WEILER.

We shall all be cold some day.

[Sits down to eat.]

FORESTER (has entered from the side).

Have you found the trail of the stag from Luetzdorf again?

WEILER.

Stalking about.  But that’s the way it goes.  As soon as they are man and wife, master and servant—­then love and friendship fly out of the window.

FORESTER.

What do you mean by “stalking about?”

WEILER.

On his four legs he stood by the boundary forest in the oats, and was eating.

FORESTER.

Who?

WEILER.

The stag from Luetzdorf.

FORESTER (emphatically).

A stag does not—­eat; he browses.

WEILER.

All right!

SOPHY (waiting on him).

But what is your news?

WEILER.

Well—­

SOPHY.

I wonder whether I shall hear anything now?  If I don’t care to know anything, then you never get through talking.

FORESTER (stands before him; severely).

Weiler, do you hear?

WEILER.

Well, Godfrey.  Today he has grown six inches; he immediately put on his laced hat, girded on his hunting knife and drank two bitters and a half dozen glasses of whisky more than usual; in consequence he has need of a road that’s broader than the ordinary by half.

FORESTER.

Have you done eating?

WEILER.

Almost.  But tell me, who is now the real forester of Duesterwalde?  The other fellow is already giving orders to the woodcutters for the clearing, so he must be the forester.  But you also act as if you were still forester.

FORESTER.

You may be sure, I still am.  I am forester of Duesterwalde, and nobody else.

WEILER.

You intend to carry your point?  But I’ll tell you who is in the right nowadays [makes a pantomime of counting money]—­whoever has the longest breath.—­Who is coming there in such a hurry?

SCENE VII

WILKENS enters as hurriedly as his figure permits.  WEILER eating; FORESTER; SOPHY.

WILKENS (while entering).

But what in the world has happened here?  Good-day to you all.

SOPHY (alarmed).

Happened!  But for heaven’s sake—­has anything happened?

FORESTER.

You immediately lose your head.

WILKENS.

You’ll see, you obstinate fellow!

SOPHY.

But what is the meaning of all this?

WILKENS.

How should I know?  On the road I meet that crazy John, and he is gesticulating with his arms as if he were striking some one, and points in the direction of the forester’s house—­

FORESTER.

He was pointing toward the forest; he meant to call attention to the clearing—­