(_Hammelev enters from the left. An elderly man with a kindly,
somewhat tired expression on his face_.)
MRS. HAMMELEV
Kirsten is here, pa!
HAMMELEV
So I see, mother, I see. (_Goes to Kirsten and shakes hands with her_.)
How do you do, Kirsten? I hear that your husband will drive to the
station for us to-night. I want to thank you for your kindness.
KIRSTEN
Oh, that’s nothin’ to thank us for, Mr. Hammelev. It ain’t the season
of the year when we use our horses much.
HAMMELEV
No, oh no--now that you’ve got the hay in, I guess you don’t. But it
isn’t the first time we have had reason to thank you and your husband.
Since we haven’t any horse and carriage, we ought to be thankful that
we have such kind and helpful neighbors. (_Goes to the pipe-rack, takes
down a pipe, and fills it with tobacco_.) Well, Kirsten, I suppose you
know what a great day it was in school to-day?
KIRSTEN
Oh, yes, I can imagine, Mr. Hammelev. It is in a way a day of
rejoicin’--we can’t say nothin’ else. The Lord has dealt severe with
you, so we are glad when He helps you along a little and makes it
easier for you.
MRS. HAMMELEV (_who has been serving the coffee, interrupting_)
You’ll take a cup of coffee, too, won’t you, pa?
HAMMELEV (_who has lighted his pipe_)
Yes, thanks; we can always drink a little coffee. (_Sits, smokes,
and drinks his coffee_.) Yes, you see the cross we have to bear,
Kirsten--we ought never to complain of that. (_Good-naturedly_.)
At your house you don’t complain, anyhow, I don’t think. Do you,
Kirsten?--You haven’t anything to complain of.
KIRSTEN (_knocks under the table, from superstition_)
I’d better knock on wood before it’s too late.
HAMMELEV
Yes, do that, Kirsten. Well, I won’t say that we have anything to
complain of over here, either. We get our daily bread. And now this
great joy when our son comes home. We haven’t seen him for four years.
KIRSTEN
Is it as long as that?
MRS. HAMMELEV (_to herself_)
Four long years!
HAMMELEV
Yes, it has always been worst for mother, of course. You see, I have
the school and the church singing to think of. But she has to sit alone
here in this room day after day. Then, of course, her thoughts go far,
far off--we all know how it is. I often say to mother: “Mother, I have
a hundred little children to take care of every day.” That means a
hundred little hearts and a hundred little brains that I must keep
watch over. And so I say to mother, it seems to me as if she ought to
be able to keep track of at least herself. But it is easy enough to
find fault. Sorrow is a weed that it is not so easy to pull up by the
roots.
KIRSTEN
Yes, if I’d had such a misfortune to think of, I don’t know what I’d
have done.
HAMMELEV
But now mother will get her reward for all she has gone through, poor
mother. To-night he’ll be here in this room, he whom she is always
thinking of. She hasn’t even slept during the last half-dozen nights.
MRS. HAMMELEV (_smiling_)
Now you are exaggerating again, pa!
HAMMELEV
Well, well--you haven’t had very much sleep. A little with one eye
is about all, if we should sum it up. And there has been such a
house-cleaning and scrubbing and frying and baking, as if the vicar
himself was expected. The boy’s room is fixed for him; it is just as it
was when he was at home last, excepting, of course, that everything is
newly washed and cleaned and polished.
KIRSTEN
But when he ain’t able to see it--
HAMMELEV
No, he can’t see it. But the blind instinctively feel what we others
see. They can, for instance, enjoy a beautiful landscape. The color
rays work on their skin, you understand, Kirsten. It is just as if they
were taking a sort of bath in all the beauty. And then, of course, they
have the sense of smell. Well, now--and there are twelve new shirts and
twelve pairs of socks for him on his bed. Those he can get a great deal
of pleasure from. Would you like to see them, Kirsten?
MRS. HAMMELEV (_somewhat impatiently_)
Oh, that’s nothing--
HAMMELEV
Yes, Kirsten, just to make mother feel ashamed, I’ll show you how
diligent she has been. She knows how to do these things. She has a
linen closet that would make many a woman envious.
KIRSTEN
Yes, we sure have to have clothes on our body.
HAMMELEV
Yes, Kirsten; but you and your husband no doubt have more than we. Come
along now; I’ll show you what mother has made for our boy.
KIRSTEN (_puts away her coffee-cup, rises, shakes hands with both_)
Yes, all right. Well--thank you ever so much for the coffee.
(_All three go out, right. At the same moment are seen, through
the windows in the background, Anton Hammelev and Louise Thorsen,
approaching by the roadway outside_.)