ah, now I remember—one can skate on it. I must try that!

LISA. There he is! Ah—he sleeps! What is that? A ring! He is sleeping in the snow! What can have happened? He is hurt! What can I do? In the very heart of the forest and right in the snow! Not a human being comes this way. He'll freeze to death if he cannot get away. The good fairy sent me here to look up that boy, but she did not tell me that I should find him half dead in a snow drift! If only it were summer, with the sun shining on the green grass-carpet—

LISA. What can be the meaning of this!

PEHR. Why, what is this—I fly from the church tower, come into a forest of snow, throw snowballs, skate, bump my head on the ice, lose my senses—then I wake up and find that it is summer! Have I been lying here under the snow six months? No, it doesn't seem likely. I'm as red as a rose. But what do I see down in the deep—A blue sky, green trees, white water-lilies, and right in their midst—a girl!—just like the one the youth had his arm around in the Christmas-home: flowing hair, a mouth like a song, eyes like the dove's!—Ah! she nods to me—I'm coming, I'm coming! There she is! A moment ago she was down here.

LISA. So it seems, but do not always believe your eyes.

PEHR. A strange world, this! But let me see if it is the same girl? Yes, it is she. What! my ring? You robbed me while I lay senseless! Oh, do not believe your eyes, you said. No! for now I have my first lesson—I wanted to embrace an angel, and I find a thief.

LISA. Do not always believe your eyes, Pehr; investigate before you judge.

PEHR. You are right. I shall do so. Girl, who are you? What is your name?

LISA. Lisa is my name, but who I am you must not know until the time is fulfilled. I came here and found you senseless—on the ice I found your ring, the powers of which I did not know.

PEHR. You have saved me from certain death in the snow. Forgive me! Lisa, you shall go with me on my journey, and you shall see a jolly life.

LISA. You are traveling, you say—What is the object of your journey?

PEHR. I seek—like all the rest—happiness.

LISA. You seek happiness! That is a fleeting thing.

PEHR. Ah, say not so! I can have all that I wish for. Have we not been given the most delightful summer in the middle of winter? See how gloriously the sun shines up in the pines! You must know that all this is new to me. Oh, look! What are these?

LISA. The fruit of the trees.

PEHR. Then it is good to eat.

LISA. No; but children play with it.

PEHR. Play—that I have never done! Shall we play, Lisa?

LISA. Yes—but what? Shall we play a game of tag?

PEHR. How does it go?

LISA. Watch me! Now catch me!

PEHR. But that's not so easily done! The damned spruce apples!

LISA. Mustn't curse the fruit of the trees!

PEHR. One can do without such fruit! I prefer the kind I saw on a Christmas-tree. If this spruce could bear such fruit, then— Look, look! Let us taste.

LISA. Well, what think you?

PEHR. Oh! it's rather good—but not quite what I had fancied.

LISA. So it is always—all through life.

PEHR. My dear girl, how wise you are! Lisa, may I put my arm around your waist?

LISA. Yes; but what for?

PEHR. May I kiss you also?

LISA. Yes—there's no harm in that, surely.

PEHR. I'm so warm after the play, Lisa! Shall we bathe in the brook?

LISA. Bathe!

PEHR. Yes!

LISA. No, no, no!

PEHR. Who is that screech-owl up in the tree?

LISA. It is a bird that sings.

PEHR. What does he sing about?

LISA. Hush! I understand bird language; that my godmother taught me.

PEHR. It will be fun hearing about it!

LISA. "Not so, not so!" he said just then. Pehr, do you know what he said then?

PEHR. No.

LISA. "Live guiltless! Mine eye seeth thee."

PEHR. Guiltless—what is that?

LISA. I don't know—but dress yourself!

PEHR. It's only nonsense; there's no one here to see us. Cuckoo! Cuckoo!

PEHR. What is that rogue calling?

LISA. Cuckoo, cuckoo!

PEHR. What a lot of tiresome formalities there has got to be!

LISA. Can you not enjoy the great, innocent pleasures of Nature?

PEHR. Yes, for a little while—What was that?

LISA. An ant.

PEHR. Only look at all the horrid pests! Ouch! what was it that stung me? A mosquito!

LISA. Everything here in life is incomplete, Pehr. Remember that, and take the bad with the good.

PEHR. Deuce take the bad! I want the good. Now I'm tired of the for est. Surely one cannot play all one's life! I yearn for activity, and want to be among people. Tell me, Lisa—you, who are such a wise little creature, what do people value most? For that I shall procure for myself.

LISA. Pehr, before I answer you, listen to a sensible word! People will cause you just as much annoyance as the mosquitoes do, but they will not give you the delight to be found in Nature's perennial youth.

PEHR. Nature!—Oh, yes, it is very pretty when seen from a church tower, but it becomes rather monotonous near to. Doesn't everything stand still? Don't the trees stand in the selfsame places where they stood fifty years ago, and won't they be standing there fifty years hence? My eyes are already weary of

this

splendor! I want movement and noise, and if the people are like mosquitoes, it will be so much easier to keep them at a distance than this company.

LISA. You'll see, no doubt, you'll see! Experience will teach you better than my word.

PEHR. And now, Lisa, what do people value most in a person?

LISA. I'm ashamed to say it.

PEHR. You must tell me!

LISA. Gold.

PEHR. Gold? But that is something outside the person which does not belong to his being.

LISA. Yes, that is known; but it is so nevertheless.

PEHR. What extraordinary qualities does gold possess?

LISA. All! It is good for everything—and nothing. It gives all that earth has to offer; in itself it is the most perfect of all the earth's products which rust cannot spot—but which can put rust-spots into souls.

PEHR. Well, then! Will you follow me, Lisa?

LISA. I will always follow you—at a distance.

PEHR. At a distance! and why not near me? Lisa, now I shall put my arm around your waist again. Why do you run away?

LISA. Ask the bird!

PEHR. I can't understand what he says; you must tell me.

LISA. No, I cannot!

PEHR. Cannot? What is it?

LISA. He is not singing for us now. He sings to his sweetheart, so you must know what he is saying.

PEHR. How should I know that!

LISA. He says like this: "I love you, I love you!"

PEHR. Stay! Shall you run away from me? Lisa! Lisa! She's gone! Very well then! Come hither palace and plates and wines and horses and chariots and gold—gold!SCENE TWO.

A luxurious Banquet Hall. Servants bring on a table, with food and wines; other servants carry in a chest containing gold; others, again, a table covered with plates, vases, candle-sticks, etc.—all of gold.

PEHR. So this is the rich man's abode! Well, it looks rather promising. Slaves! Give me my best holiday-coat—but it must be of gold. A chair! Now, Pehr, you shall enjoy life! and that is your right. Haven't you been up mornings at four o'clock; and rung for early Mass; haven't you swept the church on Fridays and scoured the stairs on Saturdays; haven't you eaten bread and herring three hundred and sixty-five days in the year and rinsed them down with cold water; haven't you slept on pease-bolt which was so badly threshed that you could feel the pease in your knee-joints? Oh, yes, you have—therefore enjoy yourself!

BUTLER. Pardon, Your Grace! The table is not laid.

PEHR. Isn't it?

BUTLER. In a couple of hours the roasts will be ready.

PEHR. I don't want any roasts.

BUTLER. It can never be that one sits down at an unlaid table!

PEHR. Who forbids me in my own house?

BUTLER. Etiquette, Your Grace, does not under any circumstances permit it.

PEHR. Etiquette! What kind of torment is that?

BUTLER. Your Grace, listen to an old man's word! He who in Your Grace's position violates the rules of etiquette is lost.

PEHR. What a harsh gentleman! I shall have to submit, although I'm beastly hungry—But, wait! Is there nothing that will move that gentleman? I have heard that gold— Would not—

BUTLER. Your Grace! I stand above the servants; above me stands Your Grace, but above us all stands—Conventionality. Its laws are perpetual, for they have their foundation both in common sense and in what we call historical hypotheses.

PEHR. And the historical hypotheses—cannot they be reached with gold?

BUTLER. They are non-corruptible—in this instance!

PEHR. What's the good of all my wealth if I cannot eat my fill when I'm hungry? I am worse off than the poorest bellringer.

PEHR. Look—here's a new torture! With what shall you gentlemen pester an innocent victim?

TAX ASSESSOR. Taxation, Your Grace.

PEHR. Indeed! So it is you who regulate people's worth. How high is a human being estimated these days?

TAX ASSESSOR. Two per hundred, Your Grace;—all depends on what one is good for.

PEHR. Tell me, can't I withdraw while the gentlemen figure up? for I am both hungry and thirsty.

TAX ASSESSOR. Impossible! It must be done in the owner's presence.

PEHR. O Lord, what trials! But I may be allowed to sit down at least?

TAX ASSESSOR. As you please! Two dozen plates with beveled edges—write! Six wine-coolers, with handles of finer metal—write! One sugar bowl, with sifting spoon, and two smaller ditto—write! Two dozen knives, with handles of mother-of-pearl—brand new—write!

PEHR. See if I don't go crazy!

TAX ASSESSOR. Dining table of oak, with double leaves—write! Six walnut chairs.

PEHR. One more!

LAWYER. Your Grace is summoned to the City Court to have tax No. 2867 legalized before twelve o'clock this day.

PEHR. The Court? Litigation? I never institute proceedings, sir!

LAWYER. It's not a question of litigation—only to verify facts.

PEHR. I don't wish to verify facts.

LAWYER. But to put the case—

PEHR. I don't want to put the case—I want my dinner! Butler, can't I take a sandwich?

PEHR. Are there still more?

PETTY CONSTABLE. Your Grace is summoned to the Bar tomorrow at eleven o'clock for neglecting to keep the street clean.

PEHR. Must I keep the street clean—I, who am such a rich man! What, then, must I not do?

PETTY CONSTABLE. It is the duty of every householder to keep clean in front of his own house.

PEHR. Etiquette, taxation, put the case, keep yard and street clean, hunger and thirst—is that the rich man's lot! Then I would rather be a street sweeper and own myself. And I'm not allowed to turn these gentlemen out, who crowd into my room, and I cannot go my way when I choose!

PEHR. Mr. Lawyer and Mr. Constable, can't the law protect an unfortunate rich man so that he may have peace in his home, or is the law only for the poor?

LAWYER. Your Grace can no longer be regarded as an individual; for when one through riches has risen to the community's heights, one belongs to the whole.

PEHR. And so one is placed outside the law.

LAWYER. Above the law, Your Grace!

PEHR. Ha—! What does this last friend want! Are there any presents in those baskets?

PETITIONER. Your Honorable Grace is appointed Church Warden—

PEHR. Called—

PETITIONER. Called to vote day after to-morrow.

PEHR. Eleven o'clock—

PETITIONER. Eleven o'clock-to be present at the election of the new