THE SECOND ACT
The smithy of LANGHEINRICH. The little house protrudes at an angle into the village street. The shed that projects over the smithy is supported by wooden posts. The empty space below the shed is used for the storage of tools and materials. Wheels are leaned against the wood, a plough, wheel-tyres, pieces of pig iron, etc. An anvil stands in the open, too, and several working stools. From behind the house, jutting out diagonally, a wooden wagon is visible. The left front wheel has been taken off and a windlass supports the axle.
Through the door that leads to the shop one sees smithy fires and bellows.
Opposite the smithy, on the left side of the village street which, taking a turn, is lost to view in the background, there is a board fence. A small locked gate opens upon the street.
A cloudy, windy day.
DR. BOXER, in a slouch hat and light overcoat, stands holding a heavy smith's hammer at arm's length. EDE has a horseshoe in his right hand, a smaller hammer in his left, and is looking on.
EDE
[Counts.] … twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four an' one makes twenty-five an' another makes twenty-six.—Great guns, you're ahead o' me now. An' twenty-seven, an' twenty-eight, an' twenty-nine an' thirty. My respects, Doctor. That's all right. Is that the effect o' the sea air?
DR. BOXER
It may be. You see I haven't quite forgotten the trick.
EDE
No, you haven't. That's pretty good. Now let's try it with weights, though. I c'n hold up a hundred an' fifty pounds, Doctor. How about yourself?
DR. BOXER
I don't know. It remains to be seen.
EDE
What? You think you c'n lift a hundred weight an' a half? You're a little bit of a giant, ain't you? You didn't learn that on board ship. I thought you travelled as a sawbones an' not as a strong man!—Look at that little man over there goin' into Mrs. Fielitz' house. That's her son-in-law.
DR. BOXER
He looks very much like a bishop.
EDE
Right enough! That's what he is—Bishop Schmarowski.—You c'n knock! The old woman's out and she took her cobbler with her. There won't be nothin' to get there to-day.—You see, Doctor, when that fellow goes there he wants money. If he weren't hard up he wouldn't come.
DR. BOXER
The Fielitzes went in to Berlin to-day; I met them this morning at the railway station. Tell me: he isn't quite right in his mind, is he?
EDE
How so? That wasn't never noticed. He's a pretty keen fellow … No, I couldn't say that he's crazy.
DR. BOXER
He talked a mixture of idiotic nonsense and looked away from me while he was talking. The fellow looked like an evil conscience personified. But I don't suppose he has a conscience.
EDE
By the way: that time they came down on you an' made a search in your house—that fellow Fielitz had his hand in it. He helped get you into that pickle.
[MRS. SCHULZE puts her head out at the attic window.
MRS. SCHULZE
Ede!
EDE
What?
MRS. SCHULZE
Ain't Mr. Langheinrich back yet?
EDE
Well, o' course he is, naturally. [MRS. SCHULZE disappears and EDE withdraws under the shed.] Quick! Take this hammer, will you, Doctor, an' hammer away a bit. If you kept up your strength the way you have, you ain't forgot about that neither.
DR. BOXER
I went at locksmith's work like the deuce when there was nothing to do on board ship. That gave me a very good chance.
EDE
You're a doctor an' you're a smith an' … I guess you're a sausage maker too!
DR. BOXER
I even made sausages once.
EDE
Nobody didn't want to eat them, I guess.
DR. BOXER
I wouldn't have advised any one to do so either. The sausages were mainly filled with arsenic. The rats scarcely left us space to turn around in.
EDE
[About to set to work.] Ugh! That wouldn't be no kind o' sausage for me. Come now, Doctor, go at it! We wants the missis to think that two people is workin' here or she'll never stop axin' questions.
DR. BOXER
Where did Langheinrich go so early?
EDE
That's a secret all right—the kind o' secret that all the sparrows on the gutters is chirpin'.—Doctor, roll that wheel over here, will you? You got a chance now to deserve well, as they says, o' the Prussian state, 'cause this here waggon belongs to the government forester.—That sort o' thing can't do you no harm.
DR. BOXER
No. And anyhow I ought to stand in with people.
[He rolls the wheel slowly along; it escapes him and glides backwards.
EDE
That ain't so easy. Them people has long memories. [He catches the wheel.] Hold on there! No goin' backward! I'm for progress, I am, Doctor! I'm willin' to fight for that!
DR. BOXER
But you must be careful of your fingers. [He puts on a leathern apron.]
Is Langheinrich going to be gone long?
EDE
[Whistles.] That depends on how hard it is!
DR. BOXER
Why do you whistle so significantly?
EDE
That's a gift o' my family. All my eleven brothers an' sisters is musicians. I'm the only one that's a smith. [For a space both work at the wheel in silence. Then EDE continues.] 'Twouldn't be a bad stage play, I tell you. You wouldn't have to be scared o' riskin' somethin' on that. You'd make money! That's somethin' fine—specially for young people! You been away here a good long while, that's the reason you don't know what's what. I could tell you a few little things that happen around here in bright daylight.—D'you know that Leontine?
DR. BOXER
Very sorry indeed, but I don't.
EDE
No? An' then you pretend that this is your home an' don't know that girl.
Somethin' wrong with you!
DR. BOXER
Oh, yes, yes, Leontine! Mrs. Wolff's daughter! I once got the deuce of a flogging on her account.
EDE
Well, I wish you'd ha' been here two hours ago. Well, first of all that same girl slouched by here … No! First of all her mother an' father went away …'twasn't more'n dawn yet! Then Leontine at about eight. She looked all around an' waited an' made lovin' eyes in this direction an' then walked by. You should ha' seen Langheinrich. "Sweetheart, where are you goin'?"—Then, after a while comes Constable Schulze and goes after her.—That was too much for Langheinrich. Off with his apron an' there he goes, quick 's a stag. That's the way it was. You could ha' observed that: the rest ain't to be observed.—There's Langheinrich hurryin' back now. [He at once sets zealously to work and pretends to discover LANGHEINRICH, who is approaching hastily and vigorously at this moment.] Well, at last! Good thing you're here! No end o' askin' after you. Did you catch her?
LANGHEINRICH
[Brusquely.] Catch what?
EDE
I meant the 'bus.
LANGHEINRICH
Hold your…! I had business to attend to.—Well now, I'll give a dollar if this here ain't Dr. Boxer! Why, how are you? How are things goin'? An' what are you doin' nowadays? Did your ship come in? You been away now—lemme see—that must be three years, eh? Sure. That's … well, time passes.
DR. BOXER
I want to settle down here, Langheinrich. That is to say, I have that intention if it's possible. I should like to try my luck at home for a change.
LANGHEINRICH
Things is best at home, that's right. O' course, there's one here now, a doctor I mean, but he ain't good for much. They say somethin' queer happened to him onct—got his ears boxed too hard or somethin'. An' they say that made him kind o' melancholious. That ain't much good for his patients! No sick man can't get well through that. I'll send for you, Doctor, if I need help.
DR. BOXER
I'll extract my first dozen wisdom teeth free of charge. So you'll be glad if you don't need me soon.
LANGHEINRICH
Well, I … fact is … my wife is sick.
MRS. SCHULZE comes hurriedly from the house.
MRS. SCHULZE
It's a mighty good thing that you're here. D'you hear? That whimperin' goes right on.
LANGHEINRICH
Doctor, I'm goin' to ax you somethin' now: d'you know any cure for jealousy? You see, it's this way: We had a baby, an' I'd be lyin' if I said I wasn't mighty well pleased. An' why shouldn't I be? But now my wife is sick. She can't get up an' she don't want me to budge from the side o' her bed. She screams an' she scolds an' she reproaches me. Sometimes I reely don't know what to do no more.
MRS. SCHULZE
You better go upstairs a bit first.
EDE
Do give him a chance to get his breath!
LANGHEINRICH
Oh, pshaw! Never you mind! I c'n attend to that right off.
[After he has taken off his hat and coat and slipped on wooden shoes he hurries into the house.
EDE
Well, what d'you think o' that?
DR. BOXER
He's a cheerful soul—more so, if possible, than he used to be. It does one good to find a man that way.
EDE
Only that I axed after Leontine, that riled him more'n a little bit all right.
MRS. SCHULZE
[To EDE, watchfully:] Where was the boss so early this mornin'?
EDE
In Lichtenberg, attendin' a dance.
MRS. SCHULZE
The treatment that woman's gettin' is all wrong, Doctor. I don't mix in what don't concern me. But the way she's treated, that ain't no kind o' treatment, I c'n tell you. I told that Majunke man too that the missis was goin' to the dogs this way.
DR. BOXER
But Dr. Majunke is very capable. I know him to be an excellent physician.
MRS. SCHULZE
[Interrupting.] Sure, sure, an' that's true. 'Course he's capable. That's right, an' so he is. But, you see, he just won't prescribe nothin' …
DR. BOXER
What should he prescribe? Let the people save their money.
MRS. SCHULZE
But that's just what people don't want to do. It's like this: medicine's got to be. If there ain't none they says: how c'n the doctor help us?
DR. BOXER
Mrs. Langheinrich never was strong. Even years ago when she used to sew for us …
MRS. SCHULZE
That's the way it is. She's a little bit humpbacked; that's right. That's the way women is, though, Doctor! A seamstress—that's what she was…! She sewed an' she sewed and saved up a little money…! An' what kind of a bargain is it she's got now. A handsome feller an' sickness an' worry an' no rest no more by day or night.
LANGHEINRICH returns from the house.
LANGHEINRICH
[Tapping MRS. SCHULZE'S shoulder somewhat roughly.] Hurry now! Go on up! It's all arranged an' settled. To-morrow I'm goin' to take her to the clinic.
MRS. SCHULZE
That ain't goin' to be no easy work!
LANGHEINRICH
[Lifts a great can of water to his mouth.] I can't help that. Things is as they is. [He takes an enormously long draught from the tin can. Putting it down:] Ede, drive them ducks away!
EDE
[Acting as though he were driving away ducks, flaps his leathern apron and rattles his wooden shoes.] Shoo! Shoo! Shoo! Chuck! Chuck! Chuck!
MRS. SCHULZE retires into the house, shaking her head.
LANGHEINRICH
Them ducks is your regular fire eaters. There don't need nothin' but for some sparks to fly off an', right straight off, they gobbles 'em down. Then we gets what you might call roast duck that never meant to be roasted. An' my old woman she ain't no friend o' that.
RAUCHHAUPT looks over the fence to the left.
LANGHEINRICH
There's been a big fire again over there behind Landsberg. All the houses on a great estate is ashes.
RAUCHHAUPT
Did you maybe see Gustav anywhere?
LANGHEINRICH
Mornin', old boy! No, not me! Has he gone an' run off again?
RAUCHHAUPT
I ordered him to go over to the Fielitzes.
LANGHEINRICH
The Fielitzes have all gone in to town.
RAUCHHAUPT
I don't know, but there's a kind o' burned smell in the air … Ouch! [He distorts his face in pain and grasps his leg.] Ain't Leontine here?
LANGHEINRICH
Naw, she had to go to court to-day. Always the same trouble with the alimony. That confounded feller, he don't pay.
RAUCHHAUPT
[Calls out.] Gustav! [He listens and then turns leisurely back to the little gate. The wind worries and drives him.] Gustav!
LANGHEINRICH
Stiff wind coming up, all right! [RAUCHHAUPT disappears.] Ede!
EDE
All right.
LANGHEINRICH
Let's get to work now! [He spits into his hands and sets to work vigorously.] Well, Doctor, where've you been runnin' about? Did you get as far as the Chinese? You gotta tell us all about that some day when we got plenty o' time for it.
DR. BOXER
Surely, I've been all over.
LANGHEINRICH
Did you see the sea-serpent too?
Da. BOXER
Surely, Langheinrich, far down in the South Seas.
LANGHEINRICH
An' it's true that it feeds on dill pickles?
DR. BOXER
Several hundred dozen a day.
LANGHEINRICH
[Laughing.] That's all right then. An' when, you see that serpent again, just give her my best regards.
DR. BOXER
I doubt whether I'll ever get so far again in life.
LANGHEINRICH
I guess you got all you wanted o' that? Now you see. Doctor, you just got to the point where I am exactly an' I didn't have to move from this spot.—Well, I guess your old mother, she'll be glad. She's gettin' along all right. Doin' reel well. I always looked in a bit now an' then, helpin' to see that things was all right.
DR. BOXER
And that was very good in you, Langheinrich.
LANGHEINRICH
Naw! Pshaw! I ain't sayin' it on that account. By the way, though, before I forget. I got a little account standin' with your good mother—for taffeta an' silk an' needles an' thread. Some cloth, too. My wife used 'em sewing. I'll straighten that up very soon.
DR. BOXER
[Deprecatingly.] Never mind. That matter will be arranged.
LANGHEINRICH
Ede!
EDE
All right?
LANGHEINRICH
Hurry along now! [He takes up a heavy hammer.] If I don't go right on workin' I'll end by bustin' out o' my skin.
EDE approaches with a white hot piece of iron in the tongs and holds it on the anvil.
LANGHEINRICH
Now we're goin' to start, Doctor! Down on it! Hit it now! [He and DR. BOXER beat the iron, keeping time with each other.] Well, you see! It's got to go evenly. Doctor! Then I tell you the work's smooth as butter.
[They stop hammering; EDE takes up the iron again, takes it into the smithy and holds it into the flame.
LANGHEINRICH
[Takes up the water can again and sets it to his lips.] There ain't much to this!
[Drinks.
EDE
Things like that makes you thirsty.
LANGHEINRICH puts the can down.
LANGHEINRICH
You c'n believe me, Doctor: it was fine anyhow.
DR. BOXER
What was it that was go very fine?
LANGHEINRICH
Lord! I don't know! I don't know nothin' much. But when I met Constable
Schulze I had a devil of a good time—that's what!
EDE
An' now a glass o' beer from Grabow over there. That's what I could stand fine just now.
LANGHEINRICH
Hurry! Get three steins! Dr. Boxer will pay for 'em.
EDE wipes his hands on his apron and goes.
LANGHEINRICH
An' so you want to settle down here now! That ain't no bad idea neither. Only this: you got to be up to all kinds o' tricks here. An' if you want my advice, Doctor, don't go to people for nothin'.
DR. BOXER
Do you think that I'll be unmolested in other respects?
LANGHEINRICH
Aw, them old stories! Them's all outlawed by now. An' then, nowadays they can't worry people so much no more as they used to do under the old laws.
DR. BOXER
Well, at all events I'll make the attempt … My political ardour has cooled off. If these people annoy me in spite of that, I'll simply trudge off again. I'll go back to sea, or I'll let myself be engaged …
LANGHEINRICH
Pretty easy drownin' on water!
DR. BOXER
[Continuing.] … Then I'll let myself be engaged to go to Brazil with the Russian Jews.
LANGHEINRICH
What would you get out o' that?
DR. BOXER
Yellow fever, perhaps.
LANGHEINRICH
Anything else. Doctor? That wouldn't be nothin' for me!
DR. BOXER
I believe that.
LANGHEINRICH
Me go an' wear myself out for other people? Not me! No, sir! I don't do nothin' like that. An' why should I? Nobody don't give me nothin'. I tell you people in this world is a pretty sly set. I've had time to find that out.
DR. BOXER
You're a regular heathen: you're not a Christian at all!
LANGHEINRICH
That kind o' talk don't do much good with me. I'm a Christian just like all the rest is! The people that sit in the new church here … 'cause they built a new church here now!… if them is Christians, the Lord forgive 'em.
DR. BOXER
That's easily said, Langheinrich. But one ought not to be a Pharisee.
Where is your Christian long-suffering?
LANGHEINRICH
No, I ain't goin' in for long-sufferin'. I'm a sinner myself; that's true all right. But now you take this Dalchow here for instance! It'd take the devil to be long-sufferin' where he's concerned! What did he do with that son o' his. He kicked him out, that's what, by night, in winter. Then he tied him up and beat him till he couldn't gasp. An' then he apprenticed the little feller to a butcher so that he had to drive out the sheep! An' all the time jabbin' at him an' overworkin' him till in the end the poor little crittur went an' drowned hisself in the lake. Just shook his head an' kept still an' then dived down an' that was the end.
DR. BOXER
[Ironically.] I don't see what you've got against Dalchow, Langheinrich? He's a man who seems to understand his business magnificently.
LANGHEINRICH
Yes, ruinin' girls an' that sort o' thing, that's what. An' then beatin' his hat around their heads an' sayin': Out with the low strumpet! That's what they is all of a sudden when it's he that made 'em—what they is!—Oh, an' then he's a great friend o' Wehrhahn's an' grunts out like a swine in public meetin's: There ain't no more morality these days … an' there ought to be laws against such doin's … an' so on, an' so on … an' if you'd like to go to church, there the old rotten sinner sits an' turns up his eyes. [A distant ringing of church bells if heard.] Listen to that! The sparrow is singin'.—I always calls that the sparrow, Doctor. I always says: the sparrow sings. I mean when them bells is ringin'. An' ain't I right that it's the sparrow that sings? 'Cause since Wehrhahn got that bird in his buttonhole them bells has begun to ring. An' if the bells didn't go an' ring, why he wouldn't have no decoration neither.
EDE comes in grinning and carrying three steins of beer.
EDE
Oho, listen there, the sparrow is singin'.
LANGHEINRICH
Well, you see, he don't call it nothin' else no more. [Each of the three holds a stein. They knock them together.] Your health! An' welcome back to the old country! [They drink.] That's a fine evenin' this mornin'. I'd like to see this night by day.
DR. BOXER
Now I'm goin' to blaspheme a bit. I'm not opposed to the building of churches at all.
LANGHEINRICH
An' I ain't neither. People gets work! I didn't get any this time, though. An' even if there's a little trouble now an' then, Pastor Friderici an' a bit o' nonsense with coloured windows an' altar cloths—that don't do no harm. People has to have a little.
DR. BOXER
Yes, those people are entitled to cultivate their own pleasures. And then, Langheinrich, a higher principle has to be represented somehow.
LANGHEINRICH
Sure, an' it brings people out here too, you c'n believe me. Buildin' lots has gone up considerable.
EDE
That's so. An' there was a man onct that didn't have no roof over his head … No, that ain't the way to begin what I want to say.—I was onct out on the heath—far out. All of a sudden: what d'you think I heard, Doctor! I heard a dickens of a screechin'.—I goes up to it. Crows! Yes, sir. There was a feller hangin' high up in a pine tree—tailor's journeyman from over in Berkenbruck: he hanged hisself on account o' starvation—hanged hisself high up.—Yes, there's always got to be somethin' higher!
[While they finish drinking their beer the long-drawn cries of pain of a man's voice are heard from some distance. The wind has risen considerably.
DR. BOXER
What is that?
EDE
Rauchhaupt. Nothin' to worry about.
LANGHEINRICH
Sounds kind o' gruesome, don't it? 'Tain't nothin' very lovely neither. When that feller's pains in his leg gets hold o' him an' he roars out that way o' nights—that goes right through an' through any one. No, before I'd stand pain like that I'd go an' put a bullet through my head.
EDE
Gee-rusalem! That's a wind again. Look out, Doctor, that your hat don't fly away.
A hat is whirled by the wind along the street. SCHMAROWSKI, hatless, a roll of paper in his hand, runs chasing it.
EDE
Run along, sonny! Right on there! Show us what you c'n do!
DR. BOXER
That hat is tired of his position: wants a holiday.
SCHMAROWSKI
[Who has recovered his hat, turns angrily to DR. BOXER.] What was that very appropriate remark you made just now?
DR. BOXER
That you are an excellent runner.
SCHMAROWSKI
Schmarowski!
DR. BOXER
Boxer!
SCHMAROWSKI
Much pleased.—Now I'd like to ask you a question. Do you know what a fathead is?
DR. BOXER
No.
SCHMAROWSKI
You don't? Neither do I. But now tell me: you know what a schlemihl is,
I suppose.
LANGHEINRICH
Nothin' broke loose here? What's all this about? Easy now, easy! Howdy do, Mr. Schmarowski? How are you? Have you come to visit your mother-in-law?
SCHMAROWSKI
I have business here!—And before I forget it, I should like to say: Have the goodness to be more careful.
DR. BOXER
Who is this amusing gentleman, Langheinrich?
EDE
That's Mrs. Wolff's son-in-law.
SCHMAROWSKI
I'll have no dealings with you at all.
EDE
Naw, you better not.
SCHMAROWSKI
Not with you—[Turning to DR. BOXER.] But if you don't know who I am, you can get information from Baron von Wehrhahn, the Right Reverend Bishop, the Baroness Bielschewski and the Countess Strach.
DR. BOXER
You want me to go around and get information from all those people?
SCHMAROWSKI
That's what you're to do—just that an' nothing else. Then maybe you can be more careful in future an' look people over before you talk.
LANGHEINRICH
What's gotten into you to-day? You're so dam' touchy!
SCHMAROWSKI
[To DR. BOXER, who has glanced at EDE and LANGHEINRICH alternately with serene laughter.] You just be so good an' be more careful: we ain't so soft. We don't take jokes so easy, especially not from the race to which you …
LANGHEINRICH
Hold on, Mr. Schmarowski! That's enough! Nothin' like that here. That's enough an' too much, Mr. Schmarowski. You just see about gettin' along on your way now.
SCHMAROWSKI
Do you know where I am going straight from here?
LANGHEINRICH
You c'n go straight ahead to the Lord hisself! You c'n go where you want to, Schmarowski; only, don't be keepin' me from my work. We ain't got no time to lose here!—Ede, put that axle in!
SCHMAROWSKI exit, enraged.
EDE
Good-bye!
DR. BOXER
So that was Mr. Schmarowski, the envied pillar of the church? Why, he's a poisonous little devil!
LANGHEINRICH
Yes, you're right there! Pois'nous is what he is. So you didn't, know him, Dr. Boxer? Well, then you've seen him now—nothin' but a little, sly, venomous pup! But you ought to go an' watch him when he gets in with that pious crowd. Then he lets his ears hang, so 'umble his own mother wouldn't hardly know him, like as if he was sayin': I ain't goin' to live more'n two weeks at—most an' then I'm goin' to heaven to be with Jesus. Yes! Likely! There's another place where he's goin'. But that won't be soon. He ain't thinkin' of it much yet. An' in the meantime he rolls his eyes upward 'cause somethin' might be hangin' round that he c'n make a profit on.
EDE
Well, you c'n look out now! Yon ain't goin' to get no work on the new institution.
LANGHEINRICH
I know that. Can't be helped. Things is as they is. Can't hold' my tongue at things like that. I won't learn that in a lifetime.
DR. BOXER
Have you many of that kind hereabouts now?
LANGHEINRICH
So, so. Enough to last for the winter.
RAUCHHAUPT has come out of the little gate. He faces the wind, shades his eyes with his hand and peers around.
RAUCHHAUPT
Lord A'mighty! Well, well! Things is goin' the queerest way to-day! When is they comin' back—them Fielitzes?
LANGHEINRICH
That ain't goin' to be so very soon to-day. They've gone to buy a seven-day clock, a regulator. What are you upset about to-day?
RAUCHHAUPT
Wha'? Fielitz goin' to buy that kind of a clock? I don't believe's he c'n survive that. [Calls.] Gustav!
LANGHEINRICH
Ain't he come back yet? I guess he's listenin' to the bells. You know how he sits an' listens when they ring.
RAUCHHAUPT
I don't know. Things is goin' queer to-day. Mrs. Fielitz sent for him to come over. Horseradish seed is what she said she wanted. An' then she goes an' leaves for the city.
[Exit, shaking his head.
EDE
They been stalkin' about since four o'clock in the mornin'. Up an' down they went with their bull's-eye lantern. I don't believe they went to bed at all.
LANGHEINRICH
Well, if Fielitz has gone to buy a clock you can't expect him to eat or drink or sleep.
RAUCHHAUPT
[Behind the fence.] Gustav!
DR. BOXER
The boy is coming now, running along.
LANGHEINRICH
That's right. Rauchhaupt! Here's Gustav!
GUSTAV comes prancing up, highly excited, gesticulating violently. He points in the direction from which he has come.
EDE
Is that there a war dance you're tryin' to perform? Looks like the cannibals' goin's on. I believe that brat feeds on human flesh.
LANGHEINRICH
Hurry now an' run to your father.
EDE
Go on now!
LANGHEINRICH
Get along with your horse-radish.
GUSTAV gesticulating, puts his hollow hand to his mouth and toots in imitation of a trumpet. Laughter.
EDE
Where's the fire, you little firebrand?
LANGHEINRICH
Ede, catch hold o' him!
EDE
All right. [He tries to creep up to GUSTAV. The latter observes this, gives a loud toot and, still tooting, hurries away, dropping a box of matches as he does so.] Hallo!
LANGHEINRICH
What's that?
EDE
Just what I need.
LANGHEINRICH
What?
EDE
Safetys! A whole box full.
MRS. SCHULZE comes rushing down the stairs.
MRS. SCHULZE
Mr. Langheinrich!
LANGHEINRICH
Well, what?
MRS. SCHULZE
Mr. Langheinrich!
LANGHEINRICH
Here I is!
MRS. SCHULZE
It's … it's … it's … over at …
LANGHEINRICH
Anything about the missis?
MRS. SCHULZE
No, at Fielitzes'.
LANGHEINRICH
Is that so? Nothin' about my wife? Well, then,—[he shakes her]—just stop to get your breath. Things is as they is. I'm prepared for anythin'—life an' death. I gotta stand it.
MRS. SCHULZE
The engine!
LANGHEINRICH
What kind o' talk is that? Anythin' wrong with you?
MRS. SCHULZE
No; it's burnin'!
LANGHEINRICH
Go an' blow it out then!—Where is it burnin'!
MRS. SCHULZE
At the Fielitzes'!
LANGHEINRICH
Good Lord! That ain't possible!
[He drops the iron file and some nails which he has been holding.
EDE
Where's the fire?
MRS. SCHULZE
At Fielitzes'; the flame is comin' out o' the skylight.
DR. BOXER
[Has stepped forward.] Confound it all, but it's smoky! Come here! You can see it well from here.
EDE
[Also stares in the direction of the fire. His expression shows that a complete understanding of the situation has come to him, which he expresses by a conscious whistling.] There ain't no words for this; I just gotta whistle.
LANGHEINRICH
Ede! Run over to Scheibler's! Run! Get the horses for the engine! That smoke's comin' up thick over the gable.
[He rushes into the smithy, throws his apron aside, puts on a fireman's helmet, belt, etc.
MRS. SCHULZE
An' nobody at home there, goodness gracious!
DR. BOXER
That's the lucky part of it, after all.
The roaring of the fire alarm trumpet is heard.
MRS. SCHULZE
You hear, Doctor? They're tootin' already!
LANGHEINRICH
[Reappears in his fireman's uniform.] You get out o' the way here, old lady. Go an' attend to things upstairs. Nothin' to be done here with a syringe. You go up to my wife. Hold on! We gotta have the key to the engine house. The devil!
MRS. SCHULZE withdraws into the house. RAUCHHAUPT'S head reappears on the other side of the fence.
RAUCHHAUPT
My, but there's a smell o' burnin' in the air.
LANGHEINRICH
Sure it smells that way. There's a fire at the Fielitzes'.
RAUCHHAUPT
The devil! I didn't know nothin' about that!
LANGHEINRICH
That's all right, old man. Wasn't you a constable onct?
[He rushes away.
A fourteen-year-old boy comes madly hurrying up.
THE BOY
[To DR. BOXER.] Master! The key to the engine house! They can't get in to the engine.
DR. BOXER
I'm not the fireman! Just keep cool!
THE BOY
They wants you to come to the engine right off.
DR. BOXER
You didn't hear what I told you.
THE BOY
There's a fire!
DR. BOXER
I know that. The engine master has left. He's reached the engine long ago.
THE BOY
There's a fire. They wants you to come down to the engine!
[He runs away.
RAUCHHAUPT appears at the gate. Two LITTLE GIRLS cling to his rags.
RAUCHHAUPT
I'm used to that! It don't excite me a bit! Mieze! Lottie! You c'n come an' see somethin'.—I seen hundreds an' hundreds o' fires,
DR. BOXER
[Takes off the leathern apron.] It's a very sad thing for those people, though!
RAUCHHAUPT
Everythin' is sad in this here world. It's all a question o' how you looks at it! The same thing that's sad c'n be mighty cheerin'. Now there's me: I raises pineapples, an' my hothouse wall … it's right up against Fielitzes' back wall. Now I won't have to keep no fire goin' for three days.
A somewhat OLDER GIRL also comes out through the gate and nestles close up to the others. MRS. SCHULZE leans out from the window in the gable.
MRS. SCHULZE
[Addressing someone in the room behind her.] Missis, you c'n be reel quiet! The wind's blowin' from the other side.
[She disappears.
RAUCHHAUPT
Did you see that there old witch? She always knows where the wind comes from.—I retired from all that, yessir! I didn't want to be a old bloodhound right along. I don't mix in them things no more. But that woman—she could be a keen one. [A fireman, blowing his horn very excitedly, walks by.] Go it easy, August! Patience! Look out, or your breeches will bust!
THE FIREMAN
[Enraged.] Aw, shut up! Go an' hide yourself in the holes you're always diggin.
[Exit.
A FOURTH and a FIFTH GIRL, aged nine and ten years respectively, join the old man.
DR. BOXER
[Laughing.] That's quite a fierce fellow.
RAUCHHAUPT
Gussie, Nelly, gimme your hand.—That's all nothin' but hurry. That feller don't know what's goin' on in this world. He's blowin' the trumpet of Jericho, I'm thinkin', or maybe even the trump o' Judgment Day!—
DR. BOXER
I don't think I quite take your meaning, Mr. Rauchhaupt.
RAUCHHAUPT
Maybe Mrs. Wolff was only tryin' to scorch roaches. All right. Maybe, for all I care, 'twas somethin' else. But if Mrs. Wolff ever puts her hand to somethin'—there ain't very much left.
DR. BOXER
What do you mean by that?
RAUCHHAUPT
Oh, I was just thinkin'.
[He withdraws, together with the children.