Peer.  If he wants to dispute with me, he will find that I can hold my own; and if he wants to have a singing match with me, he will get the worst of it.  I once had a singing contest with ten deacons and beat every one of them, for I outsang them in the Credo, all ten of them.  Ten years ago I was offered the position of choir-master in Our Lady’s School, but I didn’t want it.  Why should I take it, Jeppe?  Why should I leave my parish, which loves and honors me, and which I love and honor in return?  I live in a place where I earn my daily bread, and where I am respected by every one.  The governor himself never comes here but he sends for me at once to pass the time with him and sing for him.  Last year on this occasion he gave me two marks for singing “Ut, re, mi, fa, sol.”  He swore that he took more pleasure in that than in the best vocal music he had heard in Copenhagen.  If you give me another glass of brandy, Jeppe, I will sing the same thing for you.

Jeppe.  Do, please.  Pour another glass of brandy, Nille.

[Exit Nille.]

Peer.  I don’t sing for every one, but you are my good friend, Jeppe, whom I serve with pleasure. (He sings.) Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, ut; now down—­ut, si, la, sol, fa, mi, re, ut. (Reenter Nille with brandy.  He drinks.} Now you shall hear how high I can go.  Ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si, ut, re—­

Jeppe.  Heavens!  That last was fine.  Our little pigs can’t go any higher with a squeak.

Peer.  Now I will sing rapidly:  Ut, re, mi, re—­No! that wasn’t right.  Ut, re, mi, do, re, mi, ut—­No, that went wrong, too.  It’s cursed hard, Jeppe, to sing so fast.  But there comes Monsieur Jeronimus.

SCENE 5

(Enter Jeronimus, Magdelone, and Lisbed.)

Jeronimus.  Good morning, kinsman!  Have you any news from your son?

Jeppe.  Yes; he is coming to-day or to-morrow.

Lisbed. Oh, is it possible?  Then my dream has come true.

Jeronimus.  What did you dream?

Lisbed. I dreamed that I slept with him last night.

MAGEDELONE.  There is something in dreams, I tell you.  Dreams are not to be despised.

Jeronimus.  That’s true enough, but if you girls didn’t think so much about the menfolk in the daytime, you wouldn’t have so many dreams about them at night.  I suppose you used to dream just as much about me in the days when we were engaged, Magdelone?

MAGEDELONE.  I did, indeed, but upon my word I haven’t dreamed about you for some years now.

Jeronimus.  That’s because your love isn’t as hot now as it used to be.

Lisbed. But is it possible that Rasmus Berg is coming home to-morrow?

Jeronimus.  Come, daughter, you shouldn’t show that you are so much in love.