Jacob.  I have not studied, Mossur, but people say I have a good head.  The district judge never comes town but he sends for me at once.  He has told my parents a hundred times that I ought to devote myself to books, and that something great might be made of me.  When I have nothing to do, I go speculating.  The other day I made a verse on Morten Nielsen, who drank himself to death.

Montanus.  Let us hear the verse.

Jacob.  You must know, first, that the father and the grandfather of this same Morten were both fishermen, and were drowned at sea.  This was how the verse went: 

     Here lies the body of Morten Nielsen;
     To follow the footsteps of his forbears,
     Who died in the water as fishermen,
     He drowned himself in brandy.

I had to read the verse before the district judge the other day, and he had it written down and gave me two marks for it.

Montanus.  The poem, though formaliter very bad, is none the less materialiter excellent.  The prosody, which is the most important thing, is lacking.

Jacob.  What does that mean?

Montanus.  Certain lines have not pedes, or feet, enough to walk on.

Jacob.  Feet!  I would have you know that in a few days it ran over the whole countryside.

Montanus.  I see you have a crafty head.  I could wish that you had studied and understood your Philosophiam instrumentalem, so you could dispute under me.  Come, let us go. [Exeunt.]

ACT V

SCENE I

(Same as in Act IV.  A Lieutenant, Jesper the Bailiff.)

Lieutenant.  How can I manage to see the fellow, Mr. Bailiff?  I should like to have a talk with him.  Is he a likely looking fellow?

Jesper.  Oh, he looks pretty well, and he has a mouth like a razor.

Lieutenant.  That makes no difference, so long as he’s strong and active.

Jesper.  He can say anything he wants, and maintain it.  He proved beyond a doubt that Peer the deacon was a cock.

Lieutenant.  Is he good and broad across the shoulders?

Jesper.  A big, strong lad.  Every one in the house here is afraid of him, even his parents, for he can turn them into cows, oxen, and horses, then back again into people,—­that is, he can prove that they are, from books.

Lieutenant.  Does he look as if he could stand knocking about?

Jesper.  And he proved that the earth was round, too.

Lieutenant.  That doesn’t matter to me.  Does he look as if he were brave, and had a stout heart?

Jesper.  He would stake his life for a letter of the alphabet, not to mention anything else.  He has set every one here by the ears, but that makes no difference to him—­he won’t budge from his opinions and his learning.