I'm goin' to get a Bashly cap, Mrs. Henschel.
MRS. HENSCHEL
Yes, yes, you c'n believe me. Come over here a bit. Keep reel still an'
listen. D'you hear how it ticks? D'you hear how it ticks in the rotten wood?
KARLCHEN
[_Whose wrist she holds in her fevered grasp._] I'm afraid, Mrs.
Henschel.
MRS. HENSCHEL
Oh, never mind. We all has to die! D'you hear how it ticks? Do you? What is that? 'Tis the deathwatch that ticks. [_She falls back._] One ... two ... one ...--Oh, what a girl, what a girl!
_KARLCHEN, released from her grasp, withdraws timidly toward the door. When his hand is on the knob of the glass door a sudden terror overtakes him. He tears the door open and slams it behind him with such force that the panes rattle. Immediately thereupon a vigorous cracking of whips is heard without. Hearing this noise MRS. HENSCHEL starts up violently._
MRS. HENSCHEL
That's father comin'!
HENSCHEL
[_Out in the hallway and yet unseen._] Doctor, what are we goin' to do with the beast?
[_He and the veterinarian are visible through the doorway._
GRUNERT
He won't let you come near him. We'll have to put the twitch on him, I think.
HENSCHEL
[_He is a man of athletic build, about forty-five years old. He wears a fur cap, a jacket of sheep's fur under which his blue carter's blouse is visible, tall boots, green hunting stockings. He carries a whip and a burning lantern._] I don't know no more what's wrong with that beast. I carted some hard coal from the mine yesterday. I came home an' unhitched, an' put the horses in the stable, an'--that very minute--the beast throws hisself down an' begins to kick.
[_He puts his long whip in a corner and hangs up his cap._
_HANNE returns and takes up her work again, although visibly enraged._
HENSCHEL
Girl, get a light!
HANNE
One thing after another!
HENSCHEL
[_Puts out the light in the lantern and hangs it up._] Heaven only knows what all this is comin' to. First my wife gets sick! Then this here horse drops down! It looks as if somethin' or somebody had it in for me! I bought that gelding Christmas time from Walther. Two weeks after an' the beast's lame. I'll show him. Two hundred crowns I paid.
MRS. HENSCHEL
Is it rainin' outside?
HENSCHEL
[_In passing._] Yes, yes, mother; it's rainin'.--An' it's a man's own brother-in-law that takes him in that way.
[_He sits down on the bench._
_HANNE has lit a tallow candle and puts it into a candle stick of tin, which she sets on the table._
MRS. HENSCHEL
You're too good, father. That's what it is. You don't think no evil o'
people.
GRUNERT
[_Sitting down at the table and writing a prescription._] I'll write down something for you to get from the chemist.
MRS. HENSCHEL
No, I tell you, if that chestnut dies on top o' everythin' else--! I don't believe God's meanin' to let that happen!
HENSCHEL
[_Holding out his leg to HANNE._] Come, pull off my boots for me! That was a wind that blew down here on the road from Freiburg. People tell me it unroofed the church in the lower village more'n half, [_To HANNE._]
Just keep on tuggin'! Can't you get it?
MRS. HENSCHEL
[_To HANNE._] I don't know! You don't seem to learn nothin'!
[_HANNE succeeds in pulling off one boot. She puts it aside and starts on the other._
HENSCHEL
Keep still, mother! You don't do it any better!
HANNE
[_Pulls off the second boot and puts it aside. Then in a surly voice to HENSCHEL._] Did you bring me my apron from Kramsta?
HENSCHEL
All the things I'm axed to keep in my head! I'm content if I c'n keep my own bit of business straight an' get my boxes safe to the railroad. What do I care about women or their apron-strings?